Christmas is so nice, Ukrainians celebrate it twice. On January 7, the Russian Orthodox Christians have their day, and, on December 25, Catholics have theirs. As many people are probably already aware, most Christians celebrate Christmas in December. So, what gives? Are the Ukrainians just greedy for holiday cheer? Maybe some of them are, but that's not why they do it.
It's actually a relatively new change in Ukrainian culture. For centuries, the national holiday celebrating Christmas was on January 7 following the Orthodox tradition. It was as recent as 2017 that the Ukrainian government added December 25 as a second national holiday. This was good news for Ukrainian Catholics, who, up until then, had not had an official day off for Christmas. Because it's so recent, the jury is still out over which day the majority of people will prefer.
The dinners are much the same, with Ukrainian families putting out 12 different dishes to symbolize the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. These dishes are vegetarian (technically pescatarian) since the Christmas Eve feast is also when people abstain from eating meat in honor of the animals that attended Jesus Christ's birth. You can find cabbage rolls, beet borscht, and other traditional offerings served for Christmas dinner. Potato vareniki is like a Ukrainian version of pierogies, and there's also cabbage soup and often baked apples for dessert.
If we wanted to put it really simply, there aren't actually two Christmases – the two sects just don't share the same calendar. For many centuries, the Western world followed the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar), but, eventually, we discovered that it was off by about 11 minutes. That's not a huge problem until hundreds of years have passed and those 11 minutes turn into a two-week difference. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII and was then adopted by the Catholic Church.
Although there are other calendars used around the world, such as the Persian Solar Hijri calendar in Iran, the Gregorian calendar is the most common. Even the Russian government uses a version of the Gregorian calendar, though the Russian Orthodox Church has held its ground. When December 25 became a national holiday in Ukraine in 2017, politicians were accommodating a relatively small minority of the country that wanted to transition to the Gregorian date. Interestingly, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that minority has grown exponentially though it is still a minority.
By transitioning to December 25, Ukrainians are distancing themselves from Russia and embracing the West. It's become important enough that,in July of 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went a step further and moved the official date ofChristmas to December 25, which is a little more extreme than simply acknowledging the date as a holiday. For now, it seems likely that both dates will be celebrated. After all, who can complain about double the cheer?
If we wanted to put it really simply, there aren't actually two Christmases – the two sects just don't share the same calendar. For many centuries, the Western world followed the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar), but, eventually, we discovered that it was off by about 11 minutes.
“The main dish of Holy Evening is Kutya. It is porridge from whole wheat grains with poppy seeds, honey and nuts. “I like to cook and Ukrainian families usually cook a lot, the cuisine is very diverse.
According to a study conducted by the international company Deloitte in November 2023, after the transition of Ukrainian Christian churches to the new style, the majority of Ukrainians (about 45%) will celebrate Christmas on December 25 and only 17% on January 7, and 32% plan to celebrate twice.
Christmas in Ukraine is celebrated on December 25. Since 2017, the date has been one of the official state holidays. Before that, Christmas was celebrated by many on January 7 by the Julian calendar.
Christmas is a time when many families and friends come together to celebrate, and in Ukraine many old traditions connected with this feast day, such as carolling, sitting together on Christmas Eve for a meal of Lenten dishes and performing the nativity play from house to house, are still very much alive.
The Christmas Eve is a symbolic holiday when Ukrainians cook 12 special festive dishes. It should be noted that Christmas Eve falls on the last day of the Christmas Fast, so all meals must be lean.
The change reflects Ukrainians' dismay at the 22-month-old Russian invasion and their assertion of a national identity. Ukrainians have celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the first time, as part of an ongoing effort to remove Russian influence from their country.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims sovereignty over Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and some other Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the ancient Julian calendar. Christmas falls 13 days later on that calendar, or Jan. 7, than it does on the Gregorian calendar used by most church and secular groups.
Certain Eastern Orthodox churches, including those in Russian and other traditions, follow the ancient Julian calendar, which runs 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar, used by Catholic and Protestant churches as well as by much of the secular world for everyday use.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) celebrates Easter on May 5 — that is, at the same time as the majority of Orthodox churches around the world. However, Western Catholic and Protestant churches have already celebrated Easter a month before – on March 31.
There is usually a particular sequence of meals on Christmas Eve. First, Ukrainians eat Kutia, then borshch, holubtsi, dumplings, fried fish, cabbage, etc., and drink uzvar. As a rule, children bring dinner, for example, to godparents and grandparents.
The most famous traditional Ukrainian dishes are borshch, varenyky, holubtsi, Chicken Kyiv, banosh, and syrnyky, and it surely is not an exhaustive list. Borshch (sometimes written as borsch, borsht, bortsch, or borshch) is a sour soup with distinctive red colour.
In parts of western Ukraine, Christmas Trees are often decorated with artificial spider's webs because of the story of The Christmas Spider. These are called made of paper and silver wire, called 'pavuchky' (which means 'little spider').
These dishes are vegetarian (technically pescatarian) since the Christmas Eve feast is also when people abstain from eating meat in honor of the animals that attended Jesus Christ's birth.
A traditional beverage served during Christmas in Ukraine is uzvar, a drink made from dried fruits. Both kutya and uzvar are considered commemorative, as they symbolically welcome the souls of the deceased to join the living for dinner.
Introduction: My name is Errol Quitzon, I am a fair, cute, fancy, clean, attractive, sparkling, kind person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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