Petition on Christmass date shift created on President’s website

On 23 October, a petition to shift the date of celebrating Christmas was registered on the website of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. More than 300 people voted for it in five days.

"The last time Christmas was celebrated in Ukraine was on 25 December 1929. Are you ready, after everything that Russia has done to us, to give up the celebration of Christmas on January 7, which they imposed on us, like the language, and celebrate it on December 25, like the rest of the civilized world? The tradition of celebrating Christmas according to the Julian calendar on 7 January remains in the Russian Orthodox Church. Shifting the celebration will allow completing the separation of the Ukrainian churches from Moscow," the petition reads.

As reported, the OCU allowed the rectors of churches to choose the date for celebrating Christmas on their own. A representative of Dumenko's structure also said that switching to the New Julian calendar means joining world Orthodoxy.

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