Christmas in Ukraine is celebrated on January 7th. This country uses the old Julian calendar to determine when they celebrate their church festivals due to their main Church being the Orthodox Church. The period between January 7th to January 14th is their festive week. Many people dress up, visit family, sing Christmas songs and send each other blessings.

Typically, the people of Ukraine wait to sing Christmas carols (Koliadky) after their dinner. Sometimes the people carry around brightly colored stars on poles as they sing.

The main Christmas meal is known as 'Sviata Vecheria' (or Holy Supper). It is eaten on January 6th (their Christmas eve). On this day, the people traditionally fast until the first star in the sky is spotted. People tend to go outside and to spot this star after the sun begins to go down. This star represents the journey of the Wise Men to find Jesus. The meal usually consists of 12 dishes which represents the 12 disciples. They don’t usually consist of meat, egg or milk.The dishes may include: Kutia (a sweet grain pudding), Borshch (beet soup), Vushka (small dumplings with mushroom),Varenyky (dumplings with cabbage and potatoes), Holubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls). The room in which this meal is held usually has a Didukh decoration placed in it. The Didukh is made from a sheaf of wheat and symbolises the large wheat fields in Ukraine. It means “grandfather spirit” and can represent peoples’ ancestors being with them in memories. Other Christmas activities include Christmas festivals, puppet shows, and holiday concerts.

Svyatoi Nikolai (St. Nicholas) visits the children on January 19th. This when the people of Ukraine celebrate St. Nicholas day. Making snowflakes to put on trees or windows is also quite popular. In parts of Western Ukraine, Christmas trees are decorated with artificial spiders and webs.

This is because of the story of The Christmas Spider. The ornaments represent good luck to the people of Ukraine. According to the story, there once was a widow living in a hut with her children. One day, a pine cone dropped from the tree outside and took root. The children, excited by the thought of having a tree for Christmas, tended to the seedling and made plans about how they would decorate the tree. Poverty was the way of life for the family. They knew that they would not be able to decorate the tree as they had hoped to. The children and the widow accepted this and went to bed on Christmas Eve without decorating. The household’s spiders heard the children crying and spun webs on the tree. Early on Christmas morning, the children awoke to the surprise of a beautifully decorated tree. As the sun crept along the floor and silently exposed the tree, the threads of the web turned silver and gold, and, as the story goes, from that day forward the widow never wished for anything .

Christmas Around the World: The Tree Spider

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