The Blessing of the Sheep

Where do I begin?

At 7:21AM we were waiting outside the green building at Sobornna Square. We had decided to go on an “excursion” as they are called around here, to the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathian Mountains are not far from Chernivtsi and everyone here has told me I can’t leave without seeing them. I had planned to hike Mt. Hoverla, Ukraine’s highest peak, but after reading more about that and learning that there is still snow at the top of the mountain, with temps hovering around freezing even in the middle of the summer, I axed that idea. No way I am getting anywhere close to snow. In fact, there was a really interesting oral history conference in Finland that I received a call for about one month ago. The deadline was a few days ago. I had planned to apply for it. Then, after giving it some more thought, I realized that Finland in December = snow. I didn’t apply.

So going on this excursion was a nice way to see the mountains and take care of another goal, which is to learn about Hutsul (pronounced Hootsool) culture.

The Hutsuls are the people who live in the Carpathian mountains. They are considered a distinct ethnic group, composed of 3 main tribes: the Boiki, Lemi, and Pokuttian. They have customs and foodways (mushrooms, brynza, mammaliga,berries) that are a bit distinct from the rest of Ukraine. They are known as sheep herders. They used to communicate from village to village through a trembita, a long, alone horn, but nowadays they use cell phones. Even today, their dialect is often undecipherable to other Ukrainians. This particular festival that we were going to was the 50th annual Blessing of the Sheep. Maybe you’ve been to one before; I had not!

The bus was supposed to leave at 7:30. At 7:27, I called the coordinator. She said she would be there in 15 minutes. Weren’t we supposed to leave at 7:30? We looked around and saw no one, so I sat on a bench in the square and watched all the nice people walking to the cathedral for mass. There was beautiful music emanating from the cathedral.

At 8, I noticed some people gathering near the green building. That has to be the crew. It was. The bus was late, and we ended up leaving Chernivtsi around 8:30. That extra hour of sleep would have been nice.

The drive to Potylla was very interesting. We passed village after village with cows roaming freely on the roads. At certain points we had to brake bc of cows crossing the road. We saw lots of people walking their cows on leashes as well.  There's nothing like taking your cow out for a walk on an early Sunday morning!

There was a horse and buggy at the service station where we stopped. This was the second time I have seen a  horse and buggy at a service station in Ukraine. It doesn't seem to make sense. I got a cup of kava at the gas station, and when the lady handed it to me, she said, "Nosteroyvna." Given that I had someone who speaks English with me (I had heard this lots before), I asked what it meant. For your health, was the reply. I like that. You give someone coffee and say, "For your health!"


When I saw this it made me miss my grandmother's house. This area reminded me a bit of upcountry SC.
We passed goats, chicken, and sheep. We saw lots of churches, and some pretty scenery. Tina Karol's hit Chinchilla played on the radio.


Last night in my book, Anna Reid’s Borderlands (a history of Ukraine written by this former correspondent for The Economist), Reid mentioned that the only time that Chernivtsi made the national news when she lived here was when one of the roads here disappeared into the Prut River. I didn’t realize just how close I would come about 10 hours later to a very similar situation.

Two hours later we arrived. We walked a long way, to get to the festival. Hutsuls like to do fancy and creative things with brynza/cheese. See?
Then we found some seats inside the stadium. I changed into my traditional Ukrainian shirt. Many dignitaries, including the Chernivtsi mayor and city council, spoke. Like politicians everywhere, these people like to hear themselves talk.


Then there was some singing and dancing. Then people began to form a circle around a wood stack. The main shepherd lit the bonfire and everyone ran around it. The bigger the fire, the better the cattle and harvest will be. They told the crowd that the fire was to purify these mountains and to purify our bodies.

 The Merry Grannies sang, and a prayer was offerred to St. George to protect the cattle from evil.Now this takes the Ukrainian faux handbag craze a bit too far. This is a regular plastic bag!
Afterwards, horses ran around the stadium. They were decorated in bright colors. I only saw one sheep during the festival. Evidently a festival that blesses sheep doesn't actually have to include the sheep. They showed off wedding customs: Law enforcement did some exercises with a police canine. The dog searched bags and found a gun. Then, I was told that the dog would get the illegal immigrants. What? This man in a black suit and a uniformed policemen pretended to get into it, a firecracker went off, and then the man in black started running across the field. Then another policeman unleashed the German Shepherd and he took off after the man and tackled him. Several more policemen tore the dog off the illegal immigrant. Whew. Glad we are here legally.After the ceremony we walked around to look at all the stalls selling traditional Ukrainian stuff. We even saw the lady from whom I bought my shirt at Obnova.

Trembita:
With Valentina:

At 1:45 we met to walk to the restaurant where we had reservations and a special room reserved upstairs for our group. On the way we passed Yuriy Fedkovych’s home. He is he man for whom Chernivtsi Nat’l Uni is named, so they really wanted me to go in. The guide’s brother lives in the US and he was eager to give me a tour. One of Valentina’s students was eager to try out her translating skills, so we took the tour and everyone got pictures. Fedkovych is known for translated many important works into Ukrainians, and for his astrological studies. Hm. He was in the Bukovina regiment of the Austrian guard.

Then we went to the restaurant. Lunch, comprised of traditional Ukrainian food, was good. This place was a meat place which served lots of lamb shaslyk so I ate a lot of mammaliga, which is actually a Hutsul dish.

I had been told that we would be back in Chernivtsi by 4 or 5, and that we were leaving to go back after lunch. With lunch starting a few minutes after 2, we were right on schedule. Perfect. I needed to get home to do some packing, etc.

That is not what happened. Over the many toasts at lunch people became a little loopy and there were many opportunities for horse riding and dancing nearby. This was fun for the 2 hours. Then, the crew started telling jokes about Jews. I did not laugh and became very uncomfortable. I decided it was high time to go to the bathroom. When I returned I figured we would probably be packing to go. I was told another hour. An hour went by and when I asked when we would be leaving, I was jokingly told 2 more hours. Uh, this is not what I signed up for.

I kept talking to some people, including some students who are doing a work study in the US this summer, working at the McDonalds in Times Square. That will not be an easy job. Lots of people wanted to come talk with the American to practice English.

We read the books we brought, watched some fish in the pond, watched as horse cart after horse cart went up the hill across the river , carrying people heading home for the day. I asked about alternate ways to get home; there were none.

At 6:20, we finally left the restaurant. Whew. I thought I would have been home 2 hours earlier. Oh, well.
Parts of the day had been fun and interesting. I was told that we were going to stop by to get some free beer (am I back in college?) for 10-15 minutes and then we would head back to Chernivtsi. What do you think happened? That 10-15 minutes turned into an hour and a half, with beer, horilka, lots more meat coming off the grill, singing, violins playing, horses cantoring all around us, and more mammaligia. The best part was that all this took place in a lumber yard with a bunch of stray dogs.
Fiiiiiinally, we got back in the van to head back. Then the singing began. The scenery was nice heading home. Cemeteries here are very colorful. There is a cemetery just across the border in Romania that claims to be the most visitied cemetery in the world. It is supposed to be very colorful. More cows: I was told there is an expression in Ukraine, which translates into, "The mountains are smoking."
We finally arrived in Chernivtsi at 10:30PM. Unreal. Needless to say, it was a really, really long day. I met some nice people who were very eager to make sure we had a good time, saw some interesting things, and learned about Hutsul culture, but wish the day had been about 5 hours shorter. I headed straight to light the shower when I walked in the door. Very, very, very glad to be back.