РНБОУ National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine

Greetings of Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov on Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends, I congratulate all of you with Christmas! May your homes always be warm and cozy, may God bless you, your families, and our native Ukraine!

The Son of God was not born in royal palaces, but in a barn, so nobody can say that "my path was harder than His...". But the most important thing is that He came to this Earth to give us the opportunity to become free from cruelty, dirt, envy, greed, cowardice, and other sins.

His earthly life from the manger of Bethlehem to the Calvary cross was devoted to ordinary people. He spent time not with the rich in palaces but in huts with the poor. He was in their service, helped them, healed, fed them... However, later this did not prevent many people, who had not receive simple solutions to their problems, from demanding that He must be crucified.

Christ had never perceived populism, which is always based on lies and hypocrisy. He did not promise an easy life "right today" without work and responsibility. That is why not everyone can pass the way after Him. Not all people followed Him then, not everyone follows Him now. But He gave us a triumphant Light thus the night always concedes to the day and good - to evil. It has always been so and always will be!

And to remind people of this, in the year of 431, at the Third Ecumenical Council it was decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25, the day after the winter solstice when the night is becoming increasingly shorter, and darkness begins to cede to light (https://www.facebook.com/oleksandr.turchynov/posts/10153375179788553). To call this holiday "Catholic" is absolutely incorrect. Firstly, the split into Catholics and Orthodox took place over five hundred years later, in 1054. Secondly, nowadays Christmas is celebrated this day not only by the Catholic and Protestant churches but by many Orthodox churches around the world as well. The whole civilized world celebrates Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar by which we live. The Julian calendar, which has a discrepancy in more than 14 days between astronomical and calendar time of the winter solstice, is "a little bit", some 2000 years outdated...

I do not think we should wait until the Verkhovna Rada comes up to officially making this day a holiday; we should already start to celebrate Christmas together with all the civilized nations who respect the law, responsibility, and reason.

Let us celebrate Christmas today, on December 25, together with the whole Europe, together with the entire civilized world!

Christ was born! Praise Him!