Christmas comes early in Ukraine, but not a moment too early

The Christmas lights flickered on earlier than planned. Families sang Christmas carols a little earlier. And the first presents of the season – traditionally hidden under a pillow or in a boot – appeared two weeks earlier.

Of the many Western-oriented changes in Ukraine, which have been implemented piecemeal since independence and accelerated during the war, this year brought particular joy: Christmas came early.

After celebrating the holiday on January 7 for centuries according to the Julian church calendar, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church formally switched to celebrating it on December 25 this year with most of the rest of Europe – and emphatically not with Russia.

For six-year-old Drynka, that meant practicing Christmas carols early and enjoying the excitement of receiving gifts like a Rainbow High doll and a paint set, two weeks earlier than last year.

“I love Christmas!” she said.

Her mother, Halyna Shvets, saw a step toward Europe in the Ukrainian church’s decision to shift the date from Russian tradition not only for Christmas celebrations but also for other religious holidays.

“We are really happy,” she said. “Faith in God is a fundamental pillar of our lives. Celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, is an opportunity for us to come together for this beautiful Ukrainian religious tradition.”

Christmas, like so many other things in Ukraine these days, is deeply embroiled in the country’s war with Russia. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has taken the position that the Julian calendar used in the Russian Church has no religious significance, and that holidays should be celebrated according to the calendar by which people live their daily lives. Even before this year’s formal switch, some Ukrainian Orthodox believers had moved Christmas to December in the first year after the Russian invasion.

Technically, the change in celebration is a recommendation; individual parishes decide when to celebrate the holiday. But of the approximately 7,500 parishes in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, all but 120 have pushed back the date of Christmas this year, as Russia’s invasion approaches its second full year.

Most Eastern Orthodox churches had already taken this position. After the changeover of the Ukrainian Church, only four of the fifteen Eastern Orthodox denominations – in Russia, Serbia, Finland and Jerusalem – still follow the Julian calendar, which is thirteen days behind due to a difference in the calculation of the length of the year. Some religious communities in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, known as Old Feasters, have also continued to follow the old calendar.

In his Christmas speech, President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned the second Christmas at war, and the shift in the date so that Orthodox and Catholic Ukrainians will celebrate it on the same day. “Today all Ukrainians are together,” he said. “We all meet Christmas together. On the same date, as one big family, as one nation, as one united country.”

Mr. Zelensky said many Ukrainians would celebrate with empty seats at the table for soldiers at the front. But they would all pray for peace together “without a time difference of two weeks.”

After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church split from the Russian Orthodox Church, although much of the liturgy and traditions remained similar. In 2018, that split became formal, although one branch of the church remained connected to Russia.

After the invasion, this branch removed formal mention of loyalty to the Russian Church from church documents, but continues to celebrate Christmas in January.

Church leaders and believers say celebrating holidays without Russians is a happy change.

“We see that the Moscow Patriarchate creates myths about the tsar and the Russian world, and people believe them,” said Father Mykhailo Omelian, a spokesman for the Ukrainian church. Celebrating apart from the Russians will help differentiate the Ukrainian branch of Orthodoxy, he said.

“This process started in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres and has now moved to the spiritual aspect,” he said. “The religious sphere cannot belong to an aggressive country.”

Most Ukrainians will embrace the move, Liudmyla Fylypovych, professor of religion at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said in an interview. Moving from January to December doesn’t change the meaning of Christmas, she said, adding. “We celebrate not the date but the event” of Jesus’ birth.

Most of the change has gone smoothly, families and church leaders say. Presents, traditionally hidden in shoes or somewhere in a bedroom on Saint Nicholas Day on December 6, delight millions of Ukrainian children.

The rhythm of singing and performing Christmas plays jumped two weeks ahead. On Christmas Eve, children walk through villages or up and down the stairwells of apartment buildings, singing carols and receiving small gifts from those who listened, a tradition now performed on December 24 instead of January 6.

In another Ukrainian tradition, children perform skits of the Christmas story on Christmas Day in the central streets of their city. The practice started earlier this year.

Cities shifted schedules for hundreds of holiday events. In the western city of Lviv, for example, more than 200 Christmas and New Year activities were organized under the new calendar, including the street theater skits on Christmas Day.

For those who observe it, this year also came early with a religious fast leading up to the holiday, during which no meat was eaten.

Along the war’s front lines, about 700 Ukrainian Orthodox Church priests, who serve as chaplains, visited trenches and bunkers to bless troops, said Father Mykhailo, the church spokesman. They will not hold Christmas in areas close to the front because any group of soldiers is a target for Russian artillery or rockets.

Metropolitan Epiphanius, the leader of the Ukrainian Church, will celebrate Mass at St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev on Monday. He posted his Christmas prayers online, ahead of the usual schedule.

“Amid the sorrow and suffering of war, amid the pain of loss, we still celebrate,” he wanted to say during the liturgy on Monday, “because for us Christmas is not only or not so much a time of enjoyment and gifts, but a time of entertainment and gifts. testimony to the victory of truth and goodness and the inevitable defeat of evil.”

His speech concluded with the usual celebratory words: “Christ is born!”

There were some problems with the date change. With fewer school holidays before Christmas, preparing the holiday meal and its centerpiece — a dish of boiled wheat grains with nuts and dried fruit — is more hectic, Ms. Shvets said. But that’s a minor inconvenience, she added.

“We have been waiting for this for many years,” Ms. Shvets said.

“We are very happy and grateful,” she says. “For us it’s great that we celebrate this with the rest of the world.”

Oleksandra Mykolyshyn reporting contributed.