In Ukraine, in 2021, a campaign with a call to celebrate Christmas not on January 7, but on December 25 was carried out with renewed vigor. Nationalists believe that the rejection of Orthodox traditions will be "an inoculation from the Russian world." Political scientists and religious scholars told how Ukrainian Christmas differs from Russian and whether Moscow and Kiev will ever celebrate this holiday on different days.

Who and why for the transition to the Gregorian calendar in the church

Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which appeared at the end of 2018 and received autocephaly, Epiphanius said that in 10 years the Ukrainians will celebrate the Nativity of Christ on December 25 instead of January 7th.

At the same time, Epiphanius admits that the idea of ​​switching to the celebration of December 25 is not yet popular in the country, and if the celebration of Christmas is postponed now, then the churches “will still be empty on the 25th, and full on the 7th.”

For several years, starting in 2017, December 25 in Ukraine is a public holiday on a par with January 7. The paradox is that now Christmas in December is celebrated only by about 3% of the country's population.

On January 7, Christmas is celebrated not only by the predominant Orthodox population of Ukraine (about 70% in general), but also by representatives of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (about 8% of the population). According to the agency "Rating", about 25% of Ukrainians support the idea of ​​postponing the celebration of Christmas, while 58% are strongly opposed.

Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik, in a conversation with him, explained that behind the words of the Metropolitan of the OCU is the desire to be closer to the European-Catholic religious and political tradition.

“There are more and more supporters of this idea in Ukraine, and if this idea is supported by the state, I do not exclude that it will become dominant in society.

Potentially there is a chance to convince the congregation to celebrate on a different date. This changes the consciousness of society, it is a strategic cultural and spiritual narrative that can be changed in Ukraine, ”the analyst believes.

The head of the Center for the Study of Problems of Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Roman Lunkin, in a conversation with, on the contrary, expressed confidence that the majority of Orthodox Christians of various jurisdictions in Russia, Belarus or Ukraine will continue to celebrate Christmas on January 7 anyway.

“Metropolitan Epiphanius makes statements about the transition to a new calendar, since there is a relatively small church behind him, which he is unlikely to be able to split with his ideas. But for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), calendar issues are much more serious and responsible, since they can cause the rejection of a significant part of the flock, lead to the appearance of their own old calendarists, ”the expert said.

According to Lunkin, the change of the calendar is very closely linked in Ukraine with the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, since the celebration of Christmas on December 25 will be regarded by some Orthodox Christians as a step towards union with Rome.

“Epiphanius himself and his“ curator ”in Istanbul, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, are already accused of this striving for union. Of course, there will be no union, but it is important for Epiphany to remain at the center of public life in Ukraine, so he irresponsibly raises the most acute and provocative questions for believers. It is important for the OCU to be in the center of the dialogue of different confessions, and the discussion of a common Christmas on December 25, formally, seems to unite all Christians, ”he said.

Nationalists joined the campaign

At the same time, in December, a video by nationalist Bogdan Pankevich about the fight against the "Russian world" by changing the date of Christmas caused a stir.

According to the plot, two unkempt Russian-speaking men on January 2 in Lviv are looking for where they could get drunk. Having decided to seek help from a passer-by, who turned out to be Pankevich himself, the guests began with Happy New Year and the coming Christmas.

In response, they hear in Ukrainian "We have already celebrated Christmas." After that, the men exchange glances among themselves, indignant that this is somehow “not in Russian”, and decide to “go home”. The video ends with the captions "Together with the world - a vaccine against the Russian world."

Director of the Center for Eastern European Studies Andriy Okara, in a conversation with said that the public campaign for the celebration of Christmas on December 25 in Ukraine does not have the potential that those campaigning for it think.

“The person who shot this video with such characters has his own goals (Pankevich - the founder of the Galician Party, which is active in Western Ukraine -).

A similar campaign about the date of Christmas occurs in Ukraine every year, its initiators think that this way it is possible to get even closer to Europe and further from Russia.

But all this is futile, simply because in Ukraine and Belarus over the past 500 years, a stable tradition has developed to celebrate Christmas in the old style, that is, on January 7, ”he is sure.

Why there is little point in arguing over the date

According to various opinion polls, about 40% of Orthodox believers in Ukraine call themselves parishioners of the OCU, about 15% - the UOC-MP, and about 30% are “simply Orthodox”.

According to Okara, those campaigning in Ukraine for the postponement of Christmas do not understand that this country is fundamentally different from Russia in the way the population celebrates it.

“How it is done in Ukraine and Belarus, we know, for example, from the well-known story of Nikolai Gogol. In Russia, there has never been anything of the kind, and if there is, then these are, as a rule, areas with a compact population of Ukrainians - for example, the Kuban or the Bryansk region. Therefore, the idea itself with a different date is counterproductive, it does not fulfill the assigned tasks at all, ”he said.

The expert recalled that in the West there is also no consensus on when it is correct to celebrate the birth of Christ - and if the Ecumenical Patriarchate lives in a new style, then, for example, Mount Athos - in the old way. In addition, even within the Catholic world, supporters of the old Julian calendar, the Old Catholics, have survived.

But in the transition to a new style and synchronization with the Catholic calendar, Okara sees a threat to emasculate the true meaning of the holiday.

“The transition to a new style will definitely desacralize the holiday, the religious content will fade. And then the aforementioned political significance will remain in it, and, most likely, the income of the trade sector and the entertainment industry will go up - discounts, sales, all that, ”he said.

Lunkin, on the other hand, said that the clergy in general have not given much theological significance to the celebration of Christmas on December 25 or January 7 for a long time.

“For example, Orthodox Christians in Greece, the United States and a number of other countries quite celebrate December 25, this in no way diminishes the truth of Orthodoxy,” he recalled.

Okara agrees that all people can celebrate both dates, since the fact of the birth of Christ on December 25 is "rather, an ecclesiastical tradition that has no documentary confirmation."

Lunkin added that it makes no sense for the Ukrainian state to persuade believers to celebrate Christmas only on one day, so “the very spirit of Christmas unites Ukrainians, even if Orthodox or Catholic”.

"But it is precisely the political provocations on the calendar that separate the UOC and Metropolitan of the UOC-MP Onufriy," the expert concluded.

bbabo.Net