Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas to all who are Orthodox on the forum.

-- Scott (papasquat10@hotmail.com), January 07, 2004

Answers

Response to Merry Chirstmas

All who are Orthodox? Or all who are orthodox?

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), January 07, 2004.

Response to Merry Chirstmas

I think he means Orthodox. Isn't it close to Christmas on their calendar?

Dano

-- Dan Garon (boethius61@yahoo.com), January 07, 2004.


Response to Merry Chirstmas

I mean Orthodox because today was Christmas for them.

-- Scott (papasquat10@hotmail.com), January 07, 2004.

Response to Merry Chirstmas

Well, live and learn. I didn't know the Orthodox celebrated Christmas on a different date! Thanks.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), January 08, 2004.

The reason for the difference is a very sad one.

The following is from www.ealing.gov.uk:
"Orthodox Christmas is often known as the Feast of Epiphany or the Feast of the Nativity, which celebrates the birth of Christ and the arrival of the three wise men. ... Orthodox Christmas is celebrated by Armenians on 6 January and by Ethiopians, Russians and Ukrainians on 7 January.

"Why is Orthodox Christmas in January? In 354 AD, Bishop [Pope] Liberius of Rome fixed 25 December as the official date of Christmas day; before this it was celebrated on many different dates. He chose 25 December to replace the pagan festival of sun-god worship. The Orthodox church celebrates Christmas on 6 or 7 January according to the Julian calendar.

"The Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar which is used by most of the world. It dates back to January 1 46 BC when the Greek astronomer Sorsigenies established the length of the solar calendar for Julius Caesar. He found it to be 365 and a quarter days. Every fourth year an extra day was added to keep the quarter days accurate. [However, a year is not EXACTLY 365.25 days long.] This [error] resulted in the solar calendar being 10 days off by 1528. In March 1528, Pope Gregory XIII rectified this by removing 10 days between 11 and 21 March. As a result, in Catholic countries, 12-20 March 1582 never existed. The Gregorian calendar was adopted by [the previously resistant, anti-papal] Protestant countries in 1752, by this time the difference between the two calendars was 11 days."

But some (all?) of the schismatic Orthodox are STILL resistant, clinging to the old Julian calendar and celebrating Christmas on the wrong day, rather than submit to the judgment of Pope Gregory XIII. As time goes by, their calendar is more and more wrong -- about three days wronger now than the ten days' error of 1528. Tragic.

-- (The@Scoop.com), January 08, 2004.



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