Christmas caroling and festive concerts held across UOC eparchies

Students of Sunday schools of the UOC Poltava Eparchy. Photo: Poltava Eparchy

In January 2026, during the feast days of the Nativity of Christ, eparchies of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church held caroling, festive concerts, and charitable events involving clergy, children, and laypeople. The UOC Information and Education Department reported on these Christmas activities, citing eparchial press services.

On January 10 in Poltava, with the blessing of Metropolitan Philip of Poltava and Myrhorod, a children’s Christmas carol concert was held. Pupils of Sunday schools performed Nativity hymns, recited poems, and presented short scenes about the birth of the Savior, after which they received festive gifts.

Christmas carols were also sung on January 7 after the festive Divine Liturgy at the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra. The brotherhood choirs performed carols, and the carolers visited the cells of the monastery’s residents, including singing for the sick and infirm. During the feast days, traditional Christmas hymns also sounded at the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra.

In the Khust Eparchy, Sunday school pupils in the villages of Rakosh and Chumalyovo sang carols for parishioners and visited the homes of believers. Donations collected were directed to charitable needs. In the Nizhyn Eparchy, parishioners of the Archangel Michael Church in the city of Bobrovytsia visited elderly people, people with disabilities, and children in an orphanage.

On January 7, the clergy of Nizhyn, led by Archbishop Theodosiy of Ladany, visited a city nursing home, where a Christmas concert was held. Carols were also sung in the palliative-care unit in the city of Ichnia. In the Chernivtsi Eparchy, children from the parish dedicated to St. Spyridon of Trimythous visited a rehabilitation center, an orphanage, and a geriatric boarding facility, singing carols and delivering gifts.

Festive hymnody was also heard in the Odesa Eparchy. On January 7, several thousand people gathered on Cathedral Square in Odesa for the joint singing of Christmas carols, and on January 6 carols were sung in the Dormition Cathedral of the city. In the Vinnytsia Eparchy, after Great Vespers on January 7, the Holy Trinity Brailiv Convent hosted an evening of carols with the participation of Sunday school pupils.

Christmas hymns were also performed at the St. George Metochion in the city of Rivne and at the Resurrection Church in the city of Ostroh (Rivne Eparchy), at the St. Volodymyr Church in the city of Shostka (Konotop Eparchy), and at the Tikhvin Monastery in the city of Dnipro, where choirs glorified the Nativity of Christ with festive carols.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that in Chernivtsi, 1,000 UOC faithful gathered for a Christmas evening of carols.

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