Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells religious leaders that peace is on the agenda for 2025, as Ukrainians across the country celebrate Christmas for the second year on Dec. 25 after policymakers voted to change the official date last year in a snub to Russia. Cemeteries were full over the holiday as families sought to visit loved ones lost in the war, and the cultural diplomacy of Ukraine’s famed ‘Shchedryk’ and ‘Carol of the Bells’ remains strong.
Zelensky promises to seek peace in 2025 in call with Patriarch
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a call with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Christmas Eve to assure the religious leader that Ukraine is working toward making 2025 a peaceful year for Ukraine and the world as a whole.
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“On the eve of Christmas, I spoke with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,” Zelensky wrote on Tuesday on the social media platform X. “I expressed my gratitude for His spiritual support of Ukraine and prayers for the Ukrainian people.”
He noted that Ukraine deeply values the Patriarchate’s efforts to strengthen support for Ukraine within the global religious community along with its contribution to the nation’s spiritual independence.
“We deeply value the Patriarchate’s efforts to strengthen support for Ukraine within the global religious community and its contribution to our nation’s spiritual independence,” the president said. “Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that 2025 becomes a year of just and lasting peace for our country and the entire world.”
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Ukraine’s parliament voted to ban the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in August. Kyiv has been trying to curb spiritual links with Russia for years – a process that was hugely accelerated by Moscow’s 2022 invasion, which the powerful Russian Orthodox Church sanctified.
Hundreds of MPs voted to approve the bill outlawing religious organizations linked with Russia, including the Russia-linked UOC, which is linked to the Moscow patriarchate, several MPs reported. It needed 226 votes to pass the 450-seat parliament. The bill was welcomed by Zelensky’s office. “There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine,” Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on Telegram.
The Constantinople-based Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bartholomew, who is considered the most authoritative figure in the Orthodox world, recognized the canonical status of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2019, granting it autocephaly. The Moscow Patriarchate has since been at loggerheads with Bartholomew.
Ukrainian Orthodox Christians attended Christmas services last year on December 25 for the first time after the government changed the date from January 7 – when most Orthodox believers celebrate – as a move closer to the West and away from Russia.
Ukrainian families celebrate Christmas at the cemetery to be near lost loved ones
This will be the first Christmas that Lyubov spends without her son Taras Onyskiv, who died aged 32 in May while fighting off Russian troops on the eastern front. She brought a Christmas tree to her son’s grave in a Lviv cemetery, covered in a dusting of fresh snow.
“We’ll come and spend Christmas here,” she told AFP, after wrapping fairy lights over the tombstone. She remembered Christmases past and the long-standing family tradition of stuffing pieces of paper with wishes inside freshly baked donuts. “We were always so happy,” she said.
Nearly three years into the Russian invasion, celebrations across Ukraine are shrouded in grief. “Not all of us are home, unfortunately. Sadly, not everyone has a home. And tragically, not everyone is still with us,” Zelensky said in his Christmas address.
Lyubov is not the only one planning to spend the holiday in the Lychakiv cemetery in southeastern Lviv, one of the oldest graveyards in Europe where several families have been decorating their loved ones’ graves.
Since Russia invaded, rows of new graves have appeared, creating a sea of blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags and red-and-black nationalist banners. “We will bring Christmas porridge here on Christmas Eve. We will pray that it will be easy for him in heaven without us,” said Mariya Lun, who lost her son Yuri in 2022.
Zelensky said recently that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war – though independent estimates put the toll much higher. The UN also says its confirmed number of 11,743 killed civilians is a vast underestimate. “There is war, a cruel war, and our children are dying... we mourn our sons,” Lun said.
Ukraine’s army is on the backfoot in most parts of the front, including in the eastern Donbas region. Russian troops are closing in on Pokrovsk, the birthplace of Mykola Leontovych, who composed the Ukrainian New Year’s song “Shchedryk”, then adapted in the famous Carol of the Bells.
“A Ukrainian gifted the world the musical spirit of Christmas. May everyone in the world remember Ukraine when they hear it,” the president said.
From Pokrovsk to the world: The war-time legacy of Ukraine’s ‘Shchedryk’ and ‘Carol of the Bells’
Known worldwide for its festive melody, “Carol of the Bells” has deep roots in Ukraine’s historic struggle for independence. Originally a folk song sung around the New Year called “Shchedryk,” it was first performed in the US in 1922 by the Ukrainian National Chorus after touring Europe as part of a tour aimed at raising cultural understanding about the fledging nation of Ukraine.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, reflected on the song’s significance during a recent performance in Washington. “It’s painful, but it’s also a call to action,” she told The Washington Post, highlighting how “Shchedryk” resonates with the ongoing war in Ukraine today.
The song’s journey began in 1916 when composer Mykola Leontovych arranged it for a choir after completing the composition while living in Pokrovske.
Following the turmoil of World War I, the Ukrainian National Chorus embarked on a tour to promote Ukrainian culture and their plea for independence. “The Ukrainians are a singing people – they sing every event from great wars down to village festivals,” according to the United Press’s “Musical News” column in the Buffalo Times on July 16, 1922.
In 1922, as the choir performed at Carnegie Hall, Ukraine was no longer recognized as an independent nation, and Leontovych had been killed by a Soviet agent.
But the music persisted. The choir’s performances captivated audiences across North America, leading to “Shchedryk” being reimagined as “Carol of the Bells” by American composer Peter Wilhousky in 1936.
The melody tells the story of a swallow heralding the arrival of spring and prosperity. The original lyrics to “Shchedryk” in Ukrainian and English are:
Today, as Ukrainians celebrate their rich cultural heritage amidst the war, “Carol of the Bells” serves not only as a Christmas classic but also as a powerful symbol of resilience and hope. The ambassador emphasized this connection. “Listening to this beautiful music not only returns us to this period of holidays and Christmas but also reminds us that this fight for our independence is not something that happens in this century only,” she said.
As Ukraine continues its battle for sovereignty, the haunting melody of “Carol of the Bells” echoes as a reminder of both Ukraine’s past struggles against hostile neighbors and the country’s enduring spirit for freedom and independence.
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