Southern Ukraine
According to a 2016 survey of religion in Ukraine conducted by the Razumkov Center, around 65.7% of the population of southern Ukraine declared to be believers in any religion, while 7.4% declared to be non-believers, and 3.2% declared to be atheists and agnostics. the study also found that 77.6% of the total Southern Ukraine population declared to be Christians (71.0% Eastern Orthodox, 5.1% simply Christians, 0.5% Latin Rite Catholics, 0.53% members of various Protestant churches, 0.5% members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), and 0.5% were Jewish. Not religious and other believers not identifying with any of the listed major religious institutions constituted about 24.7% of the population.
Christmas in Ukraine
Both the December 25 Western Christianity Christmas Day and the January 7 Christmas Day of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches following the Julian Calendar, are public holidays in Ukraine. With these two holiday dates the Ukrainian Christmas period lasts for an extended period, with the celebrations starting on December 6, the Western Christian observance of the Feast of Saint Nicholas and ending on the aforementioned January 19 the following year.