Ukrainian Christmas 2023 - We Need Peace and Empathy Instead of Merry This Year
This Ukrainian Christmas, our global Ukrainian community has one shared wish: peace.
This wish is fervent and comes from the heavy hearts of a country and its people shattered by war and scattered across the world. Since the war began last February, over 18 000 people have found home in Alberta after fleeing their homeland, and of those over 5 000 have found home in the Edmonton region. Tomorrow they observe Christmas according to the Julian calendar living in a new and foreign land, without the traditions and keepsakes that made the season feel familiar, and likely without many of their loved ones to gather around the table.
Like the families that we serve as funeral professionals who grieve their loved ones missing from the Christmas table, these families are grieving, too. The layers of grief are many and complex, and are compounded by the worry about loved ones left behind to survive the war and its hardship. And some are grieving losses of loved ones to the horror of this war.
We are left to wonder: HOW CAN WE HELP?
There are many practical and financial ways that we can help to surround these families with compassion and care during the Christmas season and beyond. The first is to volunteer your time. Organizations like Free Store Edmonton need volunteers to help welcome and outfit new refugees arriving in our city. The second is to reach out to Ukrainian refugee support organizations such as The Ukrainian Canadian Congress for Alberta. Through this organization, you can be paired with a family in need and help them get settled; provide a welcoming and safe home space, emotional support, answer questions and offer advice about daily life in our city and region. Skip The Depot also has a few other great ideas for those who feel compelled to offer aid.
Regardless of what methods by which we as individuals may be able to help, and regardless of cultural differences or similarities, there is just one prerequisite that allows us to embrace each other as one strong community – empathy. Empathy for the shock. Empathy for the lost. Empathy for the grief. Being empowered in empathy for one another helps us all to feel a little less alone, and a little more understood.
Our Park Memorial Christmas Memorial Service that was held in early December was themed "We Aren’t Meant to Mourn Alone"; it seems to fit well within a call to empathy. Please feel welcome to watch and share. As well, our Tribute Tree is available for our community at large to pay tribute to the ones missing from the season’s celebrations. We intentionally extended this complimentary way to honour your grief and your loved one(s) until January 10th to include those observing Ukrainian Christmas.
It is a very normal practice of our service as funeral professionals and our vocabulary to wish peace to those hurting during the holidays. These wishes for peace at this time come from the very bottom of our hearts.
Sincerely,
The Park Memorial Staff Family
