Ukraine: A Hutsul Wedding, Part I

[igra555]

very interesting, I am from Western Ukraine. Live in USA 8 years. And just 3 states: lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil', speak Ukrainian. Eastern ukraine-russian, Kiev- they tried few years ago, but with this president it went back to russian, Krym-russian. And Zakarpattya-its language vengrian,ukrainian,slovak. U never understand if they begin to speak. Not ukrainian. And I am NOT Rusin. Where did u find this word? Rusychi- this is from Kievan Rus', 9-12 century

[hycyl]

Приємною несподіванкою було натрапити на таке відео з весілля у рідному Н.Березові, дякую! Здається ще зовсім недавно було це весілля, на ньому ще всі такі молоді. Ностальгія по юності...

[snowy16100]

As someone that had both Grandparents came from the old country of Galicia...all I can say is: "I enjoyed the video!"

[PjanujTato]

щастя молодим

[kachyr]

Прекрасна українська музика. Українські люди мають такі чудові й дружні душі! Я їх скучаю.

Многая літа!...Слава Україні й всім їй народам.

Ukrainian people have such wonderful , warm spirits!

[northatlantic78rpm]

Great video, showing a forgotten part of Central Europe. Thank's for uploading.

[lostturtlesandbox]

The video is great! Could you maybe make the subtitles a different color though? At times they can be difficult to read.

[Raokenx]

A beautiful celebration!!

[widelooking]

А де брама ?В карпатах,що сосни бракує?

[ripleyLV426]

my 93 year old Grandmother is from Kolomyja . I'm looking for dvds or vhf videos for her to watch that are non pal .

[beatlesguy01]

Rusyns and Ruthenians are a group of Ukrainians who live in western Ukraine and surrounding countries. What's the problem?

[dykun]

The problem is embedded in your very question. It is not as simple an equation as Rusyns = Ukrainians. A significant number of Rusyns today contest the idea that they are a Ukrainian. That precisely is the issue. Is there a fourth East Slavic ethnicity alongside Ukrainian, Russian, and Bilorusyn that can be labeled as Rusyn or Carpatho-Rusyn? This is a question answerable only by contemporary Rusyns themselves. Identity is an internal matter, not a matter to be decided by outsiders.

[dykun]

One further point I want to mention; it matters not that the people calling themselves today Ukrainians once also called themselves Rusyns or Ruthenians. What matters is that there are many people, in the Carpathian Mountain region, who still refer to themselves as Rusyn, Rusnak, or some such thing. What matters is a) some Rusyns never developed a Ukrainian sense of their identity & thus never became Ukrainians & b) many Rusyns developed a Ukrainian identity & stopped being Rusyn.

[glazedhoneybunz]

All Ukrainians are Rusyny.

That's a fact.

It's just that a few of them didn't change their name to Ukrainians.

I think that Ukrainians need to go back to calling themselves Rusyny.

[dykun]

That is not a fact. One can not point to any existential essence nor historical necessity that determines either a) all Rusyns are of necessity bound to become Ukrainians or b) all Ukrainians are actually, in essence, Rusyns. Why do those with the hard Ukrainian nationalist line on the Rusyn question so threatened by the notion of Rusyn distinctiveness? Supporting the Rusyn right to self-definition strengthens the Ukrainian stance vis-a-vis Ukrainian resistance to identification as Russian!

[glazedhoneybunz]

I still think that this whole Rusyn seperatism is a load of B.S.

My ancestors called themselves Rusyny.

The majority of all modern Ukrainians' ancestors were known as Rusyny. Even in eastern ukraine they used that term.

[nordastelo]

I feel as I'm at home again :-). Ghekuyu!

[HotCoconutCookie]

i'm from yabluniv. this video made me want someone to get married when i go to ukraine in one week. i can't wait!

[otaahela58]

Krásná videa, líbí se mi jak svatba tak krásná příroda a dobří lidé!!

[ioan01]

souhlas! :-))

[Frunze42]

In fact, people living on the other side of the Carpathians are Rusyns. The language differs from the Ukrainian and is considered by linguists to be its own separate language. Carpathians have spent many centuries under the rule of other nations, and only recently became "Ukrainians".

[montielito81]

I don´t know what you consider "recently", but a lot of Ukrainians that came to Argentina as immigrants in 1897 were from Transcarpathia and they identified themselves as Ukrainians already in that time.

[Frunze42]

And you can prove this how? I sometimes identify myself as Russian because most Americans don't know where Ukraine is located, not to mention Transcarpathia. At the end of the 18th century many people left western Ukraine and migrated over the mountains because it was safer. Furthermore, there was a nationalist movement all over Europe since 1867. Nationality was determined based on what language one spoke.

[Frunze42]

And since the Carpathian dialect is very close to the Ukrainian language, it was easier for the immigrants to associate with their western neighbors for the purpose of belonging to a community in a strange land.

[montielito81]

I can prove that. In my case and in the case of the Transcarpathian immigrants in Argentina the Ukrainian identity was built not in a strange land (Argentina) but in Europe (Ukraine): my grandparents´grandparents told them (by oral transmission) how was the life in Transcarpathia, and the difference between the Polish ad Hungarian neighbours and "we, ukraíntsi". Ukrainian identity was previous in this case.

[dykun]

Hi. This debate, so long as it remains cordial, is really interesting to me. Montielito, the era in which your ancestors left Ukraine was one of major changes, both socioeconomically and culturally. The nationalist movement in Ukraine was coming of age out of adolescence, but certainly was not mature yet. It was precisely then that people on the ground (i.e., not merely clergy and intelligentsia) were beginning to identify as Ukrainian, but by far it still was not a majority. continued, . .

[montielito81]

It would be interesting causes about why in USA they continued identifying themselves as Rusyns and in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay they came already as Ukrainians. I know that in USA you can find descendants that identify with a Rusyn ancestor identity, but here you can not find them, all they identify and identified as Ukrainians.

[dykun]

#2: It was by far not a majority of the population that by, even 1900, identified as Ukrainian--or even Rusyn. If u went to a Galician village, even right up to WWII & asked people what their identity was, they were more likely to say something like, "Well, I'm from here," or "I'm Uniate or Orthodox or Roman Catholic, etc." or "Ja hovorju po nashemu (I speak in our way)". . .than they were to think of their identity in an overarching ethnic term. Identity was very local & very religious.

[montielito81]

I think that even the term "Ukrainets" an be considered as a variant of "I´m from here" in the sense that the term "Ukraína" was thought as "local, regional place" and not in the sense of a national state, with defined frontiers. "Ukraína" or "Kraina" can be thought as little region or area, and "Ukrainets" or "Krainets" as well.

[dykun]

#3 This ethnic or cultural way of thinking about human identity--of taking ethnicity as a primary marker of identity--is of very recent vintage. So in Ukraine, the Ukrainian movement's sense of identity took several decades to consolidate & only achieved the upper hand/majority by the end of WWII. Lots of immigrants from Transcarpathia who came to the US at the same time as your great grandparents did not think of themselves as Ukrainian and continued to identify as Rusnak, Lemko, Hutsul, cont

[montielito81]

Yes, I know about that. The interesting thing is that Boikos, Transcarpathians and Hutsuls immigrants that came to Argentina (also to Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) identified as Ukrainians, even Poles and Hungarians immigrants called them Ukrainians (Ukraińcy and ukránok, respectively). I think that in this so singular case, "Ukraínets" was used not in the political sense, but ehtnically, as "compatriot", or "paysan" or "people that are from the country".

[lars3939]

@dykun ethnic recent? on what do you base that on? within the Roman empire ethnic were the differentiators of its citizens and ethnicity has long been so. Confused, and interested.

[dykun]

#4: #4: Hutsul, Lemko, Rusnak are very local terms or notions of identity. And a lot of the time people didn't even know what to consider themselves in ethnic terms, whether in a local sense (Rusnak, Lemko) or a broader one (Polish, Ukrainian, Russian). So it is VERY interesting that your ancestors were in the forefront of change--that they called themselves Ukrainians at a time that most of their fellows, at least back in Zakarpattja and/or Halychyna, still thought differently.

[montielito81]

Even, the first associations or cultural centres of Ukrainians immigrants in Argentina were founded by people not from region where the term "Ukraínets" started to be used a time before, but by people from southwestern Ukraine (Boikivshchyna, Transcarpathia, Pokutia, Hutsulshchyna, Bukovyna, Podillia and Besarabia). In northeastern Argentina you can find orthodox and greek-catholic churches built by Ukrainian immigrants during the XIX century and have the "tryzub".

[ritari22]

It is a very nice video!

[7T9U8R]

Dakuyem! A wonderful video. My people are from what is now eastern Slovakia. How wonderful to hear my language again.

[lostturtlesandbox]

Could you mind telling me the name of the song played at the beginning of this video? I really like it.

[dykun]

I just deleted a bunch of comments. I guess I simply won't host debates over whether Ukraine is Polish or Russian land, or whether Hutsuls are Romanians or Rusyns, that involve swearing, name-calling, or lack of argument. Comments like "Get over it, stupid people, you are Russian/Polish/Romanian" will simply get deleted.

[lars3939]

people are animals, THANKS for the video

[andriymilanista]

you are animal

[Kozakglory2006]

When Ukraine was ruled by Austrian hangarian empire, theyre official name in that empire was rusyns, the austrian empire did not agree that subjects of Moscovy were russians, but only accepted that people that they governed in Ukraine were Russians. Messed up history, now i dont know what to think of myself as, Rusyn? Ukrainian? What?

[Kozakglory2006]

Wo, this summer im going to Ukraine, and its right beside where this weedding happened too, Otyniya is right beside Kolomiya and thats where im going.About the Rusyns, historically people that lived in modern day Ukraine were called, and called themselves rusyns since 10th century, we are Ukrainians but out historical name is Rusyns, and i have no i dea why we started randomly calling ourselfs and our country Ukraina.

[2902ao]

What a wonderful video....My father-in-law is Hutsul and grew up in the Carpathian mountains but now lives in Odessa. I was married 5 yrs ago in Ukraine and what time it was!!!! Much more fun than Western Weddings, ha ha.....I remember at 4:00 in the morning not one person had gone home yet....not even the oldest 80 year old women......Can't wait to go back this August!!!

[romero667]

What a great video, and great people and music !!! love it !!! love it !! love it !!! this makes me smile !!! Thank you !!

[MrHilaluddin]

@romero667 me too...i am from malaysia...

[tragiedia]

Great video, I have been trying to teach myself tsymbaly, it's nice to see some playing from the area on video!

[dykun]

great to hear! i too have a tsymbaly, which i bought not far from this village. getting that tsymbaly was an experience, the stuff for a great short story. WATCH PART II--there is even more close-ups of the tsymbalyst's hands at work.

[375015568]

Wonderful video! Ukrainian culture, customs and language are alive and well! Ukraine is finally free from foreign colonialism, domination and exploitation, even if it has many problems today. Finally on its own two feet and free! From California ---Bazhajemo vseho dobroho!!!

[phausser]

Wonderful!!

Thanks from South Florida USA

My grandfather was from Galicia. Came to USA in 1918.

[sincanlifiliz]

nice. best wishes from turkey. sincanlı filiz. singer

[westukrainegirl]

Hi Stefan,

I just wanted to say you a very big "THANKS!" for your really good job (Hutsul video). My husband sent me all the three parts of your video 10 months ago, and since this time I have shared your Hutsul wedding with many my friends in Canada, USA and Ukraine. I don't remember, how much times I was watching your video, especially before my wedding in August, 2007 :) My husband and I had a wedding in Ukrainian style too, and we was studying a lot from your Hutsul video.

[LiLloKaChApArRiTa]

Я люблю это but where's part 2? I was looking foward to part 2! :)

[ProudUkrainian]

This is a great way of showing other people how Ukrainian weddings are done traditionally, tse moya ukraina, dyakayu!

[tonysshadow]

Great little documentary! Seems to me to be same character of south USA in the Smokey Mountains. tight family groups.

Lol.. Even sounds like same rumblings and head knocking we have with yankees in North USA as I read the posts.

[dykun]

i completely agree. cross cultural/regional comparisons, if done correctly, can be v enlightening. i've hiked in the smokeys. the geogr, culture n history definitely reminds one of Carpathians. As do the larger society's prejudices regarding so-called Mtn Folk. . .

[pawelzukowski]

I don't care about what other people wrote, thank you for uploading this, it's a perfect documentary.

[dykun]

shchyro dyajuku. . .thank you kindly for the compliment.

[piroshok]

Well amigos I really liked the short since I have never been to Ukraine(must go though)to meet someone I have no family left now

Both my parents were from Ternopil, Mum from this village with the huge Orthodox church Pochayiv and Dad from Kriemenec before my parents moved to Argentina where I was born.

Both viewed Hutsuls as a distant people don't know if there was some distrust or what but to me is music to my years and feast to my eyes.

[unkas1234]

Sorry that you dunno know slavic langs but whole life is before YOU

i fro POLAND i know a bit UKRAINE

[ooosil]

Looks very Romanian, the Hutsuls of Ukraine are slavised Romanians. Even the accests are extemelly similar.

[dykun]

in a way, u r right. theory is that the hutsuls (and the gorale people in poland) are descendents of vlachs that wandered up the carpathian chain from the balkans some 500 yrs ago. where these vlachs settled among ruthenian, most of their language became ruthenian--though hutsul dialect has words that come from romanian, or some 500 yr old vlach dialect. . .

[dykun]

however, i am against any essentializing manner of thinking--hutsuls may have a partially vlach lineage, but that does not make them inherently romanian. are the bulgarians essentially turkish because their ancestors were turks, or have they not fully become a balkan, slavic people? also, romanians participate along with hungarians and ruthenians and slovaks, etc. , as creators of a general culture of the carpathian region, a culture of which each ethnic group is in equal part a creator. . .

[montielito81]

En vez de decir que los hutsules son rumanos eslavizados, habria que ver si los rumanos no son eslavos latinizados, teniendo en cuenta que los dacios (los antepasados de los rumanos) hablaban aparentemente una lengua eslava

[horfield4]

Everyone can say whatever he wants to say and its not very difficult to prove that romanian have the same roots with people of Ghana but its much better just shut up and don't say any bullsh1t .

[rusinka]

ahh good old times...

[bellwood68]

Man!

I want to go there and be part of it.

[PolishPunk04]

Nobody does weddings like the Eastern Europeans! The music never stops!

[Roksolyana]

This video is awesome!

[razorblade42069]

Is this Borat?

[Roksolyana]

This is not Borat, this is a real, great, old tradition.

[tungaly]

I love your traditions.

[toshka82]

JUST CRYING

[bigboybebest]

it's looking like poland 15 years ago :-)

[hello12554]

ok thanks. are you still planning for a part 4?

[dressler65]

Im Mexican and I love your traditions

[hello12554]

what is the name of the second song they sing? I know the first one is "Oy day bozhe v dobry chas"

[dykun]

sorry hello, but i don't the names of the tunes. if i had been a better ethnographer/follorist, i would have thought to ask and write 'em down ;-). glad to see that u r still watching!

[petesake202]

my farther was from ternopil and came to the uk after the war.i was brought up with a strong sense of dignity for ukraine.beining half english i never really fully appreciated the wonder of the links i have,being a ukie.i am going in april 2007 and seeing this has made me more excited at the thought.does anyone know the village of"zolotar sloboda" in the oblast of ternopil'ska.thanks for sharing your video.pete

[dykun]

i looked it up, and zolota sloboda is not far from where i lived for a year (2004-5) in the town of Pidhajtsi, where my father's family is. it was an incredible experience and i plan to live in ukraine again. have a really great trip in ur ancestral homeland, take video and post to youtube when you get back! shchashlyvoji dorohy!

[petesake202]

thankyou dykun.i am going in 2 weeks.if you look on google earth you can see both our villages,near kozova.tanx again and watch this space.

[Ukieboi83]

My family is Rusyn, and these traditions are almost exactly the same.

[Vladimir32]

Part of my family came from Ukraine before the turn of the 1900's. All of the traditions and languages were lost in time. This video is something that I have never seen, yet it strikes such a deep resonance that it seems as though it is something that I have always known. When I see videos like this, planning a trip there is a definite. Granted Ukraine is poor in one sense, but very rich in another. Thanks for posting these series and I will periodically check back for updates.

[raqssharkidancer]

Thanks - my heritage is Lemko...much appreciated.

[dykun]

i am glad that you appreciated this.

the the lemko/bojko/dolynjany (i.e., rusyn ) question fascinates me. my heritage is not rusyn--both sides of my family are ukrainian. nonetheless the cultures of the carpathian region is what fascinates me most. as for the rusyn qeustion, my feeling is that ukrainians have no right to define for another ethnic group its ethnic identity unless ukrainians want to cede the right to define what it means to be ukrainian to an outside group as well.

[dykun]

however, i don't mean to say here that the hutsuls are rusyns. thorough sociological work has shown that the hutsuls, unlike the lemkos or bojkos, have completely adopted a ukrainian identity.

[dykun]

this makes sense--their history is quite different from that of the rusyn groups. they are new comers to the carpathian region (arriving 500 yrs ago) and their language is as different from rusyn dialects as from western ukrainian dialects. they have adopted the trends of the ukrainianization movement, while others of the mountains have not. and it is to my mind perfectly fine if lemkos etc. do not "ukrainianize" their identity!

[ressetar]

where are the Boyko's?

[Dalbert342]

nice work,nice work...when is part two coming?

[hello12554]

dyakooyu za informatsiyu! are you from ukraine yourself? i am anxiously awaiting part 2!

[hello12554]

i am very interested in this because my family is from the ternopilska oblast as well....were is nyzhniy bereziv located

[dykun]

nyzhnij bereziv is in ivano-frankivska, about 20km from kolomyja, located rate at the base ofthe ukrainian carpathians.

half of my family is from ternopil oblast. the other videos from ukraine on this site so far were taken in the small town of pidhajtsi, 70km from the city of Ternopil, about 25km from Berezhany. . .

[dykun]

hopefully by the end of tonight--if not, tomorrow (wednesday) sometime. . .thanks for the interest!

[hello12554]

when is the second part coming

[stoogeswoman]

I enjoyed watching this very much! Thank you!