Everyone knows that December 25 is Christmas, right?But what about Orthodox Churches that celebrate Christmas on January 7? Romania is Orthodox, so why did we celebrate on December 25 instead of January 7 with other Orthodox Christians?
This all has to do with which calendar is used: the Julian, the Gregorian, or the Revised Julian.
Since Christ's actual date of birth is unknown, some early Christians celebrated the nativity in the spring, whereas others started celebrating at the beginning of winter (possibly to take the place of a pagan festival at the time of the Winter Solstice), and still others celebrated on the feast day of Epiphany (January 6). It wasn't until the 4th century, under Roman Emperor Constantine, that Christmas was celebrated on December 25.
Of course, the calendar in use at this time was the Julian calendar, established in 46 BC by Julius Caesar. This calendar's year has 365.25 days (a leap year every 4 years), whereas a solar year (the time it takes the earth to travel around the sun) is 365.2422 days. This doesn't sound like much of a difference, but each solar year is 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than a Julian year, and this adds up to a whole day every 128.2 years. By the 16th century, the Julian calendar was lagging behind observable astronomical phenomena by 10 days. (For example, the spring equinox no longer occurred on March 21 -- as it had been at the time of the Council of Nicea in 325 AD -- but occurred 10 days earlier, on March 11.)
To correct this problem, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar in 1582 to be more in line with astronomical observations. It "skipped" 10 days to get "caught up." (The day after October 5 was October 16.) In order to stay in line with the solar year, this new calendar also has leap years, but omits them in years ending in 00 (1700, 1800, 1900 were not leap years) except when the year is divisible by 400 (2000 was a leap year). This way, the average Gregorian year is 365.2425 days.
However, this calendar change was only implemented in the Catholic countries of the West. Eastern countries continued to use the Julian calendar, which continues to "lose" a day to the Gregorian calendar every 128 years. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. So, all Christians celebrate on December 25 -- it only appears to Westerners (who use the Gregorian calendar) that the Orthodox are celebrating on January 7. (January 7 on the Gregorian calendar is December 25 on the Julian calendar.)
Now here's where it get's even more complicated.
In 1923, at an Inter-Orthodox Congress in Constantinople, a revised Julian Calendar was introduced. This New Julian Calendar is not calculated the same as the Gregorian Calendar, but "caught up to" the Gregorian calendar. However, since not all Orthodox Churches were represented at this council, the new calendar became controversial. The new calendar was adopted by the Orthodox Churches in Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece (which celebrate Christmas on December 25, Gregorian) but the Orthodox Churches in Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia and Poland rejected the new calendar and celebrate according to the Old Julian Calendar (January 7 on the Gregorian calendar).
Within the Orthodox Churches which adopted the Revised Julian Calendar, there are factions known as "Old Calendarists" who stick to the unmodified Julian calendar. For the Orthodox who choose not to accept the new calendar, the issue at hand is not simply the calendar, but Orthodox purity. They see it as a Western intrusion into the Orthodox Church. Since the calendar in use during the Ecumenical councils was the Julian calendar, they say that only an Ecumenical Council could change the calendar. Additionally, by different Orthodox churches using different calendars, the unity among Orthodox Churches has been broken.
One final note: the 1923 Orthodox Congress also proposed a change to the date of Easter, but that was rejected. You can read more about how the date of Easter is calculated from my 2013 blog post "When Is Easter This Year?"
Bibliography:
Much of the information in this post is adapted from Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church (pages 300-302) and from these webpages:
copticchurch.net
Wikipedia
Moldovan Christmas Dispute
Now here's where it get's even more complicated.
In 1923, at an Inter-Orthodox Congress in Constantinople, a revised Julian Calendar was introduced. This New Julian Calendar is not calculated the same as the Gregorian Calendar, but "caught up to" the Gregorian calendar. However, since not all Orthodox Churches were represented at this council, the new calendar became controversial. The new calendar was adopted by the Orthodox Churches in Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece (which celebrate Christmas on December 25, Gregorian) but the Orthodox Churches in Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia and Poland rejected the new calendar and celebrate according to the Old Julian Calendar (January 7 on the Gregorian calendar).
One final note: the 1923 Orthodox Congress also proposed a change to the date of Easter, but that was rejected. You can read more about how the date of Easter is calculated from my 2013 blog post "When Is Easter This Year?"
Bibliography:
Much of the information in this post is adapted from Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church (pages 300-302) and from these webpages:
copticchurch.net
Wikipedia
Moldovan Christmas Dispute
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