You might have heard about the German pickle stories where adults hang a pickle in a Christmas tree and the first child that finds it gets an extra gift. Now if you thought that was unique and culturally different, then you ought to know that Ukrainians put spider webs in their Christmas trees.
Now you may be wondering why Ukrainians would do that? Here’s how one of the versions of the legend goes.
The Story of the Spider and the Christmas Tree
There once was a widow who lived in a cramped old hut. She lived with her children. Outside their home was a tall pine tree. From the tree dropped a pine cone that soon started to grow from the soil.
The children were excited about the prospect of having a Christmas tree, and so they tended to it, ensuring that it would continue to grow and be strong until it became tall enough to be a Christmas tree to take inside their home.
Unfortunately, the family was poor and even though they had a Christmas tree, they couldn’t afford to decorate it with ornaments for Christmas. And so on Christmas eve, the widow and her children went to bed knowing that they would have a bare Christmas tree on Christmas morning.
The spiders in the hut heard the sobs of the children and sad cries, and decided they would not leave the Christmas tree bare.
So the spiders created beautiful webs on the Christmas tree, decorating it with elegant and beautiful silky patterns.
When the children woke up early on Christmas morning they were jumping for excitement. They went to their mother and woke her up. “Mother, you have to come see the Christmas tree. It’s so beautiful!”
As the mother woke and stood in front of the tree, she was truly amazed at the sight that lay before her eyes.
One of the children opened up the window as the sun was shining. The sun would slide along the floor and slowly glide up the Christmas tree and onto the webs. As the rays of the sun shone on the tree, the webs turned into glittering silver and gold colour; making the Christmas tree dazzle and sparkle with a magical twinkle.
From that day forward the widow never felt poor, instead she was always grateful for all the wonderful gifts she already had in life.
2 ukrainian Christmas Poems
Flakey snow gathers
in mounds of frigid white
as sharp winds batter
the blue home decked
with festive lights
and lush garland
of forest green and berry red.
Carols are sung
from atop the winding
staircase, an open door
finds a kitchen table
with an carved creche,
adorned with wheat, basil,
and mint.
A gleaming silver cleaver
cuts through cabbage,
a small pile of plump onions
and raw garlic is fed to the hot
iron skillet.
The old Ukrainian mother
stirs the large black pot
of borscht with mushrooms,
the scent of fresh dill wafts through
the home lined with icons
of the Blessed Mother, her divine son,
and saints that sacrificed their lives
for God’s glory.
The table is set with
an extra seat and a bowl of
walnut and poppy kutia,
an empty chair so those departed
may return to witness a holy night
that is filled with the anguish being estranged,
and the joy of the coming nativity
of the King of kings.
A tall candle placed
in the frosted window brightly
flickers and glows, a waxen sign
that those lost and in need
of shelter may find refuge
in the blue home by the bay.
Ukrainian Christmas Eve
carries on as candles drip
golden wax and dishes mixed
with memories mount
around the table adorned
with an icon of Christ’s birth
By Ivan Malkovych
The saviour was born
into fierce, brutish cold.
Shepherds’ small campfires blazed in the wasteland.
A blizzard seethed and battered the souls
of the humble kings who bore gifts for the infant.
The camels lifted their shaggy legs in sequence.
The wind howled.
The star, aflame in the night,
looked on as the paths of the three processions
converged on Christ’s cave like beams of light.
By Josif Brodsky. Nobel
