For many, yesterday's Ukrainian festival at a park in Rosemont was an opportunity to enjoy great food, dance and music.
But for Jesse Marynowycz, 26, it was an opportunity to learn more about his heritage.
The Concordia University student said he was about 5 when his parents split up and since then he's had no contact with his Ukrainian side of the family.

"Growing up, and you don't really know how to pronounce your own last name," the red-headed Marynowycz said with a smile, as Ukrainian musicians performed on an outdoor stage. (The red hair is from the Welsh in him, he said.)

It was the fourth year that Montreal's Ukrainian community has put on a festival - held for the past two years at Ukraine Park on Bellechasse St., in the heart of Rosemont's Ukrainian neighbourhood. The event drew several thousand.

The picturesque St. Sophie's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral next door helped provide the perfect setting, its domes and spires piercing the clear blue sky.

"We're trying to showcase Ukrainian culture in Quebec," said Taïssa Hrycay, one of the organizers.
Performers included various dance ensembles, violinist Vasyl Popadiuk, the Quebec dance troupe, Les Sortilèges, which performed Ukrainian dances.

Comedian Luba Goy, of Royal Canadian Air Farce fame, also took the stage - and got some good laughs.
"It's incumbent on me to say a few words in Canada's other official language," she said in English, then promptly broke into Ukrainian.

Also participating in yesterday's event was a group, Zustrich, formed by Ukrainian immigrants who came to Canada after the break-up of the U.S.S.R.

While a lot of pirogies and sausages were being served at the park yesterday, Zustrich member Oksana Gerych said that her group wanted to offer festival visitors a chance to taste other traditional Ukrainian delights, including nalysnyky, a type of stuffed pancake.

dparkes@thegazette.canwest.com