The country’s parliament has voted to move the holiday from January 7 to December 25
FILE PHOTO. Worshippers pray during the Christmas service in a church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Kiev on December 25, 2022. © Genya SAVILOV / AFP
Ukrainian MPs have voted to abandon the Orthodox tradition of celebrating Christmas on January 7 in another move aimed at burning cultural bridges with Russia.
On Friday, several Ukrainian lawmakers said the parliament supported changing the dates of three state holidays, including Christmas, which will now be observed on December 25 in accordance with Western Catholic and Protestant traditions.
The move was initially proposed last month by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who argued that it would help “abandon the Russian heritage…, reject Russian traditions, and fortify national unity in Ukraine.”
A total of 241 MPs supported the proposal, with just 226 needed for it to pass. The bill itself is expected to be signed into law after July 28.
Irina Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian MP, welcomed the development, writing on Telegram that “now Ukrainians – Orthodox and Catholics – will celebrate holidays with the whole civilized world, but not with Moscow.”
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Last month, Leonid Slutsky, a Russian MP and the leader of the right-wing LDPR party, described the initiative as “not even a strike against Russia” but rather “a new insult to the feelings of millions of believers, a rupture of centuries-old ties and the destruction of traditions.”
Christmas is still celebrated on January 7 by the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Russian Orthodox Church, which adhere to the Julian calendar. However, Catholics and Protestants use the Gregorian calendar, celebrating Christmas on December 25.
In May, the Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is considered to be schismatic by the Russian Orthodox Church, also announced that it would observe the holy holiday on December 25.
Ukraine has long experienced religious tensions between several entities claiming to be the true Orthodox Church. The schism was further exacerbated by Kiev’s crackdown on the UOC, which has included raids by the Ukrainian security service on its churches and attempts to expel the entity’s monks from the iconic Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the country’s oldest monastery.
Kiev authorities suspect the UOC, which has historically close ties to Russia, of covertly supporting the neighboring country despite it having proclaimed independence from Moscow after the start of the conflict in February 2022.
