Observing Holidays Varies

Christmas in Russia (Russian: Рождество Христово, Rozhdestvo Khristovo), in the Russian Orthodox Church, is… a holiday celebrated on 25 December in the Gregorian calendar… and 7 January in the Julian calendar. It is considered a high holiday by the church, one of the 12 Great Feasts, and one of only four of which are preceded by a period of fasting. Traditional Russian Christmas festivities start on Christmas Eve, which is celebrated on 6 January…

Christmas was largely erased from the Russian calendar for much of the 20th century due to the Soviet Union’s anti-religious policies, but many of its traditions survived, having been transplanted to New Year’s Day. Although Christmas was re-established as a holiday in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is still eclipsed by New Year’s Day, which remains the most important Russian holiday.

In Ukraine:  Before the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church switched to the Revised Julian calendar in September 2023 all religious holidays were observed according to the Julian calendar, since then Christmas is officially celebrated on 25 December.

Jacques Hnizdovsky (Ukrainian: Яків Гніздовський, Polish: Jakub Gniazdowski, Croatian: Jakiv Hnizdovskij), (1915–1985) was a Ukrainian-American painter, printmaker, graphic designer, illustrator and sculptor…

Jacques Hnizdovsky was born on January 27, 1915, in Ukraine in what is now Chortkiv Raion of Ternopil Oblast…

Hnizdovsky created hundreds of paintings, pen and ink drawings and watercolors, as well as over 377 woodcuts, etchings and linocuts after his move to the United States in 1949. He was greatly inspired by woodblock printing in Japan as well as the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer…

Attribution for Hnidovsky’s artwork:  By Jacques Hnizdovsky – Artist's Estate, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5225075

Ed. note:  Images above & below were retrieved from the Wikipedia page for Jacques Hnizdovsky. Image above is of an Easter postcard by Hnizdovsky. Images below:  1) Hnizdovsky carving the woodblock “Two Rams” in his studio in New York, 1969, and 2) Four of Hnizdovsky’s terra cotta pieces from the 1950s. The text above was retrieved from Wikipedia pages:  Christmas in Russia, Christmas in Ukraine, and Jacques Hnizdovsky, on Dec. 31, 2023.