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Why Does Eastern Orthodox Celebrate Christmas on January 7?

Eastern Orthodox follows the Julian calendar for their liturgical year. The Gregorian calendar, named for Pope Gregory XIII, was proclaimed in a Papal Bull in 1582. Its full implementation took 300 years owing to many countries not wanting to adopt a calendar proclaimed by a pope. Most Catholic countries quickly adopted while others adopted it later as the calendar was accurate and corrected the problems of the Julian. While dislike of the Catholic church was a reason in some cases, there were other reasons such governments being slow to act as well as local customs and traditions that had to be overcome. Adopting the new calendar required a major change, namely setting the calendar forward 13 days. That was a major feat implementing the change in many countries. The tradeoff though was clear. The newer calendar was more accurate so that you no longer had to make manual calculations to adjust for solstices, equinoxes, and other events under the old calendar. Those problems were now gone.

For Eastern Orthodox, the issue was not the accuracy of the new calendar but with the Papal Bull itself that had things in it they did not agree with and thus rejected it. The Congress of Constantinople (1923) created a Revised Julian Calendar that synchronized with the Gregorian on everything except Easter. This was accepted by Orthodox Churches in Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria. It was rejected by Orthodox churches in Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Georgia. Due to the split, the date for Easter is different between the two since the Revised Julian Calendar uses a different formula that the other churches rejected. That is why Christmas is celebrated by Greek Orthodox Church on December 25 but Russian Orthodox on January 7. The last country to adopt the Gregorian calendar was Saudi Arabia in 2016.

Sources

Christmas Worldwide. “Eastern Orthodox Christmas: Celebrations in Russia, Greece, and Ukraine – Christmas Worldwide.” Christmas Worldwide. Last modified January 18, 2025. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://christmases.net/eastern-orthodox-christmas-celebrations-in-russia-greece-and-ukraine/.

“A Papal Calendar?” Orthodox Church in America. Last modified January 3, 2017. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.oca.org/reflections/fr.-lawrence-farley/a-papal-calendar.

Wikipedia contributors. “List of Adoption Dates of the Gregorian Calendar by Country.” Wikipedia. Last modified October 23, 2025. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adoption_dates_of_the_Gregorian_calendar_by_country