January 7th ~ Orthodox Christmas

January 7th ~ Orthodox Christmas Day

Most people will think of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th, however, it is also celebrated in January. It is this way because of the Orthodox Churches. They go by a 2,000-year-old calendar version of the Julian Calendar. Very similar to Christmas in December, it is a holiday in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. However, it is a day that we spend time with family and most countries may celebrate differently than others. Some have a 12-course meal, also known as the Holy Night Supper where they may enjoy perogies, borscht, or sauerkraut. Some countries have a caroling tradition of going from door to door singing songs. And of course, most countries will celebrate by decorating with trees and wreaths and giving out special gifts, and praying.

History

The history of this holiday, of course, began with Christians. However, the history of this holiday actually began with deciding a date for the Easter holiday. They first adopted the Julian calendar. Though traveling back in time a bit, when the calendar was first created by Julius, there was a miscalculation that led to the seasons and time itself being 11 minutes off and the year was out of sync. While the calendar was in the works of being fixed, they created the Gregorian calendar to hopefully fix some issues. This calendar was adopted by Catholic Europe during the 16th century, however, the Orthodox Church refused to accept the change of the calendar. So, they stuck with the Julian calendar.

Summary

Countries celebrating: Australia, Belarus, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Canada, Eritrea, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States
Celebrating activities: Decorating for Christmas (wreaths, trees, etc), 12-course meal (Holy Night Supper), treats given (candies and cookies), singing carols (Koliadky), prayers, fasting, gifting.
Traditional foods eaten: Sauerkraut, perogies, borscht

Subject to edits by the instructor