Intermuseum Art Project “UKRAINIAN WINTER: From Roman to Jordan”, organized by the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine and the Museum of Kyiv History

The exhibition project will present the most vivid cycle of winter holidays of Ukrainians, which begin on Roman and end with Epiphany. This special festive time is filled with ancient rites, customs, and rituals: carols and shchedrivkas, vertep performances, fortune-telling, merrymaking, and feasting.

The exhibition halls will feature a unique collection from the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine: Christmas and New Year attributes from the collection of Lviv ethnographer and artist Volodymyr Shagal, ceramics from various regions, a traditional wooden skarbonka, metal caroling bells, authentic winter attire, carpet weaving, rushnyky, icon painting, and works of naïve art by Mykhailo Onatsko, Ivan Lysenko, and others. The exhibition space is complemented by vytynanky and Christmas postcards from the collections of the Museum of Kyiv History, Christmas works by contemporary artists (Viktoriia Fil, Alina Khodan, Olena Romanenko, Iryna Bilai and students of the children’s studio “Solomiia”, Nataliia Semeniuk, Asiia Alandarenko, Olena Yeremenko, Olena Rushchak), as well as contemporary interactive installations.

Ukrainian winter is impossible to imagine without caroling, shchedruvannia, and malankuvannia – all these traditions will be presented through performances by colorful groups and master-classes on creating Christmas attributes. Author’s guided tours by leading ethnographers of the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine will help visitors immerse themselves more deeply in the customs characteristic of the “from Roman to Jordan” cycle.