Ukrainian Christmas wasn't in December, but now it is.
As always, music, movies, food and history for a celebration in the world!
This is possibly the best playlist I have created for ages - it’s just tune after tune! Please check it out!
“Christmas is over”
I know I know! But bear with me - this is super interesting. History and traditions are changing - right now.
So why in January?
“Not religious?” - well, despite communism, Ukraine is 85% Christian… so it’s not that.
“Not western Christian?” - well maybe, Orthodox is the majority second to Catholicism, but this is the same for Greece, Serbia and they all celebrate on the 25th… so it’s not that.
“They’re calendar is different?” - You have been reading De Nada Nights too much - yes! We have another interesting calendar quirk!!
It is Julian’s and Greg’s fault
All hail Ceasar! 45 BCE, Julius gets fed up with the Roman Calendar and creates his own - 365 days and every 4th year a new day is added so 365.25 days.
But a year is actually 365.2422 days.
There is a 0.0021% error.
After 1500 years (547,875 days) the spring equinox arrived 12 days earlier than it had in 45BCE. Something was wrong.
In 1582, The Italian Pope Gregory XIII decided a fix was needed. His fix was that:
if the year is divisible by 100 it is not a leap year
But if it was divisible by 400 it is a leap year.
So, 2000 was a leap year, 1900 was not.
Ol’ Gregory made his changes retro active and hence in October 1582, Italy, Spain and others went to sleep on the 4th October and woke up on the 15th October. But Ukraine and much of Eastern Europe didn’t.
It means that a year in a Gregorian calendar is around 365.2475 - 0.0014% error, so we should be alright for another 1500 plus years!
Adding in the skipped leap years, there are 13 days difference between the two calendars. 13 days after the 25th Dec is 7th Jan.
How Ukraine celebrates Christmas
The Christmas Eve, or Sviatyi Vechir, involves customs and rituals that predate the introduction of Christianity to Ukraine - like beautiful decorations with wheat and straw everywhere!
There is a feast of 12 meatless dishes - including of course Borscht, brilliant decorative breads and sometimes fish! Caroling, known as koliadky, is also a common. Midnight Mass happens of course and then on Christmas Day there is a feast of all foods.
Also, unrelated to Christ’s birth, but on 19th Jan many will take the Jordan Plunge - reenacting the baptism of Christ. The problem is, in January the average temperature is below 0 degrees! 🥶
Today
In 2023, Christmas Day in Ukraine was officially celebrated on December 25. This change was officially adopted by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and reflected by the country at large.
Some history
Ukraine is incredibly flat, bisected by rivers and bordered along the Danube, with fairly consistent weather. Evidence of many types of the Homo genus have lived it the region. In the ice age there were huts made from mammoth bones and there is evidence of large populations that existed there before the bronze age who were agrarian and nomadic.
This is perfect land for those who are nomad - the land is flat, animals roam so you follow them, and the land doesn’t change much as you travel.
It is also perfect for agricultural groups that use water ways - vikings. Specifically rowers a.k.a Rus - where Russia and Belarus get their name and relate to, as does Ukraine…
The Kyvian Rus
Between 800-1200, these Vikings grew the Rurik Dynasty which we today call the Kyvian Rus State after its capital city Kyiv, a mix of the nomadic, the agricultural Slavic people who lived in this land and the Vikings. To make it unified, they converted the region to Christianity and became a huge power in the region for 400 years.
The fracture into kingdoms
In 1237, a Mongol army/hoard, supported by the Ottomans, battled and broke the state into kingdoms which caused a period of unrest and cultural exchange.
Some of the old Kyvian Rus State consolidated forming a proto-Russia (the Duchy of Moscow), a proto-Lithuanian and a proto-Poland., others simply joined the Mongols Empire or the Golden Horde.
Later the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth unified to include parts of Ukraine’s modern borders, while Moscow Russian state grew and saw itself as the third Rome and defender of Orthodoxy, having seen the Byzantine empire collapse to the Ottomans.
The Cossacks
There was also a group that did not want to join the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth and rose in power and influence from 14th century to the 18th - the freemen a.k.a the Cossacks.
A mix of the nomadic and the agricultural Slavic people (likely survivors of the Kyvian Rus), the Cossacks where known for their marksmanship, horsemanship, autonomy of communities, diversity (ethnic and religious) and crazy hairstyles!
The Moscow state and the Lithuanian Polish state regularly battled, and in the 18th century the Cossacks joined with the Moscow / Romanov dynasty and became a subordinate state to the Tsar with autonomy, to battle against the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Later, tired of not receiving their freedom, they swapped sides to go against the Romanovs in the Pugachev Rebellion, where the Russians beat the Polish-Lithuanians, destroyed the leadership of the Cossacks, and suppressed the Cossack people. Thus Russia began treating Ukraine and Belarus as little Russians, which extends to today.
The Russian Empire
The Russian Empire continued to grow as the Ottoman Empire began to decline. The UK and France feared the Russian Empire’s growth and hence war began in 1853. The Crimean war, the Seige of Sebastopol, the Charge of the light Brigade Florence Nightingale and medical reform all happened over this horrific 3 year war.
For the next 70 years the Russian empire continued to grow, deploying industrialisation as means of growth, until World War 1…
The Soviets
WW1 saw huge damage to the people of the Empire and at the end, the Romanov monarchy was overthrown by Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, while Ukraine declared independence. This immediately started the Ukrainian Soviet war, which eventually Ukraine lost and joined the Soviets in 1922. In 1924, Stalin took charge.
Ukraine became the bread basket of the Union, and sold huge amounts of its food to fund the Soviets, even as the people making the bread starved. This resulted in a deliberate starvation known as the Holodomor (the hunger plague) where 3→5 million were starved to death in the 1930s.
Then in 1941 the Nazis claimed the land and continued their massacres and Holocaust of Jews and many other groups. An Ukrainian army formed in 1942 to battle them.
After WW2, post-war reconstruction began in Ukraine as many others. Then in 1953, Stalin died and Khrushchev came to power.
Skipping forward a bit to mid 1980s, the Soviet Union began to struggle. The economy wasn’t going well, little had changed in 20 years (since the space race), living standards were getting worse, the Cold War was (thankfully) stalemates and the Soviets were in a war with Afghanistan which was slow and expensive.
In steps Gorbachev in 1985, with an aim to improve the economy by a series of reforms, such as (some) private enterprise rather than state run everything, and expanding freedom of speech to allow discussion and solutions for political and social issues.
Then in 1986, the worst nuclear disaster ever happens. Chernobyl.
While testing a safety system, steps were skipped, there were design flaws not expecting the test and the reactor overheated causing an radioactive explosion which took materials into the atmosphere to all countries of Europe apart from Portugal, Spain and Iceland.
This begins a turn on the principles of Communism and the Soviet Union, leading to its fall in 1991.
Modern times
In 1991, 92% of 32 million Ukrainians voted to be independent and hence the countries begins. It struggled initially to move from planned economics to private markets. Kravchuk becomes president and forms a stable government for ~11 years.
Then in 2004, the Orange Revolution happens - protests and strikes to overturn an election plagued with fraud. In steps a new president, Yushchenko, pushing for more links with Europe.
In 2014, a different president was in power and refused to sign a trade agreement with the EU which caused huge protests known as the Euromaidan protests. The president Yanukovych is ousted which Russia feared and hence make moves to annex Crimea and Russia support armed conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In the conflict many are killed and the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down.
In 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky comes to power, previously a comedian who had a TV show about being President. Once again Ukraine pushed for closer links to Nato and the EU which increased tensions with Russia.
Then in 2021, the Ukraine government allowed the sale of farm land in Ukraine as an attempted to industrialise for efficiency - as small and medium sized farmers operate 2/3 of its land. It wasn’t extended to allow foreign investment but it did allow agribusinesses to buy huge land plots. This has been cited as one of the reasons why Putin has invaded, in addition to the fears of Ukraine outperforming the Russia economy if it enters European markets more, fears of NATO being on Russias borders, and a historical Mother Russia desire to grow Russia back to the Russian Empire’s size.
And I can’t not mention…
Their coat of arms is ancient and, of course, has evolved. Yet, the design is such that freedom is written into it!
The food
Here is a feast…
A classic pork meat and beetroot soup/stew!
Holubtsi - essentially meat and rice wrapped in a cabbage. Simple, healthy-ish and delicious.
Deruny - potato pancakes but made to be light and fully to go with the other dishes here!
Kyiv Cake - once a 1950’s delicious across the Soviet Union.
A sponge layer, a jam layer, an icing layer, a meringue layer, an icing layer and another sponge layer, then cover it all in icing and decorate with hazelnuts. Screw any January diet and enjoy!
The films
My suggestion is an all Ukrainian story - based on a 1918 play by Lesya Ukrainka, full of slavic and Ukrainian myth, and is fun!
Prime: Mavka (2023) - Rent (£4.49)
Not your vibe?
Here are some more ideas:
Netflix: Chernobyl 1986 (2022)
Netflix: Winter on Fire (2015)
Prime: The Stronghold (2017) - Rent (£3.49)
Until next month!