Growing tradition of giving gifts on St. Nicholas Day

According to the research, conducted by the Sociological group "Rating" in December 2011, two thirds of Ukrainian families have a tradition of giving gifts on St. Nicholas Day.

However, 29% do not have such a tradition, and another 1% does not know of such a holiday. 6% of respondents could not decide whether there is such a tradition in their families or not.

If in the West this tradition exists in 90% of families, in the North (67%) and in the Centre (62%) it is less wide-spread, and in the South (56%), in the East (52%) and in Donbas (51%) even less.

The tradition of giving gifts on St. Nicholas Day is more common among believers, especially the Greek Catholics (92%), members of the Orthodox church of Kyiv (73%) and Moscow (58%) patriarchies. Almost a half of non-believers do not adhere to this tradition.

The tradition of giving gifts on St. Nicholas Day is more honored by women, young and middle-aged people.

The target audience of the research: the population of Ukraine aged from 18 and older. Optional quantity: 2000 respondents. The methods of investigation: personal formalized interview according to the questionnaire (face to face). Measure of inaccuracy for the values close to 50% is less than 2,2%, for the values close to 30% – less than 2%, for the values close to 10% – less than 1,3. The period of completion: 25 of November - 5 of December 2011

The oblast’ distribution:

West: Volyns’ka, Transcarpathia, Ivano–Frankivs’ka, L’vivs’ka, Rivnens’ka, Ternopil’s’ka, Chernivets’ka.

Centre: Vinnyts’ka, Kirovograds’ka, Poltavs’ka, Khmel’nyts’ka, Cherkas’ka.

North: Kyiv, Kyivs’ka, Zhytomyrs’ka, Sums’ka, Chernihivs’ka.

South: AR Crimea, Odes’ka, Khersons’ka, Mykolaivs’ka, Sevastopol.

East: Dnipropetrovs’ka, Zaporiz’ka, Kharkivs’ka. Donbass: Donets’ka, Luhans’ka.