Ukrainian Easter celebration

 Photo: Festive food for Ukrainian Easter
(from left to right) Olena Konateca, Inna Bykovtseva, and Nataliie Parkhomenko 


Quite unexpectedly this afternoon we found ourselves taking part in a traditional Ukrainian Easter, “Velykdeb or “Great Day”.
For the local group of Ukrainians refugees who escaped their home country after Putin invaded it are now settled  in Stirling and are part of our increasingly diverse cultural scene.
 
Today they organised an event in the Stirling Museum and Art gallery displaying some of their own cultural artefacts along with a table laden with Ukrainian festive food including the following:

baked sousage (kovbasa), ancient dish with meat (pidpalka), traditional easter bread (paska, babka) and eggs (krashanky), ukrainian meat jelly (kholodets`), beetroot snack (cvikli), baked minced meat (zajec`), and cabbage rolls (holubtsi).

We bought a selection and had it tonight for supper.

I spoke to Kristina Palesheva (see extra) . She fled Ukraine with her husband and five children as soon as war broke out leaving all their possessions behind.
“We are safe here and we have the children, that is all that matters,” says Kristinawho recently competed a photography course at Forth Valley college .

They are now settled in Stirling, with their children attending local schools, and her husband is employed full-time at a local dairy. They doubt if they will ever return to Ukraine because they say Putin is not to be trusted.