At the end of April 2025, a video circulated in the Russian-language segment of the Internet, the author of which captured the unusual behavior of a group of young believers in embroidered shirts. We checked whether the video actually shows a ritual recently introduced by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).
In the video, three young men in Ukrainian national clothes with long axes walk towards the Orthodox Church and go inside. Then one of them, along with two other teenagers, leaves the temple grounds. “In an effort to emphasize their national “uniqueness” and distance themselves from canonical Orthodoxy, Ukrainian schismatics happily invent new rituals. The video shows one of them. Why did Ukrainian schoolchildren arm themselves with axes and run to church?” — asks the Telegram channel “Ukraine.ru"(215,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). The channels “Uncle Slava"(179,000 views), "Tsargrad-TV"(78,000), "Gasparyan" (65,000) and "Vitaly Borodin"(31,000).
The hatchets seen in the viral video resemble Valashki - traditional attributes of the Tatra and Carpathian highlanders, which have long become an element of the local variation of the national costume. From this we can conclude that the video was filmed in Western Ukraine.
Video start distributed April 22. It is logical to assume that it is somehow connected with Easter week, which ended two days earlier.
Indeed, in the Ukrainian segment of social networks you can find many published in those days rollers, where three men participate in a similar ritual. Some of them, among others, contain the hashtag #shroud. Shroud - large-sized plates with an embroidered or painted image of Jesus Christ lying in the tomb or the deceased Virgin Mary. It is used during services on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Apparently, it is around the shroud in the center of the church that the young men stand in the viral video. They stand there for a reason - they are an honor guard around the shrine, an ancient tradition, popular in many cities and villages of Galicia among believers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (they are in Ukraine about 4 million Human). This is how people depict the Roman guards at the Holy Sepulcher. As a rule, Galician sentries wore traditional Ukrainian costumes or outfits in the style of Roman legionnaires.
In the first half of the 20th century, this tradition began to be performed in Western Ukraine Plastuns — members of the national Ukrainian scout-type organization, closely related with the UGCC. A ritual that is also respected European And American branch of "Plast", was restored after Ukraine left the USSR and spread to some other regions countries.
Accordingly, the moment captured on video is the changing of the guard of honor, consisting of young parishioners. You can find it on TikTok original viral video that appeared there on April 18 and collected about 1 million views. The same user has others video, filmed in the same location and posted on the same day. Subtitles under one of them they indicate that the temple is located in the city of Yavorov in the Lviv region.
Judging by the footage, the ritual took place on territories Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God - a monument of wooden architecture of the 17th century, belonging to the community of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Thus, contrary to viral posts, the video depicts an ancient Western Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition associated with Good Friday, and not at all a new unusual ritual of Orthodox Ukrainians.
Cover photo: social networks
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