The following information has been extracted from web site http://www.ealing.gov.uk/News+in+Ealing/orthodox+christmas.asp which while dealing with Christmas, nevertheless provides an insight into the complexity of dates arising from the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by some branches of the Christian religion, while others such as the Russian Othodox Church operate according to the Julian Calendar. Why is Orthodox Christmas in January? In 354 AD Bishop Liberus of Rome fixed 25 December as the official date of Christmas day, before this it was celebrated on many different dates. He chose 25 December to replace the pagan festival of sun-god worship.
The Orthodox church celebrates Christmas on 6 or 7 January according to the Julian calendar. By following this calendar Orthodox Christians remain true to the traditions of their ancestors, celebrating Christmas on the same date. The Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar which is used by most of the world. It dates back to January 1 46 BC when the Greek astronomer Sorsigenies established the length of the solar calendar for Julius Caesar. He found it to be 365 and a quarter days. Every fourth year an extra day was added to keep the quarter days accurate. This resulted in the solar calendar being 10 days out by 1528. In March 1528 Pope Gregory XIII rectified this by removing 10 days between 11 and 21 March. As a result in Roman Catholic countries 12-20 March 1582 never existed. The Gregorian calendar was adopted by Protestant countries in 1752, by this time the difference between the two calendars was 11 days. Shalom and Chag Pesach Same'ach Yoel Sheridan [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.tenterbooks.com ========================================================================== HaSafran - The Electronic Forum of the Association of Jewish Libraries Submissions for HaSafran, send to: Hasafran at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 at osu.edu AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org/
