Ukrainian traditions of celebrating St. Andrew's holiday

1. Saint Andrew’s holiday
St. Andrew’s Day is celebrated on 13,
December. In Ukraine, young people
organized parties traditionally typical for
late autumn and winter.All these girls’
celebrations of course had one goal - a
happy marriage.

2. • SaintAndrew is the
highly honoured
apostle in Ukraine.
According to a legend,
he spread the word of
God in our land and in
particular preached on
Kyiv hills.

3. • On St. Andrew’s eve girls told fortunes,
hoping for a successful marriage.The girls
took some grains in the barn, put on the
table and carefully counted. If the number
of grains turned an even one, it was a good
sign; and if there was an odd number, the
girl became sad, afraid to remain
unmarried.

4. Also, girls used a chicken in fortune telling.They put a
bowl of grain, water on the floor and brought a chicken
into a room. If the bird screamed shook wings, the girl
believed that her husband would be cruel and beat her. If
the hen began to eat quickly, she assumed that her
husband would be fat, greedy for food; if a hen rushed to
the water, a man would be a drunkard. If the chicken
behaved calmly, slowly and did everything reasonable,
the girl hoped that her husband would be kind, calm and
a reliable man.

5. Young ladies went to the bank
of a stream, a river or a pond
near the road. A girl took a bit
of mud and carried home to
explore. If she pulled a straw
out of this dirt that was the sign
that her husband would be a
farmer; if she found a chip, he
would be a carpenter; if there
was a nail or a piece of iron in
the mud, she would marry a
blacksmith; if there was a
thread, her husband would be a
tailor, a piece of skin - a
shoemaker or a saddler, and
when there was only the soil,
that meant, that her husband

6. Also, girls made toy
bridges to tell
fortunes. A girl
poured some water
into a bowl, put
some straw on top of
a bridge, put it under
the bed and went to
sleep. It was believed
that she should see
her husband in a
dream crossing the
bridge. If she saw
that the bridge sank
in a dream, it

7. They poured some water into a bowl and put water walnut halves
as ships.They put small candles inside the walnut halves. One
shell was for the girl, and the second symbolized the guy’s boat.
They splashed water to make the nuts float. If candles met and
boats touched the sides, the girl and the young man were
destined to be together.

8. The girls went outside in the evening trying to find a male
stranger and asked him, "Uncle (boy), what’s your name?"
He told his name. If a passerby’s name was Basil, then the
future husband would be Basil, if a passerby’s name was
Nicholas, then her future husband would be Nicholas and
so on. Often, men and boys played tricks, inventing some
very rare and unpopular names - Dormydont, Pavsikakiy,
or something like that, trying to tease the girls.