White Stork for 2000 Symbol in Ukraine

White stork became the bird symbol for the year 2000 in Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine agency reports. For the sixth consecutive year now, the Ukrainian Bird Protection Society has chosen this bird as the symbol of the year, trying to attract the attention of the public at large to its protection and study. Any bird-lover can take part in the all-Ukrainian Bird of the Year campaign, that is, to become a sort of “guardian and custodian for a specific stork family” by obtaining a Protection Certificate for a white stork’s nest.

Incidentally, a picture of a stork above its nest was the symbol of the Family Album of Ukraine contest. Why specifically this white-winged bird was chosen in setting the contest? The answer is given by Tetiana KAZANSKA, The Day’s designer, who proposed that a picture from her archives, a snapshot, made by schoolboy Oleksiy Serebryakov, be used as a headpiece for the Family Album: “Ukraine is famous for its soil and its hard-working people. And lucky are those of them, who first thing in the morning can see a stork’s nest. From time immemorial the place where the stork has built its nest is thought by our people to be blessed by God. The stork gives birth to hope. These are the three notions — faith, hope and love — that this bird symbolizes.