The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada intends to consider a bill proposing that December 25 be made a holiday and a non-working day in the upcoming plenary week.
The parliamentary agenda for next week published on the Rada’s website said that bill registered as No. 5496 on December 2016 and put on the agenda on October 3 as bill No. 2149, which would amend the Labor Code, should be considered November 21.
The authors of the bill propose December 25 be added to the list of holidays and non-working days in Ukraine as Christmas.
Head of the Rada Committee on Culture and Spirituality Mykola Kniazhytsky asked for the bill to be submitted for consideration, an Interfax correspondent reported.
“It’s been proposed that Christmas on December 25 be made a non-working day as well as January 7, because there are also a lot of Catholics and Protestants in Ukraine who’ve asked that this day is made a holiday. And we have support from the hall,” Kniazhytsky said.
Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy said at a meeting of the conciliatory council of the leaders of the factions, committees and groups that the bill’s inclusion in the November 14 agenda was meant to enable the factions to discuss it.
“If we see support by the factions during its consideration, we will be able to make it fairly passable on November 16 and make a decision on it without long and heated debate,” Parubiy said. If there is an apparent consensus on the matter, the initiative could be the first to be put to vote, he said.
The bill’s authors reasoned that making December 25 an official holiday “would promote unification and better understanding between the Christian communities, both in and outside Ukraine, and would optimize the celebration of Christmas and the New Year.”
Ukraine currently officially celebrates Christmas on January 7, which is Christmas according to the Julian calendar used by the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches.
