In Ukraine, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church celebrate Christmas on January 7, according to the so-called old style. However, this year in October, the OCU allowed to hold a Christmas service on December 25. found out whether the transition to a “new style” celebration has begun in Ukraine and how priests and citizens feel about it.

History of the question

Previously, Christians used the Julian calendar both in church and in everyday life. It was introduced back in 46 BC by Julius Caesar. He agreed with the solar calendar the length of the year, which was 365 from the fourth day.

However, later this led to the calendar lagging behind the Sun – in one and a half millennia, it fell behind by ten days. Because of this, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar, clarifying the rules for establishing years with a duration of 365 days, which are called ordinary, and years with 366 days – leap years.

Over time, the difference between the two calendars increased by one day, and now it is already 13 days.

In Ukraine, the Julian calendar was used until 1918, when the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic introduced the Gregorian calendar into official use. In the same way, the Soviet state also switched to it, instead, the Russian Orthodox Church, which did not support the Bolsheviks at the time, fundamentally remained on the Julian calendar.

Currently, most of the world’s Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 – according to the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar continues to be used, in particular, by the Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Ohrid, and Jerusalem Orthodox churches, as well as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

In 2017, December 25 was recognized as an official holiday in Ukraine. But both Ukrainian churches – UGCC and OCU, which was just being born at that time, were in no hurry to make their move before the celebration of Christmas on December 25.

In 2019, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphany stated that Ukrainians can celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar on December 25, if they wish.

And already in October of this year, the OCU at the Synod decided to hold services on the occasion of Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, that is, on December 25.

An astronomical error that is long overdue

Father Vasyl Rudeyko, Doctor of Theology and Associate Professor of the Department of Liturgical Sciences of the Ukrainian Catholic University, believes that the long-term solution to this problem is connected, in particular, with Russia’s desire to create a pantheon in Ukraine.

“This is not a dogmatic problem, it does not affect the foundations of faith, it is purely an astronomical error, which should be corrected long ago,” he explained.

According to him, it is for this reason that all the main churches operating in Ukraine have not yet been able to synchronously switch to the Gregorian calendar.

“It is ideal when the entire parish or eparchy switches to the Gregorian calendar. However, such unanimity cannot always be achieved. As an example, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic community of Chicago was divided in half – into old-stylers and new-stylers, each of whom goes to their own church,” he noted. .

According to Father Vasyl, there are three steps that will allow a successful transition to the new calendar: “First, it should be recognized that the Julian calendar is erroneous, it is a purely astronomical error that does not affect church dogmas. The second is to allow communities that are ready to transition to the Gregorian calendar calendar, do it. Thirdly, the priests of other communities should conduct explanatory work in order to switch to the new calendar by September 1 next year.”

On September 1, Fr. Vasyl was not named by chance, since it is the beginning of the liturgical year.

The time between two major church feasts – Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – is an ideal moment, as there are no major church feasts in between. “, Rudiyko believes.

The position of Ukrainian churches today

The year 2022 can be considered historic, because it was this year that the words about the transition of Ukrainian churches to the Gregorian calendar began to take on real shape. But the paths of OCU and UGCC turned out to be different. The leadership of the OCU became more radical, allowing the parishes that were preparing for it to hold the Christmas service on December 25.

“Indeed, this year the OCU officially, by the decision of the Synod, allowed the parishes to choose when to celebrate the Christmas service – either on December 25 or on January 7. January,” said the rector of the Orthodox University of Saint Sophia-Wisdom, Heorhiy Kovalenko, during the briefing.

Instead, all other services will continue to be held according to the established Julian calendar.

As for the UGCC, here the position is more cautious: local communities did not receive the right to choose the date of Christmas, but believers, if possible, can attend Christmas services of other denominations on December 25.

A similar position to the OCU was taken only by the leadership of the Mukachevo Greek Catholic Diocese (it is directly subordinate to the Holy See) — they allowed their parishes to celebrate Christmas on December 25 if they wished.

Christmas in a new way

Father Nazarii Gagalyuk is a priest in two parishes at once – in Chernivtsi and in its surroundings.

One of the churches in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul in the Chernivtsi neighborhood of Sadgora is still under construction. Accordingly, the new community forms its traditions, and this circumstance, according to the priest, facilitates the transition to Christmas in the Gregorian style.

Father Nazariy exercises spiritual guardianship over the community of St. Archstrategist Mykhailo near the village of Zadubrivka, which is 2 kilometers from Chernivtsi. The local church was built in 1905, but the community transferred from the Moscow Patriarchate to the OCU in 2019 in order to build a Ukrainian church.

“Lord Epiphany gave permission to celebrate Christmas on December 25, so we legally moved this date,” Father Nazariy explained.

He proposed the idea of ​​celebrating Christmas on December 25 to the parishioners for discussion. Also, in both communities, signatures were collected from families who undertook to celebrate Christmas on December 25. All the parishioners agreed, accordingly, on December 25, the Christmas service will be held in both churches. “The collected signatures will go to the diocesan administration, in addition, I have to report how many people came to the Christmas services on December 25,” Father Nazarii explained.

On January 7, there will be a Divine Service according to the schedule, and on January 8 – Sunday.

The priest predicts that for people who regularly visit the temple, this change will not be a problem, but for people who go to church only on Christmas and Easter, it will be more difficult to get used to it.

According to him, with regard to the rest of the holidays, a special commission under the head of the OCU should develop its proposals for the transition to the new liturgical calendar, which still needs to be approved by Metropolitan Epiphany.

“Of course, it is always difficult to be the first, but there will be no going back, and in 2-3 years everything will be normalized,” – says father Nazarii Gagalyuk.

“All churches celebrate Christmas on December 25,” but there is a nuance

Although the leadership of the UGCC is not yet in a hurry to switch to celebrating Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, there are people in this church who are already ready for such a step. For example, former Soviet political prisoner Myroslav Marynovich belongs to such iconic parishioners.

“The funny thing about the situation is that all churches celebrate Christmas on December 25, but they use different calendar systems,” Marynovich noted.

He will celebrate Christmas twice this winter. “I’m an older person after all, besides, it’s a Ukrainian phenomenon to celebrate the New Year twice. I don’t see a problem in the fact that we will carol twice,” Marynovich noted.

Bohdan Pankevych, a former member of the Lviv City Council, is an active supporter of the transition to the Gregorian calendar.

“Celebrating Christmas on December 25 is correct both astronomically and canonically, on the other hand, January 7 is a deprivation of the tribute of tradition that was imposed on us in the 20th century,” Pankevich explained.

Mr. Bohdan is concerned that the leadership of the UGCC does not give permission to hold the Christmas liturgy in at least one of the city churches of Lviv. He is not just waiting for such a permission, but together with like-minded people under an appeal to the metropolitan of Lviv, as well as to the head of the UGCC Svyatoslav Shevchuk, having collected 20 thousand signatures of Lviv residents. However, I have not received any answers yet.

“Especially, I celebrate December 25 liturgically. However, there is still the issue of my homeland, which is used to January 7, so I am, so to speak, in a transition period. For now, I cannot fully celebrate Christmas together with the whole world,” he shared Pankevych’s thoughts.

What do Ukrainians want?

A recent poll conducted by the Rating Sociological Group shows that over the past year, those who support the idea of ​​moving the celebration of Christmas from January 7 to December 25 have significantly increased, from 26% to 44%. Against such an idea – 31% (in 2021 – 58%). Another 23% indicated that they did not care about this question and 2% could not answer.

The most supporters of the idea of ​​moving Christmas are among the residents of the west of the country and Kyiv – more than half support this idea. Among the residents of the center, a relative majority (44%) is also not against this initiative.

There is considerable support for the idea of ​​postponing the celebration of Christmas among Greek Catholics. Among the parishioners of OCU, almost half of them (46%), while a third are against such an idea.

And among the residents of the south and east of Ukraine, a relative majority does not support the idea of ​​moving the date of the Christmas celebration.

In terms of age, the most contradictions are observed in the older and middle age groups, where the relative majority (more than 40%) support the idea of ​​moving the date, while a significant number (at least a third) are against it. Among young people, one-third are in favor of the transfer, one-third are against it, and the same number said that they don’t care.

Also, over the last year, the number of those who celebrate Christmas only on December 25 (from 4% to 11%) and those who celebrate it on both dates (from 18% to 25%) has slightly increased. More than half (55%) will celebrate Christmas on January 7 (71% in 2021). 8% do not celebrate Christmas at all (most among young people, residents of the south and the capital).

Residents of western Ukraine and Kyiv, younger respondents and Greek Catholics spoke most often about the double celebration of Christmas, or the celebration only on December 25.

Oleksandr Sirtsov