Millions celebrate Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7, following ancient traditions

Millions of people around the world celebrated Orthodox Christmas on Wednesday, nearly two weeks after much of the world marked the holy day.

Certain Eastern Orthodox churches, including those in Russian and other traditions, follow the ancient Julian calendar. It runs 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar, used by Catholic and Protestant churches as well as by much of the secular world for everyday use.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church and some other Oriental Orthodox churches — which are distinct from Eastern Orthodox but share many traditions — also celebrated Christmas on Wednesday.

Other Eastern Orthodox, including those in the Greek tradition, celebrate Christmas on the same Dec. 25 date as Catholic and Protestant churches.

The disagreement over when Dec. 25 actually falls

Most Orthodox agree that Dec. 25 is the date of Christmas, or the Feast of the Nativity, as they call it. The question is whether Dec. 25 falls on Dec. 25 or Jan. 7.

That requires a little unpacking.

The ancient church in the Roman Empire set its religious feasts based on the Julian calendar, but after more than a millennium, that calendar had increasingly gotten out of alignment with the solar year.

Sixteenth century Pope Gregory XIII approved a revised, more astronomically precise calendar, which bears his name. It abruptly shifted the calendar several days forward to make up for lost time (literally) and added a more precise calculation of leap years. Protestant churches eventually followed the Catholic lead in adopting the calendar, as did secular governments.

All Eastern Orthodox kept to the old calendar until 1923, when an inter-Orthodox gathering adopted a revised Julian calendar that essentially mirrors the Gregorian. Most (but not all) churches in the Greek Orthodox tradition have adopted this, as have those in Romanian, Bulgarian and other traditions.

But the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest communion in Eastern Orthodoxy, has stayed on the old calendar, observing Christmas on Jan. 7 on the new calendar, as have Serbian, Georgian and some other Orthodox. Some Orthodox in Ukraine have begun to observe Christmas on Dec. 25, while others have retained the Jan. 7 observance.

One notable exception is the Armenian Orthodox tradition, which observes Christmas on Jan. 6.

Orthodox Christmas in North America

In the United States, observances vary. Churches in the Greek and Antiochian traditions observed Christmas on Dec. 25. Some churches in the Slavic tradition, including Serbian and smaller Russian churches, observe it on Jan. 7.

Eastern Orthodox observe Christmas with worship and ritual

Traditions vary, but typically the big worship service is the night before. In Serbian Orthodox churches, worship often begins with a short outdoor ceremony involving the burning of an oak branch or young oak tree, accompanied by a full-throated proclamation of the birth of Christ.

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