Rebirth and Renewal

For Christians, Easter symbolizes rebirth, a new start. This is a universal theme, and something we all aspire, appreciate and yearn for at one time or another.
For Ukrainians, the inspiration of a new start is especially profound given the ravaging of their country for the past 3 years due to the criminal invasion by Russia.
One of the hallmarks of the Easter celebrations in Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches is “sviachenia”, or the blessing of the baskets. Faithful bring baskets to church, filled with bread, eggs, meats and other foodstuffs and a candle. Slowly, one by one, candles are lit and the entire church is filled with a warm glow.
I’ve been photographing this ritual (for my ongoing personal project “Faith and Ritual”) since 2018 and each time I find it visually striking and personally inspiring. This year was no different.

Father Ihor Shved sprinkles holy water and blessings upon baskets of the faithful, in a thin shaft of sunlight at the St. Volodymyr and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral.

A procession makes its way along Stella Avenue in the city’s North End, with the Cathedral as a backdrop, early Sunday morning during Easter.

Father Ihor Shved (left) helps lead parishioners as Bishop Andriy blesses the entrance to the Ukrainian Metropolitan Cathedral of Volodomyr and Olga, on Easter Sunday morning.

A touch of faith

A parishioner has a pensive moment during the ceremony, Saturday afternoon.

Parishioners queue up to pray before the shrine at the altar during Saturday’s blessing of the baskets ceremony.

Acts of prayer, contrition and meditation at the shrine and altar of the cathedral.

One by one, a flame gets passed from one end of the cathedral to the other, during the blessing of the baskets ceremony - a highlight of the Easter season in Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Faith and Rituals: Mexico

Recently, I took a long-overdue sun vacation in western Mexico, in the touristy-but-still-an-actual-town of Sayulita. Naturally I took my camera(s), but I didn’t think they would see anything more than a few obligatory sunset over the ocean waves scenes.

Now, I was hesitant to mention this trip at all because I aspire to much more than “here’s my holiday snaps”. But, as happens so often when you put yourself out there (or over there, in this case), wonderful and unexpected things happen. And those moments are when you most need a camera with you to feel and see it most deeply.

The end of the year brings the Christmas season, and Mexico is a deeply spiritual as well as a very vibrant and dynamic country. By complete chance, I was blessed to see a few passing scenes that felt very much at home with my long-running personal project on faith and ritual. Kicking off with a raucous Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the town square, followed shortly after by the most charming Santa Claus Parade I ever photographed (and I have photographed a lot after 20+ years of newspaper photography work) and culminating with a reverent Christmas Eve Mass, it felt like I was given far more than I could have even scripted. But isn’t that the best of what travel can give? The reality of life is that you can’t predict or control what happens, and the best of photographers (or writers, or musicians, or…) understand that. I’m not saying I do, but I do know I got a glimpse of that idea.

As the photos in this post show, there was a lot more than the events I mentioned above. And as dazzled and enamoured as I am with Mexico and its people, I know that I barely gathered a drop of the ocean of history, art, culture and depth of this wonderful country that my home in Canada shares this continent with.

A raucous celebration for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Sayulita, Mexico. Guadalupe is a central symbol for Mexico, and the Feast ritual celebrates the sighting of the Virgin Mary to a man in the 16th century.

Children from local schools take part in the annual Santa Claus Parade in the town square of Sayulita.

A boy gets his wings in preparation for a children’s procession at the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, in Sayulita.

Children’s procession, main plaza in Sayulita, Mexico.

A church volunteer opens the windows of Sayulita’s Catholic Church for another day.

The piñata is a common Christmas fun activity for children in Mexico, here seen in front of the town’s Catholic Church located in the main plaza.

A woman holds the doll of the Christ Child, to be placed in the Nativity scene of the Catholic Church during a Christmas Eve mass.

A hawker carrying souvenirs to offer to tourists on the nearby Playa de los Muertos (beach) walks along a path through a cemetery along the oceanfront in Sayulita. Mexico is renowned for its annual Day of the Dead, which exemplifies the country’s unique approach to death and recognizing its place in life.