Is a feature of life, and a basic essential to the survival of any nation. True, the line between extremism and “acceptable” diversity is blurred by old racist attitudes, by political movement, and by society itself evolving. We were glad to spend a few hours of a gloriously sunny afternoon in a hitherto unexplored quarter of Montréal, soaking up a very different culture.
The building above is the Church of Sainte Sophie, behind which we discovered the Park Ukraine. The festival has been a yearly fixture for the past twelve years, and well worth attending each time, in my humble opinion. While there was not a great deal of space for the activities and for there to be many stalls (for example, in comparison with the Turkish and Mexican festivals we enjoyed at the Parc Jean Drapeau… but it was a pleasant and extremely multicultural event. The sun shone from a cloudless September sky, although with none of the fierceness we experienced during this past summer, thankfully!
We arrived by combination of bus and Metro, not a pleasant experience in itself, but nonetheless, entertaining for a people-watcher! The scene was filled with colour, and the pleasant odour of cooking food permeated the atmosphere. As well as stalls with traditional crafts, souvenirs of Ukrainian origin and of course the inevitable stalls for the sponsors, we discovered some more in depth experiences, such as the stall devoted to informing about a great cause which neither of us had previously encountered:
A worthwhile cause we wish we had more money and time to support, devoted to helping the less fortunate by the most sensible means possible, for example, buying shoes and locally made products for the people in need, thereby also contributing to the local economy rather than that of the donating country.
We discovered the usual nick-nack stores, some of which were vending really finely crafted products, not merely tee shirts with the slogan “Ukrainian Inside” and a “made in China” tag within…
Things on sale included the fine mohair scarves (above), beautiful miniature paintings worked on shell and wood, and finely crafted jewellery. There were also the ubiquitous wooden dolls, and Sylvie bought two keychain dolls… although only one layer, it turned out, they made a nice souvenir with a practical side!
The violinist, Vasyl Popadiuk, entertained us well on the stage, though the music was rather louder than necessary, and his stage performance a little unrehearsed! I rued the fact that I had not brought along my video camera, and even more so when the traditional dancing began, adding still more colour to the spectacle!
A traditional dancing troupe livened things up somewhat. (above)
Extremely small, extremely brave, this little 7 year old girl had the crowd cooing with approval at her performance (above)
We would have appreciated the music of this choir significantly more if we had a) understood the words, or b) had subtitles in the programme… but it was all good!
While I won’t foreseeably become a fan of Iryna Zinkovska, she was quite a hit with the crowd, with a melange of French and Russian songs.
So, all in all we had an enjoyable experience, marred only by the poor sound volume regulation and the hideous road work problems with public transport that delayed our return home by about an hour. September is without a doubt my favourite month of the year in Canada, based on the two that I have experienced here. The crisp blue skies, pure sunshine, the glut of fresh local fruit and vegetables, the fond and not too distant memories of the summer still lingering, and the ease of sleeping at night when the temperatures permit the use of open windows rather than air conditioning!
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