Translation: Lilja Ragnheiður Einarsdóttir

In the place that now constitutes the country of Ukraine, people started celebrating Christmas long before Icelanders.

Son of the sun god

East Slavs, the ancestors of modern Ukrainians, celebrated Christmas in Kyiv around the middle of the first millennia. Ingólfur Arnarson, the first settler in Iceland, arrived there some 400 years later.

Christmas was the main celebration of the East Slavs and they held festivities on December 25th as many countries do today. One factor however distinguishes East Slavs from others: their festivities centered around celebrating the birth of the son of the sun god, their highest deity.

The East Slavs’ religion was pagan, according to which the embodiment of the darkness of the shortest days was the gigantic dragon Korotun, who ate the sun leading up to the winter solstice. In this way their religion explained the three darkest days of the year right after the winter solstice.

The legend also tells the story of how Kolyada, the sun god’s wife, fell pregnant with the son of the sun god, the new sun. In order to protect his wife and unborn child, the sun god transformed his wife into a goat and hid her in a cave and thereby prevented her from getting eaten by the dragon. In the safety of the cave Kolyada birthed her son, thereafter the days became longer and brighter.

Christmas Carols

Nowadays, Ukrainian Christmas carols dedicated to the birth of Jesus Christ are called kolyadka. Men who sing the kolyadkas are called kolyadúvalnik.

Most modern kolyadúvalniks do not revere Jesus. They knock on people’s doors, sing kolyadkas and ask for money. This is the most famous kolyadka:

Kolyad, kolyad, kolyadnisía

Bread with honey is very good.

Bread is not as good without honey

Give me pjatak* sir.

Pjatak is not enough,

Give me a paper rouble*

But the ruble has three holes

Give me five roubles.

*- colloquial terms for money

This tradition may be a little reminiscent of ‘trick or treating’ but they are really asking for money. They do not care for bread with honey. Kolyadúvealniks often ask for vodka in their songs. To honour the birth of Jesus, men go from door to door to ask for money or vodka, or both. That is authentically Ukrainian.

More culturally inclined kolyadúvalniks, though few in number, ask neither for money nor vodka. Their songs are defined by traditional celebration for the birth of Christ to the homeowners they sing to. One such kolyadka starts with the words:

Good evening to you, sir!

Rejoice! Rejoice, world! The son of God was born!

It may seem strange but pagan songs that venerate the son of the sun god are also called kolyadkas. The carols are named after Kolyada, the sun god’s wife, and so kolyadkas are songs revering Kolyada and her son. Logical, is it not?

Christians did not have any Kolyada however. Therefore, they now sing the Christian God songs named after pagan legends and originally sung to glorify a pagan god, the Christian God’s main enemies. A bit akin to calling psalms something like “Ave Santana.”

Ragnar Lodbrok’s Grandchild

The first connection between Ukraine and Iceland appears in a story beginning over a thousand years ago when a militant viking by the name of Oleg or Helgi, seized control of most of the East Slavic tribes and established the large state of Kievan Rus with Kyiv as its capital city, which is still the capital of Ukraine today.

Oleg’s major battle, and the turning point in his story, was his conquest of Kyiv and the murder of Askold, the king of Kyiv, in the year 882. Askold was also a viking and Olof Von Dalin, a Swedish historian from the 18th century, was certain that Askold was Asleik Björnson, the grandchild of Ragnar Lodbrok.

According to this version of events, Oleg/Helgi was the son of the Icelandic settler Ketill Þorkelsson, better known as Ketill Hængur. Thus, the son of Ketill Hængur is supposed to have killed the grandchild of Ragnar Lodbrok in order to become king of Kyiv.

Oleg was pagan and may well have sung kolyadka carols on the birthday of the sun god’s child.

A Holy Rapist

A century after Oleg’s rule, Volodymyr, the pagan king of Kievan Rus, murdered thousands of his own citizens to convert the national religion from paganism to Christianity. The religious establishment in the country later made him a saint. There was nothing saintly about Volodymyr’s life, however.

Aside from the bloody debut of Christianity, he killed his elder brother in an abhorrent manner to claim the throne of Kyiv for himself. He also raped his brother’s pregnant wife, along with Rogneda, the princess of Polotsk, while forcing her parents and brothers to watch before murdering them.

Paganism had been practiced for so long that people kept following their own holy traditions despite the threat of death. The church realised it would be impossible to be rid of the pagan traditions completely, so they used underhanded manoeuvres to push their agenda. They co-opted pagan holidays to celebrate Christian events instead. The birth of Jesus then replaced the birth of the sun god’s son, and this is why kolyadkas are still sung for Christmas to this day.

Food for the dead

The tradition of cooking the pagan holiday food, kutia, for Christmas has also been preserved. Kutia is boiled wheat with honey and poppyseeds. Today, kutia is seen as traditional Christian Christmas food.

The pagans believed that their deceased loved ones would visit them on Christmas eve. They would leave out kutia and spoons for their loved ones, so they could get a bite to eat. Christians don’t believe in the dead coming to greet them before Christmas, but even a thousand years after the country converted to Christianity, Ukrainians still partake in the pagan tradition of feeding their lost loved ones.

The main part of the celebration that has been lost with Christianity is the day of celebration. Most Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January instead of the 25th of December.

Double Christmas

Even though East Slavic Christianity has its origin in and around Kyiv, more than 1000 years ago, the population of Ukraine has been occupied by the Tsardom of Muscovy, the Russian empire and soviet communism for the last 500 years. Therefore, until recently, the official national religion of Ukraine was the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). All Ukrainian churches were under Moscow’s control.

ROC still works according to the Julian calendar, even though it has not been used in most of the world for the last 300-400 years due to its inaccuracy. The 25th of December in the Julian calendar corresponds to the 7th of January in the Gregorian calendar which most of mankind follow. Most Ukrainians are not aware of this discrepancy and don’t understand why others celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December. They do not know that they also celebrate it on the 25th of December, just in the Julian calendar.

The new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which had been unofficially active for the past three decades but was officially recognised in 2018, has not emphasised changing the calendar to the Gregorian one which would change the date of Christmas celebrations to the 25th of December.

Just as when Christianity took the place of paganism a thousand years ago, it could be difficult to make people pick up new traditions. The ‘small’ change of moving Christmas from one day to another could take decades and in that time the parish fees would run to the ROC. Most churches in Ukraine are still owned by the ROC, so if Ukrainians cannot attend Christmas mass in Ukrainian churches, they will attend in the Russian churches and support them with funds and attendance. Christmas is and should be celebrated on the 7th of January in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Christmas: Halloween of the Orthodox