Ukraine is a country with ancient history, traditions and beliefs. There are several Ukraine religions we can talk about in this article. Ukraine was baptized in Christianity over 1000 years ago. Before that, Ukraine was a heathen country with its own pantheon of pagan gods.

Today the main religion of Ukraine is Orthodox Christianity. It came here from Byzantine Empire, where Vladimir, the Prince of Kievan Russia, was baptized into Christianity, which he brought back home and made it the official state religion of Ukraine.

Besides the Orthodox Christianity, there are other churches and religions in Ukraine. Some people here attend Roman Catholic Church, while others go to Ukrainian Autocephalous Church. Many people attend various Protestant churches, such as Baptist, Pentecostal or Charismatic Gospel churches.

However, Christianity is not the only one among many Ukraine religions. Many people here, and especially those who live in Crimea (Crimean Tatars), are Muslims. There are many Jewish congregations in Ukraine as well. Two of the largest and quite ancient Jewish churches in Ukraine are situated in Obukhov and Uman’. Besides, one may find some Buddhist communities in many cities of Ukraine.

Plus, among the Ukraine religions there could be found many modern churches and religious communities, such as Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Scientists, Myunnists, etc. Besides all the above listed religions, there are some sects where people confess ancient pagan Ukrainian beliefs and practices.

That is a brief story of a diversity of Ukraine religions and beliefs.

Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe. It’s territory has over 600.000 square kilometers or over 220.000 square miles. It has a population of over 47 million people.

There are 25 major cities in Ukraine. By saying this I mean that Ukraine has 24 regions and Crimea and every one of these regions has their major city or so called regional center. Such a city has all the main communications, regional administration jurisdiction, major health centers, etc.

Though, not all of these cities are large. In fact, Ukraine has only 6 cities which have over a million people population. Those are Kiev (the capital of Ukraine), Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkov (ex capital of Ukraine), Odessa and Lviv.

Kiev is the largest among the major cities of Ukraine. Officially it has over 3 million of population, but unofficial statistics say it has over 5 million population.

Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk and Kharkov are situated in the eastern part of Ukraine. Both southern and western parts of Ukraine have only one large city with over a million population each.

Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Odessa and Lviv have a little over 1 million people population each. Kharkov has up to 1.5 million people population.

People in large cities have more opportunities for getting better education and jobs. Consequently, the level of income and the quality of people’s life in Ukraine is the highest in its large cities. Though, most people live in small towns and villages.

That was the information about the largest and major cities in Ukraine.

Ukrainian eggs or Pisanky are the eggs specially decorated for the celebration of the Orthodox Easter. So, in this article I would like to give you some tips on how to make Ukrainian eggs.

Now Pisanky are the painted eggs, decorated with some symbols painted on them. Even though these eggs are a part of Christian holiday, but the symbols most commonly used for their decoration come from pagan times.

To make a Pisanka you should take an egg and soak out the white and the yolk out of it. To do it make two small holes on both ends of the egg and soak out its white and yolk. Then wash the shell and leave it to dry.

Get some dye and color your egg with it. The most commonly used colors are red and brown. Or, else you may leave the egg undyed, but decorated with various symbols.

You may also use some natural dyes for coloring the Easter eggs, such as beets, carrots or onions skins. To do that you need to boil the eggs with one of the mentioned ingredients in water. The beetroot will turn eggs pink, carrots – orange and onion skins – brown.

Finally, the last tip in our how to make Ukrainian eggs “manual” is decorating them with different symbols. The most commonly used ones are circles (the symbol of the sun), stars and trees.

When you learn some easy methods on how to make Ukrainian eggs, you may make your own designs for the Easter table.

Ukrainian land has given birth to many people talented in different professions, such as artists, poets, writers, politicians, sportsmen, etc.
In this article about famous people from Ukraine I would like to tell you brief stories of two of such famous men, who have similar last names Shevchenko. Those are Andrey Shevchenko (football player) and Taras Shevchenko (poet, writer and artist).

Presently one of the most famous people from Ukraine is its football player Andrey Shevchenko. He was born back in 1976 in one of the Ukrainian villages near Kiev City. When he turned 9 years old he was enlisted into Kiev’s national soccer club Dinamo, in its youth team.

In 1999 Shevchenko started to play for the Italian team Milan and according to the FIFA survey he was acknowledged to be the third world’s best football player. Presently, Andrey Shevchenko plays for English football club Chelsea.

Taras Shevchenko was born in 1814, also in one of the villages near Kiev City. He became the most famous Ukrainian poet, prose writer and artist. He is considered to be a founder of Ukrainian classic language and literature.

During the Soviet times, when Ukrainian culture and language were prosecuted by the Soviet government, Taras Shevchenko became a cult person for many Ukrainian patriots. His poems helped people to survive during those times of trouble and to keep and pass on to the new generation their culture and language.

Those were two brief stories about the most famous people from Ukraine, who share one last name and come from the same region of Ukraine.

During the Soviet times only few people in the world have heard about such country as Ukraine. Most people thought Ukraine was some province of Russia. But after Ukraine reestablished its independence in 1991 and especially after the Orange Revolution in 2004, more and more people began to hear about and take interest in Ukraine and in learning more facts about Ukraine.

Though, in this article I want to give you not only such well known facts as geographical location of this country or its demographics. I wish to give you some facts about Ukraine which even not all Ukrainians are familiar with. Let us start:

Did you know that Ukraine is one of the largest European countries? It has a territory of over 600 square kilometers or over 223 square miles. Few other countries in Europe, such as Spain or France can match it up in size.

Did you know that the man who invented the helicopter was born in Ukraine? His name was Igor Sikorskiy. He invented helicopters, but the Soviet government did not take any interest in his invention. He emigrated to the USA and there established his own aircraft company.

Did you know that back in the beginning of last millennium, Ukraine had the largest and most fine library on the territory of Europe and Asia? It was founded by Yaroslav the Wise, who ruled Kievan Russia back in 1030.

Did you know that the largest airplane in the world was created and still belongs to Ukraine? It is called Ruslan. It can lift up to 171 219 kilograms at an altitude of 2000 meters (over 6500 feet).

These are some interesting and not widely known facts about Ukraine.

Even though Ukrainian cuisine has long history and traditions, most of its modern dishes were developed only when local farmers began to grow such vegetables as potatoes, beets, carrots, eggplant, etc. All these vegetables are widely used in Ukrainian cuisine. Here I would like to provide you with three simple recipes of Ukrainian food.

Here we go:

1. Beetroot salad
Take several beets, boil them till they get soft and edible. Grate the beets and add several grated cloves of garlic to them. Take up to ten prunes, cut them to small pieces and add to your beet salad. Mix it all up and add some olive or corn oil or mayonnaise, and some salt and pepper.

2. “Squirrel” salad
Take 1 processed cheese 100 grams (3.5 ounces), 2 eggs, 1 or 2 cloves of garlic and mayonnaise. Boil eggs and grate them or crumble them with your food processor, add cheese and garlic and grate it some more. Add mayonnaise and thoroughly mix it all together.

3. Dumpling soup
Make broth from any kind of meat. Add several potatoes, fried onions and carrots. Add some salt, black, red or white pepper and bay leaf. Take a cup of flour and one egg. Mix it up together, so the pastry would be pretty thick. When all the vegetables in your broth get cooked well, take the pastry in your hand and with the other hand nip off little pieces and throw them into your boiling soup. Stir it and wait until the dumplings come up to the surface. Boil for 5 more minutes.

Those are three very simple to cook and pretty popular dishes of the Ukrainian cuisine.

Easter in Ukraine is the main religious holiday. There is no fixed date for celebrating Orthodox Easter. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon (after March 21st) in the Georgian calendar. Basically there is a 35 days time frame of possible dates for celebrating Orthodox Easter. On different years it can be celebrated anywhere from March 22nd to April 25th.

Many believers do not sleep on Easter night. They go to Orthodox temples for the over night service to pray and to sanctify various foods, such as painted eggs called Krashenki, special Easter cakes called Paska, meat, cabbage rolls and even Salo (pig’s fat).

A long 40 days fast precedes Easter in Ukraine. So, when people finally return home from church, they can start eating and drinking anything they want and cease fasting. But Easter dinner here must always start with tasting Easter cakes called Paski.

There are many different religious and folk traditions, beliefs and games that can be used as a part of Easter celebration. For example, it is believed that if a girl washes her face in water with Easter painted egg (Krashanka) in it, she will be as beautiful as that painted egg. Kids also play with Easter eggs. They take eggs and crush them together; those whose eggs don’t crush, win the game.

When celebrating Easter people greet each other with the words: The Christ has arisen! And they receive the answer: Truly He is risen. Such are the traditions of celebrating Easter in Ukraine.

Ukraine is famous worldwide for its special Easter Eggs design. These decorated Easter eggs are called Pisanky or Krashenki. They symbolize the new life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The art of decorating eggs for Easter is quite ancient.

During the Soviet times it was not allowed to create a design for Ukrainian eggs; it was a prosecuted type of art. Though, lately during the years of Ukraine’s independence this art has been revived and gained popularity among the younger generation of Ukrainians.

Even though Pisanky or Easter eggs are the part of Christian religious celebration, many people use pagan symbols in creating a design for Ukrainian eggs. Most popular and commonly used symbols for decorating Easter eggs are circles (they symbolize the sun), stars and various tree and vegetable ornaments.

When celebrating Easter, most people create their own design for Ukrainian eggs. People color eggs at home. Most popular colors for Ukrainian Easter eggs are red or brown.

Many people do not buy dyes for painting these eggs, but rather they use natural elements for dyeing them, such as onions’ skins. They put eggs into the boiling water and add onion skins there. Then they boil eggs for some 20 minutes. The eggs get dyed into rich brown color. They might also use beetroot or carrots for dyeing eggs in red and orange colors.

Such is the tradition and methods of creating a design for Ukrainian eggs as a part of Orthodox Easter celebration.

Ukraine is the country that has a long history, ancient traditions and customs and rich culture. Ukraine is situated on the cross roads between Asia and Europe, that is why it took in a lot of traditions and cultural practices of other nations and countries. In particular the culture and customs of Ukraine were greatly influenced by the Byzantine Empire and by Vikings.

The culture and customs of Ukraine represent a mixture of ancient pagan practices and tradition and Christianity. Christianity has caused an immense influence upon shaping of many folk customs, celebrations and traditions in Ukraine. Besides, it has influenced Ukrainian culture, because Christian churches in Ukraine were among the first institutions that have established schools and provided people with opportunities to obtain education.

Ukrainian culture has given birth to a multitude of writers, poets and artists, such as Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka or Shishko. Presently Ukrainian people keep up the tradition of obtaining high education and besides the regular schooling most of their children also attend various arts, dancing or music schools.

During the Soviet times both culture and customs of Ukraine together with its language and religion were severely prosecuted and wiped out by the Soviet government. Nonetheless, many people have kept their traditions and faith, and with the re-establishment of the Ukrainian independence in 1991 both Ukrainian culture and language revived.

Presently more and more people and especially the younger generation take interest in the culture and customs of Ukraine and have a desire to learn Ukrainian language.

Such was a brief excursus into the culture and customs of Ukraine.

Ukraine is a bilingual country where most people can understand and speak two languages: Ukrainian and Russian. So, if you are getting ready to come here and want to learn a few of the most common phrases in Ukrainian, you may as well learn those phrases in Russian.

Though, it would be the best thing to find out what region of Ukraine you are going to, because most people in the north, south and east prefer to speak Russian, while in the western part of Ukraine people speak mostly Ukrainian.

Here I would like to give you several of the most common phrases in Ukrainian and I will repeat them in Russian, too.

We start with Hello: Vitau in Ukrainian or Privet in Russian. Than we move on to How are you? Yak spravi? in Ukrainian and Kak de-la? in Russian. Next goes Please – Bud’ laska in Ukrainian and Pozaluista in Russain and Thank you – D’ayakuyou in Ukrainian and Spasibo in Russian.

Now we move on to How much is that? – Skil’ki koshtue in Ukrainian and Skolko stoit? in Russian. And How do I get to..? – Yak pro-i-ti…? in Ukrainian and Kak pro-i-ti… ? in Russian.

Here is another one of most common phrases in Ukrainian: What time is it? Kotra godina? in Ukrainian and Kotoriy chas? in Russian.

Finally we end up with Good bye: Dopobachenay in Ukrainian and Dosvidan’ay in Russian.

Those were a few useful and most common phrases in Ukrainian and Russian language you may use when traveling around Ukraine.