Today is January 7th and it’s Christmas day here in Ukraine. I’ve received a few questions about why Ukraine doesn’t celebrate Christmas on December 25th, so here’s an explanation for you.
Religious holidays in Ukraine are determined by the Orthodox Church, which follows the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Cesar in 45 BC. However, most of the rest of the world follows the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced in 1582 to correct the Julian calendar.
What’s the difference?
The main difference between the two calendars is how leap years are calculated. The Gregorian calendar does not add a leap day to most years that our divisible by 100. Thus the years 1800 and 1900 were not leap years although they are divisible by 4.
The result is that the Gregorian calendar is ten minutes and 48 seconds per year shorter than the Julian calendar. That means that every 133 years the Julian calendar falls behind by a day.
Currently the old Julian calendar is thirteen days behind the newer Gregorian calendar, thus Christmas comes on January 7th, exactly 13 days after December 25.
How We Celebrated Christmas
Now that we have the dates figured out I want to share with you how we celebrated Christmas here.
Our church had two services, one on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas day.
For our Christmas Eve service we had our children participate. They did an amazing job, just check out a few of the videos below. I also had the privilege of preaching on Christmas Eve.
You can watch my sermon here in Russian.
And you can see some of the children’s performances below!
Bill (cycleguy)
January 7, 2015Guess I better brush up on my Russian.
Caleb
January 8, 2015Do you know some Russian Bill?
Bill (cycleguy)
January 8, 2015Not one word. The video was in Russian and I had no idea what the kids said. I just saw the joy on their faces.
floyd
January 8, 2015Wow. I don’t have clue what you’re saying, but I’m impressed! Although, I hate to break it to you; those kids are way cuter than you!
God bless you and your work, brother.
Caleb
January 8, 2015I realized they were cuter than me and apologized to everyone at the beginning of my sermon that they they were were going to have to spend the next 35 mins looking at me!
DS
January 8, 2015Caleb we were just talking about this last night in our home. We are searching for some good information on a few traditions we can share with our newest family member. Thanks for a little more insight. We mentioned Christmas in Ukraine and had a little (we have a LOT to learn).
Caleb
January 8, 2015David, I’m glad you’re interested in learning the culture. Have you tried Ukrainian Kuttya yet? It’s the traditional Christmas meal.
DS
January 8, 2015No, but I have a couple of traditional cookbooks and will now look for it. Any tips?
Caleb
January 9, 2015Here’s a recipe for Kutia http://www.food.com/recipe/ukrainian-christmas-kutya-kutia-107817
Loren Pinilis
January 9, 2015Ahh…I was wondering why you posted about Christmas Eve in January. Now I get it! Those kids are too cute. I can’t understand a word they’re saying, but it’s adorable!