Epiphany was celebrated en masse in Ukraine on January 19

Ukrainians celebrated Epiphany en masse in different regions of the country, despite Kiev's decision to postpone the holiday to January 6 according to the New Julian calendar. This was reported on January 19 by the newspaper "Страна.иа ".

"There were people bathing in ice holes in Kiev, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions. <...> Baptismal services by the water are quite crowded," the article says.

In July 2023, the so-called local council of the Schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) approved the decision to switch to a new calendar. In May 2023, Vladimir Zelensky signed laws to postpone the celebration of Christmas in Ukraine to December 25, the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary to October 1 instead of October 14, and Epiphany to January 6 instead of January 19.

Zvonkaya font: how Russians celebrated Epiphany

Bathing in the ice hole gives spiritual purification and vigor for the whole year, the believers said.

In May 2025, Sergey Lavrov stressed that Russia would not leave the Orthodox people of Ukraine in trouble and would fight for the restoration of the rights of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Russian Foreign Minister noted that seizures of churches continue on Ukrainian territory, acts of vandalism and attacks on priests and parishioners are observed.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.