Church calendar and the 12 days of Christmas

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For us Orthodox, Christmas is actually 12 days, and from start to finish there is a progressive revealing that occurs. 

On December 25th we celebrate the nativity of Christ. This celebration of the birth of Christ is a celebration of God being with us in the world.

On January 1st, the 8th day of Christmas, we celebrate the circumcision of Christ. The significance of this day is that it would have been the day that Christ officially received His name, Jesus. The name Jesus means "Salvation of God". This celebration of Christ's circumcision is a celebration of God's name being revealed to us.

On January 6th we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, or theophany. On theophany, worship of The Trinity was made manifest. This celebration of Christ's baptism is a celebration of both God being made visible, and The Eternal way, which is worshipping God in Spirit and Truth, aka The Trinity.


Sadly this ancient tradition and the mystagogy that it was intended to facilitate the communication of has largely been lost by most protestant/evangelical churches, who in their zeal to seperate themselves from Roman Catholicism discarded the church calendar. 

Well, to those of who still use the church calendar, it is very useful as a learning tool. Besides the fasts and the feasts, every day there is a saint to remember making it a good way to learn church history. Besides that, there are scripture readings every day that are intended to flesh out the typography of the faith and reveal Christ. 


To those evangelicals and protestants who don't have the calander, you're really missing out! It is a useful teaching tool, and it brings people together. 

To those Roman Catholics and Orthodox Catholics who have the calendar, consider making it a part of your daily life.


Sure, one could say that all days are equally holy, but lets not forget that the intent here with the calendar is to edify. It is there to make use of, so why not? If it isn't your cup of tea, that is fine, but observing the calendar is still a good practice. For some people, it helps them to be mindful of God, and what believer would count that as a bad thing?

Happy new year, everybody.









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I've noticed that you orthodox seem to have changed alot of things.
You got trinity god. 
You do christmas on the 7th.
You know what i mean? 

Oh and circumcision day.  i am going to ( TAKE  NOTE ) on this.  And add it to the , " Being made in Gods image " thing.

And The fasting and feasting you guys do. Well that is straight common sense right there.
Why you ask.
Why?
Because God loves it when you guys do the " don't eat things " for him.  
And the eat lots of things for him. 

Look When will this story of God start to ummmmmm, gain some normalcy, normality.
A normal thing followed by a normal thing.  
 
Ok one question moe moe.  
Can you enter heaven with a foreskin ? 

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I've noticed that you orthodox seem to have changed alot of things.
You got trinity god. 
You do christmas on the 7th.
You know what i mean? 

We would say that that all the prophets, even Moses, believed that God, His Word, and His Spirit are One God.

The churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Poland and Ukraine use the old Julian calendar. One of the reasons for this has to do with the coincidence of global adoption of the Gregorian calendar and The Soviet Union trying to infiltrate and destroy the church. If you notice, most of these churches were in Soviet controlled countries. In the case of the church of Jerusalem, the formation of the state of Israel displaced a good chunk of the Palestinian Christians there. Adoption of the Gregorian calendar for the liturgical year is looked at with suspicion in these places.

Others have the opinion that using the Gregorian calendar is a concession to the Pope of Rome, who we consider to be in schism with the church.


So in these churches that celebrate Christmas in January, to them it is actually December 25th according to their calendar! We all celebrate Pascha(Easter) on the same day though. 

The church has been through a really rough 20th century. There are a lot of things to be sorted out at the moment when it comes to these things. It will get sorted out eventually. I'm not worried about it. 




God loves it when you guys do the " don't eat things " for him. 
And the eat lots of things for him.

It is best to do all things to the glory of God.

I wouldn't say we do anything for God. God does not require us to do anything for Him. 


Can you enter heaven with a foreskin ?

The church does not practice circumcision. In a way, baptism and chrismation take the place of that.

Or the scriptures say, "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."

In other words, if you abide in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter if you are circumcised or not.


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There are certainly factual errors in my description of the calendar controversy. It is not something I am particularly interested in. To some people it is very important. I am sure that time will sort this one out.