There will be honey and poppy seeds

On August 14 (following the Julian Calendar) Ukraine marked St. Makovii’s Day, which is called The Day of the Holy Maccabean Martyrs in the church calendar. Ukrainians call it “The Honey Feast of the Savior,” which is no surprise, as on this day people go to the church to bless honey, as well as flowers, poppy seeds, and water.

The exhibit-fair of honey and apiculture products is held on an annual basis near the Kyiv Cave Monastery. A total of 150 beekeepers came this hot summer from various corners of Ukraine to Lavra to show the results of their bees’ work.

The exhibit-fair called “Honey Feast of the Savior” will last until August 22. Besides honey, objects of church use, works of icon-painters, and literature published by Orthodox publishing houses, the works of people’s craftsmen and masters of arts and crafts will also be sold.

But it is the apiculture products that enjoy the highest demand among visitors: one can find various kinds of honey, ranging from acacia honey to that made of the nectar of sunflower and different herbs, as well as honey pollen, mead, and honeycomb. The beekeepers gladly share their opinions and recommendations on how to choose good honey.

“One can scoop it with a spoon and look at the way it flows. If the honey is ripe and of high quality, it will be viscid, thick, and instead of dropping from the spoon it should flow down the spoon in a narrow ribbon,” Anatolii POHORILY, a beekeeper from the Cherkasy region explained, “In other words, good honey should be neither very thin, nor too thick. There is one more peculiarity: natural honey should be completely homogeneous, both in terms of color, and consistence. For example, if it is stripy or sooty, don’t buy it. Honey is expensive nowadays (50 to 100 hryvnias per liter), therefore people do not want to buy products of low quality, but real and honest producers will never offer fake inferior goods to the buyer.”

Water blessed on the Honey Feast of the Savior is also considered healing and extremely healthy. That is why on this day people would also bless wells and rivers. Moreover, everyone who goes to church brings a bouquet of flowers, which should include big ripe poppy heads.

The bouquet is called “makoviichyk” or “makoveika.” It can be made of marigolds, dahlias, asters, carnations, periwinkles, as well as various herbs like cornflowers, mint, thyme, lovage, chicory, wormwood, and yarrow.

Interestingly, these bouquets used to be made of specific flowers in different regions of Ukraine. According to ethnographers, in Polissia, a carrot was added to the feast bouquet, as were small corncobs, peas, beans, and dill. In the Cherkasy region, there used to exist an opinion that on this holiday one must bless the flowers, and the household would then blossom. So they would bring bouquets of flowers and corn, and place a candle in the center.

In Podillia people would bless whole sheaves of greens and herbs, bound by red silk. Afterwards they would solemnly go round the entire household, the house and vegetable garden, hoping for good harvest next year and develop of the household.

There is one more symbol of Makovii — poppy sweets. Many of us probably remember that our grandmothers would bake shuliky, flat dry shortcakes that they broke into many pieces, put them into a large pot, and pour honey and ground poppy seeds over them. Some would also bake pastries, varenyky, donuts with poppy seeds, and various honey cakes and poppyseed cakes. But whatever dish is being cooked, the most important thing on any religious holiday is the mood and spiritual purification.