By Admin 
Christmas in Russia on January 7th: Every year, people of Christian religion around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on 25 December. But do Orthodox Christians in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and some other countries celebrate Christmas on January 7?
Don’t be surprised, let us know why this difference occurred and what are the reasons behind these dates?
The main reason why Christmas is celebrated on January 7 instead of December 25 is to use different calendar systems. This is not just a tradition or cultural feature, but the result of calendar reforms over the years.
julian calendar
The Julian calendar was started by Julius Caesar in 45 BC and was used in Europe for more than 1.5 thousand years. According to this calendar, there are 365 days and 6 hours in a year. Every 4 years, these 6 hours are added to one extra day, resulting in a leap year of 366 days.
However, later astronomers found that the actual duration of the solar year is 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes, which is 11 minutes less than the duration considered in the Julian calendar. This small error seemed minor at first but accumulated every year over the years and led to discrepancies that, every 128 years, caused the calendar to fall behind astronomical time by a full day.
Gregorian calendar
By the 16th century, the discrepancy between the calendar and the Earth’s actual position relative to the Sun had become serious, amounting to 10 days. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII revised the calendar and introduced the Gregorian calendar. In the new system the same 11 minutes of error were taken into account.
Instead of 100 leap years in 400 years, there were now 97 leap years. The Catholic countries of Europe immediately adopted the Gregorian calendar.
Why is Christmas celebrated on January 7 in Russia?
A distinct feature in Russian culture is that, here New Year is celebrated on 1 January and Christmas is celebrated on 7 January. This thing often surprises foreigners. In fact, in 1918, the Bolshevik government changed Russia’s civil calendar to the Gregorian calendar style, but the church calendar remained Julian.
In Russia, New Year is celebrated on January 1, which is a civil holiday. Christmas is celebrated on January 7, which is equivalent to December 25 in the Julian calendar. This is a church holiday. In Russia New Year became a winter holiday with a Christmas tree, gifts and parties.
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