Happy Independence Day

August 24th is Ukraine's Independence Day, celebrated in varying degrees across the country. I'm hoping there's a lot of party planning for next year because it'll be Ukraine's 20th birthday. From the sounds of it, there's not much going on in my village on the actual day (only the big cities got fireworks this year). On Saturday, there was a celebration in the center of town. I was really surprised by how well it was run. All the "townships" were invited to take part in a competition of Ukrainian pride. Each "township" had a table showcasing crafts from their village and took part in a talent show of singing traditional songs or retelling fairytales. The korovai was judged too, a twisted bread that looks like a cake used as a sign of friendship and presented at all major milestones such as weddings, as well as straw dolls and varenikies. I'll let the photos say the rest.