Orthodox Christmas

I decided I'm going to go through the year writing posts about each of the holidays for Christians, Jews, & Muslims. Each post will give a brief overview of the holiday, including what the holiday celebrates and how people celebrate. I'll even include where for holidays like today's that are primarily in specific areas/countries. My sources will be included at the bottom on each post for anyone that wants to check my sources, or get some more information.

Source

Today, January 7th, is Christmas Day in many Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The difference in dates between the Orthodox Christmas and Christmas for non-Orthodox Christians is a result of using different calendars. Most of the world has adopted and follows the Gregorian calendar (proposed 1582), while the Christian Orthodox church still uses the Julian calendar (created 45 BC). The 2 calendars differ by 13 days, resulting in Orthodox Christmas being 13 days after Christmas for the rest of Christianity and Epiphany being on January 19th vs January 6. Some Orthodox churches have adopted a version of the Julian calendar that puts Christmas on December 25, but not all. For example, 85% of Orthodox Christians in Russia celebrate Christmas today.

The Orthodox Christian churches that celebrate Christmas today are primarily in Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. The map below shows the location of each country in yellow.

Source of blank map

The story that is celebrated at Christmas is pieced together from 2 different accounts in the books of Matthew and Luke in the Bible (Christian holy book). That story is the story of Jesus's birth. Christians see Jesus as the son of God, who was born to a virgin named Mary. Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was also a carpenter. Luke contains the story of an angel visiting Mary to tell her she was to give birth to Jesus, as well as the story of Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem and shepherds being led to the manger that was used as newborn Jesus's cradle. While Matthew contains the story of wise men following a star to see baby Jesus and present him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The date of Christmas was set in the 4th century C.E. (previously known as AD) by Pope Julius I in an attempt to Christianize the pagan festivals that already took place around the winter solstice. From these pagan festivities came some of the traditions celebrating Christmas that Christians still follow today, including decorating the home in greenery and gift giving from the Roman Saturnalia.

Source

The Christmas season is celebrated a little differently in the western, non-Orthodox Christian churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches. For starters, the Eastern Orthodox church doesn't have Advent. Instead they fast for the 40 days before Christmas and a very strict fast on Christmas Eve (Jan. 6). The fast is from meat and dairy, but the strict fast on Christmas Eve is from everything but water. Also, the Christmas Eve service begins with singing of the Royal Hours. The traditions of a Christmas tree and gift giving are commonly shared among Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians however.

Want more information on some aspect, here's the links I found for you.

• Singing of the Royal Hours on wikipedia. There's also a recording of the Singing of the Royal Hours here.
• More specific information on a particular country?
• Belarus
• Bulgaria
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Georgia
• Macedonia
• Russia
• Serbia
• Ukraine

Sources

• The Independent - United Kingdom
• BBC's information on different religions
• Orthodox Way of Life blog post for 4 Dec 2010
• ABC Australia