‘A special spot in your heart:’ Hundreds celebrate Ukrainian culture in Springfield

At the Ukrainian Day festival in Springfield on Saturday, July 12, Andriy Shulyar invited attendees to chart their Ukrainian heritage on a wooden map of the eastern European country.

Shulyar, who is from Lviv in the western part of Ukraine, also showed videos about his home country and the landscapes of its various regions. After moving to Oregon in 2020 with his wife, who was a doctoral student at the University of Oregon, Shulyar started attending services at the Nativity of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The church hosted hundreds of people on its lawn to eat Ukrainian foods, hear traditional music and watch folk dancing during the annual festival. 

Shulyar was surprised to learn that such a large gathering existed here to celebrate Ukrainian culture.

“I’m very happy that the local community supports that and is willing to participate in this so much,” he said.

The church is in a historic Ukrainian neighborhood in western Springfield. A Ukrainian developer created the subdivision in the 1970s, said Father Richard Janowicz. The neighborhood has street names such as Poltava Street, named for the city the developer’s parents were from. The city of Springfield recently changed one street name from the Russian spelling “Kiev” to the Ukrainian “Kyiv,” at the behest of parishioners from the church.

Janowicz said the church started in 1978, and he was assigned as its first pastor in 1981, when services were held at the Marist High School chapel. The church built its own building in 1989 and the festival began a few years later, first taking place in downtown Springfield before moving to church grounds.

The festival revolved around performances by the Veselka Ukrainian Dancers. Kids and teenagers, in regionally-specific outfits, performed traditional folk dances representing different parts of Ukraine, said instructor Hannah Nameniuk. 

Nameniuk gets emotional when she represents her Ukrainian heritage onstage. 

“And seeing these kids get to be in this beautiful culture, it just brings tears to my eyes every time I see them dancing,” she said. “And they all just have so much fun doing it, which is the most important part.”

Veselka teacher Alex Piasta has always enjoyed learning about his culture through folk dancing. 

“And now, with what’s going on in Ukraine, it kind of takes a special spot in your heart,” he said. “It’s just the spirit of Ukraine is what it is, it just flows through you on the stage.”

For Shulyar, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the first thing he and his wife wanted to do was go back home. But they realized they could help by sending financial aid and medical supplies to their friends and family. They also provide support to Ukrainian families who come to the United States as refugees.

Shulyar hasn’t been back to his home country since the invasion. He’s skeptical about how serious U.S. leaders are about supporting Ukraine.

“I feel like people I talk to are pro-Ukrainian and want our victory and want this all over,” he said  “But when it comes to the state policy and supporting Ukraine, that’s a different picture somehow.”