page_title: New Year's Eve
section_title: Ukraine
hierarchical_section_title: New Year's Eve / Europe / Ukraine
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Новорічна ялинка в Києві, 2019-2020
context_page_description: In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, the last day of the year, is on 31 December. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated at evening parties, where many people dance, eat, drink, and watch or light fireworks. Some Christians attend a watchnight service. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into New Year's Day, 1 January.
  Tonga and Kiritimati, part of Kiribati, are examples of the first places to welcome the New Year while Baker Island in the United States of America and American Samoa are among the last.
context_section_description: In Ukraine, New Year's has the same cultural significance as Christmas has in the United States, but without the religious connotations. Ukrainian families traditionally install spruce trees at home, the equivalent of a Christmas tree. Families gather to eat a large feast and reflect on the past year. They have a large celebration, make toasts, and make wishes for a happy New Year. Families give presents to their friends as well as informal acquaintances. As Ukrainians are traditionally a close-knit community, it is seen as a taboo to not give presents to those the family associates with. Children stay up until midnight, waiting for the New Year. During these celebrations, many Ukrainians tune to special New Year shows, which have become a long-standing tradition for Ukrainian TV. And just before midnight the President of Ukraine gives his New Year's message to the nation, and when the clock strikes 12, the National Anthem Shche ne vmerla Ukraina is played in all TV and radio stations as well as in Independence Square in Kiev and other cities where holiday celebrations are held.
  The first New year dish in Ukraine which associates with the New year for every Ukrainian person is the Olivier salad. It has become the main «character» of many jokes and anecdotes. There are several versions about where the name Olivier comes from, but most people say that it appeared thanks to the French chef Olivier, who lived in the USSR in the 1960s and was the owner of a French restaurant in Moscow. He was the first one to cook this dish. Nowadays this salad is also called Russian, potato and meat salad.
  New Year is often considered a "pre-celebration" for Greek Catholics and Eastern Orthodox living in Eastern Europe, primarily in Ukraine, since Christmas is celebrated on 7 January.
caption: New Year celebration in Kiev
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ExifOffset": "38", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1064"}