People visit the Christmas Fair on Sofiivska Square in Kyiv on Dec. 27, 2021. The square is hosting the city's main Christmas tree. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Unlike the rest of the Christian world, most Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, not Dec. 25.
This is because most of Ukraine’s Christian denominations use the Julian calendar, according to which Christmas falls on this date.
But that is not the only tradition that makes Ukrainian Christmas celebrations stand out. Both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are filled with festive rituals that are hundreds of years old, and which many Ukrainians follow to date.
The Kyiv Independent teamed up with the Shadows Project – an initiative for young Ukrainians to interact with their culture and history in a contemporary way — to quiz your knowledge of these traditions.
Member of the Shadows ProjectMaryna Kryvoruchko contributed to this story.
Agatha Gorski is the co-founder and General Director of the Shadows Project, a Ukrainian NGO using research and experimental marketing and communication to counter Russian disinformation and hybrid interference. She is also a NextGen Fellow at Foreign Policy 4 America and a Fellow at the Sigma Squared Society. She holds a joint Master’s degree in Journalism and International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris.
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