Current events
From Cambridge University Ukrainian Society
Welcome to the list of the current events!
If you have an idea for any event, either you want to organise it yourself, or seek people who would help you or even completely take it over – then send email to our discussion list to share your ideas and to get support!
Easter celebration barbeque party
Sunday, 15 April, 12:00 – 16:00
The celebration of Easter is always surrounded by a special charm in Ukraine. For you to feel the Easter atmosphere, CUUS organizes the Easter Celebration Barbeque Party with traditional Ukrainian food and home-made Kulich. Everybody is welcome to join us and spend nice time while sampling Ukrainian food, playing traditional hayivkas spring games and singing Ukrainian songs.
‘Come, spring! Come!’ People would should, the louder the better. Hayivkas spring games which combine songs, round dances, and pantomimes, have been played to herald the warming of the weather and spring sunshine. Hayivkas are part of folk rituals with round dances and games meant to summon spring and ensure good harvests. Heathens performed such rituals round sacred hai groves — hence the name hayivka.
Pysanka decoration workshop
Saturday, 7 April 14:00 – 17:00
This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn how to paint a main symbol of Easter celebration, a Ukrainian Easter egg called Pysanka. The word ‘pysanka’ comes from the verb pysaty, ‘to write’, as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax. We are excited to provide you with knowledge on how to decorate Pysanka with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax resist method.
Apart from Pysanka, during our master-class you will learn how to decorate krashanky (from krasyty ‘to decorate’), boiled eggs dyed a single colour (with vegetable dyes), which are blessed and eaten at Easter. We will also show you how to decorate krapanky (from krapka, ‘a dot’). They are raw eggs decorated using the wax-resist method, but with only dots as ornamentation (no symbols or other drawings). Krapanky are traditionally created by dripping molten wax from a beeswax candle onto an egg. The CUUS will provide you will all the necessary tools for this workshop, such as pysachky (styluses), all sorts of dye, wax and eggs and even stickers. But please bring your own eggs and pysachky if you have some.
Because the event is highly popular, we would suggest you to email us about your participation.
St.Andrew's day with CUUS (10 December 2011)
This Ukrainian evening was really special. Thank you for joining us in celebrating it. We hope that you enjoyed the taste of our KALYTA baked by our members especially for you. The evening was full of surprises including the joyful interaction between Pan Kalytynskiy and Pan Kotsjuybynskiy.
Thank you!
We would like to say again a big ‘thank-you’ for your donations and help with organising the Ukrainian Fun Night back in February, and attending the Vodka Party, which helped raise money for the treatment of Zhenia Angel, a master’s student from Kyiv Mohyla Academy who has been diagnosed with leukaemia. With your help, we managed to raise an amazing £450, which the Society has sent to the Angel family.
We are delighted to inform you that your generosity and kindness have helped. After the course of chemotherapy Zhenia is now in remission and feels much better, though the doctors recommend that he has a bone marrow transplant, which is another costly operation. If you can, and would like to, support Zhenia further you can find all necessary information here: http://www.helpangel.com.ua.
Cycling tour in Norfolk countryside this Saturday (2 July)
A small group of Ukrainian students is going to cycle around historical places in Norfolk. The route is currently under consideration. We will either take a train to King’s Lynn and cycle from there to Holkham – to visit beautiful estates and a national nature reserve (http://www.holkham.co.uk/html/holkhamestate.html) or will take a train to Norwich and cycle from there to the east coast, visiting old East-Anglian villages and churches, the ruins of Caster castle and the remains of Burgh Castle Roman Fort on the way. Depending on the weather, we may stay overnight at the seaside and continue our trip next day.
Last year’s cycling tour in North Norfolk was a great success and we hope to repeat that success this year. A return ticket to Norwich or King’s Lynn with your railway card is about £10. You will need a bicycle in working order, food and drink for one-two days (there will be no big supermarkets on the way), a sleeping bag and/or tent will be an asset (but we have one or two spare). If you are interested, please let Lyuda (lb360) know before Thursday evening. The number of places is limited. Ideally, the group should not exceed 6-7 persons in order to avoid difficulties in transporting bicycles on a train.
Ivana Kupala and Committee
It is now a CUUS tradition to organise an Ivana Kupala night annually. It would be great to have some fire-jumping, night punting (perhaps skinny dipping:) and inevitably, when you are around Ukrainians, song-singing again this year.
Unfortunately, we are a bit short of people this year. Hence, if you would like to help us to promote the Ukrainian culture and spirit, as well as gain organisational and leadership experience (and meet cool people:), we encourage you to consider joining our team. Coordinating the organisation of Ivana Kupala can be your baptism of fire – no fretting, it is easy and fun, and rewarding! Please contact Anton (as525) if you are ready for this challenge.
SPORTS DAY + END OF TERM PARTY
Join us for some outdoor fun to feel the coming of spring! Football, volleyball, badminton, tennis, rope walking, relay races, you name it and we will do it! The afternoon will smoothly turn into a party with food and dancing. Don't miss it - listen out for the exact date and venue.
Congratulations, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies!
As you have probably heard, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies is now a permanent programme at Cambridge. Our congratulations!
We as Society did our best to help this initiative come into being and we remain committed to this dedicated European centre for the study and promotion of Ukrainian language, literature, and culture.
More information: http://timescape.mml.cam.ac.uk/ref35/index.html
Wednesdays CUUS meetings
The CUUS has an informal society meeting every other Wednesday in Wolfson College. You are very welcome to come and socialise over a cup of tea, sing songs (guitars or any other musical instruments encouraged!), play pool or table tennis. You can end the evening in style by going to dance salsa from 10pm in Wolfson College. This is very popular with some of our members. A voluntary contribution of £1-2 for tea and biscuits would be much appreciated.
This is how to find the room once you get to Wolfson: As you face the main entrance to the Porter's lodge, it is a separate standing building on your right. Lee room is on the 1st floor (directly above the seminar room if you know where it is). http://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/tour/leeroom/
Please join our announcement list to receive reminders about upcoming meetings.
Sport and travel 2011
The weather is always good in the UK, rain is usually short and warm. Last Easter we enjoyed 3 days of sunshine near the Honister pass, considered the wettest place in England.
CUUS is making a call for people willing to do some hiking or other outdoor activities like cycling, football, tennis, running. Quite often sport is followed with a good meal, barbecue, ets.
Please contact us or come to our events if you want to join a group of active people or if you want to recruit a participants to your group.
It's good to be ready a little in advance of a weekend or bank holiday: we need 1.List of people (please specify if you have any transport or driving licence) 2.List of possible destinations for trips (day, weekend, long weekend) 3.List of people willing to play football or other games.
Please e-mail Andriy (ad468@eng.cam.ac.uk) and he will try to make those lists.
Sometimes we meet for drinks and discussions. The suggested place is The Pickerel pub near Magdalene bridge, at 7 - 8pm on Wednesday (the date to be confirmed) (30 Magdalene Street Cambridge CB3 0AF )
2010/2011 - Elementary and Intermediate Ukrainian courses
Elementary and Intermediate Ukrainian courses
Consists of 20 one-hour classes and a final exam, leading to a certificate.
Venue: Department of Slavonic Studies.
Ukrainian events in UK listed on other sites
Ukrainian Cultural Calendar in the UK
Oxford University Ukrainian Society
