The Heavenly Hundred: A Year Later & Moleben Info

The Maidan, February 20th, 2015
(Photo from Euromaidan Press Facebook page)

It has been a year since the most pivotal moment in Ukraine's recent history - the deadliest day on the Maidan, the start of what has been an only worsening crisis of needless death at the hands of Putin and his army of pawns.

A scene from Maidan, 2014.

It was a day that tore apart our hearts, enraged us, awakened emotions many of us have never felt, some of which we still struggle to understand. The shockwave of pain felt around the world was huge - and while the epicentre may no longer be in flames, the aftershocks still hit us all - wave after wave, as we receive news of more fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins and friends who have died for something that could have long since been over. It makes very little sense.

Perhaps it is that the international community is struggling as much as we, reaching and searching for a more rational explanation, when that answer lies not in the fora of diplomacy or in the halls of justice, but in a dark cave or in a bunker, slithering amongst relics of war and barbarism that have no place in the free and modern world, the world which Ukraine has every right and reason to belong to.

In Kyiv this evening, beams shine into the sky to mark the
location of each death of the Heavenly Hundred.

Tonight, Ukrainians on the Maidan and all over the world, gather with candles, flowers, and song, to engage in what has become a new Ukrainian past time.  

If mourning has now become part of who we are, let it be so, but let us be reminded, with every candle that we light, of the burning desire for freedom and justice that ignited this struggle, of the flames that ignited the barricades to hold off oppressors, of the fires that keep our people and soldiers warm in bombed out portions of the East.

Вічна Їм Пам'ять, Вічна Їм Слава.

А piece by artist and Maidan activist Юрій Журавель.

Tonight, if you are in Toronto, there will be a Moleben (Memorial Service) at 7PM at St. Mary The Protectress Church at 30 Leeds. 

In Ottawa there will be a Commemoration Ceremony at the Ukrainian Embassy at 310 Somerset St. W.

(Please email info on any commemorations and events to tynucu@gmail.com)