Ukraine ignores Russian Orthodox church, observes December 25 as public holiday

Now today marks the first time that Ukraine is observing Christmas as a public holiday on December 25th ukrainians celebrated Christmas on January 7th in line with the Russian Orthodox Church following the Julian calendar but it’s part of a cultural shift away from Russia after last year’s Invasion Believers turned out in force

To celebrate the new Christmas day in kei’s St Sophia Cathedral amongst those attending there was widespread support for the new date this is the right thing to do in my opinion the Civilized world all of Europe does the same I don’t want to be associated with the aggressor country

And celebrate the way they do we are together with Europe the Civilized world and God is with us I think changing the official date of Christmas is very important the country should distance itself from Russia and its holidays Ukraine’s president held his second Christmas Eve address since Russia’s fullscale Invasion he offered

Words of Hope and his vision to move away from Russia and closer to Europe today all ukrainians are together we all celebrate Christmas together on the same date as one big family as Nation as one United Country and today our common prayer will be stronger than ever for people’s prayer today it will

Unite millions of voices more than ever before and it will resonate without a time difference of two weeks resonate together with Europe and the world Christmas day in Ukraine saw another tradition fall as many church services were held in Ukrainian instead of Russian and our correspondent Matias bua told us

Whether support for president zalinski is still as strong today as it was at the beginning of Russia’s fullscale Invasion his approval levels have been down from superhuman levels of 90 plus% to something uh more human to 60 plus per that’s uh of uh in the last few days

This poll came out it’s the lowest since the beginning of the war but it’s still a majority of people supporting him there are questions towards him and the military leadership about specific uh decisions and operations but overall a majority of people here still values his leadership uh in this war but who’s even

More popular than him is the head of the army uh General zusan and the Army itself still has approval ratings of more than 90% so people do rally behind the country’s leadership but they start asking questions to individuals and the president of course is not safe from this

Today marks the first time that Ukraine is observing Christmas as a public holiday on December 25th. Traditionally Ukrainians celebrated Christmas on January 7th in line with the Russian Orthodox church following the Julian calendar. It’s part of a cultural shift away from Moscow after last year’s invasion.

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37 comments

  3. Russian Russian Church is not ignored by Ukraine, but by tens of millions of parishioners of the Russian Church. Zelensky imprisons priests and takes away church property. Only Stalin did this in the most terrible years. But you will continue to keep silent about it and lie! Lie! Lie!

  4. Love your address President Zellensky!! Keep your voice out here on the global stage! In addition to your war reports, can I humbly suggest you create the space within your addresses to include your vision for Ukraine going forward, the smaller successes of the changes being implemented in your country that move you forward in aligning with EU/ Nato policies and standards?!!!🇨🇦❤❤❤🇺🇦

  5. Ukraine orthodox church doing things their own way looks and feels correct to me not because it's the west way or any other way but Ukraine's way not Russia's.

  6. Only two nations have mocked God in this way, by using the scripture to choose names for their weapons of war, they pride themselves on.
    Look where we are now .

  18. As a Catholic I am proud to celebrate this festive season with our orthodox brethren
    Merry Christmas and may god bless us

  19. Natal é celebração de nascimento de Jesus. Qualquer dia pode se celebrar, Jesus veio para a salvação da humanidade em todos os dias.

  26. It’s the people’s choice to change the Russian holidays What do you expect when Russia is trying to wipe them off the map if they don’t bow down to that popular dictator.

  28. Теперь ждем от Зеленского переноса праздника Песах на майские ❤❤❤ все правильно делает

  31. This is not the first time Ukraine has celebrated Christmas on 25th December; they only changed from that date in 1917.

  32. State CAN't make such decision – Only Orthodox Sinod can do it and they are bounded by thousand years Church Canon – Zelensky would like to play God which is very slippery field.- Ukrainians not just sold their Slav Soul but they are happy to bow to Vatican, which is just huge Corporation claiming that Pope is Only Representative of Jesus Christ on the planet 🥴😵😵‍💫Really ?

  34. Sloppy, slanted report 👎. Of course, if you outlaw the Russian Orthodox Church, everyone you interview will say they support the western Christmas date. Also, the Russian church celebrates in "Church Slavonic", not "Russian".

  35. On Christmas Day, December 25, Pope Francis traditionally issued the message "Urbi et Orbi" to pray for world peace.
    He once again called for a ceasefire in Gaza and went on to infringe on the arms industry, saying that with the continuous increase in weapons production and trade, world peace is out of the question.
    He called for an investigation into the arms trade to reveal how "war puppets" are profitably manipulated.
    He also claimed that war is a crazy journey without a destination, benefiting only a very small number of people, and the world should say "no" to war.

  37. Zelensky can observe Dec 25, but it is Orthodoxy people decision to follow or not. As far as I know, none of Orthodox Church in Ukraine celebrated mass yesterday night
    The whole Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been banned by Zelensky already. Zelensky kicked out all monks from their monastery in Kiev and banned all churches there, as well as , put all Ukrainian priests in the prison. WHAT A DEMOCRACY
    What a democracy! LOLOL

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