In Europe and in the usa it is celebrated on the 25th of December
On Christmas people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Easter is another great religious festival: usually it is celebrated on one of Sundays in spring Easter symbolizes the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Children like this holiday for traditional brightly painted eggs and special Easter cakes. Easter cakes are sold at every bakery, but home-made ones are always much tastier.
. On that day the religious people go to church and listen to the service: usually they bring with them basket! with food — Easter cakes, butter, cheese and, of course, painted eggs. The priest in the church consecrates all the food: many people believe that the Easter eggs possess magic power and can protect from evil, thunder or fire and have healing powers. In the morning after the end of the service, the people greet each other with the words: "Christ has resurrected!" and return home for breakfast. They celebrate Easter as the beginning of spring, too.
Christmas is a wonderful holiday, it’s a feast of Christ’s birth and it’s celebrated on the eve of 7th of January. In the mid-4th century it was established by the Roman Catholic church as a separate feast and was celebrated on 25 December according to the Julian calendar. In the 10th century with the introduction of the Christianity into Rus it was fused with the local pagan celebrations of the sun’s return or the commencement of the agricultural year. In some areas was used the pre-Christian name of the feast — Koliada. The Christmas Eve is considered as the most interesting part of Christmas as it has ritual and magic acts aimed at ensuring a good harvest and a life of plenty. Caroling is a characteristic feature of the feast, it expresses respect for the master of the house and his children, and sometimes it’s accompanied by a puppet theatre (vertep). The religious festival lasts three days and involves Christmas liturgies, caroling, visiting and entertaining relatives and acquaintances. The Christmas tree was adopted from Western Europe, but today it’s the element of the New Year celebration in Ukraine.
The «holy supper» on Christmas Eve is a meal of 12 ritual meatless and milkless dishes. The order of the dishes and dishes themselves aren’t uniform everywhere. In the Hutsul region, for example, the dishes were served in the following order: beans, fish, boiled potato, dumplings, cabbage rolls, kutya, potatoes mashed with garlic, stewed fruit, plums with beans and some other dishes.
Christmas is the holiday when all members of the family gather together. This is the holiday of joy. Comparatively with Great Britain and some other countries Ukrainian people don’t exchange presents on this holiday. For many years only religious people observed this holiday, but today it’s an official state holiday. Children like to have fun on this holiday, they go from door to door, sing carols and people give sweets to them. As it was already mentioned, «Kutya» is a traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish. It’s cooked by mothers and godchildren take it to their godparents. Although this holiday appeared long ago but nowadays many people still like to go church and listen to Christmas sermons.
Another religious festival in winter is Twelfth-day or the Jordanian Holiday which is celebrated on memory of Jesus Christ's christening (on the 19th of January): on the eve of this holiday at their supper people sing songs which are called "the generous songs" — that is why this evening is called "the generous evening", too.
In the morning of the Jordanian Holiday the festival procession goes from a church to a river or to a pond where christening of water takes place. After that the priest consecrates the peoples' homes and things.
There is one more holiday which is loved by everybody: children and adults. This is New Year's Eve. People decorate New Year trees with toys and lights and believe that a miracle is a must on this day. It's my favourite holiday.
The New Year Eve, Christmas, Easter are also celebrated in Ukraine. t Everyone likes the New Year Eve. We usually buy a New Year tree, decorate our house with garlands, write postcards to our relatives and friends, wishing them joy and happiness.
St. Valentine's Day is February 14 a day for sweethearts. It is the day that you show your friend or loved one that you care. You can send candy to someone you think is special. Or you can send roses, the flower of love. Most people send "valentines", a greeting card named after the notes that St. Valentine wrote from jail. Valentines can be sentimental, romantic and heartfelt. They can be funny and friendly. If the sender is shy, valentines can be anonymous.
April Fool’s Day or all Fool’s Day is the first of April. The fun of the holiday is to play silly but harmless jokes on family members and friends. The victim of these jokes is called an April fool.
This holiday first appeared in France when the French began to use the Gregorian calendar, some people continued to use the old calendar and to celebrate New Year’s Day in April 1. These people were called April fools. Playing jokes on this day became popular first in France and then in many other countries. Today, April Fool’s jokes are played mostly by children, who enjoy the holiday very much.
The first of May — May Day — is the day of solidarity of the workers of the world.
In this country people usually invite their friends to their homes, or visit their relatives and friends, or just stay at home with the family on holidays.
On these days we lay the table, dance and sing, have a lot of fun.
The Ukrainians, like any other people, have their own customs end traditions: many of these are very old, some appear nowadays. Most of the customs are connected with the religious festivals or with Ukrainian dwelling.