The 25th Or 7th

From Insider/Yahoo:

“The Orthodox Church of Ukraine said Christmas can be moved to December 25, in another snub to Russia”

(Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, conducts a service marking Orthodox Christmas and celebrating the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine January 7, 2019.)

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine said Christmas can now be celebrated on December 25. It previously marked Christmas on January 7, alongside the Russian Orthodox Church. Russia's invasion has pushed many Ukrainian institutions to become more aligned with the West. A Ukrainian Orthodox church said its churches can officially celebrate Christmas on December 25, another step increasing alignment with the West at the expense of Russia. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine announced that its assembly had voted in favor of letting parishes choose whether to mark Christmas on December 25. That's a contrast with the church's traditional placing of Christmas on January 7, when many Orthodox churches celebrate, including Russia's. The decision affects around 7,000 churches across Ukraine, The Guardian reported.

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until 1991, and has a centuries-long cultural overlap with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of the country this year on the baseless claim that Ukraine is not truly a separate country, but really a historical part of Russia. Since the invasion, Ukrainian society has rejected many Russian-influenced aspects of its culture, and has sped up its alignment with the West, which has supported it with weapons and sanctions on Russia. Ukraine's Orthodox Church alluded to this change in an October 18 statement, saying the decision came after "taking into account the numerous requests" and discussion that has been going on for many years within the church and society, while noting the impact of the war, CNN reported. The decision was made by the church's synod last month, but was not widely reported until now.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is distinct from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with the latter maintaining ties to Moscow until recently, The Guardian noted. Archbishop Yevstratiy Zoria, a spokesperson for the church, told The Guardian that the church would look at how many of the church's members celebrated on December 25 this year and then decide what to do in coming years. "We don't want to force anyone," he said. He added that many churchgoers had already wanted to move the celebration to the Western date of December 25, but that desire had increased since the invasion began. Russia's Orthodox Church has supported Russia's war in Ukraine, with its leader saying in September that dying against Ukraine is an act of "sacrifice" that absolves soldiers of their sins. Ukraine had been increasingly aligning itself with the West. This has included applying to join the European Union and NATO, and tearing down Soviet-era monuments.

^ Ukraine (and Russia) celebrated Christmas on December 25th from the time the Orthodox Christian Church was created in 1589 until the Communist Takeover in 1917 (for 328 years.)

Note 1: Catholic Countries like Spain, France, Poland, etc. changed to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 and Protestant Countries like the United States, the UK, Germany, etc. changed to the Gregorian Calendar around 1752.

The Communist Soviets changed from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1918 moving everything by roughly 2 weeks meaning Christmas, which was once celebrated on December 25th, was now celebrated on January 7th  - of course the Communist then made it illegal to celebrate Christmas on any day.

Note 2: When the Catholic and Protestant Countries changed to the Gregorian Calendar they kept celebrating Christmas on December 7th and never moved it to January 7th or any other date.

What the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is now doing is just what the Catholic and Protestant Churches did Centuries ago – only letting the different Churches decide between whether to use the traditional December 25^th or more modern January 7^th.  ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/orthodox-church-ukraine-said-christmas-170543344.html