The Ministry of Culture has added the traditional Panayir celebration of Ukraine’s Greeks to the National List of Elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine. Panayir is a religious, community and family celebration that brings together the country’s Greek communities.
The Ministry of Culture announced the inclusion of the tradition in the National List on its website. Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna said that Panayir connects generations of Ukraine’s Greeks and helps preserve their language, customs and sense of community.
“Panayir is a tradition that connects generations of Ukraine’s Greeks and helps preserve their language, customs and sense of community”
Tetiana Berezhna, Minister of Culture
The ministry described the inclusion of the element in the National List as an important step toward preserving it and passing it on to future generations.
How Panayir is celebrated
Panayir is held on the feast day of the community’s patron saint or on another date significant to the community. The celebration has both religious and secular parts.
After the church service, the community gathers around a shared table. The festivities may include music, dancing, fairs and other traditional practices.
An important component is the collective preparation and consumption of festive dishes. These include lamb, psatyr, shumush, chebureks, sprychi and others.
Where the tradition is preserved
The Panayir tradition is maintained by Greek communities in the Donetsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in Kyiv. Knowledge of the celebration is passed down from older generations to younger ones primarily through direct participation in Panayir.
In 2025, the tradition of bell-ringing at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery was also added to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The list had previously included holubtsi, traditions of cattail weaving from the Vinnytsia region, decorating grave crosses in Rivne Polissia, and “Vasyl greetings” from the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
