Christmas celebrations in Ukraine: Many celebrate on Dec 25 for first time • FRANCE 24 English

Christmas celebrations in Ukraine: Many celebrate on Dec 25 for first time • FRANCE 24 English

Let’s bring in our correspondent Emanuel Shaz Emanuel good to talk to you uh tell us about what’s happening where you are today good good morning uh Cavin well uh I’m here in the center of KF where this morning ukrainians will celebrate the Christmas Mass for the first time uh on

The 25th of December just to give you an idea of what it means uh for the population for over a century Christmas has been celebrated according to the Julian calendar ACC according to the Russian Orthodox church but since the war and not just since last year but

Since uh 2014 there’s a lot of people who have been questioning this alignment with the Russian Orthodox church and people calling uh for it to be moved uh not for religious reasons but for cultural reasons uh and for uh because they want uh to uh to separate the Ukrainian culture and the Ukrainian

Religion from the Russian one they have have called for that move and now officially the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church is following an an adapted Julian calendar which uh is in line of a Gregorian calendar which means Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December and no longer on the 7th of

January uh as uh is the the tradition in Russia and uh just to let you know how many people are willing to change those uh those habits well half of the population celebrates now celebrates Christmas on the 25th there’s a third of them who say they’re going to uh follow

Both Christmas Christmases they’re going to uh uh celebrate both but it’s uh before everything else before being religious it’s really a strong will here uh to say no to Russian Traditions there because the uh neighboring country has become the aggressor country here really interesting on the splits Emanuel you’re

Talking about how they’re celebrating and you know particularly where you are in Kei more people wanting to celebrate today tell tell us also about president zalinski speech overnight a hopeful speech in the meantime no letup in Russian attacks I think another 31 drones have fired over Ukraine overnight absolutely and the Ukrainian

Air defense has said it has shut down 28 out of those 31 jours but it shows you that really we cannot talk about a celebration or a Merry Christmas here in Ukraine because day in day out the war continues and Russia is not only uh shelling the front line the uh the Army

The Ukrainian Army it’s also shelling residential areas yesterday her son was shelled once again her son is under constant fire every day we hear about such shellings beat in the city or the region of Haron and yesterday uh an 80-year-old uh person died another 87y old person died in the city of Haron

This is a daily reality for ukrainians and the president in president zinski really highlighted the fact that people at Christmas here are not deting their homes they are defending their homes and andri Yak uh said also that ukrainians had no time for Holiday right now the holiday would come after the war and

After Ukrainian Victory Emanuel good to talk to you great to hear that context from a very beautiful looking Square in ke

Ukrainians will celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 for the first time this year after the government changed the date from the Orthodox Church observance of January 7 in a snub to Russia. Ukraine passed a law in July moving the celebration to December 25, the day when most of the Christian world marks Christmas.

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