Christmas is a great holiday established in remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Christmas is one of the most important Christian holidays And Public Holiday in more than 100 countries around the world.

The first information about Christians celebrating Christmas dates back to the 4th century. The question of the real date of birth of Jesus Christ is controversial and ambiguously resolved among church authors.

According to one of the modern hypotheses, the choice of the date of Christmas occurred due to the simultaneous celebration by early Christians of the Incarnation (the conception of Christ) and Easter. Accordingly, as a result of adding nine months to this date (March 25), Christmas fell on the winter solstice.

Orthodox Christians in Russia celebrate Christmas on January 7, and the date of Catholic Christmas is December 25. Why do holiday dates differ by 13 days? This happened due to the adoption of different calendars: in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new, “Gregorian” calendar, which was called the “new style”. The old Julian calendar began to be called the old style. The difference between the new and old style increases by 1 day every hundred years and in the 20th century. is 13 days.

While the new Gregorian calendar appeared in Europe, Russia continued to use the Julian calendar. When in 1918 the authorities introduced the Gregorian calendar in the Soviet Union, the church did not approve of such a decision.

In 1923, on the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of the Orthodox Churches was held, at which a decision was made to correct the Julian calendar - thus, the “New Julian” calendar appeared.

Due to historical circumstances, the Russian Orthodox Church was unable to take part in it. Having learned about the meeting in Constantinople, Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the “New Julian” calendar. But this sparked protests in church people, and the ruling was overturned less than a month later. Thus, Catholics and Protestants living according to the Gregorian calendar celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ on the night of December 24-25.

On the night of January 6-7, the Feast of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated by the Russian, Jerusalem, Georgian, Ukrainian and Serbian Orthodox Churches, Mount Athos monasteries living according to the old Julian calendar, as well as many Catholics Eastern rite(in particular, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) and part of the Russian Protestants.

All the other 11 Local Orthodox Churches of the world celebrate the Nativity of Christ, like Catholics, on the night of December 24-25, since they use the so-called “New Julian”, which so far coincides with the Gregorian.

The Feast of the Nativity of Christ has five days of pre-celebration (from December 20 to 24) and six days of post-celebration. On the eve or on the day of the eve of the holiday (December 24), a particularly strict fast is observed, called Christmas Eve, since on this day they eat wheat or barley grains boiled with honey. According to tradition, the Christmas Eve fast ends with the appearance of the first evening star in the sky. On the eve of the holiday, Old Testament prophecies and events related to the Nativity of the Savior are remembered. Christmas services are performed three times: at midnight, at dawn and during the day, which symbolizes the Nativity of Christ in the bosom of God the Father, in the womb of the Mother of God and in the soul of every Christian.

In the 13th century, during the time of St. Francis of Assisi, the custom arose of displaying in churches for worship a manger in which a figurine of the Infant Jesus was placed. Over time, mangers began to be placed before Christmas not only in churches, but also in homes. Homemade santons - models in glass boxes depict a grotto, and the baby Jesus lies in a manger. Next to him are the Mother of God, Joseph, an angel, shepherds who came to worship, as well as animals - a bull and a donkey. Entire scenes from folk life are also depicted: for example, peasants in folk costumes are placed next to the holy family.

During the celebration of Christmas, a custom has been established to break “Christmas bread” - special unleavened wafers consecrated in churches during Advent - and eat it both before the festive meal and during greetings and congratulations to each other on the holiday.

A characteristic element of the Christmas holiday is the custom of installing decorated spruce trees in homes. This pagan tradition originated among the Germanic peoples, in whose rituals spruce was a symbol of life and fertility. With the spread of Christianity among the peoples of Central and Northern Europe The spruce tree decorated with multi-colored balls acquires new symbolism: it began to be installed in homes on December 24, as a symbol of the tree of paradise with abundant fruits.

Catholics and Protestants who live according to the Gregorian calendar, as well as local Orthodox churches of the world who adhere toNew Julian calendar, celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ on the night of December 24-25.

Christmas is one of the most important Christian holidays, established in honor of the birth of the baby Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Christmas is celebrated in many countries around the world, only the dates and calendar styles (Julian and Gregorian) differ.

The Roman Church established December 25 as the date of celebration of the Nativity of Christ after the victory of Constantine the Great (approx. 320 or 353). Already from the end of the 4th century. the entire Christian world celebrated Christmas on this day (with the exception of eastern churches, where this holiday was celebrated on January 6).

And in our time, Orthodox Christmas “lags” behind Catholic Christmas by 13 days; Catholics celebrate Christmas on December 25, and Orthodox Christians on January 7.

This was due to a mix-up of calendars. The Julian calendar came into use in 46 BC Emperor Julius Caesar, adding one more day in February, was much more convenient than the old Roman one, but still turned out to be insufficiently clear - the “extra” time continued to accumulate. For every 128 years, one unaccounted day accumulated. This led to the fact that in the 16th century one of the most important Christian holidays - Easter - began to “arrive” much earlier than expected. Therefore, Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform, replacing the Julian style with the Gregorian one. The purpose of the reform was to correct the growing difference between the astronomical year and the calendar year.

So in 1582 In Europe, a new Gregorian calendar appeared, while in Russia they continued to use the Julian calendar.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced in Russia in 1918, however, the church did not approve of such a decision.

In 1923 On the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of the Orthodox Churches was held, at which a decision was made to correct the Julian calendar. Due to historical circumstances, the Russian Orthodox Church was unable to take part in it. Having learned about the meeting in Constantinople, Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the “New Julian” calendar. But this caused protests among the church people and the decree was canceled less than a month later.

Together with the Russian Orthodox Church, on the night of January 6-7, the Feast of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated by the Georgian, Jerusalem and Serbian Orthodox Churches, Athos monasteries living according to the old Julian calendar, as well as many Catholics of the Eastern rite (in particular, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) and some Russian Protestants.

All the other 11 Local Orthodox Churches of the world celebrate the Nativity of Christ, like Catholics, on the night of December 24-25, since they do not use the “Catholic” Gregorian calendar, but the so-called “New Julian” calendar, which still coincides with the Gregorian calendar. The discrepancy between these calendars in one day will accumulate by 2800 (the discrepancy between the Julian calendar and the astronomical year in one day accumulates over 128 years, the Gregorian - over 3 thousand 333 years, and the "New Julian" - over 40 thousand years).

Catholics invented and adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII pulled it off. There was a reform plan before him, but they didn’t decide before him.

This was done so that the astronomical days of the spring equinox corresponded to the calendar days. And they gradually diverged, since the length of the year in the Julian calendar did not exactly correspond to the real length of the year (in the Gregorian calendar the inaccuracy is much less).

The date of the vernal equinox is decisive for the date of Easter celebration.

Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon, which occurs no earlier than the spring equinox. This is due to the sequence of gospel events.

This is where the problems begin.

The fact is that initially every local church and even individual communities themselves determined the specific date for celebrating Easter. Why is that?

Pay attention to the word full moon in the verbal formula of Paschal. The Jews, like other ancient cultures, tried to combine the solar annual circle with the lunar one. What is it and where does it come from - briefly here:

And by the time of the Nativity of Christ, the Romans had already realized that it was impossible to create an ideal lunar-solar calendar and decided to focus only on the length solar year. This was done by the same famous Julius Caesar, from where the calendar began to be called the Julian. The authors of the calendar are Alexandrian (this is Egypt) scientists led by Sosigenes. The relationship between months and phases of the Moon, which gave rise to the concept of months, was neglected - now full moons and new moons do not fall on the same days of the month. The problem is that the lunar cycle (~29.5 days) does not fit into the solar cycle (~365.2425 days).

Now we remember that to determine the date of Easter we need data about the full moon.

The Jews in those days acted simply - they largely used direct observations.

What should Christian communities scattered in different distant cities do? The goal is to celebrate Easter on one day (it must be said that this good goal was not always achieved due to politics). How to make direct observations (and there is also the weather factor, and there may not be an understanding person)? Having decided on a date, how do you get confirmation from everyone that they agree with this decision based on observation?

This is where the decision is made to take the Julian calendar as a basis, and create the simplest possible formula that will take into account full moons, which are not in the calendar (full moons do not fall on the same numbers of months every month, every year). According to this formula, even on a foreign side, only having a calendar and the year number will a person know when to celebrate Easter with everyone else.

This formula was found in Alexandria. It was based on the fact that in 433 BC. The Athenian astronomer Meton found that every 19 years the lunar cycle ends on the same day of the solar year. That is, the full moon once every 19 years again falls on the same number of months.

So, from about the fourth century A.D. Most churches agree to calculate the date of Easter using this formula. Christmas is celebrated simply on December 25th.

In fact, everything is more complicated and Rome preferred to use its Paschal formula even then. Sometimes it was possible to agree on dates 50 years in advance.

Now let's return to the calendar reform. The compilers of the Julian calendar were aware of its inaccuracy, but considered the simplicity of the calendar more important and did not take into account the importance for calendars of continuous counting. That is, they believed that if they wanted, people would simply reform the calendar again and that’s it (as was often done in Ancient Rome). And by the time of the Gregorian reform, people had already lived with one calendar for 1500 years and fell in love with stability :) Therefore, the reform of the Pope was risky and, indeed, on new calendar It took a very long time to cross; Russia was not the only one who took a long time to gather.

Having reformed the calendar and shifted the dates to take into account the error that had occurred (real and calendar equinox), the Pope also introduced a new formula for Paschal. But the Orthodox churches did not accept it, since they preferred to continue to calculate the date using the formula uniformly accepted in Orthodoxy. The date of Easter for Catholics and Orthodox Christians often did not coincide before, but now other holidays have diverged - Christmas, Epiphany and others with a fixed date according to the calendar.

Today the situation has become especially interesting. The current Pope Francis this spring (2015) made a sensational statement (but not formalized in the form of an official decision or proposal) that for the sake of unity in the celebration of Easter, Catholics are ready to accept the Orthodox Easter and do not consider it somehow incorrect. This proposal is difficult to discuss, because, in principle, if so, then nothing is required from the Orthodox, Catholics can join and that’s good. Those. this is in fact some kind of diplomatic statement in which both Rome and Byzantium are masters.

Christmas is the most Holy holiday for Christian believers. In the 11th century it was divided into two parts: Orthodox and Catholic. Each of the churches celebrates Christmas Eve on different days: Orthodox - on the night of January 6-7, Catholics - on the night of December 24-25. What other differences exist between Orthodox and Catholic Christmas?

1. Catholic and Orthodox Christmas are celebrated differently: the first from December 24 to 25, the second from January 6 to 7. This shift in dates was due to the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

2. Catholics do not have fasting as such. There is the so-called Advent - the time of waiting for the holiday. During the month before Christmas, zealous Catholics try to devote more time to prayer, going to church, and communicating with family. And some even limit themselves in food - they don’t eat meat.

For the Orthodox, the Nativity Fast is the last multi-day fast of the year, lasts forty days and therefore is called Pentecost in the Church Charter, just like Lent. Since the beginning of the fast falls on the day of remembrance of St. Apostle Philip (November 14, old style), then this post is called Filippov.

You cannot eat meat, eggs, or dairy products. On weekends you can fish.

3. Goose with apples is considered a traditional Orthodox Christmas dish. Catholics have a wide variety of dishes (although some also have goose on the menu), which they prepare for Christmas. Different for different countries. But in Portugal they are different even for different regions.

4. At Christmas, Catholics give gifts to everyone. We give them to New Year and even their tree is called “Christmas tree”, and not “New Year’s”, as we usually say.

Main character Catholic Christmas is, as a rule, not a newborn Savior, but Santa Claus. It is from Santa that children, hanging beautiful socks over the fireplace, expect gifts. All Christmas miracles are associated with the actions of a funny fat man who laughs funny and loves to play pranks. By the way, not all Catholic priests support this almost pagan cult.

For Orthodox Christians, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It's purely spiritual religious holiday.

5. In the Orthodox church tradition there is one night Christmas service, which combines Great Compline, Matins and Liturgy. And in catholic church Three Christmas masses are celebrated separately - at night, in the morning and during the day. This symbolizes the birth of the Savior in the womb of the Father, in the womb of the Virgin Mary and in the soul of every person.

6. Catholics have one important concept that surprisingly accurately characterizes the mood that covers people in the days before Christmas - Christmas Spirit (literally “the spirit of Christmas”). This is the time when everyone believes in miracles, when bad people suddenly become kind and affectionate, when you feel like you’re in a fairy tale. This is a time of peace, joy and love.

On December 25, 2017, Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas, what date do Orthodox Christians celebrate, and why. What are the similarities and differences between the celebration of Christmas among Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians, Christmas carols.

Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas in 2017 on December 25. Due to the discrepancy church calendars Among the Orthodox, Christmas falls on January 7, which corresponds to December 25 according to the old style. If Catholic and Orthodox celebration The Nativity of Christ is somewhat different from each other, but this holiday has significant differences among the Protestant, Reformed churches.

On the night of December 24-25, Christmas begins for Catholics and Protestants. This is preceded by Christmas Eve - the last preparatory day before the holiday. Catholics and Protestants make wreaths from evergreens, decorate them and hang them over their doors. Not infrequently, four candles are placed on the wreaths, symbolizing the four Sundays of Advent - a special preparatory time for Christmas. It should be noted that Protestants do not have a special fast for Christmas, while Catholics celebrate the time before Christmas with fasting.

Catholics try to be sure to attend mass on Christmas Eve evening, as well as three masses holiday- at night, at dawn and during the day.

In the evening, after the first star rises, before visiting the temple, Catholics traditionally sit down at a table full of symbolic food.

During the day on Christmas Day itself, Catholics prepare traditional dishes for their countries. Catholic churches and the houses of parishioners are decorated with festively decorated nativity scenes - scenes from the Christmas story. Among Catholics, sculptural depictions of this subject are common. The theme of the Nativity of Christ was especially popular among Catholic painters of the Early Renaissance.

Christmas for Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians, similarities and differences

Members of some Protestant churches also set up nativity scenes in their homes. Although Protestants also have a special meeting with the singing of Christmas carols and a festive word from the pastor, Christmas itself is usually celebrated at home, with family. Like all Christians, Protestants consider this holiday one of the twelve main ones.

There is an opinion that the installation of Christmas trees in homes originates from Protestants. An evergreen tree, uniquely symbolizing eternal life, began to decorate with candles as a symbol gospel light truth. Protestants rejected icons, all saints, the sacred hierarchy, liturgies, leaving the strict faith of the early Christians. But they wanted to somehow highlight this day, make it joyful especially for children, so decorating the Christmas tree turned out to be very useful.

Saint Nicholas - Santa Claus - was also rejected by Protestants, so Luther introduced Christkind - the Child Christ, appearing as an angel, more often depicted as a girl or girl. Kriskind gives gifts to children from Protestant families at Christmas, like St. Nicholas among Catholics and some Orthodox (the pronunciation of the name differs in different countries), as well as Santa Claus.

Christmas for Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians, similarities and differences

Orthodox Christians observe a 40-day fast before Christmas, and on Christmas Eve, with the onset of darkness, they traditionally eat sochivo (kolivo), without arranging a large symbolic feast. Then many go to church for Vespers, after which they most often confess and await the festive Divine Liturgy, where the Holy Mysteries of Christ are received.

The Orthodox mainly use icons of the Nativity holiday, but they also create nativity scenes for joy. In Russia, Christmas trees and pine trees are also decorated - the only trees that look beautiful at this time of year.

Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians have a time after the Nativity of Christ when the holiday continues and believers bring the Good News of the birth of the Savior to the world.

Gaudete (Latin: Rejoice) is a Christian Christmas hymn created in the 16th century.

Deck the Halls (also Deck the Hall, Russian: Decorate the Hall) is a famous Christmas and New Year's song.

Christmas for Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians, similarities and differences

Nature