Holidays

Ukraine has a lot of them.

Over the past few weeks, my village and/or all of Ukraine has celebrated the following.

The day my village was freed from fascists. During the 20 minute break between classes, my students were lined up and marched out to the memorials in the center of the village. There was a quick speech by someone I didn't recognize and then all the younger children placed flowers at the foot of the memorial. The main memorial is of a large woman with a man strewn across her lap (Ukraine is referred to as the Motherland) and an eternal flame is at the base of the statue, though it's not lit anymore. [Though, "In Soviet times, it was always lit."] The only surviving World War II veteran also laid flowers down with the children, dressed in his old uniform.

 Those white puffs? Those are hair bows sported by Ukrainian children on holidays.

 Laying flowers

 One of my favorite students. This boy is a delight to teach.

 Veteran

Last Friday was Teacher's Day. Technically, Teacher's Day always falls on a Sunday but it's celebrated the preceding Friday. Interesting arrangement, eh? Anyway, my school had the first two lessons though I don't think anything was accomplished because everyone was too excited about the holiday. Then after that, the 11th form put on a performance/ceremony for all the teachers and made little skits where they pretended to have cellphone conversations in a specific teacher's lesson. My skit involved a student taking a phone call from Barack Obama and telling him I'm the best volunteer. It was cute, and then they gave every teacher a card and a small gift. Mine was a Little Mermaid coloring book.

 The boys cross-dressed and did a little dance

 Singing

This past Monday was the Day of Autumn. Every form had to make a display of food on a desk, and then they were judged on presentation. Some of the displays were not all that great but some of them were fairly intricate and well planned. I think the main point of the holiday is to celebrate the abundance of food from the previous seasons before heading into winter. I was given a couple bunches of grapes at the end of the day.

 9th Form

 10th Form

 8th-a Form

 11th Form

 6th Form