Easter and Ukrainians

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11.04.2012

Easter and Ukrainians

According to the results of a study conducted by the Rating Group, the absolute majority of respondents will celebrate Easter (Pascha) this year, and most will go to church: some to attend the service, others simply to bless their Easter basket. And although far from everyone observes the Great Lent, understanding of its meaning already exists, at least among those who do fast.
91% of respondents know that Easter means the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; the rest (9%) do not know, including 3% who believe it is the Birth of Jesus Christ, and 1% who believe it is the Baptism.
96% of respondents plan to celebrate Easter this year, including 82% who will definitely celebrate and another 14% who will most likely do so.
Easter is one of the most mass celebrations in Ukraine and carries a clear unifying effect: it will be celebrated by both older people and youth; in both the West and the East; by believers of both the Moscow Patriarchate and the Kyiv Patriarchate; and by supporters of both the Party of Regions and Batkivshchyna.
Thus, 77% of respondents plan to go to church on Easter, including 38% who primarily plan to attend the church service, and 39% who plan to bless their Easter basket. In the West, people will go to church primarily to attend the service. In the North and Donbas, nearly equal numbers will go both to attend the service and simply to bless the basket. Meanwhile, in the Center, South, and East, people will go to church primarily to bless their Easter basket.
Those who primarily plan to attend the Easter service are older people, pensioners, especially residents of villages, and more women than men. The overwhelming majority of Greek Catholics, almost half of believers of the UOC-KP, and one third of believers of the UOC-MP will go to church primarily to attend the service.
7% of respondents observe the Great Lent for the entire period, another 11% only on certain days. 15% try to fast but do not always succeed, another 5% would like to but cannot for health reasons. 60% definitely do not observe the Fast.
The highest level of fasting is in the West (15% for the whole period, 28% only on certain days), which corresponds to Greek Catholics. The lowest is in the East. Believers of the UOC-KP fast somewhat more often than believers of the UOC-MP.
Believers who do not associate themselves with any confession and non-believers practically do not observe fasting.
The older the respondents and the lower their level of education, the more they observe fasting. Fasting is practiced mainly by women and rural residents. Among older people there are also the most who would like to fast but cannot because of health.
The main purpose of fasting is spiritual purification (59%). Less often people fast for physical cleansing (15%) or weight loss (3%). Another one in six fasts simply because it is customary.
80% of those who strictly observe the fast do so for spiritual purification. Among those who only try, a large share fast because it is customary.
During Lent, respondents are most willing to give up food of animal origin (70%), less willing to give up alcohol and cigarettes (58%), entertainment and celebrations (50%), and swearing (40%). They are practically not ready to give up watching entertainment TV programs (20%) and intimate relations (19%).

Methodology

Survey audience: population of Ukraine aged 18 and older
Sample size: 2000 respondents
Method: face-to-face formalized interviews
Sampling error (95% confidence): up to ±2.2% (around 50%), ±2% (around 30%), ±1.3% (around 10%), ±1% (around 5%)
Fieldwork: 15–26 March 2012
Regional breakdown:
- West – Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Chernivtsi
- Center – Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy
- North – Kyiv city, Kyiv Oblast, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv
- South – Crimea, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol
- East – Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv
- Donbas – Donetsk, Luhansk