My favorite holiday is New Year. This holiday in my country is as widely celebrated as Christmas in the US, taking into consideration all the unbelievably magic things happening on this day: presents, making wishes to the twelve strikes of the chimes at midnight, family dinner…and of course, our Slavic Santa Claus – Father the Frost. Though we have our Orthodox Christmas on the 7th of January. I have a lot of hobbies: music, playing the piano, singing, learning foreign languages, etc. To describe Ukrainian cuisine I would just mention the famous red - beet soup borsch prepared following to babushka' s recipe and vareniks. Yam-yam!     My name is Marina. I am from Ukraine. Kiev, the mother of all Russian cities, is its capital. Our state language is Ukrainian, though Russian is widely spoken, taking into consideration our common history with the lands of the contemporaneous Russia. We, as all Slavs, are Christians, Orthodox. Ukraine has the most fertile soils in the world, so my country is a European granary; the Carpathian Mountains and the Black sea are the beauty of my country. Sources of the Ukrainian Culture go back deep into the European history beginning with one of the most powerful states of the continent – Kiev Rus and till nowadays. The times of brave Cossacks, beautiful girls waiting for their love to come back from the war with a victory and liberation from the treacherous European and Asian Empires… Those are the times, which left for us, Ukrainians, the priceless treasure: amazing folk songs, symbolic embroidered towels, jewelry, clothes, the national costume, dances, cuisine, traditions, incredible and marvelous history.