Ukraine Culture — Some Facts and Statistics
Ask anyone what Ukraine’s culture is. Someone will mention Ukrainian folk songs and dances. Another will remember Ukrainian language or national cuisine. Their answers will never be the same. Why? There is nothing more intangible in this world than culture. It is impossible either to describe it as a whole or to define its components. The culture of any society includes too many aspects making any attempt to define it extremely complicated.
All of us have our memories. They save information about our past experience, people we ever met, positive and negative emotions we went through, etc. Our memory warns us (never do it again!), educates, helps us to adjust our social behavior to feel safe and comfortable in everyday life. The same does culture for the society being its historical memory.
Ukraine’s culture is at least 1,500 years old. Over the years it accumulated experience of many generations of people who have lived in the area of present Ukraine. They formed a base of modern Ukrainian culture: moral and spiritual values, language and beliefs, literature and music, traditional holidays and superstitions.
Ukrainian culture has common historical roots with Russian and Byelorussian cultures. All three nationalities originated from the same home – Kievan Rus. During its 1,500 – year turbulent history Ukraine culture experienced considerable influences of other cultures. It came a long way from Paganism to Christianity, suffered from invaders, survived collapse of the Soviet Union, which completely transformed the lives of all those who once lived there. In spite of a dramatic history, Ukraine has preserved its cultural heritage from the early times of its existence.