Ukrainian Harvest Festivals

Ukrainian Harvest Festivals

Varies; usually mid-OctoberUkrainian harvest festivals have some elements in common with state and county fairs in the United States: stalls where farmers display their best produce of the season for prizes, games, and entertainment. In the great farming regions of Ukraine, known as "the breadbasket of Europe," harvest festivals have been celebrated for millennia. It is traditional to bake loaves of bread at harvest time with decorative images suggestive of the new crops, such as stalks of wheat.
Modern festivals often feature a parade to the fairgrounds, such sporting competitions as tugs-of-war, sack jumping, soccer, volleyball, and basketball, and musical, dance, and comedic performances.
Ukraine is also known for the hopak, a dance in which men hold their arms out, crouch down close to the floor and shoot their legs out in quick movements. This dance is said to have originated as a Ukrainian military exercise.
SOURCES:
FestWrld: Ukraine-1998, p. 20