WHY DO WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

ON JANUARY 7th

While most of the Christian world celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus on December 25th,the members of our Church commemorate this great and holy day on January 7th of each year. The reason for this difference is that our church still maintains the old Julian calendar (in which Christ was born) for the designation of its holidays.

Julius Caesar introduced this calendar in 46 B.C. and consisted of 365 days in each year, except the fourth year,(leap year) which had 366 days.

A learned astronomer, Luigi Ghiraldi who lived in the XVI century, contended that the Julian calendar was in error as it supposes the year too long by 11 minutes and 14 seconds, which amounts to one day in 128 years. In order to correct this, Pope Gregory XIII issued a bried in 1582 abolishing the old calendar, and substituted Ghiraldi's system of reckoning time. Thus, Octobers, 1582 was called October 18, 1582, thereby dropping 13 days.

The difference between the two calendars increased by one day every 1000 years. This "New Style" calendar is also known as the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar is still in use, therefore, by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In the beginning of this century the Greek Orthodox Church along with others have adopted the Gregorian calendar for celebrating Christmas, but they maintain the Julian calendar for computing Easter.

Without regard to who is right or wrong, Serbian Orthodox Christians must celebrate Christmas on January 7th , until changes are made, if they are ever made; and remember that that question is for the church to settle, not the individual.