MP says Christmas celebrations on 7 January will attract tourists

Christmas in Kyiv. Photo: Radio Liberty

Yevgeniya Kravchuk, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and an MP of the “Servant of the People” party, said that Ukraine will not cancel the day off on Christmas, January 7. She said this in an interview with ICTV Facts.

The journalist asked Kravchuk if she sees any possibility of pushing the process of changing the calendar by the state by cancelling a day off on January 7 and making December 25 a day off.

Yevgeniya Kravchuk said that she does not see such a possibility yet and that she thinks this is the worst step on the part of the state, as these processes should happen in an evolutionary way.

"Besides, our Christmas on January 7 is full of its own meanings (12 Christmas dishes, Holy Night, carols). It does not have any imperial flavour, much less a Soviet legacy," said the MP.

"I think we can be interesting to the world by celebrating Christmas on January 7, we want tourists to visit us, too. This may be our specialty, including tourism. We will have an extended tourist season: when all the fairs in other EU countries are already closed, then ours continues after the New Year with its quite interesting ethnic flavour," she added.

As reported, OCU "metropolitan" John Yaremenko said that priests should convey to parishioners the ancient apostolic church rules, which, he said, teach the celebration of Christmas on 25 December.

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