Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are starting to pop up all over Dnipropetrovsk as we prepare to light up the city for Novie God. New year.

This was from last year

You see, in Ukraine the order of holidays is slightly different from western countries which celebrate the birth of christ Christmas on the 25th and then New Year on the 1st of January. Here New Year is also on the 1st of January but Christmas is on the 7th of January (following the old calendar).

Matters then become slightly more interesting with Starey Novie God, [old new year]. This is the date of New Year under the old Gregorian calendar.

For me these lights are a great reminder of the coming of the winter holidays, (which is further reinforced by the ever creping date on my pace charts that show Christmas is coming and get's closer ever time I fill in a completed lesson) the joy of seeing family and [girl]friend[s] and most importantly the reminder of the light of the world, who entered it.

That is what these lights originally symbolised and as such the choice to replace the winter pagan festivals with a celebration of Jesus Birth is no accident. Light seams even brighter in the darkness. What a great reminder these are.

p.s. It also means my Years Aims are almost at an end! I guess this means I'll have to come up with some new ones for next year.