Russian orthodox christmas

Russian Orthodox Christmas

Christian denominations

Christianity may be broadly represented as being divided into five main groupings: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Restorationism.

Roman Catholicism

The (Roman) Catholic Church is comprised of churches, headed by bishops, in communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, as its highest authority in matters of faith, morality and Church governance.

Eastern Orthodox

A number of conflicts with Western Christianity over questions of doctrine and authority culminated in the Great Schism in 1054 which divided Christianity into Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Eastern Orthodox

• The term “Orthodox” translates from the Greek to mean “Correctly Believing” or "Correctly Glorifying God“

• The Orthodox Church considers Jesus Christ to

be the head of the Church and the Church to be His body. Thus, there is no one bishop at the head of the Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox ChurchBy the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the cultural influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. In 863-869, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius translated parts of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic language for the first time.

In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev officially adopted Byzantine Rite Christianity — the religion of the Eastern Roman Empire — as the state religion of Kievan Rus'. This date is often considered the official birthday of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Julian and Gregorian Calendars

• The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long.

• Although the new calendar was much simpler than the pre-Julian calendar, the pontifices apparently misunderstood the algorithm for leap years. They added a leap day every three years, instead of every four years. This resulted in too many leap days. Augustus remedied this discrepancy after 36 years by restoring the correct frequency. He also skipped several leap days in order to realign the year.


• The Julian calendar was in general use in Europe and Northern Africa from the times of the Roman Empire until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the Gregorian Calendar.Reform was required because too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons on the Julian scheme.

• As a ruslt, the Julian calendar gained a day about every 134 years. By 1582, it was ten days out of alignment from where it supposedly was in 325.


The Gregorian Calendar was soon adopted by most Catholic countries. Protestant countries followed later, and the countries of Eastern Europe even later. In the British Empire (including the American colonies), Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September 1752.


Russia remained on the Julian calendar until 1917, after the Russian Revolution. During this time the Julian calendar continued to diverge from the Gregorian. In 1700 the difference became 11 days; in 1800, 12; and in 1900, 13, where it will stay till 2100.


Although all Eastern Orthodox countries had adopted the Gregorian calendar by 1927, their national churches had not.


The Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and the Greek Old Calendarists continue to use the Julian calendar for their fixed dates, thus they celebrate the Nativity on 25 December Julian (which is 7 January Gregorian until 2100).

Christmas Service in Our Savior’s Cathedral

Christmas traditionsChristmas Fast

No meat, dairy, eggs

Fish on Saturdays and Sundays

Oil on Tuesdays, Thursdays,Saturdays and Sundays

Christmas traditionsBlessing the food

Christmas traditionsChristmas fortune-telling

Wax

Husband’s appearance

Lifestyle

Russian orthodox christmas