Lo! Ukraine has officially gotten itself two Christmases.
Starting from this year, Ukraine will celebrate both the Western and Orthodox Christmas after parliament on Nov. 16 voted to make Dec. 25, when Christmas is celebrated in most Western countries, an official holiday and a day off.
Until now, only Orthodox Christmas, celebrated on Jan. 7, was an official holiday. This is when most of the country celebrates Christmas, including Orthodox Christians and the parishioners of Greek Byzantine Catholic Church, popular in the Western Ukraine.
These churches follow the Julian calendar as opposed to the more modern Gregorian calendar, introduced in 16th century. Over the centuries, the less accurate Julian calendar has drifted out of sync with the Gregorian calendar: it is now two weeks behind.
It is uncertain precisely how many Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, since there has never been a reliable large survey on religious belief in Ukraine. But several smaller polls, including a 2016 poll by Kyiv-based Razumkov Center, put the number at somewhere between 1-3 percent of the country’s 42-million population – the combined number of Catholics and Protestants in Ukraine.
This number may grow. Head of Ukrainian Greek Byzantine Catholic Church Svyatoslav Shevchuk said on Jan. 6, 2016 that his church was considering switching to Dec. 25 celebration.
If the Greek Catholics of Ukraine do switch, it will bring the number of those celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 to around 9 percent of Ukrainians, while more than 60 percent – the Orthodox Christians – will continue to celebrate on Jan. 7.
But everything comes with a price, and a new holiday is no exception.
In the same vote, parliament also stripped May 2 of its holiday status. Up till now, both May 1 and May 2 were state holidays, celebrated as a two-day International Workers Day. With May 9, the Victory Day, also being a state holiday, the first ten days of May often turned into an extended holiday.
“We need to secure the right of people of Ukraine to celebrate Christmas on a day that is more appropriate for their religious confession, their beliefs,” reads the explanation note, published on Rada website.
There are now 11 official holidays in Ukraine: Western Christmas (Dec. 25), New Year (Jan. 1), Orthodox Christmas (Jan. 7), International Women’s Day (March 8), Easter (non-fixed), Trinity Day (non-fixed), International Workers Day (May 1), Victory Day (May 9), Constitution Day (June 28), Independence Day (Aug. 24), and Defender’s Day (Oct. 14).
