But men, women and children are patiently lining up to pedal an energy bike and use it to illuminate the wired beauty. Suddenly it also becomes lighter in the hall – and more Christmassy. With Russian President Vladimir Putin bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for weeks, power outages in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities are extreme. Without daylight, the metropolis of Kiev sinks into a bewildering darkness.
People with flashlights search the steps in black tunnels to avoid falling. There is no consistent lighting on the street, at most small light sources that hardly provide orientation. The mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, promises time and time again that he will work hard to restore the infrastructure destroyed by the “Russian terrorists”. But no one escapes the blackouts.
In the luxury department store Tsum in Kiev on Khreshchatyk boulevard, the saleswomen in the perfumery and other luxury boutiques are groping in the dark. The few customers grab their mobile phone and turn on the flashlight app to get a better look at their sunglasses or handbag. The escalators are standing still. Security guards make sure nothing is stolen in the dark – unlike the Tsum Temple of Consumption in Moscow, where everything is illuminated.
Last Tuesday, Klitschko had to admit that the city of three million inhabitants could only meet 50 percent of its electricity needs due to the Russian attacks. For example, there is help at the train station or other points in the city where people can warm up or charge their mobile phones and power banks. Hotels and restaurants help themselves with electricity generators; In many places, decorated trees light up dining rooms and English carols blare over music systems. But the fear is that the diesel for the generators will run out again.
“We’re not going to let that bastard in the Kremlin ruin Christmas for us,” said Alla, owner of a downtown Seawine wine shop. She says her customers buy fine wine and sparkling wine for the Christmas and New Year celebrations. “We celebrate Christmas on December 25, just like the normal rest of the world,” she says. Traditionally, however, the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine – as in Russia – follow the old Julian calendar and celebrate on January 7.
“It’s the old world, it’s the die-hards,” says Alla in her native Russian. In any case, she emphasizes that – because of the war – she is done with Russian culture. Christmas on December 25 is also a good day to make the break with warlike Russia even more concrete.
Alla is not alone in this opinion. According to a new survey by the rating group, 44 percent in Ukraine support the idea of moving Christmas celebrations from January 7 to December 25, compared to just 15 percent in 2017. The idea is especially popular in western Ukraine, in Kiev and among young people. In return, the majority shrinks in favor of keeping the Orthodox Christmas date. 55 percent of Ukrainians want to continue to celebrate traditionally on January 7 exclusively. In 2021 that was still 71 percent.
“There is a clear trend, Ukraine is moving its vector to the west,” says deputy director of Rating Group Lyubomyr Mysiw. “This is a clear consequence of the war, behavior changes by Russian aggression. Many don’t want to celebrate Christmas when the Russians celebrate it,” he says. According to the research, the share of Ukrainians who celebrate Christmas Day around December 25 has also fallen. Only a third are against – instead of 58 percent a year ago.
Opinion pollsters have been gauging party behavior for years. But Mysiw also emphasizes that a social discussion with the churches is necessary. A move to the Western Church calendar would affect all Christian holidays, bringing them forward by about 14 days.
Since 2017, both December 25 and January 7 are public holidays in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, founded in 2019 with state support, announced in October that it would also offer services on December 25 this year. Until now, only Protestant and Catholic churches in Ukraine have celebrated Christmas on December 25. For example, at St. Catherine’s Church in Kiev, German pastor Wolfgang Heldt-Meyerding from the Protestant congregation holds services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There should also be Christmas stollen and punch.
But there is also confusion. “We don’t even know when to celebrate anymore. There are discussions,” says the young mother Julia, who arrives at the station in Kiev at six in the morning on an overnight train from the Polish city of Chelm. The beautician has just completed further education in Poland and has a suitcase full of presents.The woman, who fled the Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in 2014, explains that traditionally, like most people in the former Soviet Union, the gifts are given on New Year’s Eve.
(SDA)