One of the main Christian holidays in the Russian Orthodox Church falls not on December 25th, as with Catholics and Protestants, but on a different date. So, how did this happen?

In the Russian Empire, Christmas was celebrated on December 25th every year. But back then before the Revolution of 1917, Russia lived on the “old”, Julian calendar. It was 13 days behind the “new”, Gregorian calendar, by which the Western world was already living. So in the old days in Russia December 25th fell on the day the Western world considers January 7th.

In 1918, Soviet Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar to be more international, and, according to the new style, all the dates were shifted by 13 days.

Thus it turned out that Orthodox Christmas fell on the 7th and in Russia this tradition of Christmas in January has continued every since.

The Russian Orthodox Church however continues to live according to the old calendar.