Donwell, Saskatchewan

Marlene Lozingski talked about the tradition of having a Ukrainian wedding bread, called a korovai. In the past, people would sometimes have both a korovai and a layered fruitcake for their weddings. Marlene recalls that her wedding cake had four layers.  She served two of the layers at the wedding reception. She was going to keep the other two layers at home and serve them to mark her first anniversary. Unfortunately, one of the layers got tipped over and she was able to save only the very top of the cake, the part with the wedding decoration.

Baptisms were an important ritual for Marlene Lozingski. She had three children and, for each of them, she had a special cloth (kryzhma) that was used to wipe and hold the child after immersion. She remembers that, in 1971, when her oldest son was born, his godparents brought the white cloth on which the baby was held. She and her husband provided a candle with flowers on it. Marlene shares that the baptismal white cloth needed to be used to make something for the baby. She herself would do things like turn the cloth into diapers. Marlene had a special baptismal gown, given to her by her grandmother, and she used it for the baptism of all of her children.