Why do some Christians celebrate Christmas on 7 January?
by Neil Rees, Christian Today:
Across most of the Orthodox world, many millions of people celebrate Christmas on 7 January. This is the story…
Where Christmas is in December
For most Christians from a Catholic and Protestant tradition, Christmas falls each year on 25 December, where it is a public holiday across much of the world. However, there are some countries where Christmas Day public holiday falls on 7 January.
Where Christmas is in January
Christmas Day is a public holiday on 7 January in Eastern Europe in Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Russia, as well as in Georgia and Kazakhstan. In north-east Africa, it is on 7 January in Egypt and Ethiopia, and in Armenia it is 6 January.
These are countries where the majority of Christians are from the Orthodox tradition. In some of these countries, all the Christians follow Orthodox Christmas. For example in Macedonia the Protestants, where there is a historic sizable Methodist minority, follow Christmas on 7th January like everyone else.
Christmas in Ukraine
Until 2023, Christmas Day was also marked on 7 January in the Ukraine. However for political and cultural reasons, in the same year, Ukraine switched celebrating Christmas from 7 January to 25 December, so the phrase ‘Christmas comes but once a year’ was not true in Ukraine last year.
Great Schism
The division between eastern and western Christianity is nearly a thousand years old. The Christian world broke into Eastern Orthodox Church and Western Catholic spheres at the Great Schism in 1054 AD. This following many centuries of tensions over cultural and theological differences, and different attitudes to authority. However, the Eastern and Western Christian worlds agreed that Christmas Day was on the same date on 25 December.
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