“S rozhdyestvom Hristovym!” which means “Congratulations on the birth of Christ!” in Russian. Today is Christmas among the Russian and some other Eastern Orthodox Christians. How come today? Well, it all started back in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII fixed the calendar. The old Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar was off by 10 days. Gregory came up with a new way of calculating leap years and took ten days out so that the calendar matched the actual seasons.

Not everybody adopted the new calendar right away. Great Britain didn’t do so until 1752 which resulted in oddities like George Washington’s birthday being February 11 (Old Style) and February 22 (New Style). (By the way, while the Brits were at it, they moved New Years Day from March 25 to January .) Many of the Orthodox countries like Russia were even slower at adopting the new calendar, and when they did, the church often kept following the old calendar.

Here’s one of the texts for Orthodox Christmas

Make glad, O you righteous!
Greatly rejoice, O heavens!
Dance for joy, O mountains; for Christ is born!
The virgin has become like the cherubic throne.
She carries at her bosom God the Word, made flesh.
Shepherds glorify the newborn child.
Wise men offer the master gifts.
Angels praise Him and sing:
O Lord, past understanding, glory to Thee!

It’s a beautiful hymn summing up all the features of Christmas–the Word become flesh, shepherds, wise men, angels.

Have yourself a pirogi or a kalachi today and celebrate the Birth of Christ one more time.

Read Luke 2:1-20 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne