Christmas holidays

Christmas holidays

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) switched to the New Julian calendar from September 1, 2023. This is an improved form of the Julian calendar, based on the cyclic rotation of the Earth around the Sun. The New Julian calendar contains 218 leap years for 900 years, the length of a year is 365.242222 days.

Today, the following churches use the New Julian calendar:

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Patriarchate of Alexandria
Patriarchate of Antioch
Romanian Orthodox Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Greek Orthodox Church (Greece)
Orthodox Church of the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Church of Cyprus
Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania
Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
Greek-Byzantine Catholic Church
Romanian Greek Catholic Church

From September 1, 2023, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) will join them.

Now Christmas is celebrated from December 24 (evening) to January 6 (Baptism of the Lord)

The period of Christmas holidays with its traditional rites has absorbed the most typical types of folk-dramatic creativity of Ukrainians. Christmas was largely erased from the Ukrainian calendar for most of the 20th century due to the anti-religious policies of the Soviet Union, but many of its traditions have survived and are being revived.

The beginning of the festive time is the receiving of a new fire, which is lit on a couch with 12 logs that have been prepared for 12 days, for 12 different dishes that will be prepared for the Holy Supper. And the Christmas holidays are started by the grandfather, a symbol-sign that is brought into the house on Holy Eve and is a signal for the beginning of the rites. Bringing grandfather into the house is a whole ritual action, which is accompanied by a number of theatrical elements.

The holiday dinner is a central tradition on Christmas Eve. On this day, housewives usually prepare twelve different dishes, the main one of which is kutya.
According to tradition, during the Holy Supper, the grandfather is standing in the red corner (penance) - the last sheaf of wheat, which includes: oats, rye, wheat, flax. Grandfather stays in the house for a week: his presence brings a good mood, coziness and festivity to the family.
The Holy Supper begins with a prayer. A Christmas candle is lit on the table in memory of the souls of ancestors. The whole family, including babies, sits down at the festive table. The host blesses the dinner: "God, let everyone wait in good health until another year," tries the kutyu, baptizes it and throws it to the ceiling. If it sticks even a little - for a harvest year. If someone died in the house, they put a spoon on him too.
First they eat kutya, and then the rest of the dishes. After dinner, they carol.

Caroling The Christmas party bands were mainly equipped by boys. They chose in advance a pack, i.e. a leader, a "michon-bearer", a "goat", a "shepherd with a whip", etc. The "goat" was dressed in a coat with the wool inside out, and straw horns, a tail, and a bell were attached to the neck. Other regions had their own differences, in particular, the mob was accompanied by a "gypsy", "doctor", "Jew", "death with a scythe", etc. However, a mandatory attribute should be a movable star, which was constantly worn by the leader ("Birch").
Entering the yard, the carol singers asked for permission and, when the host was announced, began the performance with congratulatory carol songs and humorous skits. In poetic texts, the master, the mistress and their children were praised, they were wished for happiness and health, and for the household to have wealth and a generous offspring. If the family had children who had not spoken for a long time, they were given a drink of water from the ritual bell. It was supposed to help "revive the ringing voice." Women, in order for their hemp to grow well, accidentally poured water on the "mikhonosh". If there was a girl in the house, she gave apples and nuts to each caroler.

On Christmas Day, people go to church for a festive service. Usually the liturgy begins at night.

 

 

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