How many days until Orthodox Christmas?

About Orthodox Christmas

Orthodox Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus as observed by many Eastern Orthodox churches and their followers, falling on January 7 on the Gregorian calendar rather than December 25. The date itself is fixed and unchanging from year to year, but it differs from Western Christmas because many Orthodox churches continue to calculate their liturgical calendar dates using the older Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar adopted more widely for civil purposes; on the Julian calendar, the celebration still falls on December 25, but because the Julian calendar has drifted several days behind the Gregorian calendar over the centuries, that same Julian December 25 corresponds to January 7 on the Gregorian calendar used for everyday civil purposes in most of the world today. Not all Orthodox churches observe Christmas on this January date, however, since some Orthodox churches have adopted a revised calendar that aligns their fixed feast days, including Christmas, with the Gregorian December 25 date instead, meaning Orthodox Christmas observance is genuinely split between two different dates depending on which specific national or regional Orthodox church a given community follows. In countries and communities that observe the January 7 date, celebrations often include church services, family gatherings, and traditional foods, broadly similar in spirit to Western Christmas customs though shaped by distinct regional and liturgical traditions. A common misconception is assuming all Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7; in practice, the date varies by specific church jurisdiction, with some Orthodox communities celebrating on the Gregorian December 25 instead, making blanket assumptions about "the" Orthodox Christmas date inaccurate.

Dates on this page are checked against public calendar sources. Spot something wrong? Let us know.