"Far from Moscow." Ukrainians were preparing for Christmas celebrations on Dec. 25 on Sunday for the first time in their history, a sign of defiance against Moscow, with Orthodox Russians still celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on Jan. 7.
This is the first time in Ukraine's modern history that Orthodox believers will celebrate Christmas -- as will Catholics but also Greek, Romanian and Bulgarian Orthodox -- on December 25, and not on January 7 as was the tradition until then.
"We really want to celebrate this holiday in a new way. It's a celebration with the whole of Ukraine, with our independent Ukraine," says Olena. "We really have to celebrate Christmas with the whole world, far, far away from Moscow," said the soldier's mother, wearing a white cap.
Distancing from the Russian Orthodox Church
In July, President Volodymyr Zelensky formalized the move of Christmas celebrations from Jan. 7 to Dec. 25, a move that is part of a series of moves by Ukraine to distance itself from Moscow, amid a nearly two-year Russian invasion.
The text voted by the Ukrainian MPs explained that Ukrainians wanted to "live their own lives, with their own traditions, their own holidays". A way, the text also noted, to "abandon the Russian heritage that imposed Christmas celebrations on January 7," according to the Julian calendar followed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Oleksandr Bubnov, a regular at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Odessa, said that "if everyone accepts (the date change), it will easily spread throughout the country" as a new tradition. "The transition was easy," he says. Last July's law illustrates the rift that has been widening between the churches of Kyiv and Moscow for several years, reinforced by the Russian invasion.
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Placed for several centuries under the religious tutelage of Russia, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was declared autocephalous and independent of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019. In May 2022, the Ukrainian Church, which remained loyal to Moscow, also declared its independence in response to Russian Patriarch Kirill's support for the war.
A handful of Orthodox churches around the world, including those in Russia and Serbia, still use the Julian calendar for their religious celebrations and not the Gregorian calendar, which was devised at the end of the 16th century. Under the USSR (Soviet Union), authorities advocated atheism, and Christmas traditions, such as trees and gifts, were moved to New Year's Eve, which became the main holiday and still is for many Ukrainian families.
On Christmas Eve, Ukrainians have a tradition of eating at the dinner table in the evening with 12 meatless dishes, including "kutia," a dessert made of boiled wheat grains, honey, raisins, crushed nuts and poppy seeds.