Yesterday, on December 25, millions of Christians the world over celebrated Christmas.

No, that wasn’t a misprint. At least, not if you’re up on your 16th-century papal history. Father John Sorochka, Pastor at St. John the Baptist Church in Mayfield, explains.

“It’s all Pope Gregory’s fault,” he says, referring to Gregory XIII, who decreed a new calendar in 1582 to replace the old Julian Calendar which had been in use since 45 B.C. On the Julian calendar, December 25 falls thirteen days later, which is why Monday, January 7, saw Russian Orthodox Christians across our area celebrating Christmas.

Well, most of them.

“Actually in our monastery, we celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian Calendar,” explained Bishop Tikhon, Deputy Abbot of St. Tikhon’s monastery in South Canaan. “So we had it two weeks ago. But some Orthodox Christians will be celebrating it today.”

St. Tikhon’s follows the Orthodox Church In America, which adopted to modern calendar in the 1960s. However, St., John’s is a member of the patriarchy of Moscow, and as such will see many of the members of its 800-strong congregation coming to services today.

“The switch over to the new calendar was extremely controversial for our church. There were lawsuits and court cases, with parishioners not listening to their pastors. Even today, a lot of Orthodox people will celebrate on the day their church doesn’t.”

Nevertheless, aside from the calendrical differences, there are few liturgical differences between the two branches of orthodoxy. Both view the holiday of Christmas as a primarily spiritual occasion, celebrated with traditional Russian Orthodox services. Important to these is the unique Orthodox practice of icon veneration.

“There are some who learn about icons and think it’s idolatry, but it’s not,” says Bishop Tikhon. “It’s an important religious practice for us which involves painting non-realistic pictures of saints or other holy topics. There are always certain formulas to follow, but a little room for artistic creativity. The icons help illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson for us, as well as being objects of beauty. We have a monk here at the monastery who paints them.”

For the Christmas service, an icon called the Nativity icon is placed in the center of the church for all to honor. In addition to the normal players (Mary, Joseph, the Baby Jesus, and the Magi, or Three Wise Men) the icon usually contains a donkey and an ox, and is set in a cave rather than a stable.

“We consider the Nativity icon as emblematic of the moment when the universe was transformed,” says Bishop Tikhon.

In addition to icon veneration, an Orthodox worship service is conducted with sections in both English and Slavonic, and focuses heavily on sacred music.

“All of our music is performed without instruments,” says Father Sorochka. “The voice is the most perfect instrument, so we believe diluting it with other sounds would ruin the experience of worshipping with music.”

However, all is not solemn during a Russian Orthodox Christmas celebration. Children still receive presents—delivered by St. Nikolas in his vestments, rather than Santa in his red suit. And, as Russian Orthodox Christmas follow the tradition of fasting for Advent, the meal after the service can be quite an event.

“For forty days before Christmas, we abstain from milk, eggs, and meat,” says Father Sorochka. “When the service is done we have a great feast, with all our favorite ethnic foods—ham, kielbasi, lots of sausages. Then we’ll go around to each other’s house, singing traditional Russian Christmas carols like ‘Bog Predvichnee’ (God With Us). And look at it this way; for lots of people, Christmas is over in a day. We’ll keep celebrating all week!”