why is Christmas celebrated on 1/7 in Russia instead of 12/25?
Google it, all the answers at your fingertip.
Because they follow the Orthodox calendar.
The correct term is the Orthodox people follow the Julianic calendar. Catholics follow the Gregorian calendar
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Damn you get me every year with this correction, ok I only meant Orthodox faith.
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Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December. The first Christians / Jews celebrated it sometime in March, but Christmas was moved to the same date as the Roman winter solstice when Christianity became the State religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century. Since then, after the great schism in 1054, Christianity split in two. The Orthodox curch, lead by the Patriark of Constantinople, and the Catholic church, lead by the Pope in Rome. The Orthodox church still follow the old Roman calendar, the Julianic calendar, implemented by Emperor Julius Caesar. It is we who have changed to a different calendar. The old Julianic calendar had too many leap years, and thus slowly going out of sync with the solar year. Therefore Pope Gregorius XIII implemented a slightly altered calendar in the 16th century. The Gregorian calendar.
Julianic calendar: Leap years every 4 years.
Gregorian calendar: Leap years every 4 years. Not in years divisible by 100. But in years divisible by 1000.
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Let’s put things right! First of all there is no Orthodox faith and catholic faith and protestant faith and so on. They are all Christian faith. There is seperation of “dogma” = opinion. Small differences exist there about the faith. Now about Christmas 25/12 or 7/1. In older times the valid calendar was the Julian (or roman) calendar. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII, issued a degree and changed to the current gregorian calendar. of course the monks of holy area (Athos) in greece did not like this. A catholic pope to impose on them “his” calendar. The greeks adopted the new calendar (althought they are Orthodox) to be with the rest of europe at the same dates. The russian church, who followed the holly area of Athos, remained on the old days, following and not changing the days. Date though is everywhere the same. So instead of "loosing those 14 days (difference of Julian to Gregorian calender, the russians and few other countries celebrate at the same day as before Christmas! Namely 14 days after. On the 7th of January. The Greeks (also Orthodox) adapted to the new dates. 25/12 is their Christmas. You see, there is no Pope in the orthodox dogma. People are free to choose.
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Orthodox and catholics split only 1000 years ago, what day of the year Christmas was celebrated when both were united?
Was Christmas banned during soviet rule?
It is explained above. The orthodox and the catholic church split in 1054. The two calendars split in 1582. The date of Christmas is the 25th of December in both calendars.
Yep. Atleast in the earlier days. And they tried to move more of the focus over on the celebration of New Year. For example, in Russia a Christmas tree is commonly called a New Years tree.
It was also the Soviet rule that implemented the Julianic calendar in Russia, so that probably plays a part in why the church still don’t recognise it.
Jesus H Christ, I get ejumacated more on these here forums than I ever did in 4 years of the collidge thing. Thank goodness for teh prefessors! 
What was your major, guessing not English literature?
Yeah, actually dropped out at 10th grade. Making 200k now as a welder. You need something fused together? I can do that for ya.
