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Grandma knocks on the closed painted chest, Mirko waits eagerly beside her, and a ginger cat’s tail peeks out from behind the curtain.

Grandma’s Chest

“Grandma’s Chest” is our own series of tales about a boy called Mirko, his grandma and an old painted chest. Before every holiday Grandma knocks on the lid three times, “Knock-knock, who lives here?”, opens it, and one old object tells its story: who made it, whom it served and what happened to it.

That is how children learn about Ukrainian customs, not from a lesson, but from a family adventure. Mom sometimes interrupts Grandma with “It wasn’t like that!”, and then a second, funny version of the story appears. Every tale has a true fact about a custom, and at the end Mirko makes something with his own hands. And Grandma has a ginger cat, Yarnball, who is always the first to leap into the open chest.

Read them in order: “Grandma’s Button” and “Grandma’s Chest: The Didukh”.

Stories

  1. A boy in pyjamas and his grandma over a box of buttons; the boy is holding a big blue button.

    Story 1. Grandma’s Button

    In Grandma’s box Mirko finds an old blue button with a chip in it, and with it the stories of his great-grandfather, his mum and one old secret.

    Ages 2–53 min readFamily

  2. Grandma knocks on the closed painted chest, Mirko waits eagerly beside her, and a ginger cat’s tail peeks out from behind the curtain.

    Story 2. Grandma’s Chest: The Didukh

    On Christmas Eve Mirko finds an old didukh in Grandma’s chest, hears how it once danced and sneezed, and ties a new one with her.

    Ages 6–87 min readWinter