Interview with Joan Margel (née Bayers) 2.4

Interview with Joan Margel (née Bayers) 2.4

religion

religious holidays

Christmas

New Year's Eve

New Year's Day

Easter

Thanksgiving

feasts

2004-07-10

audio

2004-091-0733

Kozakov, Serhiy

Margel, Joan

5.4 Interview with Joan Margel (née Bayers) 2.4 2004-091-0733 28:14 U2 Local Cultures religion religious holidays Christmas New Year's Eve New Year's Day Easter Thanksgiving feasts Margel, Joan Kozakov, Serhiy mp3 2004-091-0733.mp3 0 http://206.12.88.230:8080/lcp/2004/2004-091-0733.mp3 Other audio English 0 Christmas 1. How did you celebrate Christmas? 2. (Ukrainian examples) Describe Christmas Eve supper in your family. What kinds of dishes? What did you do after the meal? Describe a Christmas Day meal? What did you family do on Christmas Day? What kind of treats did you get on Christmas day? Joan talks about holidays. She says there was English and Ukrainian Christmas, which were very different. She talks about her mother's decorations, and her father buying gum candies. In the '50's and '60's in the village her mother always had a quiet Sviatyi Vechir. She talks about her mother's holiday cooking, and the traditional meatless meal. She says her mother would invite people over in Rycroft the next day and she talks about eating together. Joan says that in the '30's there were no dinners for Christmas Day. She says that they would try to have a dance on New Year's Eve. Joan talks about having problems with the schoolteacher because of Sviatyi Vechir. She says that the students all ended up going to school on Sviatyi Vechir because they were good students. She talks about how there was no mention of baby Jesus or the Bible, but it was still a spiritual experience. Joan says that Sviatyi Vechir was the one time the kids got a little alcohol to drink. She says that they always had fruit compote and pampushka, which she really enjoyed. The following day there would be moose or deer for anyone that was invited. She says that the day after, Boxing Day, everyone would go out and visit, but the children still made sure to go to school. She talks about her parents buying large quantities of food and packing it up to give to families across the creek. Joan says that for Ukrainian Christmas, the kids would go to school, and her parents would drive across the creek to spend Sviatyi Vechir with her father's mother. She tried to keep up with English and Ukrainian Christmas, but it was a lot of work. She says although a lot of people stopped doing both, she has heard people talk about Sviatyi Vechir in Edmonton. She says there were no gifts for Ukrainian Christmas, but there were gifts under the tree for English Christmas. Joan tells a story about her mother's gift giving. 53.550, -113.469 12 Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 55.750, -118.719 12 Locality: Rycroft, Alberta, Canada http://awmp.athabascau.ca/memoir/margel/ Joan Margel for the Alberta Women's Memory Project https://southpeacearchives.org/holdings-2/finding-aids/fonds-604-joan-margel-fonds/ Joan Margel fonds 683 New Year's and the Feast of Jordan 1. Did you celebrate New Year’s? How? What were the traditions associated with New Year’s? 2. Did you celebrate the feast of Jordan (Iordan)? 3. Did you go sowing the wheat on New Year's morning? What time of the day? Describe what the sowers did and said. Joan talks about New Year's. She says there was always a dance across the creek, and family orchestras/bands played at the dances. She talks about her father's band, and about her father. Joan doesn't know if they did midnight wishes growing up. She says in Rycroft in the '50's, there was a lot of kissing when the clock struck twelve and people partied until three or four in the morning. She says people said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's. They talk about saying goodbye to the past year. Joan says her family would always pay off bills before the new year, and her mother would always make amends with anyone she had hurt in the previous year. Her mother would also deep clean the house before every new year, and paint and wash and bake things. She talks more about her mother's cleaning habits. She says that having a clean house was necessary, and that the women held themselves to incredibly high standards. The interviewer asks Joan about Iordan but she has never heard of it. She tells a childhood story from when she was seven about sprinkling wheat, but says that she did not understand it at the time. She briefly talks about Lent. 55.750, -118.719 12 Locality: Rycroft, Alberta, Canada 1186 Easter 1. How did you prepare for Easter? Decorating the house? Making Easter eggs? Who did it? Preparing special food? What kind? 2. How did you celebrate Easter? Did you attend Easter service? Did you take anything to the church to be blessed? What did you do the rest of the day on Easter Sunday? What did people do in your community? 3. Comments about young people’s partying during the Lent? 4. Comments about interviewee’s mother following the Lent. Joan says that for Easter the women would stay up late cooking hardboiled eggs for Easter. She says that Babka and her father were very good at making eggs. There were fancy eggs and plain eggs. Joan says that on Easter Day they would kill a pig and have ham and potato salad. Then they would crack eggs on each others' heads. She says they used to sprinkle water and have water fights, but stopped after somebody got sick. She says they had a week off of school for English Easter and went to the United Church. Her mother was very spiritual during the times of Lent and Easter. Joan talks about how women would try to hide in the house during the water fights. She says that people were afraid of spring colds, which lasted longer and could lead to additional illnesses. 1425 Other Religious and Non-Religious Holidays 1. How did your family celebrate Green Holidays? 2. Remarks about interviewee’s grandmother strict following religious holidays. 3. Did you celebrate Thanksgiving? How? Joan says that Zeleni Svyata in May was the one time her Babka had the whole family together. The boys would cut a sapling and her Babka would tie it on each side of the gate and keep branches inside the house. Joan does not remember having big dinners, but talks about having a lot of fun playing in the barn. She says Zeleni Svyata, Easter, and Sviat Vechir were very important holidays. In the summer, Joan remembers her Babka being strict about Sunday being a day of rest. She says her mother always forgot to not work on Sunday when Babka came over. They talk about keeping a calendar with the Ukrainian holidays, but Joan mentions that her mother did not read Ukrainian and her father would forget. She says that her mother forgot several holidays where people were not supposed to work, but also says that her mother couldn't afford to not work anyways. Joan talks about Labour Day, which was a statutory holiday. She had the day off from school, but it was an otherwise normal day for her. She also talks about having the day off on Thanksgiving, and says there would be a harvest dance and parties after the harvest was done, which was their own version of Thanksgiving. No transcript. audio 0 https://localcultures.ukrfolk.ca/ohms/render.php?cachefile=