Ukraine to celebrate Christmas with 'civilized world, but not Moscow'
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The Ukrainian Parliament approves a bill to change Christmas from January 7 to December 25 to "abandon [...] the Russian heritage."
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, stands next to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, July 8, 2023 (AP)
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Friday almost unanimously Law No. 9431, which denotes that the parliament changed the dates of three holidays, among which is Christmas, with the purpose of moving away from Russia.
People's Deputy of Ukraine Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported that the law changing the date of Christmas from December 25 to January 7, Ukrainian Statehood Day from July 28 to July 15, and the Day of Defenders of Ukraine and the Day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos from October 14 to October 1, will go into effect starting September 1st.
Zheleznyak noted that "This law will be signed after July 28, so the Day of Ukrainian Statehood will be July 28 this month."
Multiple Ukrainian news websites also underscored that the law supported by 241 deputies in total serves as means of "abandonment of the Russian heritage."
The draft bill was put forward by Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky on June 28 as he urged to “abandon the Russian heritage…, reject Russian traditions, and fortify national unity in Ukraine.”
Read more: How the war on the Moscow Patriarchate is a war on collective identity
It is worth noting that the date changes follow the Georgian calendar as opposed to the Julian Calendar, which Russian Orthodox churches and many Eastern Christian denominations continue to follow.
The Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was granted a tomos of autocephaly (decree of ecclesial independence) on January 5, 2019, but remained only been partially-recognized as canonical, will now celebrate Christmas alongside Western Catholics and Protestants said RT.
Ukrainian MP Irina Gerashchenko via Telegram slammed Russia and Eastern Orthodox denominations as uncivilized as she wrote “Now Ukrainians – Orthodox and Catholics – will celebrate holidays with the whole civilized world, but not with Moscow.”
However, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Russian Orthodox Church will continue to celebrate Christmas on January 7 and other liturgical holidays will remain unchanged unlike those of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine which will be affected such as Saint Nicholas Day and Epiphany.
UOC bishops in Kiev say they feel threatened by OCU
This comes after the Ukrainian authorities ordered the UOC to leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Bishops of the UOC expressed that they felt threatened by the supporters of the partially-recognized OCU.
Bishop Gedeon, also given the name Yuriy Kharon, of Makarov, told Sputnik that "all my friends and acquaintances that I talk to feel threatened because the churches are being taken away from them. And what could be more threatening than them coming to you and taking away what belongs to the Church of Christ? And they don't take it away for anyone, they take it away for nothing. No one goes there, they don't even have parishioners."
According to the bishop, Kiev is not simply trying to drive the canonical UOC out of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, but their task is to transfer the Lavra to the schismatic OCU.
Moreover, Kharon explained that "[The Ukrainian authorities'] very task is to transfer [the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra] to the OCU. After all, they do need some kind of Church. They cannot position themselves as theomachists or atheists, although they are, but they cannot say so openly, they do it through the OCU," he said.
Read more: Kirill: Russia, Ukraine are one nation, church persecution 'pathetic'
