Holiday of the Heart

Valentine's Day has been celebrated in Ukraine only for the past ten years, but it has been warmly embraced despite the extreme cold of the season. This year we celebrated the holiday the weekend before with the Lugansk Branch at their Valentine's party.

 

We were given a brief history of the holiday and the Saint it was named after, then informed of some of the ways this day is celebrated in different countries.  I learned many things that I did not know, and before they are lost forever, I think I will share some of them here.  Did you know that the first man an unmarried woman sees on Valentine's day will be her future husband?  It is very important for all of my girls to know that if you see a robin on Valentine's Day, you will marry a sailor; if you see a sparrow, you will marry a poor man, but live happily; and if you see a goldfinch you will marry a rich man. 

"However", our hostess informed us, "all of the goldfinches have gone to America." 

"In America, a man who rejects a young woman must give her a dress of silk so that she will be attractive to some other young man.  There (in America), the day is celebrated by exchanging heart-shaped candies which have notes of affection and endearment carved on them". 

Here (in Lugansk) the day was celebrated with food, music, games and stories of love and family.  The Relief Society prepared a gathering for the entire branch that focused on love and marriage.

Waiting while the ladies deocrate . . .

Of all who attended, there were only three married couples, and we were one of them.  Decorations included wedding pictures of couples in the branch with the challenge to identify them; stories of how they met, and sharing of family time lines were enjoyed. The widows especially enjoyed telling their stories. One game we were asked to participate in was about division of responsibility.  Sitting back to back we were asked to hold up the right color of balloon to answer questions like, "Who is  the head of the house?" and,  "who does the cooking?'  The object was to see if we agreed.  Of course we were not any fun because our balloon colors were always perfectly matched.

We did give the branch some entertainment, though.  We had been asked to share our courtship and early romance and they knew we were preparing to tell them our story in Russian.  Their anticipation was a bit blown out of porportion.  They made a big thing of it.  We told of tubing in the snow, horseback riding, toads and temple.  There were alot of laughs and they felt closer to us.  We had practiced saying that two of us have turned into fifty-one but because of Elisabeth we made a last-minute change to fifty-two.

Everyone brought some kind of treat and we voted on which was the best.  Dishes with high scores included the pickled eggplant, Ukrainian Salat Vinaigrette, and a lovely chocolate torte.  We had a lot of fun.  Hope you did, too.  Happy Valentines Day!

Old Soviet love songs . . .