12 Days of Kiev.

Ah, the holidays. No matter where you are, there always seems to be more things to do than one has time to do. And here, it's no different. This is true even though December 25th here is just an ordinary working day.

In Kiev, and the whole of Ukraine, the big holiday is New Years Day, January 1st. In pre-Soviet times, January 7th was Orthodox Christmas and January 14th was Orthodox New Year, when compared to the celebrated dates in western Europe, North America, and elsewhere. Early during the Soviet era, the switch was made from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, dropping 14 days, and bringing the civil calendars into sync with most of the remainder of Europe. Later during the Soviet era, religious celebrations were discouraged or suppressed, and in some cases, replaced with a civil holiday instead. Because of the religious background of Christmas, official state celebrations were moved to January 1st, and continues to this day.

So, January 1st, in western terms, is Christmas Day and New Years Day combined. December 25th is a normal working day for most people. Orthodox Christmas and Orthodox New Years are strictly religious holidays. (What a concept. Christmas as a religious holiday).

All of this is just a long way to introduce my year end photo retrospective, the 12 days of Kiev. It's 12 of my best photos of the year from Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine. Please visit it here.

Have a happy holiday, whichever holiday it is that you celebrate, and I look forward to seeing you next year here at My Kiev Journal.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Kiev, Kiev Basics, Kiev Life, Kyiv

Ukrainian Folk Remedy #1.

It's common that societies and groups with a history going back many hundreds of years or more all have a fair share of folk remedies. And Ukraine is no exception. While there is certainly any number of "modern" remedies available in drugstores, other remedies are often readily available, and often worth a try.

I first became familiar with folk remedies several decades ago while in South Korea. I was using some of the familiar western creams and gels for a particularly difficult rash, but with minimal results. A Korean friend suggested rubbing garlic on it. Ouch! That sounded painful, and it certainly stung for a while. But what do you know. It cleared up the rash much more quickly than the modern remedies did. Now, I'm not suggesting rubbing garlic indiscriminately on just any rash. There are some that will no doubt not react as well as my rash did. But the point is, there are other remedies, some more effective than the modern ones.

So, what's the Ukrainian folk remedy? Cabbage for gout. Yes, I know it sound silly, but even after prior successes with folk remedies, I was skeptical of this one. What could cabbage possibly do? Here's how it works. Take a leaf or two off a head of cabbage, tenderize it with a meat hammer to break up the fibers and get the juices flowing, and wrap it around the affected area. Wrap a cloth around it to keep it in place, and put a sock on over it to keep it warm. (Assuming it's big toe gout, as it is a vast number of times). Then go to bed for the night. With a little luck, the next morning your gout will be less painful. You may need to do this several times over a period of days for greater relief.

Now, I was taking one or more of the usual remedies at the same time, the allopurinol, or the indothemacin, and so some would argue that cabbage had nothing to do with the eventual relief. All I can say to you is "try it". It's known that some remedies that work for some people do not work for others. If it works for you, great. If it does not, don't close your mind to other folk remedies for other conditions. People have suffered pain throughout history; it's normal that people, over time, found remedies in the environment around them to make their existence more pleasurable.

Technorati Tags: Kiev, Kiev Basics, Kiev Life, folk remedies

15th Annual Christmas Charity Drive.

Last Saturday, the International Women's Club of Kiev (IWCK) held it's 15th annual Christmas charity drive, raising (at last count) $75,000 USD for charities. But I'm not writing about the charity per se. It was at this event last year that I first recognized that as a foreigner in Ukraine, I'm often privy to information that the average Kievan never hears about.

I first attended this event last year, having found out about it from friends in the international community. I had been in the country only 15 months at the time. My wife had been in the country well before the IWCK held their first event, and never during the first 13 years knew it existed. But I hear about it not long after my arrival. And, I'm sure that as a foreigner that I'm also equally uninformed about just about everything that goes on in this city.

I guess it's normal after all. During my time in the states, I was equally clueless to numerous neighborhood and cultural events going on right under my nose. I paid attention to what interested me, and a little research turned up almost everything I needed or wanted. But yet, wouldn't it be nice to really know everything that's going on around you? If you just knew it was there, maybe you would find out after all that it does interest you, or that others are interested in the same obscure things that you are? Even if you are 5000 miles from where you called home most of your life.

Technorati Tags: Kiev Basics, Christmas, Kiev Life, Kyiv