The most popular holidays in Ukraine remain Easter and Christmas, which are celebrated by 67% and 66% of Ukrainians, followed by Ukraine’s Independence Day (54%) and Defenders of Ukraine Day (53%), according to the results of a study entitled “Ukrainians’ attitudes towards public holidays, particularly March 8,” conducted on January 9-14 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
New Year’s Day is traditionally popular among Ukrainians, but previously its popularity was the same as that of Christmas (about 80%), and now it is 40%. Next are Ukraine’s Constitution Day (28%), Trinity Sunday (27%), and International Women’s Day (24%). Victory Day (11%) and Labor Day (May 1) (5%) complete the list.
It is noted that the popularity of International Women’s Day (March 8) had previously been steadily declining, from 49% in 2017 to 21% in 2024 . However, in 2026, a slight increase to 24% was recorded, which may indicate a certain stabilization of attitudes towards the holiday after a period of sharp decline.
In western Ukraine, the popularity of March 8 is the lowest (18%), in the center it is approximately the same (22%), while in the south and east it is 33%. Gender and age do not have a significant impact on attitudes towards this holiday, but it is slightly more popular among men (26% versus 20% among women), whereas in previous years it was twice as popular among women.
The popularity of Easter, Christmas, and New Year’s has been declining since 2013, when it was around 80%, but during the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, it has stabilized or is declining slowly. The popularity of March 8, Trinity Sunday, Victory Day, and Labor Day has also stabilized after declining. The popularity of Independence Day has grown throughout the war from 12% to 64% at the start of the full-scale invasion, but then declined slightly.
The popularity of Defenders’ Day, on the contrary, increased during the full-scale invasion and also stabilized. The same applies to Constitution Day, but in 2025 its support fell sharply to 18%, although this year it rose again to its previous level (28%).
In general, Ukrainians treat holidays with love and respect, with only 2% of respondents not considering any official holidays to be important or favorite, according to KIIS.
The press release notes that the decline in the popularity of religious holidays does not mean a loss of significance, but rather reflects conflicts surrounding the country’s religious life, along with a decline in trust in the Church as an institution, as well as a general erosion of the festive intensity in the context of prolonged war.
“We see a sharp increase in the role of public holidays, the emergence of a new central holiday – Defenders’ Day, a significant decline in Soviet holidays, and the preservation of religious holidays as a cultural core. Over these 13 years, there has been not just a change in the ratings of individual holidays, but a profound transformation of the symbolic structure of Ukrainian identity,” the Institute said in a comment.
The survey was conducted using telephone interviews (CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers in all government-controlled regions among 601 respondents aged 18 and older. Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 5.3% for indicators close to 50% and 2.4% for indicators close to 5%. Under wartime conditions, a certain systematic deviation is added to the specified formal error, but the results obtained still remain highly representative.
