Kyiv’s winter holiday celebrations have shifted in recent years, to the Western Julian calendar of December 25 for Christmas and January 1 for New Year’s. This leaves behind the Russian Orthodox Church’s marking of Christmas on January 7 and Old New Year on January 14, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. 

With these new dates, new traditions have taken shape.

Offerings at Kyiv’s October Palace included, for the second year in a row, a “Sinatra Christmas” concert, which is becoming a staple of holiday celebrations for Ukrainians around the country, along with the National Presidential Orchestra’s “Magic Christmas Concert” featuring Ukrainian and European holiday music along with Strauss waltzes to usher in the new year. The “Diesel Show Big Christmas Concert” followed, headlined by a variety of television actors ranging from pop music stars to comedians, with acts for children to enjoy. 

The war was never far from mind. Advertisements for these shows promised that “in the event of an air raid, everyone will wait for blowback in a safe shelter. Then the concert will continue.” Ticket proceeds support various wartime charities.

The shows at the October Palace, overlooking Independence Square, represent only a portion of the festivities during this third wartime holiday season. The national Christmas tree towered over the square before the 11^th-century St. Sophia Cathedral, while holiday fairs of various sizes were set up on Podil’s Kontraktovyi Square and elsewhere. The city’s circus and puppet theater filled with children and their parents, including those who had been wounded at the front. Music clubs and dance halls continued the merriment into early morning. 

As in Kyiv, Christmas marts have sprung up for holiday celebrations in cities and towns across Ukraine. Skating rinks serve as their focal points, with laughter, frost, and a Christmas tree—making ice skating an integral part of the celebration.

Each of these traditions, which have grown stronger during the past three wartime years, marks a turn to celebrating the holidays in ways similar to what takes place in Europe. The holidays have become one more way in which Ukrainians are turning West to confirm their cultural identities.

Ukrainians embrace their own distinctive Christmas customs too. In Lviv, the skating rink, holiday market, and towering Christmas tree on Rynok (Market) Square are joined by the installation of a giant didukh, a Christmas decoration made of wheat and decorated with ribbons. Children in traditional dress sing Ukrainian carols to celebrate yuletide. The Star-Bearers Parade makes its way from Muzeyna Square to Rynok Square, with people in costumes carrying bright decorations to the sounds of carols.

The holidays are also a time for reflection. The current war has taken a deep toll on every Ukrainian family. The traumas of violence, destruction, and death require more time to heal than any single Christmas and New Year’s celebration. In the meantime, the faithful will find solace in their religious rites and beliefs; most Ukrainians will delight in the moments they can share with family and loved ones. 

Mykola Leontovych’s famous New Year’s song “Shchedryk” (“The Little Swallow”)—known as the “Carol of the Bells” in English—recasts a traditional folk chant. According to the traditional verse, a little swallow flies into the household to proclaim a plentiful and bountiful year ahead. The American lyrics by Peter Wilhousky records the repeating refrain, “One seems to hear, words of good cheer / From everywhere, filling the air.” Kyivans and their compatriots throughout Ukraine spent the holiday season searching for words of good cheer and the prosperity that accompanies peace.

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.