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Why Ukraine moved Christmas to 25 December
Summary
A law signed on 28 July 2023 shifted the date of Christmas and other religion-linked holidays in Ukraine's labour code.
What did it mean to move Christmas in Ukraine? On 29 July 2023, a day after the president signed the change, the question was one of calendar and of politics.
The law amended the labour code to shift the celebration of Christmas from 7 January to 25 December. It also covered other state holidays whose dates are tied to religious observances. The stated aim was to abandon what the measure described as the Russian legacy of imposed Christmas celebrations.
The framing matters. The change was presented not as a liturgical adjustment but as a step away from a Russian inheritance, placing a public holiday inside the wider effort to distance Ukraine from Russian influence.
Elsewhere, on 27 July 2023, Kim Jong-un and Russia's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, met in Pyongyang with a Chinese delegation to mark 70 years since the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War. Kim and Shoigu also attended an exhibition of North Korean ballistic missiles, which multiple UN resolutions, endorsed by both China and Russia, prohibit.
