On April 20, Ukraine and the world celebrate Easter, the International Volunteer Appreciation Day and the International Cli-Fi Day. This day was also marked by a number of events in politics, science, culture and tragic turns of modern history.
Easter
This is the most important and solemn holiday of the church calendar. It is also called Easter – in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the victory of life over death, light over darkness, faith over despair. It is a day of hope, purification and revival.
The symbolism of Easter in the Ukrainian tradition is deeply intertwined with ancient customs that have absorbed pagan heritage and Christian beliefs. Solemn liturgies are celebrated in churches, believers consecrate Easter baskets, and families gather together at the festive table. This whole day is permeated with light – spiritual and spring. Easter is a holiday of spiritual renewal, hope and faith in the best.
Interesting facts
The tradition of baking Easter eggs and coloring eggs has pre-Christian roots. The egg symbolized the beginning of life even in pagan rites of spring.
The oldest preserved Ukrainian Easter eggs date back to the 10th century and were found in Volyn.
The symbol of the Resurrection is not only the egg, but also the candle, which is lit by the Holy Fire on Easter night.
People used to say: as you spend Easter, the year will pass. Therefore, they tried to avoid quarrels, insults and difficult thoughts.
According to popular belief, on the night of Easter, the sky opens and you can make a wish that will surely come true.
In different regions of Ukraine, there are unique Easter customs — from gaivoks to dousing with water on the Monday after Easter.
Easter eggs were buried in the ground for the harvest. In some regions of Ukraine, the owners buried the first Easter egg at the edge of the field or under the threshold of the house – so that there would be a harvest, there would be no thunder and no hail. Pysanka performed the function of protection, not just decoration.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Easter gifts were used as a diplomatic gesture. Hetmans and nobles sent each other decorated handmade eggs made of silver, glass or wood, inlaid with precious stones — this was a sign of political loyalty.
In Halychyna there were separate “Easter Easter schools” – craftsmen gathered girls before Easter and taught them symbols. For example, a rhombus with dots meant a sown field, and a stylized tree meant a link between generations. Drawing “just beautifully” was not welcome – every mark had a meaning.
Sich shooters had a tradition of keeping an Easter egg in their pocket before a battle. This was considered a talisman – it was not eaten, not broken, sometimes even wrapped in a cloth. Such battle easter eggs remained in the museums of Lviv and Ternopil.
In Ukraine, until recently, “forty Easter eggs” were made – symbolic Easter eggs with 40 small elements. They were made only during Holy Week, and the number 40 itself had a deep meaning: 40 days of fasting, 40 martyrs of Sebastien, 40 years of Moses in the desert.
Pouring water on the second day of Easter is not only fun, but a ritual of purification. Its roots lie in pre-Christian rites of spring renewal. In Ternopil Oblast, it was believed that a guy whom a girl does not want to shower is not worthy of her attention.
In the Carpathians, people did not sleep on the night of Easter not only because of the service – it was believed that whoever falls asleep will be lazy for the whole year. To drive away fatigue, the peasants sang hymns in the middle of the night, near the temples, where people were already gathering.
In Ukrainian villages, after consecrating the basket, people did not immediately go home. It was customary to first give a piece of pasture to the livestock, then to the owner, and only then to the whole family. Violating the order means trouble.
The first Easter egg made by a girl was considered magical. It was not given as a gift, it was not put in a basket – it was kept in a hiding place for special cases: for example, protection from a curse or help in a difficult conversation.
“Forgiveness” courts were held in Zaporizhzhya Sich on Easter. If a Cossack was punished for a minor violation, he could ask for forgiveness on Easter – and the judicial council often released him, “because Christ is risen – there must be forgiveness.”
International Volunteer Appreciation Day
This day is dedicated to private and organized forms of volunteer assistance. Its main purpose is to publicly recognize the contribution of people who voluntarily participate in the support of the army, medicine, education, humanitarian initiatives, environmental, social and human rights programs.
In Ukraine, the date acquired special significance after 2014, when volunteer initiatives began to perform some of the functions traditionally considered the prerogative of the state. From 2022, the number of people involved and the amount of help from citizens continue to grow.
Interesting facts
In the English language, the word “volunteer” originally meant “willing to join the army without compulsion.” In this sense, it is recorded as early as the 17th century.
In Ukraine, the term “volunteer” actively came into public use after 2014. Before that, volunteering was usually called participation in international programs or blood donation.
According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, in 2022 more than 60% of Ukrainians helped others at least once in the form of volunteering: with food, money, transport, housing or work.
There are several forms of volunteer organization in Ukraine: individual initiatives, charitable foundations, volunteer associations, local communities. Some of them have an official status, others work without registration.
In 2023, for the first time, a separate draft law was developed in Ukraine, which concerns the legal regulation of volunteer activities in the field of national security and defense.
In most EU countries, volunteering is considered a form of social capital. In some states, volunteering is counted as experience on the resume or as an element of preparation for public service.
In 2022–2024, the number of joint projects between volunteers from Ukraine and the EU increased in international practice — in the field of rehabilitation, psychological assistance, evacuation, logistics, education, and IT.
International Cli-Fi Day
This day is marked as an attempt to draw attention to a separate trend in modern culture — climate fiction, which is called cli-fi (climate fiction). The genre was formed at the turn of the XXI century, when the issue of climate change ceased to be exclusively the subject of scientific discussions and began to actively penetrate artistic texts.
Cli-fi is fiction, film or other art forms in which climate change is not just a backdrop, but the main conflict or source of world transformation.
Authors of this genre raise questions about the ecological consequences of human activity, social upheavals, refugees, new forms of government, lack of resources, and the future of cities. International Cli-Fi Day is designed to bring together writers, readers, researchers and artists around a common theme: how we imagine life on a planet that changes every day.
Interesting facts
The term cli-fi was introduced by the American publicist Dan Bloom in the early 2010s. His goal was to create a cultural alternative to sci-fi, with a focus on ecology.
One of the first novels that can be considered cli-fi was “The Drowned World” by J. G. Ballard (1962). It is about a post-apocalyptic world, where London and Europe are flooded, and nature takes revenge on cities. cli-fi includes both utopian and dystopian visions, from total environmental catastrophe to recovery scenarios.
Unlike traditional science fiction, cli-fi often uses real modern scientific data — about melting glaciers, extinction of species, emissions of greenhouse gases.
Notable cli-fi authors include Margaret Atwood (“Oryx and Crake”), Kim Stanley Robinson (“The Ministry for the Future”), Jenny Offill (“Weather”), Richard Powers (“The Overstory”).
Cli-fi is actively included in school programs in the USA, Canada, Britain, and Australia — as a tool for critical thinking and discussion of the future.
Some researchers consider cli-fi to be a form of cultural activism that affects the emotional readiness of society for climate challenges more strongly than news or official reports.
Historical events on this day
1653 — in England, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Long Parliament. This parliament has been active since 1640 and survived the civil war, the execution of Charles I, and the proclamation of the republic. The dissolution of Parliament became a symbol of the end of one of the most violent phases of the English revolution of the 17th century.
1841 – the story “Murder in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in the American magazine “Graham’s Magazine”. This text is considered the first example of the detective genre in world literature, and its main character, Auguste Dupin, is a prototype of Sherlock Holmes and other literary detectives.
1902 — French scientists Marie and Pierre Curie were able to isolate pure radium for the first time. Their discovery was an important step in the development of radiochemistry and radioactivity research, and also opened the way to the creation of new methods in medicine and energy.
1924 — a new constitution of the Republic was adopted in Turkey. It established the unitary form of the state, abolished the sultanate and the caliphate, and established the secular nature of power. This was one of the key steps in the implementation of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s reforms.
1938 — the Ukrainian SSR adopted a resolution on compulsory study of the Russian language in schools. This decision had far-reaching consequences: it became part of the policy of Russification, which was carried out in Soviet Ukraine in education, administration and cultural space.
1940 — the first demonstration of an electron microscope took place in the USA. This device allowed scientists to see structures inaccessible to optical microscopy and became a breakthrough in biology, chemistry and materials science.
1999 — in the city of Littleton, Colorado, USA, a mass murder took place at the Columbine school. Two students – Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold – opened a shooting, killed 13 people, wounded 21 others and committed suicide. The tragedy shocked American society, sparking debates about gun access, bullying, the culture of violence and the role of the media.
2010 — the Deepwater Horizon oil platform belonging to BP exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident caused one of the largest man-made disasters in history: more than 700 million liters of oil spilled into the sea. The consequences were catastrophic for the ecology, fisheries and economy of the region.
