SBU Posts Video Alarming Ukrainian Christians Who Celebrate Old Calendar Christmas
Post on New Calendar Nativity fuels controversy over Kyiv’s rhetoric and treatment of believers who observe the Julian calendar.
KYIV — The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) released a controversial video on social media Christmas morning which shows officers with automatic rifles breaking down the door of an apartment. Over the video, the authors placed the caption: “Who comes knocking to ‘carol’ for those who celebrate Christmas on January 7.”
The SBU did not clarify whether this video constitutes a real threat toward Orthodox believers who adhere to the Julian calendar, but the video comes at a time of increasing scrutiny on the Zelenskyy regime for its treatment of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
Recently, comments from President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and clerics of the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine have argued, incorrectly, that the celebration of Christmas on January 7 is a tradition forced upon the Ukrainian people during Soviet rule, even going so far as to say that the New Calendar celebration of the Nativity on December 25 is the “real Christmas.”
Worldwide, Christmas is celebrated according to the Julian calendar by numerous Orthodox jurisdictions. The date of January 7 translates to December 25 on the Old Calendar.
The video is a potent reminder of how Kyiv’s rhetoric around the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church changes depending on the audience.
Previously, UOJ reported that a "priest" blogger of the OCU called traditional Nativity fasting rules a Russian invention.
