Ukrainian newcomers set to mark 1st Christmas in Canada after fleeing war – National | 24CA News
Anastasiia Tertyshna remembers sitting across the dinner desk at her dad and mom’ home in jap Ukraine on Christmas Eve final 12 months, cracking jokes together with her husband and siblings as they ate a conventional pudding usually ready for the vacations.
It’ll be a far completely different scene this 12 months as Tertyshna marks the season in Canada, removed from her husband, dad and mom and different household after fleeing the warfare in Ukraine.
“I don’t know when I will be able to see them,” she says in an interview. “I wish my relatives were with me here at least. But it’s impossible.”
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Tertyshna, who arrived in Mississauga, Ont., about two months in the past, is among the many tens of 1000’s of Ukrainian newcomers marking their first Christmas in Canada whereas worrying in regards to the family members they needed to go away behind.
Tertyshna says her Christmas plan this 12 months is to name her husband in Kyiv and be part of nearly in a household gathering he plans to be at.
“I will see them all on video,” she says. “I will probably cry.”
In Ukraine, many mark the festive season from Jan. 6 to Jan 19, based mostly on Orthodox calendar, with Orthodox Christmas falling on Jan. 7.
Tertyshna says whereas it is going to be laborious to have fun the vacations away from her family members, she hopes to take part in festivities in Canada on Christmas Day in addition to on Orthodox Christmas.
On Dec. 25, she and her mates plan to go to downtown Toronto to expertise Canadian Christmas traditions. On Orthodox Christmas Eve, she plans to have dinner with the household she lives with, and on the morning on Jan. 7, she hopes to go to a church in Toronto.
Some Ukrainian newcomers are planning to have fun Christmas on Dec. 25 moderately than Jan. 7 this 12 months as a type of protest towards the Russian Orthodox church, which helps Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Korzhenovska Yuliia, who arrived in Canada from Ukraine in August, says her household began discussing altering after they mark Christmas after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. They celebrated Christmas on Dec. 25 for the primary time final 12 months.
“Now I’m 100 per cent sure that it was a good decision for us,” she says, noting that her household’s purpose was to distance themselves from Russian tradition. She and her roommate will do the identical this 12 months.
“For me, Christmas on January 7th, it is reminding me more about Russian tradition,” she says. “I want to keep it far from Russia, from Russian tradition.”
Yuliia says it makes her “very sad” understanding her household received’t be round her throughout this vacation season, however she hopes to have the ability to reunite with them for subsequent 12 months’s holidays.
“It is really, really hard,” she says.
Ukrainian males between the ages of 18 and 60 have been prohibited from leaving the nation since Russia invaded. As a outcome, many newcomers who arrived in Canada are ladies and youngsters, separated from male members of their household.
Olya Bolshov, a mom of two youngsters who now lives in Toronto, says it’ll be laborious to have fun Christmas whereas her husband stays in Ukraine however she’s placing on a courageous face to point out her children that “Russian invaders” haven’t been in a position to steal their pleasure.
“We’re not really much in a celebration mood because there is a war going on in Ukraine, and all of our thoughts and prayers obviously are over there,” she says by her husband, who was on the telephone and translated her phrases.
Bolshov recalled that not too long ago her eight-year-old daughter requested whether or not it was secure for Saint Nicholas _ the Ukrainian model of Santa _ to journey to Ukraine and distribute presents for kids there.
“She was worried that whether or not Saint Nicholas would visit Ukraine, since Russians are bombing and there’s lots of rockets flying,” she says.
St. Demetrius Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Toronto is hoping to assist Ukrainian newcomers mark the season by internet hosting them for a dinner service on Orthodox Christmas Eve.
Darcia Moskaluk-Rutkay, the church’s vp, says the plan is to serve Sviat Vechir, 12 meatless dishes Orthodox Ukrainians put together for dinner on Christmas Eve, “so they know that they aren’t forgotten.”
Moskaluk-Rutkay says many newcomer households could not be capable to afford making ready the dishes or know the place they will procure the spices and different components wanted, so the church is stepping in to serve the meal.
Born in Canada to Ukrainian dad and mom, Moskaluk-Rutkay says her household has preserved their traditions for many years and she or he needs to assist others to do the identical.
“We as old Ukrainian Canadians and immigrants brought this to Canada and we have maintained it,” says Moshaluk-Rutkay, who can also be the president of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada.
“The occupiers are trying to annihilate our traditions, and it’s so important to keep up our tradition so that it continues and so that the occupiers do not win in that respect.”
© 2022 The Canadian Press
