Ukrainians honour many holidays. One of the main ones is Easter – a bright and good holiday that brings faith, hope, and love. On the eve of this holiday, at #CHOKM many events, exhibitions, and presentations have already taken place.

On April 3rd, the Easter theme at the museum continued with a lecture by Ivanna Stefiyuk – a writer, literary critic, ethnographer, Candidate of Philological Sciences, and curator of the ethnographic project "Heritage" at the Bukovynian Centre of Culture and Arts.

Ivanna Stefiyuk introduced the audience to her research "Sugar Pysanky and Decorated Swings – Some Observations on Urban Easter Traditions".

The event was moderated by Lyudmyla Kosovan, Head of the Scientific-Methodological and Scientific-Educational Work Department.

The lecture discussed urban traditions of celebrating Easter in the first half of the 20th century and how they differed from rural ones.

“I also thought about this: when we talk about Easter traditions in villages or cities 100, 50 years ago, many things are imagined through a romantic filter – beautiful ancestors with refined customs and rich ritual prescriptions. But chronologically – these were the times of the First and Second World Wars, the semi-starved interwar period, and then the 'harsh 90s'... yet, judging by the aesthetic of the description, you wouldn't immediately notice it. Because this innate trait of Ukrainians to create beauty in difficult times – it is captivating and somewhat distracts from the chronology,” the writer shared her thoughts.

During the discussion, everyone was able to delve into the past and learn how different ethnic communities in Bukovyna celebrated Easter, hear interesting recollections from Chernivtsi residents, and see old Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, German, and English Easter postcards.