On this Christmas day, rue des Saints-Pères, in the 6th arrondissement, Paris would seem almost Ukrainian.
On the forecourt of Saint Volodymyr the Great Cathedral, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parish of the capital, a crowd of faithful is gathering.
Almost all Ukrainians celebrate the birth of Christ for the first time on December 25, the Western date.
Greek Catholics, attached to Rome but of the Byzantine rite, are a minority (about 8% of the population) in a very predominantly Orthodox Ukraine.
They traditionally celebrate on January 7, the date of the Julian calendar.
But this year, the Christians of Ukraine, Orthodox or Greco-Ukrainians, are celebrating the Nativity under the threat of Russian bombs and are more and more likely to be tempted by the Western date, in order to mark their break with Moscow.
In France, most Greek-Ukrainian parishes already celebrated Christmas on December 25 for convenience with the rhythm of their host country.
Parish…
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