What you need to know about Christmas in Ukraine…or when it is actually celebrated and why…
Christmas is the biggest and most celebrated holiday for all Christians. It is time for family reunions, happiness and joy. But if you have a Ukrainian or Russian girlfriend you are luckier and not only because these girls are beautiful, educated and loving but also because you have a chance to celebrate Christmas twice! You can ask why is that? This is because Christmas in Ukraine and Russia is celebrated on the 7th of January! The Orthodox Church uses the old Julian calendar which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.
In the former Soviet Union the Bolsheviks adopted the Gregorian calendar at the end of 1917 which put them in line with the rest of the Western world. However the Orthodox Church who was opposed to the oppressive steps taken by the Bolsheviks to suppress religion, kept the Julian calendar. Historically the Julian calendar is sometimes called Old Style (O.S.) and the Gregorian is called New Style (N.S.). Thus a date would be written January 1/13, 2009, meaning the 1th in new style and 13th in the old style calendar. Don’t be surprised, but at midnight on the 13th of January people in Russia celebrate Old New Year that corresponds to January 1st in the Julian calendar, used in Russia before 1918.
Recent Comments