In disdain for Russia, Ukraine postpones Christmas to December 25 » Today Latest Stories
Most Eastern Christian churches use the Julian calendar, with Christmas falling on January 7
Kyiv, Ukraine:
Ukrainian Orthodox Christians attended a mass on Sunday, as the country celebrated Christmas for the first time on December 25, after the government changed the date from January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, in a snub to Russia.
“All Ukrainians are together,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Christmas message released Sunday evening.
“We all celebrate Christmas together. On the same date, as one big family, as one nation, and as one united country.”
In the southern Black Sea port of Odessa, churchgoers prayed and lit candles as priests dressed in gold celebrated a Christmas Eve Mass in the Cathedral of the Nativity, decorated with fir trees and a nativity scene.
“We believe that we should really celebrate Christmas with the whole world, far, far away from Moscow,” said a smiling Olena, a parishioner whose son is a front-line medic. “For me, this is the new message now.”
“We really want to celebrate in a new way. This is a holiday with the whole of Ukraine, with independent Ukraine. This is very important for us,” she told AFP.
“Abandoning the Russian heritage”
Most Eastern Christian churches use the Julian calendar, with Christmas falling on January 7, rather than the Gregorian calendar used in daily life and by Western churches.
Zelensky signed a law in July postponing the celebration to December 25, saying it allowed Ukrainians “to abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations on January 7.”
Changing the date is part of accelerating moves since the invasion to remove traces of the Russian and Soviet empires. Other measures include renaming streets and removing monuments.
The Orthodox Church in Ukraine officially broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“Join the civilized world”
The political dispute has seen priests and even entire parishes move from one church to another, with the New Orthodox Church of Ukraine growing rapidly and seizing many church buildings linked to Russia, moves supported by the government.
On Sunday evening, worshipers packed Kiev’s gold-domed St. Michael’s Monastery — home to the new Autocephalous Church — for a Christmas Mass led by the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Yepiphany.
Ukrainians across the country have expressed their support for changing the date of Christmas.
“We wanted to support what is happening in Ukraine now,” said Denis, a young man who attends the church in Odessa. “Because changes are always difficult, and when these changes happen, more people are needed to support them so that something new can happen.” .
At the Golden Dome Monastery in Kiev, Oksana Krikunova said that for her, after the invasion, “it was natural to turn to the 25th.”
“I just visited my parents — my 81-year-old mother and 86-year-old father — and they were (usually) quite accepting of it,” she added.
In the western city of Lviv, which was not badly damaged by the war, Taras Kobza, a military doctor, said, “We have to join the civilized world.”
Tetiana, a singer in a traditional music group called Yagodi (Berry), agreed: “I’m so happy that we finally get to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas with the rest of the world. It’s really wonderful.”
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church also chose to hold Christmas Mass on December 25.
But the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, historically linked to Russia, keeps the date of Christmas on January 7. This church claims that it severed its ties with Russia because of the war, but many Ukrainians doubt this.
Under the Soviet Union, atheism was encouraged and Christmas traditions such as trees and presents were moved to New Year’s Eve, which became the main holiday.
Ukrainian Christmas traditions include a Christmas Eve dinner with 12 meat-free dishes including a sweet grain pudding called kutya.
People decorate their homes with elaborate bundles of wheat called didukh. The celebrations also include singing carols called kolyadky, bearing star-shaped decorations and performing nativity scenes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
