Hi, everybody! Greetings from Ukraine! Christmas is coming and it might be advisable to consider the Ukrainian traditions and customs about this holiday. And that is plenty to talk about. The Ukrainian Christmas traditions considerably differ from the Western ones.  Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25 in accordance with the Roman Catholic tradition (according to Gregorian calendar) in the Western Europe and the USA practice. In contrast, however, Christmas Day is traditionally celebrated on January 7 according to the Orthodox or Eastern Rite (in accordance with Julian calendar) church. So you have a perfect opportunity to celebrate Christmas twice: with your family and friends on the 25^th of December, and then with your gorgeous Russian lady on the 7^th of January. Then add that to the fact that Christmas in Ukraine is the most important holiday of the whole year, and you can see that yourself – you must see this holiday’s celebration here!

The Christmas celebrations in Ukraine start on December 19 – St. Nicholas Day, when children would receive gifts from this patron of children. There is a tradition of putting gifts under children’s pillows in his name. However, St. Nicholas is believed to mark the children’s behavior, so he may also put a willow rod under the pillow as a sign of warning. Then the New Year celebration comes, on December 31st on New Year’s Eve. Then the Christmas holiday season goes on January 6^th on Orthodox Christmas Eve. Later so-called Malanka, or The Old New Year, or the Orthodox New Year comes on January 13^th – it is considered to be more informal traditional holiday. Feast of Jordan or Epiphany crowns the Christmas and New Year holiday season on January 19^th. Well, that’s no big surprise that the people in Ukraine generally try to finish all their office work and shopping before the holiday season, because during the season absolutely all people are celebrating and aren’t working! “Z novym rokom ta Rizdvom Khrystovym!” sounds everywhere in the air – it means “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!” in Ukrainian. Remember these words and rejoice your lady on occasion – she would be absolutely happy to hear this greeting in her language.

Enjoy the Christmas holiday season and welcome to visit us!