Oct. 14, Feast of Protection at the Horyani Rotunda

Tuesday, October 14th, was the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, and I went with some of the people from the Dravtsi Church to the Horyani Rotunda, where a huge celebration would be held. Bishop Shashik, head of the Ruthenian Catholic Church in Zakarpattia was there, along with dozens of other local priests.

Bishop Shashik:

The crowd:

The procession:

The Choir:

The old Rotunda:

There is some disagreement over the age of the Rotunda. Some researchers date the construction of the Rotunda to the Tenth Century, while others date the construction as late as the Fourteenth Century. The Church was originally an almost round hexagonal structure; the nave was added at a much later date. Inside the Rotunda, you can still see the faded frescoes which were painted in the Thirteenth Century by wandering Italian artists of the Giotto school.

The frescoes and paintings in the nave are much more recent:

When Steve and Tina Kutchman were here, there was an archaeological dig going on beside the church; it was thought that an ancient wall or foundation had been discovered. When I was there, the dig site had been filled back in. It would have been filled either to preserve any discovery for future investigation, or it could have been filled because nothing of importance was found. 

I tried to find the pagan burial site; the Kutchman's said that there was a historic marker at the pagan graveyard, but I had no luck. I also read later (today) that the ruins of one of the palaces of the Drugets family could also be found nearby. The Drugets were an Italian family of  French ancestry. When Charles Robert, grandson of Charles II, King of Naples, went to Hungary in 1300 to claim the Hungarian throne, Phillip Druget accompanied him, and took part in the military campaigns of Charles Robert's opponents. Members of the Druget family held many important posts in the royal government, and at one time the Druget estates were the largest in all Hungary. Among their many possessions was Uzhgorod. Phillip Druget rebuilt the Uzhgorod Castle, which had been burned by the Mongols; the family also owned the Nevetski Castle, and a number of other castles throughout Hungary, Slovakia, and Croatia. 

After the Procession was over, I went back to the dental clinic to have Vitaly treat a cavity. Vitaly asked me whether or not I wanted anesthetic (Novocain). OFF COURSE I WANT IT!!! Vitaly told me that most of his patients refuse the anesthetic, and just suffer through the procedure. I don't even want to think how painful that must be.

I saw a number of girls in the city center wearing traditional embroidered vishivanka blouses. 

 

I learned that they had just finished a Ukrainian folk dance performance. Earlier that day, there were also quite a few women and girls wearing vishivanka at the Horyani Rotunda. 

After leaving the dentist, I went to the LT English school to help Maryna with her classes. For the first part of the class, Maryna had the students make sandwiches, giving them directions in nglish which they had to follow. Then each of the students had to take the sandwiches to other classrooms, and offer sandwiches to the other students and teachers.

The rest of the class was spent in more role playing. Oleg was the worthless boyfriend of one of the girls, and the rest of us were her family members who were trying to convince her to get rid of Oleg. We told her Oleg was a thief and a criminal, he never worked, he's been arrested many times, and went to prison. Oleg's girlfriend had to defend him. 

In another scenario, Maryna and I were the children's parents, and the children wanted us to let them go to a party. Somehow, I also became the children's grandmother. It was a lot of fun.