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Mountain Malanka returning to celebrate Ukrainian New Year

UFest Edmonton Ukrainian Festival is coming back to Jasper for an encore after receiving a positive reception from Jasper last winter.
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The Volya Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. | Supplied photo

Mountain Malanka, a Ukrainian New Year’s celebration, will be back for its second annual event at the Jasper Activity Centre on Jan. 20 during the second weekend of Jasper in January.

“Just based off of the success of last year, we hosted our inaugural Ukrainian New Year’s last year in Jasper and had such a strong turnout and interest from both residents in Jasper and folks coming from Edmonton and Alberta that we want to do a second round of it,” said Adrian Warchola, co-chair of the UFest Mountain Malanka organizing committee.

While the Gregorian calendar widely used today marks the turning of the New Year on Jan. 1, Malanka is a Ukrainian folk holiday celebrated on Jan. 13 for New Year’s Eve in accordance with the Julian calendar, also known as the “Old New Year.”

Mountain Malanka is a fundraiser for UFest Edmonton Ukrainian Festival and part of Jasper in January, with the support of Tourism Jasper.

It will include performances by the Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company, the Ruta Ukrainian Music Ensemble and the Euphoria Ukrainian Band.

The dinner will feature classic Ukrainian favourites including perogies and cabbage rolls, as well as a honey poppy seed dish called kutia to start the meal off.

Each table will also have braided bread that people can break together.

“We’re hoping to make it a little bit bigger and better,” Warchola said. “The place was sold out last year. We expect to sell out again this year.”

Attendees are encouraged to bring vyshyvanka and jeans, but those who don’t have a vyshyvanka – a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt – can dress mountain casual style.

There will also be a pre-celebration on the night before, but the venue has not been confirmed yet.

Tickets can be purchased at ufest.ca/malanka.

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