REAL UKRAINIAN COUNTRY LIFE: PIROGOVO VILLAGE-MUSEUM NEAR KIEV

Polina Kryuchkova, Advance-Tour

When our guests are interested in Ukrainian rural life and traditions, I usually recommend them one of the most interesting Kiev excursions – tour to Pirogovo village. We often go their ourselves together with friends to have rest at the countryside, to breathe fresh air and to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of an old Ukrainian village.

It takes about half an hour to get to Pirogovo by car... then we pay for the tickets and walk at our most favourite areas or lie on the grass sunbathing and having sandwiches and hot tea. Pirogovo museum occupies a large area of 150 hectares and consists of small Ukrainian peasant houses of 18-19 century, windmills and wooden churches brought from different Ukrainian regions.

It is possible to enter the houses and see how Ukrainians used to live, where they slept and what house appliances they used in villages. I always wonder, how the whole family of 5-10 people managed to live in a small house, sleep on wooden benches and work in the fields! At those times people spent most of their time outside working and came to the house to eat and sleep only. The houses in Pirogovo belonged to real Ukrainian people and their things, rushnyks (Ukrainian towels), pottery and instruments are still preserved there... There are even small gardens and kitchen gardens near each house where museum employees grow fruits, vegetables and beautiful flowers.

When you enter a house, you feel the smell of earth, clay and straw and wonder how easily you can breathe in primitive houses Ukrainian people built only a few centuries ago. One of Pirogovo houses is a village school with an ancient blackboard, benches for pupils and even timetable. You can also see there a small room where the teacher lived and can imagine as if you got into Ukraine of the18th century when only a small percent of children could learn reading and writing and the rest of people were illiterate.

One of the Pirogovo specialties is a potter who makes small brown pots and jugs at real potter’s wheel in one of the yards. Anybody can experience making a pot himself, just paying the potter about $4 for the possibility to make a try! The potter makes a small show out of it, telling jokes and stories and a crowd of people gather round and watch how you are making a pot. A few times a year, there are fairs in Pirogovo, when masters from different regions come and sell authentic Ukrainian souvenirs.

Then, if you are hungry, you can have a lunch of Ukrainian food at Shynok. They cook very tasty borsch, deruny and fried fish in sour cream. Sometimes, when there are many people, the waiters are slow at bringing the orders, but the tasty food rewards you for the time you had to wait. I often saw a very serious old Ukrainian lady who sells home-made vodka or pervak together with bread and lard and pickled cucumbers in the street near Shynok. She enjoys great popularity and there is usually a queue of people eager to try Ukrainian “eau de vie”.

You can also meet people wearing Ukrainian national clothing, like cossacks in red trousers or ladies in embroidered blouses. Some of them will offer you to have a horse ride, or you can walk, take pictures, enjoy picturesque sights of Ukrainian village and have a rest on the grass or on the wooden benches near some of the houses or windmills.

Pirogovo celebrates different national Ukrainian holidays, like Ivana Kupala night on the 7 th of July, when according to a legend, you can see mysterious and scary forest creatures and a courageous person who finds a fern flower is lucky and can make any wish. During that night Ukrainian people used to dance, burn large fires and jump over them to get rid of old emotions and troubles. The girls also made colorful wreaths and threw them into the water to tell fortunes where they will get married...

Some of the people who want to have a traditional Ukrainian wedding, invite their guests to Pirogovo and order a wedding celebration there. The guests have much fun taking part in various Ukrainian wedding traditions. E.g., the bridegroom and the bride bite a wedding tasty sweet bread, and the one who has a larger bit, will be a leader in the family... At one moment the bride’s shoe disappears and the bridegroom’s friends need to pay money or drink vodka to get it back...

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