On April 9, the Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore and Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives hosted 37 students from St. Alphonsus Catholic School in Edmonton as part of the USchool Program. The students had an opportunity to learn about the role of an archive in preserving and sharing cultural traditions. We focused on the topic of Easter and discussed some of the traditions associated with this celebration. The students were able to look at Ukrainian Easter eggs in the collection of various styles, heard about the different Easter breads common to Ukrainian tradition and shared some of their own traditions and experiences they have had at this time of year.
From the Archives collections we also pulled a documentary film by Robert B. Klymasz from 1973 that featured "Provody" - the Ukrainian tradition of visiting the graves of ancestors around Easter time. While watching the video the students passed around jars of cream that was slowly becoming fresh butter as they each took turns shaking the jars. To finish off the hour of fun everyone found a place around an embroidered table cloth on the floor, and we picnicked on kolach (round braided bread) smothered with our freshly made butter.