There are many holidays celebrated in Ukraine. They can be divided in three groups: all-national, political and religious ones. Some of them have an ancient origin and others appeared in Ukrainian calendars quite recently. All official holidays are marked with red in Ukrainian calendars and are days-off (excepting for our Service!)

 

 

 

January 1. New Year

This is everybody's favourite holiday. Decorating the Christmas tree, going to New Year's parties, getting presents, — we love all this and impatiently wait for New Year's Eve to come.

January 6. Orthodox Christmas

Great deals of old Ukrainian customs that go back to centuries ago are connected with Christmas. They are fortune telling, singing Christmas carols, cooking traditional Ukrainian Christmas dishes, and going to church.

St Valentine's Day is a very popular holiday in Europe and America. However, in Ukraine and other countries of former USSR this holiday began to be celebrated not more than 10 years ago. Anyway, we love this holiday very much!

March 8. International Women's Day

On this day you will hardly see a woman on the street, at work or home, without a bouquet of flowers in her hands. Everything started this way…
Back in Ancient Rome, there existed a women's day, celebrated by matrons. On that day, matrons (married women born in freedom) received presents from their husbands and were showered by love and care. Slaves would also receive gifts and they were allowed to rest on that day. Much time passed by. Women decided to change their life, to fight for equal rights with men.
On March 08, 1857, textile workers of New York marched along the city streets protesting against low salaries and bad working conditions. In 1910, at the International Conference of Women in Copenhagen, Clara Tsetkin suggested International Women's Day be celebrated yearly on March 08 - in memory of the events in New York which had taken place a long time before.
In Ukraine, this day has been celebrated since 1913, and become a great holiday.
   

 

May 1. International Workers' Solidarity Day.

This is a Soviet era holiday is still celebrated in Ukraine even though the holiday became more or less obsolete.

The orthodox holiday of Easter.
    Easter is one of the greatest Orthodox holidays – the holiday of Resurrection of Christ.
The week before Easter week is dedicated to the preparations for the holiday. Before the Great Thursday (three days before Easter) everything must be cleaned at home, and this day is called Clean Thursday. Exactly on this day, eggs should be painted, dough should be prepared, and Easter bread should be baked. An ancient tradition to paint eggs in “spots”: wet eggs are plunged in dry rice, tightly wrapped in gauze and boiled in onion peel, and only then – painted.

Great Passionate Friday is a day of spring fasting. They say that that nothing must be done around the home on this day. Those people who strictly follow restrictions will not even take a bath on this day. In churches, sermons about the Savoir are read.
   On the morning of the Great Saturday, there is a service in church, after which Easter food is blessed: kulich, eggs, Easter bread, water, etc. These things are present in each home on Easter, on a beautifully laid table.
   “Paskha” cake is the main decoration of each Easter table, baked from sweet yeast, dough, is of different sizes, but high and round in shape. On the top of “Paskha” cake, there is a cross-made of dough. The more successful and beautiful “Paskha” cake is, the more successful the whole year will be.
   Easter eggs are the main symbol of Easter. As people say, to eat blessed Easter eggs means strong health for the whole year. If one has a headache, one must press a blessed egg against their head, and the egg will take away the pain. Water for washing in which an egg is plunged brings beauty and health.
   They say that the more gifts you give on Easter, the happier you will be. Priests, however, claim that a number of gifts have nothing to do with it. Anyway, there is something that everyone can do on Easter.

June 6. Ivan Kupala Day.

The 7th of July is a day of birth of St. John the Baptist, Ivan's Day, as it's called in Ukraine. The night from July 6 to 7 is believed to posses some magic opportunities, unique for this night only.

Kupala night is a special night. Not only for it being the most mysterious, enigmatic and yet the most dissolute night of the year. Most characteristic of this night are multiply customs and rites, which have to do with herbs. Herbs picked at that night considered having the strongest healing properties.
 All night through people keep Kupala bonfires, leap over the flames, cleaning themselves of ill and bad luck. The remnants of the big fire is thrown around, or taken at home, to protect it against evil forces. Another custom - mothers burn shirts of ill children in Kupala fire; illnesses are believed to burn away with it. The culmination of rituals is “destroying a witch”. Some thing symbolizing a witch (like scarecrow, the scull of the horse, old shoes) are burnt, floated or thrown away to some dust-heap, ditch or bog.

At the sun rise young unmarried girls weaved garlands of flowers, took omens for their fortune, and thrown them floating to water - whose garland floats faster down the stream, that girl would faster meet her intended husband.

May 9. The Victory Day. There is hardly a Ukrainian family, which would not suffer from Nazis in the Great Patriotic war 1941-1945. There is always a military parade involving all the people who took part in World War II. All the old uniforms are worn with the original medals. Their family and friends give these old soldiers flowers and congratulations.

 

June 28. Constitution Day. Constitution Day - the day when effective Ukrainian Constitution was adopted in 1996. Although these holidays do not have long-lasting traditions, they quickly become increasingly popular among Ukrainians.
 

August 24. Independence Day. In 1991 independence was proclaimed and Ukraine became a Sovereign state. This is a very important holiday for Ukrainian.
Each Ukrainian city also has it City Day. These days may commemorate different events such as official city establishment day or a day when the city was freed from fascist occupation during World War II. Some of the Ukrainian cities have centuries-long traditions.

Kiev, the Capital of Ukraine, celebrates its days at the last weekends of May. The celebration usually held at different locations in Kiev and several performances of popular actors or musicians take place for public enjoyment.