Ukraine culture
is a reflection of its turbulent history.

Modern Ukraine culture has a lot in common with Russian and Belarusian cultures. It is quite understandable. All three nations have their historical roots and origination from Kievan Rus. They went separate ways starting in the 13th century.

Ukraine Culture.Bandura - musical instrument.
Source: http://flickr.com/

History demonstrates that every nation tends to create some kind of legends about its historical past. Very often historical events are interpreted in a way people desire to see them. But not the way real events took place indeed. It is really difficult to read historical past. It becomes even more difficult when that past went such a long way to become a modern history of Ukraine.

To be objective and honest, talking about Ukraine culture, we always have to remember that Byelorusians, Russians, and Ukrainians originated from the common home Kievan Rus. Many times history separated them and brought them together again. Today each nation has its own state, its own home. But all of them have the same historical and cultural roots. All of them are Slavs.

The Ukraine is presently experiencing a difficult period of transition to a democratic style of life. Many times its history went through extremely turbulent periods. In some mysterious way Ukraine culture managed to survive those historical whirls, when nobody even cared about its existence.

Ukraine Culture. Pisanky - Easter eggs.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org

Sometimes when you look for information about Ukraine culture, search engines bring you quite a standard set of its "major attributes". Here they are:

"pysanky " (a painted Easter egg), Cossacks , bandura (a musical instrument), hopak (a Ukrainian dance ), borscht (national soup), Chicken Kiev the famous cooked chicken, and salo (pig fat).

Certainly, each of them is a small symbol of the Ukrainian culture. But, perhaps, there are some elements of culture which are much more viable and powerful. They went through centuries from one generation to the next creating and preserving national culture.

I hid a piece of salo here yesterday!
I know it!!!
Source: http:/oops.com.ua

What are these elements of culture? They are just our routine life events: customs, language, literature, music, behaviors, superstitions, moral and spiritual values, beliefs, food, holidays, etc. People don't think about them every day. They just live the way many generations of their ancestors lived.

Some Facts about Ukrainian Culture.

• According to the All-Ukrainian Population Census which took place on 5-th of December 2001, population of Ukraine accounted for 48 million 457 thousand persons. 32 million 574 thousand persons, or 67.2% of Ukraine population live in the cities. The rural population is 15 million 883 thousand or 32.8%.
• 77.8% of population are Ukrainians, 17.3%-Russians, 0.6%-Byelorussians.
• 85.7% of Ukrainians, 3.9% of Russians and 17.5% of Byelorussians consider Ukrainian language as their native. 95.9% of Russians, 62.5% of Byelorussians and 14.8% of Ukrainians consider Russian language as their native.
• Ukrainian language is considered the official language of the state. The majority of Ukraine's people are bilingual. They don't need any interpreters to understand each other.
• Ukrainian culture includes the rich and diverse heritage of more than 110 ethnic groups which live in the country. There are 14 administrative regions (oblast) and an autonomous Crimean Republic in Ukraine.
• Numerous faiths are practiced in Ukraine. Over 97% of the religious communities registered in Ukraine are Christian. About half of these communities are of the Orthodox tradition. The other half is divided among Catholics and Protestants.

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