Ukrainians Love Christmas

and since most everyone is the same religion, it's treated more like a national holiday, which is fine by me since I'm agnostic but I love getting in the Christmas spirit. Some things that have made my first holiday season away from my family and friends a bit easier are Skype (hi Mom), Love Actually (movie), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (movie, the cartoon 1966 version), Elf (movie), A Very She&Him Christmas Album, Amy Winehouse's Lioness Album, Judy Garland's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (and Christina Aguilera's version too), making paper snowflakes, and eating lots of European chocolate. I was even given a little mini fir tree from my coworker! However, Ukrainians aren't in the Christmas spirit just yet as they celebrate Christmas after New Years on January 7th because with most people being Orthodox Catholic (the 2nd largest Christian denomination in the world), they use the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar (what everyone else uses). I bet you didn't even know you were on the Gregorian calendar! What's the difference? The Gregorian calendar is 11 minutes shorter so we lose 3 days every 400 years to keep in sync with the sun and moon. America switched from Julian to Gregorian when we were wee-bit colonies still controlled by England in 1752. Even Russia, Ukraine's more modern but just as Orthodox big sister, turned to the Gregorian in 1918 (when it turned communist and religion was made illegal, coincidence?). So, even though switching to the Gregorian calendar is probably in Ukraine's future, I'll have to wait for everyone to turn all festive until after New Years for now. They even call those fir trees we decorate and put presents under a New Years Tree... c'mon! Even their "Santa Claus" is different. Here's their version "Father Frost" (Дед Мороз), who is always accompanied by his granddaughter, the "Snow Maiden" (Снегурочка).

Father Frost (FF) vs Santa Claus (SC):

• FF's hat is curved like a dome where SC's hat is more like a cone
• FF's robe is floor length and hooded where SC's robe is not hooded, has a wide black belt at the waist, and fits more like a top with red pants and black or brown boots.
• FF's robe can be either red or blue and embellished with traditional Slavic prints in yellow or white where SC's robe is always red and not embellished
• FF's beard is longer than SC's beard
• FF carries a septum where SC carries a brown or black colored sack full of presents
• FF gives presents himself at New Years parties where SC sneaks in at midnight on Christmas Eve to put presents underneath the tree in secret
• FF always has his granddaughter with him called the Snow Maiden, a beautiful girl in a light blue dress with white trim and decorative hat, where SC has his reindeer and sleigh

I learned all of this as I was teaching my 11th graders new Christmas vocabulary, astonished that they had a completely different view of Santa Claus than what I remembered. They all knew my Santa Claus from movies and the internet but I didn't know theirs. It was definitely humbling. Discrepancies like this make me realize (or realise in the King's English) that even something as specific as Christmas (or the English Language) is interpreted differently all around the world. It seems like common sense but it's all in the details. Not much changes on the Julian calendar except for the dates of holidays so I'll be safe once I buy a 2012 datebook here. Happy holidays all the way from Ukraine!