www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Not January 7th, then...

I see that today is being celebrated on this forum as the Feast of the Nativity. I feel a bit of a fool as, being a relative newcomer to the Eastern liturgy, I managed to assume that the Greek Catholic Church followed the Orthodox Church, celebrating the Nativity on January 7. And so I avoided the Byzantine liturgy today, imagining that it would not be the liturgy of Christmas. What with there being no Advent to precede the feast, it was hard for this Roman Catholic to tell that Christmas was on the way. Now I've learned a lesson for next year.

Depends where you go. For us, today was, um, Tuesday.

Well, I think it's mainly some from the UGCC that follow the Julian Calendar, mainly. The Ruthenians and other UGCCs follow the right Calendar, and have celebrated yesterday, as they were supposed to. Although those others from the UGCC and the Orthodox will no doubt be celebrating Nativity at the time we celebrated Theophany, and have wrapped up our Nativity Season.

Bob - you forget that in Europe - a huge area - all the UGCC parishes are on the Julian Calendar .

Normally here we tend to insert if we refer to either Calendar as the 'right' or 'true' Calendar.

I, personally, am looking forward to Celebrating the Nativity of Our Lord God and Saviour on the due date.

True dat. However, it seems like the Ukrainians in other countries outside of Europe seemed to adapt to the Gregorian Calendar quite well. So for each their own.

Most Orthodox in the U.S. follow the new calendar, so would have celebrated the Nativity of Our Lord on Dec. 25.

The notable exceptions would be ROCOR and the Serbians.

Outside the U.S., the majority of Orthodox follow the old calendar.

The Ukrainian Orthodox in Western Canada use the Julian Calendar, I believe, alongside their Ukrainian Catholic brethren.

As OLS has pointed out, above, we are exclusively on the Julian here in the UK/Europe.

8IronBob:

You have not had privileges on this forum for very long, but I want you to know that I, for one, find this condescending statement offensive. The calendar issue has been discussed many times on this forum and, from my own experience, in other venues. It is always a divisive issue and always translates to other polemical issues that have divided the Churches for the past millenium. There is no "right" calendar when it comes to Christians who come from the Apostolic Churches, althought I am sure that there are those here who would even take issue with me on this.

Please refrain from making this type of statement in the future. I think you owe our brethren here an apology.



On another note, Catholic Tradition holds that the end of the Nativity season is February 2, the Feast of the Presentation.

Bob
Moderator

Yeah, you're probably right... Seems like I've been too biased about a lot of things, being another Latin Rite Catholic that has returned to the Byzantine Rite recently after a good 20 years. Something like this may land me in the confessional for a month straight. May both Calendars be united for all eternity, and may we have the peace we truly deserve. Guess I do apologize for my one-calendar, one-track mind around here, guess I'll have to keep my ego in check, and balance...

RI:

Christ is Born!! Glorify Him!!

First of all, don't "feel a bit of a fool," since if you're not familiar with the calendar issue it's not uncommon to make such a mistake.

Let me explain the difference between the dates. On the Julian calendar, the Feast of the Nativity is December 25, just as it is on the Gregorian. The difference is that the Julian is 13 days behind the Gregorian�a change that was made in the Middle Ages to align the calendar with the lunar cycles. So our brethren who are not on the Gregorian calendar are not celebrating on January 7th, unless you use the civil/Gregorian calendar to determine what day it is. They are celebrating on the same date that the Church has used for centuries.

Does this clear it up for you?

Bob

Wouldn't it be convenient if it was just a matter of 13 days.

You thinking of Pascha ?

I think you maybe have Canada backward. The Western Ukies have generally been here longer and are more likely to use the Gregorian calendar than those in the East of Canada.

Well, now that you mention it, I have seen years where both calendars do have Pascha on the same exact day. I think that only happens every few years, according to the Pascha dates in the Ukrainian Anthology. From what I see, 2014 will be the next year when both the Julian and Gregorian will celebrate Sunday of Zaccheus and Pascha on the same exact dates.