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Show knight to eat this bread. I The Ukrainian Christmas festival festi-val lasts three days. In the villages vil-lages singers known as Kolyad- i Ukrainians Hold To ( Many Old Customs Ukrainian churches, both Greek Orthodox and Uniate, cling to the ancient Julian calendar, so their Christmas Day comes 12 days later than ours, or on January 6. Christmas Eve is celebrated with much traditional ceremony and festivity. The Holy Supper or Swiata Wecera is very elaborate, consisting consist-ing of 12 courses, in memory of the 12 apostles. Fish, baked, broiled broil-ed and jellied, takes the place of meat. Borsch, or beet soup, is generally served, and stuffed cabbage, cab-bage, filled with millet or rice. Vareniki, something like the Italian Ital-ian ravioli, also is a usual course. Dessert consists of special pudding pud-ding called kutya, made of wheat, poppy seeds and honey. During the Christmas Eve supper, sup-per, some member of every Ukrainian Uk-rainian family throws a handful of kutya or pudding at the ceiling. If it sticks, the coming year will be a prosperous and happy one. After supper, a plate of braided bread, called kolach, is left on the table between two lighted candles. Legend says that the spirits of the family's dead will return at mid- U ' 1 ,4 i M ' y.t t J i i niky go from house to house singing sing-ing the Kolyadky folksongs relating relat-ing the birth of Christ and the events of his life. They usually carry a manger with them, and in some cases they perform miracle plays. They are rewarded by gifts I of food or money. |