Much hay has been made by the Ukrainian President that he moved Christmas Day to 25 Dec to show that Ukraine is not under the spiritual oversight of the Russian Orthodox church, which celebrate Christmas 13 days later.
This is either a misstatement of history or a misunderstanding of history.
The Head of the Orthodox church in Constantinople is regarded as primus inter pares (first among equals) among the heads of all Orthodox churches. The spiritual head is not the Russian Orthodox church.
Christmas is celebrated on 7 Jan under the old Julian calendar. The Latin west celebrates on 25 Dec due to the new Gregorian calendar.
Some Orthodox churches have moved to a Revised Julian calendar to move Christmas to 25 Dec. (see page 301 The Orthodox church by Timothy Ware, an excellent book which I read in 2004).
Lwh@ 1 Jan 2024