Almost all the countries in the world celebrate Christmas on December 24th but in my country we cebrate it on January 7th. Christmas is the biggest celebration of Christians.
Each countrys has its onw traditions to celebrate Christmas, although some of them are similar. In my country Ukraine we celebrate Christmas in special way, preparing to it very carefully and keeping old traditions. The Christmas Eve is considered as the most interesting part of Christmas as it has ritual and magic acts aimed at ensuring a good harvest and a life of plenty.The whole family gets together at the holiday table and sing carols. Caroling is a characteristic feature of the feast. It expresses respect for the master of the house and his children, and sometimes it’s accompanied by a puppet theatre (vertep).
Small children go from house to house and sing carols for people, and people give them some money or candy and other sweets. On Christmas, we have a tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was adopted from Western Europe, but today it’s the element of the New Year celebration in Ukraine.The religious festival lasts three days. During that people people go to church on Christmas liturgy, singing Christmas carols and visiting relatives and friends. The «holy supper» on Christmas Eve is a meal of 12 ritual meatless and milkless dishes.
The order of the dishes and dishes themselves aren’t uniform. Those should include mandatory ‘Kutia’ -- the ritual food which is prepared from cooked wheat and special syrup containing diluted honey, grated poppy seeds, raisins and sometimes walnuts. everywhere. he dishes were serve in the following order: beans, fish, boiled potato, dumplings, cabbage rolls, kutya, potatoes mashed with garlic, stewed fruit, plums with beans and some other dishes.Christmas is the holiday when all members of the family gather together.
This is the holiday of joy. Contrary to the United States and some other countries Ukrainian people don’t exchange presents on this holiday. For many years only religious people observed this holiday, but today it’s an official state holiday.Children like to have fun on this holiday.
They go from door to door, sing carols and people give sweets to them. As it was already mentioned, «Kutya» is a traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish. Mothers cook «Kutya» and godchildren take it to their godparents. Christmas is my favorite holiday that is very important in my and all Christians families.
This holiday is very important for me, because I can spend time with my family.I am from Western Ukraine, and I remember well the way the Christmas Eve dinner was prepared. When we saw the first star in the sky, we sat by a family supper. Then we sing the carols. Now I live in US and I celebrate Christmas on December 24th because it's my birthday too, yet I also do not forget about Ukrainian Christmas.
Every year on January 7th I meet with my Ukrainian friends and we celebrate Christmas Eve according to our traditions.
