Ukrainian culture Puns

I'm hoping to find some books/articles to educate myself on efforts made to homogenize Ukraine throughout history. This topic has likely been touched on before, and I apologize if so.. I am a native English speaker and was hoping for any good references (in English if possible) in order to educate myself further on the topic. Thank you in advance, Slava Ukrayini.

Hello! I want to do some research on traditional Ukrainian culture, religion, and folklore. I wasn’t able to find too much stuff so I wasn’t wondering if you guys have any books or websites that can help me on my journey to connect with my own culture and heritage. Though I am into anything, my main points of interest is religion, folklore, and Ukrainian Cossacks, but any and all information is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Meaning does a man give a woman a ring preferably in a romantic special place (maybe with friends invited and someone to document the moment) and then give a wedding band during the actual marriage?

I’m in the US hosting a 16 year old Ukrainian boy for the school year and I’m having a really hard time understanding what differences are cultural or just his personality. For instance he talks very highly of himself and people comment on it to me after talking with him because culturally I think it’s more likely we make fun of ourselves and boasting would feel really uncomfortable. If you have experience with both cultures, what differences have you noted? I’m certainly not trying to put down either culture we are just at the beginning point where the more shocking things are what is noticeable and I would love some insight.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on Ukrainians in Galicia for personal family history, and after the downfall of Kievan Rus the general timeline is that Galicia was taken and incorporated into Poland, then Poland-Lithuania, and eventually Austria-Hungary before Ukrainian nationalism + independence happened followed by multiple relocations after ww2.

My great grandparents are Ukrainian from Galicia area that’s now part of Poland, with the men serving for the Austrian army in ww1 and eventually being relocated into northern Poland during Operation Vistula.

My general question is how did Ukrainian culture + Eastern Orthodox religion and specifically language survive in this area that wasn’t in “ruthenian” control for almost 700 years? Before the relocations and ww2 a good chunk of Galicia was Polish speaking and cultural at this point which makes sense after 400+ years of Polish control, but still almost 40% of the region was Ukrainian identity even though Ukraine/Ruthenia didn’t exist for so long?

First of all, greetings from America! Hope everyone's doing well, considering the state of the world, and the utter disaster that my country has been for the last four years or so (whether or not it's been an entertaining disaster is debatable).

So, to start: I've been developing a fantasy series, and, some time ago, I came to the conclusion that some of my characters had Slavic accents, specifically Ukrainian ones, and I immediately began doing research, with limited results.

Now, as an American, I have no idea how Ukrainian culture differs from mine, and so, after scouring for other sources of information, I finally decided to look to the Ukrainian subreddit for answers.

(I would like to make it clear that while Ukrainian culture is the primary culture I'm drawing inspiration from, it's not the only one)

Anywho, onto the questions! (Some of these might wind up sounding a bit weird, obvious, or unintentionally offensive (If so, apologies in advance) but, please, bear with me. Also, to get a broad range of answers, all questions will be for both Left and Right-wing Ukrainian reddit users:

What are some pet names parents call their children?

How important is tradition to you?

Would it be considered important for a child to respect their parents wishes?

Are family-related problems kept within the family, or is it acceptable to go to other people for help?

What is the general relationship between spouses? Parents and children? What are the expectations of a family?

In Ukraine, what is the general relationship between a daycare director and the children under their care? I mean, is there usually some emotional distance between them, due to social norms, or is it more openly caring and nurturing?

Is it more common for men to clean-shaven, or to grow a beard?

What's the general opinion of England? To any Ukrainians currently living there, what is it like? How long did it take for you to get used to the different culture?

What's the general opinion of the USA? Specifically, New York? Apply the same questions as above, but with New York in mind, instead.

What is the Ukrainian military like?

Are the old Slavic gods still worshiped in some capacity? Given the prevalence of Christianity, I'm curious to know if anyone swears by them. If so, what are some of the more common invocations and euphemisms?

I think this is all, but if any more come up, I'll be sure to post. Again, apologies in advance if I accidenta

Not to be exclusionary, I’m just from Canada so I’m going from that perspective. Anyway, I feel like as generations go on we’re consecutively losing touch with our heritage and become more and more part of a big monolith of culture. That’s a very dramatic way of describing things but I didn’t get my best grades in English for nothing.

When I talk to other Ukrainians here, and people in general, it seems like many have little knowledge of our history or culture here in Canada. This isn’t to say they’re stupid or anything, rather I think it’s sad that for a community and culture that once pushed for its recognition and maintenance, we haven’t maintained much in the way of our own diaspora culture. Most people only know about the internment camps through snippets in school textbooks, fewer know about the hardships Ukrainians had, and many of the traditions our ancestors brought with them and developed have been forgotten. This is in many ways natural as a diaspora culture but it’s disheartening knowing that the dialects spoken, songs sung, and traditions made which are unique to here (again, I only know the Canadian situation) are just gone. The culture seems focused on being Ukrainian in terms of our relationship to the old country, which while not unimportant, I think gives the impression that those in the diaspora aren’t Ukrainian enough or aren’t authentically Ukrainian, rather than embracing that as a diaspora the culture changed and that what’s not authentic in the old country can still be accurate to us.

That’s a long ramble and probably doesn’t make sense. Basically I feel like too much of the diaspora is too focused on “true” Ukrainian culture that we’ve sorta lost ours and don’t bother to maintain it, which when combined with general processes and pressures to assimilate historically, has been harmful to the maintenance of Ukrainian identity outside of Ukraine. I also want to reiterate that I don’t mean to say that the history and our ancestry in Ukraine proper is unimportant, nor that Ukrainians of Ukraine are in anyway to blame, just that I’m worried about the current trajectory and the loss of the unique cultures we have developed outside of Ukraine

Hi Reddit!

I'm originally from Ukraine, but my family left the country when I was 6, so I didn't get to go to school there. Recently I got interested in the history of my country of origin - more specifically its culture, cuisine, traditional architecture, traditional clothing and such. I want to start learning about it but I don't really know where to begin.

I assume I need general knowledge of big historical events just to have a timeline - since politics isn't my main concern I guess I could use wikipedia for this "skeleton" of a research. But I'm looking for some credible sources about the daily life of people and their culture and I'm having a hard time finding them.

I know Russian very well, since I come from the eastern part of Ukraine, and I know enough Ukrainian to read a book in it without struggling too much with the dictionary :) I was wondering whether you guys could recommend some books that will serve as starting points for my research.

Thanks!

I made this post in r/translate, but i hope to have some luck here as well!