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In Ukraine, Christmas is on January 7th instead of December 25th.
This is in accordance with the Eastern Orthodox calendar, seeing as this country is a traditionally Eastern Orthodox country.
Ukraine celebrates Christmas a little more traditionally than America does.
What this means is that their Christmas is a very religious one, since they practice the customs and traditions of the Church. Christmas in Ukraine simply means that your holiday with your partner will have a more cultural and religious feel to it, not that it detracts from the festivities and general fun.
But every country is different, right? And each one celebrates their holiday tradition the way they know how. And like every Ukrainian holiday, it is the people you celebrate with that ultimately make it special.
If you want this Christmas to be truly special for your Ukrainian partner and yourself, then volunteer yourself to be truly immersed in their traditions. Here are a few of the most common traditions you can expect to participate in when in Ukraine:
Caroling in Ukraine is a joyful and merry thing. The Christmas songs have their origins that tell their culture and history as well as their devotion to their religion. They have two main groups for their Christmas songs and they are called koliadky and shchedrikvy.
Koliadky songs are sung on Christmas Eve and Day. It’s name is theorized to be derived from the Latin word “calendae,” which means the first day of the month.
The other, shchedrikvy, is the second group of songs and is derived from the word that means generous. These songs are sung during the Feast of Epiphany.
Both of these have significant pagan elements and have been Christianized in the past. The themes may vary and caroling is done extensively with a lot of careful planning. If you find yourself getting dragged into a caroling session, go with the flow. You’ll have fun in the end, just don’t butcher the lyrics as much.
Ukraine has Svyatyy Mykolay or Saint Nicholas instead of Santa Claus.
If you’re going to spend a holiday in Ukraine then be prepared to meet Svyatyy Mykolay. He is Ukraine’s version of Santa Claus and you probably know him for his other name, which is Saint Nicholas. He is also called Did Moroz or Father Frost.
Ukraine is especially connected to Saint Nick and you can see this by looking at the churches associated with him. He is mostly connected to gift-giving and is supposedly closely associated with Did Moroz.
December 19th is their Ukrainian St. Nicholas day and children might get gifts while others are told to wait and open it on Christmas Eve for a holiday present-opening.
Ukraine calls their Christmas Eve Sviaty Vechir. And on Sviaty Vechir, they put a candle on their windows to invite those without families so they all celebrate the special time together.
Christmas dinner isn’t served until the first star appears in the sky, as this represents the Three Kings and their journey.
Having a family meal on Christmas Eve is a common theme among the diverse cultures that celebrate Christmas.
Dinner, also known as Sviata Vecheria, is served with dishes that were made especially for the holiday and they don’t contain any meat, dairy or any animal fat. The only exception is fish and only if it’s a herring. It has to be 12 dishes too, since it symbolizes the 12 apostles themselves.
If there is a family member who has passed on and could not join them for the holidays anymore, they will place an extra setting for them. Ukrainians may put hay into the house too, to remind them of the manner in which Christ was born.
The twelve dishes are the following:
Kutia - porridge that is made of unground wheat, some rice, barley (or oats with the addition of sweet ingredients such as honey), a bit of jam, some dried fruits and so on.
Borscht - this is a hearty soup that is often cooked with meat. But for Christmas Eve, there are different lent recipes. Locals usually have it cooked with dried mushrooms, carrots, some beets, beet kvass, dairy butter and lastly, flour. The lent soup will often be served with vushka (small dumplings that are sometimes called “ears”).
Ukrainians have borscht on their Christmas table every year!
Mushroom gravy - it’s gravy but made with dried mushrooms, other spices, some bulb onions, flour and oil.
Varenyky - these are savory pierogies stuffed with cabbage. They are cooked by kneading simple dough from yeast, flour and some water. The insides are then stuffed with onions and cabbages.
Holubtsi - these are cabbage rolls. Holubtsi is a traditional dish made out of meat, rice and cabbage leaves. The one cooking dinner will change it to accommodate the Christmas season though. This means they will use a mixture of potatoes, mushrooms, onions and carrots to replace the meat. Then they fill the cabbage leaves with vegetable stuffing before they fry them in a pan with a bit of vegetable oil. After that, they are stewed in tomato paste.
Herring - the fish is divided into portions and will have bulb onions as well as be marinated into water mixed with some spices.
Marinated mushrooms - Like it says on the tin, it’s mushrooms that are marinated. The way it gets marinated is similar to the herring.
Ukrainian Christmas bread - this is called kolach in Ukraine. It is slightly sweet yeast bread that is braided and shaped into an oblong loaf.
Stewed cabbage - each housewife cooks it in different ways but the general way of doing it is by chopping up the cabbage, stewing it in a pan with vegetable oil and water and then stirring in some extra ingredients. It could be cucumber, tomato paste or bulb onion.
Haricots - these are common beans and can be used to cook salad or stew.
Pampushky - this is a dessert that is a very integral addition to the borscht. These are small buns that look like jelly-filled donuts, filled with sweet filling and are topped with confectioner sugar.
Compote - compote is a drink made out of dried fruits. It’s dense, sweeter than normal juice and thicker for they are filled with honey. Most homes make these themselves using the fruits they have. They can be made from apples, pears, prunes, raisins, strawberries and so on.
You are visiting the country your partner was born from. This naturally means you will be spending the rest of the holidays with her and her family. Christmas is usually for the family but who says it can’t be for romance?
Enjoy Ukraine with her. Spend your Christmas a little later than normal if you must. Experiencing this country during the holidays for yourself is a rare opportunity and shouldn’t be skipped.
