On January 19 (January 6, old style) Eastern Christians celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, or Epiphany. Baptism, like Easter, is considered the oldest holiday in Christian culture. This day is associated with the gospel event – the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Here you can read about the history, meaning and traditions of the holiday.
Malanka is a Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, folk holiday celebrated on 13 January, which is New Year’s Eve in accordance with the Julian calendar (see Old New Year).
Orthodox Christians annually celebrate Christmas Day on or near January 7 to remember Jesus Christ’s birth, described in the Christian Bible. This date works to the Julian calendar that pre-dates the Gregorian calendar, which is commonly observed.
Koliada or koleda is an ancientpre-Christian Slavic and Baltic winter festival. It was later incorporated into Christmas.
Vertepny theater is a Christmas performance by means of a puppet show, sometimes also with the participation of human actors. It was distributed mainly on the territory of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, in some regions of Russia. A nativity scene in this case is also called Vertep is a special box in which a puppet show is shown.
In the middle ages, many Russian communities, especially in the Novgorod and Pskov regions, believed in building churches as response to calamities raging at that time, most often epidemics. The tradition known as obydennye khramy requires that the church be completed within the course of a single day. These one-day votive churches were built by communal labor and were simple in design and small in size. Construction usually began at night and ended before sunset of the following day. By nightfall, the church had to be consecrated. Made of wood, they stood no more than 40-50 years.
The last Saturday of November is Holodomor Day, which is a remembrance of the seven to nine million Ukrainian Christians that were murdered through starvation by Bolsjewik Communists, between 1932 and 1933. Please say a prayer for the poor souls who were not only murdered but the truth of their murders has been buried, along with their emaciated corpses.
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: For several centuries, Khreshchatyk, the Central Boulevard and main square of Kyiv (Kiev), capital city of Ukraine was considered the heart of Kyiv. During World War II, this magnificent boulevard equal to similar in Paris, and the streets adjacent to it was completely destroyed, yet few people know about the devastation.
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