Russia, double Christmas celebrations, Catholic and Orthodox

December 26, 2012: In Russia Christmas is celebrated twice. Most of the Russians, for whom the main holiday is the New Year, December 25 is the "Catholic Christmas", but in fact it is also Christmas for Lutherans and Anglicans (along with some Methodists, Baptists and Pentecostals) who follow Gregorian calendar and celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. The Russian Orthodox Church, like some Protestant churches, has retained, however, the old Julian calendar for religious holidays, 13 days "later" than the Gregorian calendar. For this reason the Orthodox Christmas falls on January 7 and Epiphany on January 19.

The Director of the Information Centre of the Archdiocese of Mother of God in Moscow, Father Kirill Gorbunov, remembers, however, that the "feast is one for all Christians." "To all the faithful, the main aspect of this day is Mass," said the priest, according to whom at least 5 thousand faithful will flock to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Russian capital.

The midnight Mass is in Russian, but 25 others will be held in Polish, Spanish and English. The majority of Catholics in Moscow come from countries of Catholic tradition, but there are also Vietnamese, Korean and Armenian communities.

Here, too, Christmas is a holiday to spend with family. At dinner the night of 24 and then lunch together the next day. The pervading tradition is Polish cooking which includes: kissel oats (starch jelly with fruit juice), red borsch (beet soup) with Uszka (a kind of ravioli), carp roasted and sweet bread with honey (chalka).

According to the latest official estimates (2004), the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow has 200 thousand faithful.