Christmas in Ukraine has many traditions and customs. Some of them appeared with the baptism of Rus, and some have pagan origins. Learn about the main symbols of the biggest winter holiday and their ancient history

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Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, is one of the biggest holidays of the year. On this day, the whole family gathers together for prayer and dinner. Christmas has many traditions and customs, some of which date back to pre-Christian times. For example, kutia, fortune-telling, and carols have a thousand-year history. Today, we will recall the main ones: fasting, Christmas Eve, cooking kutia, making didukh, carols and fortune-telling.

Lent

Christmas fasting is a period when people purify themselves physically and spiritually and prepare for the celebration of Jesus' birth. The fast lasts for 40 days and is called the Lesser Pentecost. Why is it called Lent? Because it has much fewer restrictions than the Great Pentecost (before Easter).

The fast also has another name - Pylypivka or Pylypivsky fast. This is due to the fact that the last day before the old-style Lent (until 2023) was the Day of the Holy Apostle Philip. For those who celebrate Christmas according to the Eastern rite, this is the last day of the year when there are no food restrictions. For those who celebrate Christmas according to the Western rite, the fast began on 15 November and will end on 24 December, Christmas Eve.

Everyone who observes the fast should understand that the rite is primarily a spiritual purification, not a physical one. It means not just ‘not eating certain foods’, but also not swearing, envying, lying and many other ‘don'ts’ that are in line with traditional moral rules.

The first mention of the Christmas fast dates back to the 4th century. Initially, it lasted only 7 days, but later the number of days increased to 40. The reason for this was the ‘equalisation of rights’ between Christmas and Easter: if Christmas is as great a holiday as the Resurrection of Christ, then preparation for it should last as long.

During the Christmas fast, you should not eat milk, meat, eggs, or products derived from them.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a solemn Christian holiday celebrated by followers of the Eastern tradition on 6 January and by followers of the Western tradition on 24 December. On Christmas Eve, people sat down to dinner when the first brightest star appeared in the sky. Before that, the hostess would prepare 12 dishes: kutia, uzvar, borsch, cabbage soup, kalach, fish, beans and peas, cabbage rolls with millet, dumplings, dumplings, porridge.

The tradition of celebrating the Holy Evening dates back to Trypillian culture. The Holy Evening acquired its Christian meaning much later, during the reign of Prince Volodymyr in Kyivan Rus. Moreover, the Holy Evening is the time when the light of Dazhboh (the sun god) entered every house and Koliada, the new sun, was born (by the way, this is where the name ‘koliadka’ comes from). Our ancestors believed that the dishes on Christmas Eve were healing, so there should never have been any animal dishes.

By the way, Christians prepare 12 dishes in honour of the 12 apostles, and 3 millennia ago (in the time of Trypillians) they prepared 12 dishes in honour of the goddess Lada, who created the world for 12 nights.

Kutia

Kutia is one of the main dishes of the Christmas Eve dinner. It was intended for the spirits of ancestors and was placed on the kutia, a place of honour. Kutia was a ceremonial dish: for our ancestors, it was a symbol of the god of wealth Veles and the god of harvest Spas, and a symbol of deceased relatives. Only the latter meaning has survived to this day - according to legend, the spirits of our ancestors come down from heaven on Christmas Eve to taste kutia and see their family. How was kutia made? The best wheat was selected, pounded white and mixed with honey and poppy seeds. By the way, you can still see makohonas (pestles for pounding) today - not even at an ethnographic exhibition, but in an ordinary village hut. Kutia must be cooked in a clay pot with unbrewed water (the water collected before sunrise).

Traditionally, kutia is cooked three times. The first, Rich, is prepared on Christmas Eve; the second, Generous, on St Basil's Eve (14 January in the Eastern tradition; 1 January in the Western tradition); and the third, Hungry, on Epiphany Eve.

In Ukraine, Christmas is celebrated according to two traditions. Readabout Christmas on 25 December and 7 January here.

Didukh

Didukh is also called Did, Koliada, Koliadnyk or Korochun. It is a rye or rye sheaf made of rye bundles, often intertwined, tied with coloured ribbons or a stem. Old people used to say that the spirit of the field, the spirit of the sun and the souls of our ancestors, who protect us, live in didukh. Didukh is the main symbol of the ancient Ukrainian Christmas, which had to be brought into the house by the owner. Didukh was used for penance, but... not only for Christmas, as we used to think. Didukh was also an obligatory element of the blessing of a newborn child and a wedding. Our ancestors believed that didukh called fertility and prosperity to the house. In some regions of Ukraine, it is customary to burn the Didukh sheaf after the Generous Evening, as the generous spirit of Didukh goes to heaven.

Our ancestors had the most widespread fertility and ancestor cults. Didukh is the personification of both of them, because didukh comes from the ancient rite of ‘walking of the grandfathers’, and its name means ‘great-grandfather’ / ‘ancestor’.

In some regions, the Christmas sheaf was called ‘paradise’. Historians attribute this primarily to the fact that paradise is the place where the souls of our ancestors live.

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Christmas carols

Carols are calendar and ceremonial songs that were sung during the traditional house-to-house visits at Christmas. They glorified God, announced the good news of the birth of God's Son, congratulated the owners on a good harvest and predicted prosperity for the coming year.

Christmas carols are an integral part of the nativity scene, a traditional Christmas performance. Since evil forces often wanted to prevent carolers from doing good deeds, they would wear masks (so that they would not be recognised) and take with them the symbol of Christmas, the eight-pointed star. The phrase ‘Svarozhe's circle’ is often used in carols, as the ancient Slavs called the full year. Carols also often say that the participants in the nativity scene are guests from another world who have come across a bridge or river to the host's house. However, this world is not evil - carolers were called ‘God's servants’ or ‘messengers from heaven who come once a year’.

It was believed that God Himself enters the house with the nativity scene, which is especially evident in Carpathian carols.

Christmas fortune-telling

Fortune-telling on apples. After Christmas dinner, you need to cut an apple in half: if you get a star of the right shape, the next year will be very happy.

Divination on a love dream. A girl eats something salty and says, ‘My beloved, come to me, give me some water to drink’: whoever comes will be the groom.

Divination with a boot. On Christmas Eve, you need to throw a boot up in the air: whichever way the toe falls, in that direction the girl will marry.

Divination on passers-by: A girl goes out and asks the first person she meets what his name is, and this is the name of her future husband.

Nowadays, you rarely see these extraordinary traditions in cities, but in villages they are almost always observed. In any case, Christmas in all countries is a holiday when families come together.

Let us remind you! Earlier, we told you the most interesting facts about Christmas that you probably didn't know.

Photo: Stefania / Pinterest

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