Verkhovna Rada makes December 25 non-working holiday

A total of 237 MPs voted in favor of bill No.5496 on amendments to the Labor Code on holiday and non-working days, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The bill envisages the recognition of December 25 an official day off in Ukraine.

Also, the lawmakers supported a proposal of Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy and canceled the day off on May 2 so that not to increase the total number of non-working days in the country. So from now on, Ukrainians will mark Labor Day only one day, on May 1.

According to statistics provided by the Culture Ministry’s department of religious affairs and nationalities, just over 23,000 current religious Orthodox, Greek Catholic and some other Christian communities celebrate Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar. At the same time, at present in Ukraine there are about 11,000 religious Catholic and Protestant communities (about 30% of all religious organizations in Ukraine) that celebrate Christmas on December 25 according to the Gregorian calendar.

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