The atmosphere was infectious. Young children were happily painting pumpkins and playing games at the children’s corner, while the adults were busy chatting, eating wonderful kovbasa and kapusta, varennyky and sipping borsht, all prepared by SUM Passaic and Oseliya CYM. Huge pampyshky, as light as feathers, and home-baked Ukrainian desserts were prepared by the hard-working ladies of St John the Baptist parish. There were plenty of interesting things to purchase from the 14 vendors that showed off their wares.

A cultural table, displaying books and Ukrainian artifacts, was manned by Katia Kucyna. The table featured a bandura, ceramics, paintings, weavings, embroidery, woodcarving, inlay, pysanky, as well as books on Scythians, Ukrainian traditions and folk costumes.

At 4:30 everyone made their way to the outdoor pavilion to enjoy the glorious sounds of Oksana Telepko singing and playing the bandura. A beautifully crafted flower wreath created by Chris Odomirok adorned the stage area. The Iskra Dancers of Whippany NJ performed the Kozachok and the Zakarpatska Polka, while the Zolotyi Promyn Dance Ensemble of Hartford CT performed the Maramoresh and Buko. Olya Chodoba-Fryz charmed the audience with her mellow voice, and Katerina Syzonenko performed the dance “Prybyraiu ta y Kohayu”. At the end of the program everyone was dazzled by the performance of three hopak dances – by the SUM dance group of Passaic, the Barvinok Dance Ensemble of Astoria, NY and the final rousing hopak by the Zolotyi Promyn Dance ensemble. The program was entertainingly emceed by Jerry Kuzemchak.

But the festival was not yet over. Everyone, young and old alike, continued to dance under the stars by the beat of the band Svitanok until 11 PM when the festival was officially over.

On Sunday morning I was watching David Turicano take his wife and daughter to Lipari, off the coast of Sicily, to find his heritage. He was unsuccessful, and ended his search by sadly stating, “ I wish people would hand down their family history as carefully as they do salad bowls and bric-a-brac. Because the story of our origins – that’s something I’d like to give my daughter!”

As Ukrainian-Americans we are lucky that this is not our issue. We have wonderful hard-working people – Rosemary Andrian, MaryAnn Bilanych, Donna Bilanych, Donna Kuzemchak, Oksana Halibej, Julie Gbur, George Gbur, Darka Mozuriak, and Chris Bilanych that worked tirelessly to bring our spirit, culture and traditions together in a place that felt like the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains.

As Chris Bilanych told me, with tears in her eyes, “We did this for the children”.