WeiRan and the Holidays

Today for my meeting with WeiRan I was met with a huge toothy grin.  “In five days, I’m going back to China,” He stated. Now, WeiRan tends to be a happy guy in general, but today was different. He told me about how he was five days from a twenty hour flight (goodness, how terrible), and how he just couldn’t contain his excitement. In the past meetings he had said he was close to his family and he missed them, but knowing he was going home soon just made him realize it all the more.

These feelings I am familiar with. I mean, all of us are when it begins to get close to finals. Everyone knows there’s just two weeks of hell, and then they get to go home. Alright, so maybe the two weeks of hell is just my double-science major talking. (Why do I do this to myself again?)

WeiRan said he had attended the TCU Tree Lighting ceremony, and he loved all the beautiful lights. He said it’s very similar to the Spring Festival in China, which takes place in late January or early February, where all the cities drape the streets in lights and everyone gathers to see them. WeiRan follows the usual Chinese tradition and visits his father’s father’s family on the first day of the festival, and his mother’s father’s family on the second.

WeiRan’s paternal grandparents live in a small village not too far from home. He says that they have sheep and other animals, as well as cats and dogs. He says he especially likes the dogs, because even though they are working guard dogs, they crave attention and just love being around people. He says that the tradition is for his family to gather around and talk about the past year and their hopes for the New Year, and to interact and bond in general.

WeiRan says that although a few families participate in Christmas, for the most part, this holiday is as close to Christmas as most of China gets. He says that relatives such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles will give money to the children, and this is mostly the only gift-giving that happens during the year. He says though, that although the money is nice, he prefers being able to spend time with his family together, in what he calls “harmony.” I enjoyed him putting it this way, because that’s how I tend to feel when it comes to Christmas with my family.

These traditions remind me of my own. On Christmas Eve or on January 6, my father’s family, the Kozura’s, practice the traditional Ukrainian twelve-dish Christmas dinner, known as Sviata Vechera or “Wigilia.”

We sit around a table and eat and talk for five to six hours, and during this time we eat by candlelight and have our phones turned off and placed in another room. The idea is that we are supposed to mimic the suppers that our farmer relatives had (my last name means “potato farmer” for a reason), and it is supposed to be an intimate and spiritual affair. A small amount of hay is placed under the dinner cloths to remind us of Christ’s birth in the manger, and candles are lit to symbolize the lifting of our family’s prayer to God. Traditionally, a place is set for every person, plus one extra seat, in case an unexpected guest arrives. Dinner takes place at sunset, with the arrival of the first evening star.

The Lord’s Prayer is read, and then we all repeat together"Khrystos Rodyvsia!" (or, “Christ is born!”), and then we begin to eat. Our twelve foods consist of typical farm-class plain meat-less foods, which are rice, barley, potatoes, bread, herring (eww!), prunes, mushrooms, pirogues, kapusta (lentil stew),  and the finally the holy wafer and holy water (which is blessed by a nearby priest. The twelve dishes represent the twelve Apostles. We take this time to interact with our family and ring in the New Year.

Throughout this semester, I have seen many similarities between the culture’s we have talked about and my own. Perhaps since Ukraine is in the center of the world, lying between the Eastern and Western worlds, time has allowed it to borrow and lend with many other cultures.

For instance, many Ukrainians celebrate the traditional Western Christmas with Santa Claus and presents under lit trees, on January 7, the day after Wigilia. 

We learned in class that the Qur’an says that if a guest arrives at your door you must welcome them as much as you possibly can. Ukrainian culture has the same values this way, as we set the additional place at our Christmas dinner in case someone were to show up unexpectedly.

These were the things I was thinking about today as WeiRan and I talked about our holiday plans. In some ways, despite being from such different parts of the world and growing up in such different environments, we seem to value the same things.