Julie's Journal

Nicole told me that when she got back to Armenia they would celebrate Christmas. I did not understand why their Christmas is on a different day than ours, and she said that she thought it was because when the Christmas date was originally set, it was January 7th.

Well, today, in my Little Blue Book from Saginaw Press in Michigan, I read that today is Orthodox Christmas. The Orthodox Church is divided into two groups when it comes to determining the dates on which to celebrate certain feast days.

One group, (e.g. Greek, Bulgarian and Cypriot Orthodox churches) generally used the Gregorian calendar, which is the same calendar used by the Roman Catholic Church and many other churches in the West. But this group also uses the old Julian calendar (which is about 13 days behind the newer Gregorian calendar) for movable feasts such as Easter.

The other Orthodox group (e.g. the Coptic Church, Russian, and Serbian Orthodox, and most Orthodox churches in the Middle East) only uses the Julian calendar.

Today is Orthodox Christmas for churches that use the old Julian Calendar. The appearance of the evening star yesterday (Orthodox Christmas Eve) ended their daylong fast before Christmas.

The Servian Orthodox celebrate Christmas by burning a yule log. While the log is burning, participants sing a song hoping that blessings in the new year rise up to heaven like the sparks of the log.

The Orthodox Church separated from the Catholic Church is 1054.

So, Happy Orthodox Christmas to those who are celebrating today!