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Many Ukrainians celebrated last Christmas in shelters inside the Kiev subway amid continuing Russian attacks
Article informationAuthor, Jaroslav Lukiev Role, BBC News
4 hours ago
Ukraine moved its official Christmas holiday from January 7 to December 25, in its latest move to distance itself from Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a parliamentary bill aimed at “abandoning Russia’s tradition of imposing Christmas celebrations”.
In recent years, Kiev has scaled back religious, cultural and other ties with Russia, aligning itself with the West.
And the pace of these Ukrainian measures increased after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.
Zelensky signed the bill on Friday – two weeks after it was passed by Ukrainian lawmakers.
The law also changes the date of two other state holidays, Ukrainian State Day, from July 28 to July 15. and Defenders Day, which commemorates veterans of the armed forces, from 14 October to 1 October.
There was no comment from Moscow on these Ukrainian steps.
For centuries, the Russian Empire and then the former Soviet Union, which was dominated by Moscow, tried to gain complete control of Ukraine, but these attempts were always unsuccessful.
This included the authority the Russian Orthodox Church had over churches in Ukraine.
In 2019, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) was declared independent of the Moscow Patriarchate by Patriarch Bartholomew, and the Patriarch of Constantinople is considered the highest spiritual authority in the Orthodox world.
The move sparked an angry response from the Russian Orthodox Church, which publicly defends President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Until this year, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — like many other Orthodox churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church — celebrated Christmas Day on January 7, in line with the Julian calendar.
But the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has now officially switched to the more accurate Gregorian calendar used in most parts of the world.
In recent years, many Ukrainian worshipers have joined the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and most of them are now likely to celebrate Christmas on December 25.
There are also those who will celebrate Christmas twice.
Millions still follow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the other branch with parishes across the country, which has not commented on Kiev’s amendments.
Although he announced in 2022 the separation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the Moscow Patriarchate) from Russia, a number of its clergy were recently prosecuted for what Kiev says are pro-Russian activities, which church officials deny.
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The Motherland Monument in Kiev – one of the tallest statues in the world – will be stripped of its Soviet crest and replaced by Ukraine’s “trident” coat of arms.
Ukraine’s decision to move Christmas is the latest move by the country to distance itself from its northeastern neighbour.
Cities and villages across Ukraine have recently seen their streets renamed associated with Russian and Soviet historical figures.
Ukraine has also removed a number of antiquities and banned Russian films made after 2014.
These measures followed Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in southern Ukraine in March 2014.
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2023-07-28 23:50:28
