By Isaac Hanna
As we all know, Friday January 7th, was a snow day for many schools in Massachusetts. For some families, they celebrated their Christmas, called the Feast of the Nativity on that day. As they say, it was a White Christmas! This holiday is not as well-known as Christmas on December 25th, but many still celebrate it. This holiday is celebrated by people who are Orthodox Christians.
What is Orthodox?
The word orthodox means the straight/traditional way. For example, in a conversation, you can say “That was very un-orthodox for him to park on the grass.” But, Orthodox as a religion also means strict on the tradition, on a straight path. As many people know, my family is from Egypt. My grandparents were born and raised in Egypt, then immigrated here. I am part of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which means, Christian’s from Egypt. Coptic was the original language spoken in Egypt before Arabic. Many people also know that my father is a priest. Some people get confused when they hear about this. What? How is he a priest!? The answer is that in the Orthodox church, priests have to be married, unlike other Christian churches.
Why is Orthodox Christmas Two Weeks After December 25th Christmas?
The difference of dates is because of the different calendars that are being used. The Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar are 13 days apart. The Julian calendar was used from the year 46 B.C. to 1582. Then, in 1582, Pope Gregory the Pope of Rome decided to correct the Julian Calendar because there was a miscalculation of 11 minutes per year in the Julian calendar, making a difference of 10 days. The way he corrected this is that he decided to remove 10 days from the calendar. Imagine living in the year 1582, and you go to sleep on October 4, and when you wake up, on the calendar, it’s October 15! Isn’t that crazy??!! That became the Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory of Rome). So the reason is that there is just a use of two different calendars.
I tried to keep this as simple as possible, and you are confused or you would like to know more, just ask me!
