though I think you celebrate a little later? Orthodox Christmas is two weeks later indeed. It is celebrated on the 7th of January. This is mostly a religious holiday, though. New Year's Eve & New Year's Day are bigger events. In the early days of the Soviet Union and later on there was a lot of the religious persecution. Christmas celebrations were banned but people still wanted to have their Christmas trees, give each other presents and so on. So they projected it onto the New Year's Day. Like most Russian families, I think, we always celebrate the New Year and celebrate Christmas if we don’t forget about it :) My Mum comes from Catholic family and my Dad comes from Orthodox family (and both of them are sort of atheist), so that’s our excuse for celebrating Christmas on different days.
I was brought up in a Church of England household (my father was a priest) but I'm an atheist. I celebrate New Year and the Solstice, but I am perfectly happy to celebrate Christmas, too - and Diwali, Eid, Hannukah and anything else that's going!
We had a lovely Christmas, thank you, and are now looking forward to tomorrow night. Happy New Year!!
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Happy Christmas - though I think you celebrate a little later?
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though I think you celebrate a little later?
Orthodox Christmas is two weeks later indeed. It is celebrated on the 7th of January. This is mostly a religious holiday, though. New Year's Eve & New Year's Day are bigger events. In the early days of the Soviet Union and later on there was a lot of the religious persecution. Christmas celebrations were banned but people still wanted to have their Christmas trees, give each other presents and so on. So they projected it onto the New Year's Day. Like most Russian families, I think, we always celebrate the New Year and celebrate Christmas if we don’t forget about it :) My Mum comes from Catholic family and my Dad comes from Orthodox family (and both of them are sort of atheist), so that’s our excuse for celebrating Christmas on different days.
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We had a lovely Christmas, thank you, and are now looking forward to tomorrow night. Happy New Year!!
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