For the first time, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allows Christmas to be celebrated already in December. In Ukraine and Russia, the Orthodox do not traditionally celebrate Christmas until January.
Tomorrow, on Christmas Eve, the Russian attack in Ukraine has continued for exactly ten months. And it doesn’t stop for Christmas.
Neither side has made much progress on the War front in recent weeks. The fighting has still continued, especially in eastern Ukraine in the Donetsk region, where Russia is trying to capture the city of Bahmut.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that there have been no talks between the two countries on a Christmas ceasefire.
– No. No one has received such a proposal. This is not on the agenda, Peskov told the newspaper of The Guardian (you will switch to another service) by.
Formerly the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi had demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine by Christmas as a first step towards peace talks.
Ukraine has also signaled that there are no prerequisites for negotiations on a ceasefire in the current situation.
– War knows no holidays. War does not celebrate Christmas, special assistant to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Juri Sak commented on the news channel from the beginning of the week For Fox News (you will switch to another service).
Religious leaders demand a truce for Christmas
In the United States, almost a thousand religious leaders signed a petition for a cease-fire in Ukraine during Christmas, reports the newspaper Washington Post (you will switch to another service).
A group of faith leaders representing a wide spectrum of different religions pleaded that the Christmas ceasefire could lead to peace talks.
The petition proposed a Christmas ceasefire between Christmas Eve and January 19, so that everyone would have 12 days to celebrate Christmas.
Some of the Orthodox celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar on December 25, and some according to the Julian calendar on January 7.
Russia switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1918, but most of the Orthodox churches kept celebrating Christmas according to the Julian calendar. In Russia and Ukraine, Christmas has traditionally been in January.
This year, however, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has, for the first time, granted permission to celebrate Christmas also according to the Western calendar on December 25, expressing a deepening gap with the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church.
– We give people the opportunity to celebrate on a different day, Archbishop Jevstratiy Zoria told the newspaper According to Politico (you will be transferred to another service).
Due to the alignment, there is no common holiday season in Ukraine this Christmas.
The most famous Christmas truce was in 1914
The most famous Christmas truce in history was reached on the Western Front of the First World War in 1914. The cease-fire that started in some parts of the front at the initiative of private soldiers lasted until Christmas Day.
Among other things, regional and central authorities were allowed to retrieve their fallen from no-man’s land to bury.
During the Christmases following the First World War (1914–1918), no truces were reached, and since then no famous Christmas truces have been reached in wars.
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