Every year, just before Christmas, people are looking around to make their lives easier. By people, I mean mostly the ladies. Anyone familiar with our customs knows that Christmas, or any other holiday for that matter, means a lot of extra work for everyone: the house needs to be cleaned, the freezers should be filled with baking, meats, pirohy, bobalky, vianocky. All these goodies require lots of work and especially lots of time. That is why most of us working women can’t wait until the bazaars! The Women’s Guild members started preparing a few weeks before the event. Although small in numbers, those ladies can sure move in that kitchen. They started with “holubky”. Thanks to one member in particular, they had a number of orders from her neighbor and co-workers. The ladies came in Friday and Saturday and made over 1200 holubky. However, that was not quite enough, so they had to dedicate another Friday and Saturday to make 1200 more. The following Friday and Saturday, they gathered to make pirohy: with potato and cheese and also with sauerkraut.
Some of the ladies of the parish are very talented when it comes to crafts and they donated slippers and other items that they crocheted themselves. And many other ladies who were not able to help with cooking and crafts, donated items that were raffled off in a draw. Many of the parish ladies also donated tasty baking that was offered for sale: rozky, cakes, bobalky, knedle, even the ones with lekvar in the middle (just like mom used to make!).
When the day finally came, the church was filled with many people. Following the liturgy, all gathered in the hall and purchased most of the prepared foods. Then they enjoyed a tasty goulash with dumplings, salad, bread and coffee and desert, prepared by the Ladies Guild members. Even the children were able to enjoy this day while their parents shopped: a table was set up for them to do some “Christmas crafts”. They were able to colour pictures of snowmen, Christmas trees, gingerbread boys and girls. They were also able to make Christmas wreaths, Christmas angels and candy canes using beads and pipe cleaners. All in all, everyone enjoyed the Bake Sale and Bazaar, especially us working mothers. Now we can concentrate on other things because some of the food preparations for Christmas have been done for us. I must add that in some cases, I definitely would not be able to make it better than the ladies at the Cathedral. Thank you all the ladies for your hard work. Thanks to you for making it, and thanks to all of us for buying the food. This Bake Sale and Bazaar was another very successful and profitable function; and it brought all of us together.
Text and photos: Mary Siroky - Snell
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