Back to Blogging With A Little Extra Culture

Hey Everyone,

Sorry we haven't been keeping up with our blog lately. For those of you that read our blog regularly, you've probably noticed that we try to post a blog every Tuesday and Friday. Of course, that doesn't usually happen, and we last posted here on December 15th.

Since our last post, we've been doing a lot of stuff and keeping ourselves busy. We've also been sick since our last post (I had Strep, Byron had the flu), but now we're healthy and ready to take on the Holidays. When a lot of time has passed between posting, it's hard for us to figure out what to write about. Do we want to tell you every detail of the past 12 days? Do we want to bring you spiritual encouragement or exhortation? Do we want to joke about our latest mishaps in Ukraine (Such as slipping and falling on the ice, or pushing a car for about a mile or so in the snow, trying to get it to start)?

Trust me, we've considered doing all of the above. But today, we want to try something a little different. Usually, our posts are about us or about ministry that's happening here in Ukraine, and sometimes we'll write about some cultural experiences we've had here (like our train adventures), but we've never actually devoted an entire post to Ukrainian culture. So, here's to our first "cultural" post!

Christmas and New Year's
Of course, Jesus is the origin of Christmas, but lately, we've been curious about the origins of the date. In the US, Christmas is celebrated on December 25, but in Ukraine, it's celebrated on January 7th. Why is that?

Since the primary religious influence in Ukraine is Eastern Orthodoxy, the holiday calendar often lines up with the traditions of the Orthodox church. Traditionally, the Orthodox church groups the celebration of Christ's birth together with the Epiphany. This Eastern Orthodox tradition falls on the evening of January 6th and Christ's birth is celebrated on the 7th.

During the Soviet Union times, Christmas was not officially celebrated in Ukraine. Instead, the communist government attempted to substitute Christmas with New Years. This is one of the main reasons why New Years is a bigger than Christmas here. However, the Ukrainians didn't forget their Orthodox traditions, and once the Soviet Union fell, the country began to openly recognize Christmas once again.

One interesting thing we've learned recently is that Ukraine has a Christmas "figure" similar to Santa Claus, but his name is "Did Moroz," which means Grandfather Frost. We are pretty sure that Did Moroz doesn't come down the chimney, like Santa Claus does, but when we asked some of our friends about him, they weren't sure exactly how Did Moroz is said to enter homes to leave gifts. We don't really know much of the Did Moroz folklore, but we'll pass on what we find out in later posts.

Although Christmas is a little different here, New Year's seems to be pretty much identical to an American New Year's. There are fireworks, New Year's parties, movie watching, lots of eating, and everyone makes New Year's resolutions. However, we have discovered one interesting difference between New Year's in Ukraine and New Year's in America. Many Ukrainians dress up in costumes on New Year's. All month, we've been seeing costumes showing up at our local grocery stores, and now we understand that the fairy wings and colorful wigs are meant for New Year's. Ukraine also celebrates the "Old New Year" on January 14th. The Old New Year is the New Year on the Julian calendar, which is the "old" calendar because Ukraine now uses the Gregorian calendar.


We're so excited that in just 4 days, we'll get to experience our first Ukrainian New Year's, closely followed by our first Ukrainian Christmas and then Old New Year's :) Hopefully you've found all of this information interesting, and, if you're not Ukrainian, maybe you'll add some Ukrainian traditions to your Holidays this year! And who knows, maybe Did Moroz will visit your home this year... and if you figure out how he was able to enter your home, via door, chimney, or magically appearing, let us know!


Blessings,
Emily