Calendar Questions:
Out with the Old and in with the New? 

There are some that make a rather convincing argument about the existence of no less than three calendars in the Ukrainian Community.  In addition to the Old and New Calendars, or Julian and Gregorian respectively, there are those who simply amalgamate the two and celebrate the major holidays twice!  Few issues raise the ire of our people than this one concerning the calendar.  Certainly no holiday in my family is complete without an emotional argument over it at the dinner table. What is all the fuss about? 

It was the Roman Church in the sixteenth century that took the advice of certain astronomers to update its calendar by moving the year forward ten days.  A papal edict went out and when people in Western Europe went to sleep on October 1^st, they got up the next morning to greet October 10^th! 

But the calendar issue then was not simply an "Eastern vs. Western" church "thing." 

In fact, many Roman bishops and their dioceses simply refused to adopt the new calendar for much the same reasons why the Eastern Church would not. 

The rationalist argument that the revered Julian Calendar according to which the ancient Church feasts were established was "behind the times" did not wash with many.   

If the calendar could be changed, along with the timing of a number of feast days that resulted from the change, then what was preventing the eventual demise of Christian doctrines that didn't happen to fit the contemporary philosophical mood of modernizing churchmen? 

Even if the Old Calendar was off by some time, it made no difference since the order of the Church's liturgical year was spiritually more important than the need to be astronomically correct.   

Some Catholic areas even produced their martyrs for the Old Calendar.  The Anglican Church refused the Gregorian Calendar on these grounds, in addition to its anti-papalism.  This is why there are still some Anglican parishes that celebrate Christmas on January 6^th to this day, especially in Wales and Scotland that refers to it as "Yule."   

The Christmas Thorn of Glastonbury continues to flower on January 6^th or 7^th and it is at this time, and not on December 25^th, that the Thorn is cut and sent as a special Christmas present to Queen Elizabeth the Second. 

Under almost continuous Roman Catholic rule since the seventeenth century, Western Ukraine did what it could to maintain its identity and religious/cultural institutions. 

Religion played an absolute part in the cultural/national self-understanding of the people.  In the absence of political and cultural organizations, the Orthodox Church fulfilled more than one role in these respects.

Thus, the liturgical and ritual differences between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians were more than religiously symbolic ones.  They expressed a fundamental cultural and even national difference between two peoples living within the same political framework. 

Efforts by the dominating Roman Catholic power to try and assimilate the dominated Orthodox people of their empire were therefore aimed at the one remaining bastion of national/cultural defense that these people had left - the Orthodox Church, her doctrines, traditions and spirituality. 

This is why the Orthodox three-bar Cross was, and still is, the object of attack.  It is different from the one-bar Western Cross and, as such, embodies a differentiated cultural system and identity. 

The same applies to almost all other Orthodox traditions and practices that were different from Roman Catholic ones.   

When the Union of Brest-Litovsk was made in 1596, bringing into union with Rome a group of Ukrainian and Belorussian Orthodox bishops who became Catholic thereby, its basis was, ideally, that the traditions of Orthodoxy would be left alone, save for the commemoration of the Pope in the liturgy. 

Latinization, however, followed and the Ukrainian aristocracy soon became heavily Polonized.   

But the Ukrainian people of the villages, although Eastern Catholic, tended to maintain their commitment to their Byzantine-Slavic heritage that was always their way of keeping their own Ukrainian identity. 

Among the most effective practices in this regard was the maintenance of the Old Julian Calendar. 

To this day in Canada, one may still hear of December 25^th described as the "Polish holidays."  January 7^th is called "our (Ukrainian) holiday." 

And one well-known television advertisement follows suit and also describes January 7^th as "Ukrainian Christmas."  And this even though other Churches follow the Old Calendar as well! 

In Western Canada, where a number of my relatives come from, it was always "Ukrainian Christmas" on January 7^th since Canadians of other cultural backgrounds only came into contact with Ukrainian Old Calendarists. 

Others from the Third Wave of immigration to Canada simply consider the observance of the Old Calendar as a "patriotic duty."  And if one didn't like the Old Calendar, then one wasn't being a patriotic Ukrainian (shame, shame!).

There are Ukrainian families, especially Ukrainian Catholic families, where both calendars are observed individually and collectively due to "force of circumstances." 

"Force of circumstances" defies adequate description or definition.  But whenever this term is used, everyone seems to know what it is referring to, however . . . 

The fact is that maintaining the status quo for its own sake is a project that is bound to fail and may be already failing. 

The fact is that the "Us vs. Them" attitude that justified the Old Calendar in Ukraine and also in North America no longer applies. 

That doesn't reflect on the Old Calendar or its use.  It only means that we need to find a stronger argument for its use among the younger generation than the "patriotic" one. 

Insularity makes for solid cultural identity in situations where the dominating majority wants to crush one.   

But in North America, the younger generations will measure their ethnic heritage according to mainstream perspectives, and not the other way around. 

I am not arguing in favour of this or that date (or both) regarding Christmas.  I am in favour of having the most spiritual experience of Christmas in accordance with our traditions that is possible. 

A double holiday is not the answer.  For one thing, it makes a mockery of the fasting and preparatory rules of the Church.  And how much can we really eat and drink in one season?  Religion should never be hazardous to one's physical health! 

The New Calendar celebration of the Nativity, on the other hand, tends to be weighed down with all the commercialism of Santa Claus and the like.  I know Ukrainian families who try to observe the Nativity on December 25^th, but who almost always fail to do it in accordance with Ukrainian Christian traditions and spirituality. 

There is no time to observe the Holy Supper the night before, people are too tired from all the shopping to go to Church and the major focus on the 25^th is what Santa has placed under the tree . . .  So much for the argument that the new Calendar affords one more time for our traditions! 

One further point here is that what often passes as "Ukrainian tradition" is really a watered down version of mainstream North American practice.  We don't ever do the gift-giving thing on the Feast of the Nativity, but on St Nicholas' Day, a wonderful way to keep commercialism at bay! 

But this isn't to say that observing the 7^th of January is without its challenges. 

When there is such pressure to return to work when the rest of the world does, something will "give" with respect to the celebration of the Nativity. 

That "something" is often the religious, spiritual celebration of this Feast.  The Holy Supper with kutiya and the other folk traditions are zealously observed, to be sure.  But what happens with Church, with Great Compline, the Royal Hours and the Divine Liturgy when one has to go to work the next day and cannot/will not take the day off? 

It is disturbing to hear of families who feel they have adequately marked "Ukrainian Christmas" with the Holy Supper alone. 

One child in my religion class, Jeremy, publicly said that his father regarded those Ukrainians who celebrated the Nativity on December 25^th as "garbage" (sic).  When I asked the fellow how his Old Calendar celebrations were when everyone returned from the Christmas break, he admitted that they didn't get to Church because "Dad had to go to work." 

The Feast of the Nativity on January 7^th should always be a day free from work when we may give ourselves over to the spiritual joy and celebration of this great day. 

The equation of its proper observance with the Holy Supper i.e. pyrohy and borscht alone is a travesty that is perhaps connected with the cultural/patriotic emphasis to the Old Calendar given by our parents and grandparents with a religious emphasis somehow taking a backseat. 

And if January 7^th is simply that, then it makes no difference whether we hold "Ukrainian Christmas" now or on December 25^th or even during "Kwangzaa" for that matter. 

It is up to the competent Church authorities to decide the Church Calendar.  I would like propose a few reforms in how we observe the holidays for those who believe in the enduring value of the Old Calendar for our Church and Community. 

First of all, let's try and NOT observe two Christmases.  If one is going to have a Christmas dinner on the 25^th, then be honest about it and say that you've celebrated Christmas, period.   

One could have a party, but observe the fasting regulations of the Church in preparation for the Feast of the Nativity on January 6^th-7^th.  The Russian Church Outside Russia, in fact, appointed the Feast of St Herman and the Martyrs of the American Land for December 25^th to give their people a reason to celebrate without the travesty of "doing two Christmases."  

New Year's Day is different since Russia and Ukraine celebrate it as a civil holiday.  Our liturgical New Year is actually on September 14^th, anyway.  I think that is great since it allows for an opportunity to make January 14^th, the Feast of the Name of Jesus, a more spiritual observance.  "Malanka" was never intended to be a drunken imitation of mainstream New Year's Eve parties.  One may observe New Year's Eve without going "nuts" about it. 

January 7^th and the next two days after that, if possible, should be days taken off from work.  If that is impossible, then it is impossible.  But so many other cultural groups demand and take their special days off, what's wrong with us?  Mainstream North America has already gotten used to "Ukrainian Christmas" and "Armenian Christmas" along with "Tibetan New Year" and "Hannukah," "Ramadan" etc.   

The Holy Supper on the 6^th should be observed as a spiritual event within the context of our ancestral culture. 

We should never think we've "fulfilled our obligation" after the last pyrih ("perogy") is eaten. 

The Church's Divine Services are the heart of the holy-day and that is where the evening and day should find us, with our families and friends. 

And, finally, if we could manage it, let's keep dinner and holiday conversation to a minimum about work and how the stock market is doing . . . 

I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of all of us who serve you through "Ukrainian Orthodoxy" to wish you and your families a most blessed Nativity Season and "tasty kutya!" 

Khrystos Rozhdayetsia!

Slavimo Yoho!

Dr. Alexander Roman  alex@unicorne.org