Local Ukrainian community celebrates Vyshyvanka Day

The Ukrainian community in Barrie held their third annual ‘Vyshyvanka’ festival, celebrating the international day of Ukrainian heritage.

The Ukrainian community in Barrie held their third annual ‘Vyshyvanka’ festival on Sunday, celebrating the international day of Ukrainian heritage.

‘Vyshyvanka Day’ is an annual holiday that falls on the third Thursday of May, where Ukrainians around the world celebrate their culture and the ‘Vyshyvanka,’ an iconic Ukrainian embroidered shirt.

“I’d say it’s the Ukrainian Saint Patrick’s Day,” said Roman Plawiuk from the Barrie Simcoe branch of Ukrainian National Federation Canada (UNF). “It’s a day that we come to celebrate who we are and what we’re about.”

UNF Barrie Simcoe hosted their celebration on Sunday at Meridian place, which featured singing and dancing performances and plenty of goods offered by a handful of local Ukrainian vendors.

“This dance is just to welcome joy in the community, welcome spring and everything that makes us happy,” explained Oksana Perkhach, a local Ukrainian community member, of the ‘Kolomyika’ folk dancing at the festival.

Two of Perkhach’s daughters performed in the dances. She says she moved from Ukraine to Canada two years ago with her spouse and all three of her children to escape the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

“We wanted to make a safe environment for our children,” said Perkhach, emphasizing the importance of keeping Ukrainian culture alive in Canada. “Many people are dying because of the war, but [local communities] still want to maintain the holidays for us, these cultural events for us, because if we do not do this, they will disappear.”

Ukrainian Independence Day will be celebrated later this summer on August 24.