MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS PAST
Sunday, November 16, 2008 — 3:00 p.m.
Erie Art Museum, 411 State Street, Erie, PA
Dear Members of the Lake Erie Chapter,
On Sunday, Nov. 16 at 3:00 p.m. you are invited to our first meeting at the Erie Art Museum, 411 State Street. We will begin preparing for a big event – Christmas! We need your help!
In January, we will create “A Rusyn Christmas to Remember” complete with Christmas Eve dinner and customs for Christmas Eve and Christmas caroling. To prepare for this large January event, our November and December meetings will be activities to lead up it. (date to be announced). We will need your memories of FOOD, SONGS, and CUSTOMS, so we do not lose our traditions. We hope to spark your interest to make these Rusyn traditions in your home, too.
For Nov. 16 - please bring
1. A list of foods and Recipes for foods you remember eating on Christmas Eve. These will be compiled for a booklet available at the January event. If you still make the Christmas Eve dinner, please reply to this email, as we need your help. We are looking for our best cooks, to video tape making these special dishes (in your home).
2. Songs you remember singing – the title or first line. These will be practiced at our December meeting, then videotaped. We are especially looking for people who have done Christmas Caroling, to teach the youth of Ruska Slava and the rest of us. If you have been a Christmas Caroler, please reply to this email, as we need your help.
3. Customs of your family – what activities did they do on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and after? On Nov. 16 we will have a video camera to record your description of the Christmas Eve customs your family celebrated. We want to record the stories, and learn the differences among families and villages. We will continue tapings in December.
4. Any photos of your family and your traditional Christmas Eve dinner, or caroling.
If you CANNOT attend the Nov. 16 meeting,
you can send the recipes, a list of foods your family ate, songs, and customs to:
or mail them to: 209 West 36th Street, Erie, PA 16508 – or call 456-7217.
At our December meeting, we will make a Video of Christmas Caroling, as the national Carpatho-Rusyn Society does not have a video like this.
This year will truly be “A Rusyn Christmas to Remember.” Please join together, as we re-create our unique traditions. Come, e-mail or call with your information.
In Rusyn Unity,
Eileen Zinchiak, President, Lake Erie Chapter
