Sheho, Saskatchewan

St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Sheho, SK is part of a series of Orthodox churches built only miles apart. St. Mary’s was built in 1908 and remained active until it was closed in 1965. The church was closed because it needed a lot of upkeep. In 1984, the church was repainted and the roof was replaced. Fr. Hudyma came and performed a special ceremony to reopen the church. The church remains open today.

Here we have a short recording of an interview with Walter Skihar:

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Katie Rudey described the Christmas Eve supper that she cooks for her family. Usually, she makes kutia with sugar. Kutia is supposed to be a sweet wheat dish with poppy seeds and sometimes nuts. Some people add honey, Katie says, but she believes that wheat turns hard from the honey and she prefers to use sugar. Katie also serves her ground poppyseed separately, in case someone prefers their kutia plain. The other dishes Katie makes for Christmas Eve are bortsch, mashed beans, fish, beet leaf holubtsi, a compote made of dried fruits, pampushky (or rolls), and mushrooms.

The mushrooms that Katie serves for Christmas Eve supper are mushrooms that she and her family pick themselves. Katie’s mom taught her which mushrooms are good to eat. After mushrooms are picked, Katie precooks them with some onions, garlic, and ground spices, and then freezes them to use later as needed.

Christmas caroling was and is important to Katie Rudey and she still does it. Every year she and other church members go caroling from house to house. She thought that she would skip it this year [2017] because it is hard for her to walk. However, her daughter insisted that she come because she is the only one who knows vinchuvaty.

Vinchuvannia is a special blessing that needs to be said at every house at the end of caroling. Katie recites it in Ukrainian and explains that, while it is hard for other people to learn and pronounce it, it is easy for her and so she performs this task. She enjoys caroling because people look forward to greeting the carolers. Katie describes how they would go caroling when they just moved to town. Different groups would go to different parts of the town, a division of territory arranged in advance. Now, however, only a few people want to go. Nonetheless, they make a substantial amount of money that they then give to the church.

Sheho (approximate location)