Celebrating Ukrainian Easter

This past Sunday, May 5th, 2024, was Easter in Ukraine.

Easter in Ukraine is a special holiday that holds great importance for the Ukrainian people. It is one of the most sacred and significant Christian holidays in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Easter, like in other Orthodox countries, is celebrated according to the Julian calendar. This means the date of its celebration may differ from Western Easter, which is determined according to the Gregorian calendar.

Ukrainians start preparing for Easter a few weeks before the holiday itself. Preparing for Easter involves more than just preparing dishes and decorations; it also entails important religious preparations and the observance of traditional rites.

Maundy Thursday, also known as “Clean Thursday,” is one of the central days of Holy Week in the Christian calendar, preceding Easter. This day holds special spiritual significance and is associated with the remembrance of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples.

On this day, a special service is held during which believers commemorate the events of the Last Supper, when Jesus Christ instituted the Holy Communion and demonstrated the act of service by washing the feet of his disciples. This ritual symbolizes humility and service, with the priest washing the feet of the faithful to exemplify the teachings of Christ.
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A Little Background: The Julian / Gregorian Calendar

The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts of Oriental Orthodoxy as well as by the Amazigh people (also known as the Berbers).

The Julian calendar was proposed in 46 BC by (and takes its name from) Julius Caesar, as a reform of the earlier Roman calendar, which was largely a lunisolar one. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC, by his edict. Caesar’s calendar became the predominant calendar in the Roman Empire and subsequently most of the Western world for more than 1,600 years, until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated a revised calendar.
Wikipedia

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull Inter gravissimas issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long, more closely approximating the 365.2422-day ‘tropical’ or ‘solar’ year that is determined by the Earth’s revolution around the Sun.

The rule for leap years is:

Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the year 2000 is. — United States Naval Observatory

Wikipedia

Semi-Sequitor: Key Players in the Calendar Evolution

Semi-Sequitur: The Berbers

The Berbers of North Africa use the Julian calendar.

Berbers (Arabic: بربر) or the Berber peoples, also called by their endonym Amazigh ( ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏ, ⵎⵣⵗⵏ, ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖ, ⵎⵣⵗ; أمازيغ), are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arabs in the Arab migrations to the Maghreb.
Wikipedia

Easter on the Front Line

Gathered in a canteen, where the windows were blacked out with tarpaulins, the men of the 24th motorised brigade lined up in front of the chaplain.

Under the harsh light of the lightbulb, the faces appeared tired after more than two years of harrowing warfare.

Singing, prayers, blessing: the service lasted nearly an hour before the soldiers sat down to a breakfast of chicken, mashed potato, cakes and sodas.

“In the context of the day-to-day military work, this is a spiritual relief, a spiritual uplifting,” said one soldier, 49-year-old Igor Kotsko.

“I understand that God protects Ukraine, because Ukraine is still holding on. The whole world is helping Ukraine. But here, at the front, in these trenches, there is certainly a lot more death than God,” Panyshenko added.
Kyiv Post