Ukrainian Christmas is of great importance to the people of our country. Every year, Ukrainians gather at the festive table to celebrate the birth of the Savior and congratulate each other. Traditionally, they set an elegant table and prepare gifts for children and adults.
In Ukraine, some celebrate Christmas on December 25 (according to the Gregorian calendar), others on January 7 (according to the Julian calendar). However, regardless of the date, the celebration has certain traditions and rituals.
The traditions of Christmas primarily included family unity. Ukrainians have always perceived this holiday as something that should be celebrated in the family circle. To this day, it is believed that those who went to study, moved but did not create their own family should come for Christmas. Simply put, the entire family should get together. Our ancestors believed that if a person was left alone on Christmas, he would wander for a whole year.
The traditions of celebrating Christmas in Ukraine include a festive table. The feast begins on Christmas Eve on Holy Evening. According to Ukrainian traditions for Christmas, there should be 12 lean dishes on the table, each of which should be tried by all family members. The main dish is considered to be kutya, which is usually placed in the center of the table next to a lit candle. Kutya is made from rice or wheat, supplemented with raisins, poppy seeds, nuts and honey.
Ukrainian Christmas traditions include leaving kutya on the table after the festive dinner for the spirits of deceased ancestors. Our people believe that on Christmas they visit their home. Holy Evening is the last day of strict Christmas fasting.
In addition to kutya, the table must include borscht, mushrooms, fish, dumplings with beans and cabbage, potatoes and uzvar.
Christmas traditions also include carol singing with the onset of dusk. Our ancestors almost staged real performances, singing carols and schedrivki. Unmarried boys and girls gathered together for this wonderful ritual. Everyone in the group of carolers had their own role. The first one was always the one with the best voice, holding the Star of Bethlehem, next was the bell ringer, who notified the hosts of the approach of guests, then there was a person with a bag of gifts.
By Christmas, the house of a true Ukrainian should be clean and richly decorated. And if now snowflakes are often cut out of paper to decorate the room, then our ancestors made something similar and called it vytynanki. They did not always look like snowflakes, most often they were beautiful geometric patterns with which they decorated the house.
The traditions of celebrating Christmas also included one of the main symbols - didukh. Didukh was a sheaf of wheat or rye, which could also contain other herbs. It was important that the didukh was made from a sheaf of grain, whether it was the last to be gathered or the first to be reaped.
Ukrainian Christmas traditions are diverse, but they all reflect cultural heritage and national identity.
