Ukrainians to Celebrate Christmas on December 25th

November 9, 2022245 views0

Ukrainians to Celebrate Christmas on December 25th

2022-11-09T11:23:54+01:00

By Church News

For the first time ever, Ukrainians will now celebrate Christmas on December 25, rather than when it is celebrated on January 7 and this was made known by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, following a synodal meeting in October.The East and the West have followed and highlighted different holidays since the Great Schism in 1054. The West follows the Gregorian calendar celebrating the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas) in December while the East celebrates it in January and puts more emphasis on Easter.Archbishop Yevstratiy Zoria, a spokesperson for the church, told The Guardian that the church would look at how many of the church’s members celebrated on December 25 this year and then decide what to do in coming years. “We don’t want to force anyone, I personally will decide what to do after talking with my parishioners. It’s better to promote this process slowly and successfully,” he said.He added that many Ukrainians had already wanted to move the celebration to the Western date of December 25, but that desire had increased since the invasion began.In an interview with Premier News, Martyn Whittock, Christian author and historian said, “Now, those Orthodox believers in Ukraine, who are now independent of Moscow, are being encouraged to consider celebrating Christmas in line with the Western Church, not the Moscow controlled Church. It’s a way of detaching themselves even more from Moscow. It’s very complicated, but it’s also very, very symbolic.”Traditional Ukrainian Christmas festivities started on Christmas Eve, which was celebrated on 6 January, as reckoned by the Julian calendar. The Christmas celebrations end on 19 January, the date of Epiphany, or Yordan in Ukrainian, by the Julian calendar.As of 2017, 25 December, Christmas Day by the Gregorian calendar, became an official government holiday in Ukraine. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches predominantly follow the Julian Calendar.ALSO READ Pope Hails Departure Of Ukrainian Grain Ships As Sign Of Hope