12 Days of Kiev.

Ah, the holidays. No matter where you are, there always seems to be more things to do than one has time to do. And here, it's no different. This is true even though December 25th here is just an ordinary working day.

In Kiev, and the whole of Ukraine, the big holiday is New Years Day, January 1st. In pre-Soviet times, January 7th was Orthodox Christmas and January 14th was Orthodox New Year, when compared to the celebrated dates in western Europe, North America, and elsewhere. Early during the Soviet era, the switch was made from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, dropping 14 days, and bringing the civil calendars into sync with most of the remainder of Europe. Later during the Soviet era, religious celebrations were discouraged or suppressed, and in some cases, replaced with a civil holiday instead. Because of the religious background of Christmas, official state celebrations were moved to January 1st, and continues to this day.

So, January 1st, in western terms, is Christmas Day and New Years Day combined. December 25th is a normal working day for most people. Orthodox Christmas and Orthodox New Years are strictly religious holidays. (What a concept. Christmas as a religious holiday).

All of this is just a long way to introduce my year end photo retrospective, the 12 days of Kiev. It's 12 of my best photos of the year from Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine. Please visit it here.

Have a happy holiday, whichever holiday it is that you celebrate, and I look forward to seeing you next year here at My Kiev Journal.

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