[visualops]

Greek Orthodox Old Calendar celebrate January 7th.
Why the different dates? Just curious. I never heard of the 6th until recently.

[Dashing Dasher]

We were peasants and probably didn't have a good calendar!?

[tjwmason]

Greek Orthodox Old Calendar celebrate January 7th.
Why the different dates? Just curious. I never heard of the 6th until recently.

The Julian (or Old) Calendar is 13 days out from the Gregorian (or New), thus the Julian Calendar has 25 December on the day considered by most to be the 7 January. Epiphany is a separate, though related, feast on the 12th day of Christmass. I believe that the Greek Orthodox have the feast of the Theophany of Christ on 12th Day (which is 6 January Old Calendar, 19 January New Calendar).

There is some confusion between these two feasts given that Julian Christmass bumps into (as it were) Gregorian Epiphany.

[RonF]

The Orthodox still use the Julian calendar for their ecclesiastical calendar. When Pope Gregory reformed the calendar (we all use the Gregorian calendar now), they refused to go along, since by then they no longer recognized the Pope as an authority in this kind of thing.

The Julian calendar does not account for the difference between the length of a year (~365.24 days) and the 365-day calendar we use. This was causing the dates of the solstice, Easter, etc., to rotate backwards through the year. For example, by the 18th century there was an 11-day difference between when the solstice was occuring vs. when it occured when the Julian calendar was first established. Did you know that George Washington was actually born on February 11th, not the 22nd? So Pope Gregory made a change, and it was gradually adopted thoughout the world. But the Orthodox are not about to be told by a Roman Catholic Pope when their religous feasts, etc., are properly held.

[RonF]

Whoops: The Julian calendar does not account for the difference between the length of a year (~365.24 days) and the 365-day calendar we use as accurately as the Gregorian calendar (which we all use) does. Sorry.