Ukrainian Cultural Institute

05/25/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FRshiCo8c/

05/25/2026

05/25/2026

05/20/2026

Watch Celebrating Vyshyvanka Day Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

05/07/2026

NDUDA Summer Workshop registration is open! Register by May 31st to avoid paying a late registration fee. We look forward to celebrating and sharing Ukrainian culture with you all!

Go to nduda.org for more information 🇺🇦

04/27/2026

After the disaster, UCI members sent a shipping container of relief items to Ukraine. Later, a UCI symposium included a review of the disaster and its effects.

04/27/2026

04/21/2026

04/21/2026

Every year around Easter, more and more people discover the Ukrainian tradition of eating at cemeteries. It often causes surprise or confusion — how can this be a thing?

We’re explaining its deep meaning and long history in this post.

This is Hrobky (literally “graves”) — a memorial week after Easter, when Ukrainians visit their departed loved ones in cemeteries.

Tables are set up at cemeteries, or families lay out tablecloths directly by the graves. They share a meal and say:

“Let those who lie here hold the earth, and let us who walk, wake it up.”

The tradition has pre-Christian roots, and the earliest written records of it date to the old Kyivan Rus chronicles of 1372.

Our ancestors believed that sharing a meal with the souls of the dead brought them peace, while also reminding the living of life’s cycle and strengthening family and ancestral bonds.

This tradition echoes many ancient rituals across the world, such as Mexico’s Día de Mu***os (Day of the Dead) and Japan’s Obon Festival.

In early Ukrainian beliefs, springtime remembrance of the dead symbolized the endless cycle of life — and the inclusion of those who have passed into that natural renewal.

Alongside kolyvo (a type of ritual wheat dish), Easter bread (p***a), people would also eat kulish (millet porridge), cabbage soup, peas with smoked meat, roast pork, bread, dumplings, pies, cabbage rolls, fried fish, and other dishes — often including foods the deceased loved in life. Some of the food was left on the graves.

A symbolic glass of horilka was passed around so each person could take a sip in memory of the deceased. No formal toasts were made — only quiet words such as, “May you be granted the Kingdom of Heaven, and may we not rush to join you.”
These were never loud feasts — everything was restrained, intimate.

Due to shallow or distorted interpretations of Provody, heavily shaped by the Soviet period, the tradition has been slowly disappearing, especially in big cities.

For Ukrainians, cemeteries are not only spaces of personal memory — they hold the story of an entire people. That’s why many people are working to preserve these traditions and (re)discover them.

Sadly, because of Russia’s war, not everyone can visit the graves of their loved ones. This makes remembrance even more important.