Orthodox Christmas Day
National Holiday in Russia
The Orthodox Church recognizes January 7th as the day that Jesus was born.
The difference in the timing of the Christmas celebrations stretches back to 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII, ruled that the Catholic Church should follow a new calendar – called the Gregorian calendar, as it was closer to the solar calendar than the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar was established by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.
Because it was the catholic pope who ruled on the adoption of the new calendar, many churches not aligned to the papacy ignored it, such as Protestants and the Eastern Orthodox church. Protestants accepted the new calendar in the early 1700s.
In 1922, the patriarch of Constantinople decided that the Gregorian calendar should be followed for the observance of Christmas, but not for Easter, and this edict was followed by many of the other Orthodox churches. The only Orthodox churches that still observe the January 7th date are the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian churches, the Serbs and the Mount Athos monks in Greece.
During the period of the Soviet Union, Christmas was effectively banned as it was not offically recognised by the atheist Soviets.
Since its official reinstatement in 1992, the holiday has not proved to be overwhelmingly popular. In fact, many Russians may not celebrate the day at all, while others will just have a small family dinner. Very few Russians will exchange gifts.
The Russian government often gives extras days off around the seventh. This can create a very long holiday when the days are aside the long New Year's break.
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