Ukrainian church rejects Zelensky’s ‘new’ Christmas
The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church says it will continue to celebrate the holiday on January 7
Christmas in Ukraine will now officially be on December 25, in move away from Russian Orthodox Church
From CNN's Konstantin Toropin and Alex Stambaugh
Ukraine has passed legislation moving its official Christmas holiday to December 25, further distancing itself from the traditions of the Putin-aligned Russian Orthodox Church, which celebrates the holiday on January 7.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the bill into law on Friday after it was passed by Ukraine’s parliament earlier this month.
The legislation’s sponsors said its passage would help Ukraine "abandon the Russian heritage of imposing the celebration of Christmas on January 7," and help Ukrainians "live their own life with their own traditions (and) holidays."
Ukraine and Russia are both majority Orthodox countries, but since Russia illegally annexed Crimea and began supporting separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in 2014, a large part of the Orthodox community in Ukraine has moved away from Moscow.
Russia’s war in Ukraine further accelerated the divide between the two branches of Orthodox Christianity, especially given that the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill,
fully endorsed the invasion and framed it as a culture clash between the wider Russian world and Western liberal values.
The new law will effectively formalize what some churches in Ukraine had already begun practicing.
A branch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allowed its churches to celebrate Christmas on December 25
last year. Ukraine’s main Greek Catholic church said in February it was moving to a new calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25 as well.
Tetyana, an Orthodox Christian from Kyiv, said the date was not important for her, but she was ready to support the move because of its symbolic value.
“If necessary, we will celebrate on December 25. It is no longer about religion, it is more a sign of statehood. Let it be so. I support the president and my country,” she said.
Read more on what Ukrainians say about the move.
=========================
Imeisha hiyo ....