{"id":1336513,"date":"2025-12-24T11:25:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-evening-of-miracles-what-you-need-to-know-about-celebrating-christmas-eve\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T11:25:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:25:05","slug":"the-evening-of-miracles-what-you-need-to-know-about-celebrating-christmas-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-evening-of-miracles-what-you-need-to-know-about-celebrating-christmas-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evening of Miracles: What You Need to Know About Celebrating Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

For every Ukrainian, Christmas Eve is a special evening of anticipation of a miracle, family warmth and joy. For many, it is associated with childhood memories: carols, didukh and 12 Lenten dishes create a festive atmosphere. We tell you what Christmas Eve means from a biblical perspective, how to celebrate it and what to avoid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christmas Eve, or Christmas Eve, is the evening before Christmas. It falls on the last day of Lent and marks the transition from preparation to celebration. Christians remember the events that preceded the birth of Jesus: the pregnancy of the Virgin Mary, her journey to Bethlehem for a census, and the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

The name “Sochelnyk” comes from “sochivo” – the main Christmas dish, known today as kutya. Traditionally, the evening before Christmas is called Svyatvechor, emphasizing the significance of this moment.<\/p>\n

When we celebrate<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the new style, Christmas Eve falls on December 24, which is Wednesday in 2025. The old style of celebration moves Christmas Eve to January 6, but the date remains conditional, since the exact date of Jesus’ birth is unknown.<\/p>\n

How to celebrate Christmas Eve 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Lent is still in progress, Ukrainian families set a festive table with 12 Lenten dishes. The most common are: cabbage dumplings, beans, pampushki, vegetable cabbage rolls, baked fish, various pies and mushrooms. The main dish is kutya with honey and nuts.<\/p>\n

According to tradition, the head of the family sat down at the table first, and the rest of the family members joined later. During the dinner, deceased relatives were remembered and symbolically invited to the table. A straw didukh was brought into the house, and after dinner, children carried kutya to the godchildren, receiving treats and coins for it. The festive evening was accompanied by carols and ritual songs. Unmarried girls told fortunes to find out the name of their future betrothed.<\/p>\n

Prohibitions and advice<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve, as on other major holidays, it is forbidden to quarrel, do housework, insult children or animals, and drink alcohol.<\/p>\n

This year, the celebration will take place under martial law and a curfew, but this will not prevent Ukrainians from preserving traditions and celebrating Christmas Eve with their families.<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For every Ukrainian, Christmas Eve is a special evening of anticipation of a miracle, family warmth and joy. For many, it is associated with childhood memories: carols, didukh and 12 Lenten dishes create a festive atmosphere. We tell you what Christmas Eve means from a biblical perspective, how to celebrate it and what to avoid. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1173482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76878],"class_list":["post-1336513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1173482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}