Shadows of a Forgotten World

A folk band from Przemysl  —  Krajka, together with Ukrainian musicians  —  released a new album dedicated to the lands that lie along the current Polish-Ukrainian border. "The album contains traditional music from the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, from the regions of Kholm, Lubaczow, Przemysl, to the Carpathian mountains and valleys. These lands were once replete with the splendor and richness of culture, traditions, and ethnos. Today this music is largely unknown and forgotten. It has been reconstructed using recordings gathered during field expeditions and from available materials  —  to save it from oblivion and bring back its ancient luster." "The album 'Krajka. W domu' contains songs exclusively from the Polish-Ukrainian borderland. This territory, on which from time immemorial reigned a balance of diverse cultural components, was brutally destroyed by the war and postwar deportations. The expulsion of Ukrainians, Boykos, and Lemkos is above ...

"Wychód" - Polish archaism meaning "exit" ("Wyjście" in modern usage) Found in a corridor of a building that from the 1820s housed a hotel and restaurant-winery The hand points in the direction of the front entrance, from an inner courtyard Another theory is that the sign reads "wychodek" and points to an outhouse. However, I'm not entirely convinced as there is a line coming down just right of the letter "D" and the hand would not be centered if there were still two more letters at the end of the word.

I came across a curious German-language benchmark in one of Lviv's courtyards. Unlike the other pre-WWI benchmarks that I have seen in Lviv, which are small simple plaques in Polish, this one is much larger, in German, and even includes a relief of a hand pointing to the leveling mark. The sign reads:  XXX Zolle über den Wasserstand  (30 Feet Above Sea Level) And while this one was from the Austrian-era (the building where it is found dates from 1911), it was not part of the first leveling system created in Lviv (1880-1888), which was used to construct Lviv's first sewer system. More on Lviv's benchmarks can be found here . Example of Polish-language benchmark from original network Z.W. = Znak Wysokosci (Height Marker)

Several years ago I read about an old Jewish prayer room that was discovered in the basement of a building in Lviv. Finally, thanks to my friend Sarah who obtained instructions on how to find it, I was able to see it in person. (Though only on our second attempt did we actually find a way inside. More about our adventure can be found in Sarah's blog post .) Tucked away in the corner of a not-so-easily-accessible courtyard is a small staircase that leads down into the basement room that housed the prayer room. The only remnant is the painted ceiling with two lions and the Ten Commandments. The history behind this prayer room  —  when it was established and why  —  is still unknown. But according to Jewish Family Search : "Most probably this was a private house owner's prayer room or a shtiebel for Jewish families living nearby." The room is found in a building that dates from 1911, in a neighborhood south of the city center (which by the way was not one of ...

The makeup of the population of Galicia changed drastically after WWII, one reason being the Soviet-Polish population exchanges in the years right after war, during which most of the Poles that lived in Eastern Galicia moved or were deported to the territory of current day Poland. The traces of these Polish communities can be found in the countryside, where abandoned Roman Catholic churches ( kościół  in Polish or  kostel  in Ukrainian) can be found in many villages. Under the Soviets, churches and synagogues were re-purposed, used often as warehouses, stables, museums, etc. While some of the Greek Catholic churches were renovated and today are used by the communities for worship, very few kościółs were resurrected as there are few practicing Roman Catholics in the villages. A  kościół in a  village near Zolochiv St. Maria Magdalena Kościół (built in 1924) in Vovkiv During Soviet times the church served as a mineral fertilizer wareh...

My great (x5) grandparents Feliks and Tekla Lipiński moved to the village of Koltiv (Kołtów) from Lviv in 1811. Feliks was invited by Count Józef Baworowski to his estate in the countryside to conduct his court orchestra. The former landlords, the Starzeńskis, built a beautiful garden house on a high hill where the court orchestra would often play. Feliks and Tekla's son, the famous violinist and composer Karol Lipiński , often visited them in the village. Nothing of the garden house, the palace, the graves of the noblemen or my relatives, or any other traces of these times remain. Much was destroyed during WWI, and in WWII Koltiv found itself on the front. While Brody is remembered for the "Brody Cauldron" when in 1944 the Red Army encircled Brody and destroyed the German forces, the neighboring region was called the "Koltiv Corridor," due to the fact that the German front in the Koltiv area was shattered by the Soviet army, which broke through a narrow gap i...

A former horse stable found in a courtyard, in one of Lviv's central neighborhoods.

Burdon, formed in 2002 in Lviv, is a great example of a band that preserves and promotes folk music, allowing a new generation of people to enjoy and cherish the music of their ancestors. "We're using acoustic folk instruments for the best reproduction of atmosphere of old dances which didn't change through centuries. But our music is not a real authentic reflection, we play modern folklore. We don't invent any new tunes, we play old and often very famous ones, with our own arrangement and modern influences." from their website . In additional to more common instruments such as the fiddle, double bass, accordion, they also incorporate many other interesting instruments such as the lira (hurdy-gurdy), bouzouki, and moraharpa. In addition to  traditional Ukrainian and Carpathian songs, they also play Romanian, Hungarian, Balkan songs.

I recently finished reading Daniel Mendelsohn's book  The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million about his search for what happened to six of his relatives during the Holocaust. He searched specifically for the fates of relatives who lived in Bolekhiv, Ukraine, a place where his Jewish ancestors settled many centuries ago. His research took him all over the world, visiting places where the tragic events happened and meeting survivors who he hoped would be able to share with him specific details about these relatives and what happened to them. It was a very well written and engaging story, both his own journey and search, but also the story of his relatives. I highly recommend this memoir as a good source from which to learn what exactly happened to the Jews of one particular town in Galicia. It's these personal stories that really touch you, the people become no longer just part of a statistic of all the people who perished during the war, but people you feel you knew. Duri...

During WWII my grandmother was separated from her sister, only to be reunited with her half a century later on the other side of the world. While my grandmother and her family succeeded in escaping Ukraine before the Soviets took over their homeland in Galicia, her sister Maria had an entirely different fate, which carried her into the underground movement, a Gulag work camp, and exile in Siberia before she was able to return to Ukraine. By the time I was old enough to be curious about my grandmother's life in Ukraine and experiences during the war, it was too late to ask her. Fortunately, her sister took up the daunting and I'm sure emotionally difficult task of reliving her tumultuous life in order to document her experiences for her descendants. It was through these memoirs that was I was able to learn about my grandmother's life and her family, about the country I had heard so much about, about their struggle and sacrifices for a land they loved so dearly. Although ...

From a series of videos about the origins and meanings of various Galician words and phrases

On Lviv's ghost signs from the book "The House with a Stained Glass Window" (by Żanna Słoniowska, 2015), which takes place in the early 1990s: I always tried to read the city like a book, but it turned out that he knows the alphabet. Near the facade of a building, from which recently the plaster had crumbled, he said:      "It's Yiddish: "coffee, tea, milk." Every spring Lviv sheds, uncovering on the facades letters from different alphabets. The current government treats this phenomena as a dangerous disease. Something like a rash. The symptoms, overcome in one place, then always appear in many other places. But homegrown doctors are confident in their skills and their chosen therapy."     "And nothing works out for them?"     "So far no. But this...won't last long. For me the stained glass window in your staircase is the last cultural membrane of the city. If it cracks, nothing can save it."     "The fall of Rom...

To supplement my "diaspora" dictionary, here's a list of Galician culinary terms. Some I have on my list , but here are many more. ГАЛИЦЬКИЙ КУЛІНАРНИЙ СЛОВНИК -А- Аєрконьяк – яєчний лікер Андрути – перекладений вафельний торт, вафлі. Аниж – аніс Арак – алкоголь Афини – чорниці -Б- Баняк – горщик, казанок. Бараболя, бульба – картопля. Бараболянка, бульбянка – кишка, начинена тертою сирою бараболею, з шкварками. Спочатку підварюється а потім смажиться чи запікається. Біґос, бігус – тушкована капуста. Готується з квасної і свіжої капусти, з м’ясом та вуджениною (див. вудженина) Бібкове (бабкове) листя – лаврове листя Бішкопти – бісквіти. Часто вживається в значення бісквітного печива, а не бісквітних коржів до торту. Бритванка – форма для запікання, переважно прямокутна або квадратова Будин, будинь – пудинг Брайтрура, байтура – духовка -В- Вуджений, вудженина – копчений Виделець – виделка Вепровина, вепрове м’ясо – свинина Воловина – яловиче м’ясо Вушка – маленькі вар...

Recently on Facebook, "Пані Стефа" shared a post about Galician cuisine using Galician culinary vocabulary. I'm familiar with many but not all words. Original post found here . Image from the cafe Spizharka (Galician word for "pantry") in Lviv Баняк, ринка, миска і тареля в креденсі.  Зупа з ляним тістом і росіл з клюсками, налиті кохлею в таріль.  Салатка в салятерці.  Мізерія і зеленець. Карманадлі і шницлі, засмажені на пательні.  Парені, накипляки і будині. Яськи, шпарагівка, каляфйори, шпараґи, селєра, пора і калярепа. Риж, грисік, кулеша, логаза і пенцак. Пляцки, цвібак, андрути, мармоляди, конфітури і галярети в спіжарці. Птисі і бішкопти. Ґоґодзи, гечі-печі, фіги, дактилі і міґдали. Морелі, трускавки, морви, піґви, цитрини і помаранчі. Цинамон, паприка, коляндра і бібкове листя. Кава з чоколядою в філіжанці. Келішок і канапка. The book Felix Austria by Sofia Andrukhovych, set at the turn of the 19th and 20th ...

Recently, Gazeta.ua published an article (in Ukrainian) about soccer in interwar Galicia, and it includes a list of soccer terms used in Galicia in that period. In the diaspora we still call soccer (football) копаний м'яч (literally, "kicked ball"), the term that was used in pre-WWII Galicia. Today in Ukraine, the term "футбол" (football) is used. Photo: 1942, Ivano-Frankivska Oblast. Source: ”Локальна історія”/localhistory.org.ua Футбольні терміни, що використовували на Галичині у міжвоєнні роки: відсторона – офсайд воковер – неявка дефензива – захист грач – гравець грище – футбольне поле дружина – команда займак – штрафний удар змагун – гравець карний мет – пенальті копун – футболіст наріжняк – кутовий удар офензива – напад реміс – нічия

There are several differences in the Ukrainian alphabets used in the diaspora and in Ukraine, in particular, what we call the alphabet, the way we pronounce the letters, the melody we use when singing the alphabet (or the lack there of a song), as well as the difference I only recently discovered - the placement of the soft sign. In Ukraine the soft sign "ь" doesn't come at the end of the alphabet as I learned, but third to last. It was quite a big shock for me to discover. However, this was a relatively recent change. In 1990, the soft sign was moved from the end of the alphabet to the place after the letter "щ" as it is in the Russian alphabet. I'm surprised it wasn't moved back a year later when Ukraine gained its independence. First of all, we usually say "азбука" or "абетка" while in Ukraine it is more common to say "aлфавіт" or "абетка" (for children). When we (at least my Chicago diaspora community) sing...

Please go to my new website Forgotten Galica to read this post. Click here . I've already published two posts about the vocabulary of the third-wave Ukrainian diaspora (found here and here ), but now I've combined both lists, added new words, fixed some mistakes, and as a result I have a comprehensive list with over 500 words: CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST , which I made on Google Spreadsheets. For many words, I've also included the Polish and Russian translations, as well as a comment on the meaning or usage. Before I get into the specifics of the list, I wanted to write a few words about the goal of this list and my usage of the words "archaic" and "diaspora." Above all, this list is a way for me to document the way my family in the United States spoke and speaks. Living in Ukraine, I've picked up the local language and am beginning to forget some of the words that I heard and used growing up. Thus I've made this as a resource for myself. Howe...