All Ukrainians are looking forward to time that is finally approaching. New Year and Christmas are the most popular holidays, can we contradict that? Firstly, it is a time of rest, home comfort and pre-holiday, gift, sometimes even stressful bustle. Secondly, it is gastronomic happiness with a number of delicious national holiday dishes. Thirdly, in this time of year skating rinks open and a large number of holiday souvenirs appear.
Since olden times seasonal fairs and mysteries have been being an inalienable part of any city or town winter cycle celebrating. Ukraine has been actively promoting fairs since Independence. There are interactive Christmas ‘auctions’ in almost every city: with huge Christmas trees, interesting variations of the nativity scene, delicacies, singing and photo areas!
Khmelnytskyi is no exception, the city hosts one of the best Christmas fairs in the Western Ukraine for several years in a row. The road to the Khmelnytskyi Christmas tree, which is the most important element of the fair, stretches along Proskurivska Street to its very heart – the cinema named after Shevchenko. Between the roofs of houses, architectural monuments of the twentieth century, warm yellow lanterns flutter. Motley figures of citizens, made of flexible neon, look at passersby next to the recreation areas. The city street, which knows all the secrets, smells of cinnamon, warm mulled wine and fresh Christmas tree at this magical time. The tradition of celebrating winter calendar holidays with fairs began for Khmelnytskyi (then Ploskyriv) in 1578, when King Stephen Bathory of Poland granted the town privilege of holding annual fairs. Christmas entertainment has become an integral part of the annual holiday cycle of 14 Proskuriv fairs by the end of the 19th century. Many merchants from Volhynia, Lithuania, Poland and Belarus visited Ploskyriv / Proskuriv fairs at the beginning of the 20th century.
But with the new century, Soviet authorities made its own adjustments to history: for a time, Christmas was forcibly lost its sacredness, fairs disappeared and masquerades with Grandfather Frost and Snow Maiden appeared instead. Fortunately, Proskuriv, that has been called Khmelnytskyi for more than 50 years, began to restore fairs during Independent Ukraine. Today, the Christmas fair in Khmelnytskyi is a cozy and fabulous process that has become a restored page in the history of both the city and its inhabitants. Its atmosphere is reflected by the radiance of the evening Proskurivska Street, flies over the city ice rink and melts snowflakes on the cheeks of happy carolers. And although the winter holidays of 2020-2021 are devoid of mass events and large crowds, the Khmelnytskyi Christmas tree will still shine in the heart of Proskurivska Street and the fair houses will continue to give a festive mood to their visitors in compliance with all quarantine norms.
Photo: Oleksandr Savenko.
