cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19299

The Alaska Native Medical Center brought the holiday to their primary care center for patients who couldn’t gather with family or in church.

Singers in kuspuks and head scarfs chanted Christmas hymns in English, Yup’ik, Russian and Church Slavonic. Next to them, three young men spinned sparkling, pinwheel-shaped stars on wooden poles, each with an Orthodox icon of a Nativity scene in the center.

The tradition called starring, or Slaviq, is a part of Russian Orthodox Christmas, celebrated across Alaska on Jan. 7. The Alaska Native Medical Center brought the holiday to the Yagheli Shesh Qenq’a Anchorage Native Primary Care Center for the patients who couldn’t gather with their families or in church.

“They need to feel like the culture and the traditions are still including them,” attendee Anastasia Oleksa said. “They’re perhaps stuck in the hospital after failing surgery or trouble, illness, you know. And it brings new life to this new year.”

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