Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians. But in July this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bill into law making 25 December the official Christmas holiday as the country adopted the Western, Gregorian calendar.
  • D61 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    11 months ago

    Meanwhile, Kyiv Orthodox priest Mykhailo Omelian said: “Everything that was related to Russia, and everything that Russia did the same way we did, provoked disgust among people.”

    Looks like freedom fries dressing is back on the menu boys! freedom-and-democracy

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    5·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    But in July this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bill into law making 25 December the official Christmas holiday as the nation adopted the Western, Gregorian calendar.

    The move, which has the backing of the church, marks another step by Kyiv towards eradicating all traces of Russian influence in the country as it continues to fight Moscow’s invasion.

    The attack that began in February 2022 rallied the nation and sparked many Ukrainians to reject historical ties to Kyiv’s former ruler, including the Russian language and culture.

    Ukraine also wants to join the European Union, and many citizens see membership as an important affirmation of what they believe is their country’s historical place in Europe.

    Ukrainian MP and leader of the Golos Zmin Party, Kira Rudik, told Sky News that changing the date to 25 December was “incredibly important”, adding: "We are joining our European family in all aspects of our life including the day when we celebrate Christmas.

    Standing outside Kyiv’s golden-domed St Michael’s Monastery, Tetiana, 25, said she would celebrate on 25 December for the first time.

    The original article contains 421 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • nekandro@lemmy.ml
    1224·
    11 months ago

    Isn’t the Roman calendar an Orthodox thing? Aren’t like 60% of Ukrainians Orthodox?

    Every day Ukraine loses more of its cultural identity as it gets “Westernized” by the West and “Russianified” by Russia.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
      146·
      11 months ago

      as it gets “Westernized” by the West and “Russianified” by Russia.

      What.

      72% of Ukrainians declare themselves orthodox, literally the same church as Russians. Only in 2018 they had the schism but solely on political reasons, not the religious ones, to grab state control over the church.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
        21·
        11 months ago

        Orthodox churches are kinda special in the sense that they’re very oecumenical, don’t go around saying “XYZ isn’t true Christendom”, venture outside of their territory only carefully (e.g. to serve migrants who happen to be orthodox, but actively avoiding becoming a promiment church in those areas), but OTOH also tend to be staunchly conservative when it comes to their own traditions. They’re not centrally-run like the Catholic Church, while Constantinople holds a special place individual territorial churches are self-ruling.

        So when e.g. Lutheran Churches say “Everyone is a priest, so obviously women too can be reverends”, Rome is writing bulletins warning their own believers of participating in “so-called sacraments” in “erring churches”, whereas the Orthodox go “nah we’re fine as we are, thanks but no thanks”.

        Splitting off from Moscow is indeed political, also, complicated, also, partly theological (because ecclesiastical jurisdiction), there’s two major branches: The re-constituted old Kiev patriachate, dating back to the 90s, (Moscow back in the days dissolved it without even asking Constantinople which readily accepted the reconstitution), and an organisational arm of the Moscow patriarchate which declared independence form Moscow in the wake of the invasion. That’s also the one with the spy monks though not all of that “we’re independent” talk is necessarily a front the church has, aside from political hacks, also actually religious people in it. Shocking, I know.

        Switching to a different calendar is theological but Constantinople certainly won’t care short of saying “nah we’re fine”. It’s, after all, what “autocephalous” means.

    • nekandro@lemmy.ml
      716·
      11 months ago

      Do you enjoy watching Ukraine collapse it’s economy, irreversibly fuck it’s demographics, and send hundreds of thousands of men to their death? Is that enjoyable to you because the lives lost aren’t American?