Ukraine’s unique tradition of celebrating Christmas

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8  -- Ukraine is one of the very few countries in the world that has two official Christmas holidays – Dec 25, as well as Jan 7.

The reason for it lies in the history – the transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, which is used by most countries until today, according to a statement by the Ukraine embassy here.

“Until recently, there was just one public holiday for Christmas – on Jan 7, which, despite being known as the ‘Orthodox Christmas,’ is observed only by 56 per cent of the world’s Orthodox Christians (and 6.6 per cent of all Christians around the world).

“However, since  a growing number of Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on 25 December, in 2017 the Government decided to make both dates public holidays, reconciling with the modern-day reality,” it said in the statement, made available to Bernama recently.

One of the main reasons for the double celebrations was probably due to traditional folk celebrations of the winter season which starts in mid-December, with main festive activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas itself, St. Vasyl Day (or folk New Year, also nowadays called Old New Year, celebrated on Jan 14) and its Eve called Malanka, and the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus on Jan 19, added the statement.

Ukraine adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1918.

-- BERNAMA