December 25 or January 7? Why Georgia does not celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar

Christmas in Georgia – December 25 or January 7

Every year as the Christmas holidays approach, the controversy over the date of Christmas is revived in themedia. When should it be celebrated in Georgia – December 25 or January 7?

Almost everyone – from ordinary users of social networks to politicians – is involved in the debate. This issue has long gone beyond the religious context and has acquired political content in the context of Georgia’s liberation from Russian influence and its accession to the Western world.

An ancient Georgian Christmas song begins with the following words: “On December twenty-fifth Christ was born in Bethlehem”.

In fact, the Georgian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7.

Where did the difference in dates come from?

Today 15 Orthodox churches are universally recognized in the world. Of these, 11 celebrate Christmas on December 25. Only four celebrate this holiday on January 7 — the churches of Russia, Serbia, Jerusalem and Georgia. This means that calling January 7 “Orthodox Christmas” is incorrect, since for most of the Orthodox world Christmas falls on December 25.

The difference in the dates for celebrating Christmas originated in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. Many European countries very quickly moved to the new style, while for some countries it took centuries. Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar only in 1918, after the establishment of the Soviet government. However, the Russian Orthodox Church followed and still follows the Julian calendar. Orthodox churches close to the Russian Orthodox Church and under its influence – the Serbian, Georgian, and Jerusalem churches – also use the Julian calendar.

Christmas was not considered a holiday in the Soviet Union. After its collapse, the countries that were part of the USSR decided for themselves when they would celebrate Christmas. For example, in Belarus, since 1991, i.e. since the day of independence, two Christmases have been celebrated — December 25 and January 7. Both are considered public holidays.

Initially, Moldova chose the Orthodox date — January 7. But in 2013, in parallel with its efforts to join the European Union, it also recognized December 25 as a Christmas holiday.

Ukraine celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the first time this year

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church has been celebrating Christmas on January 7 for many years. However, as in Georgia, the issue of transition to the new Gregorian calendar was constantly raised there, because the recognition of December 25 as the date of Christmas was also associated with an approach to the Western world.

After Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the discussion on this issue became more urgent. Finally the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church declared December 25 as the date of Christmas, calling the decision “difficult” but “well thought-out.”

In July 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that officially decided to celebrate Christmas in the country on December 25. This day was declared a holiday in Ukraine, and January 7 lost its status as a holiday.

According to the joint position of the Ukrainian government and the church, the celebration of Christmas on January 7 is “perceived as connected to Russian church culture.”

“The adoption of the law will allow us to break away from Russian traditions and strengthen the national unity of Ukraine,” an explanatory note to the bill reads.

In 2023, Ukrainian Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the first time.

In a video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed to the political side of the issue and a symbol of the country’s unity. “Today all Ukrainians are together. We all meet Christmas together. On one date, as one big family, as one nation, as one, united country. And today our joint prayer is stronger than ever. A people’s prayer. It will unite millions of voices today – more than ever before. And it will resound today, without the time difference of two weeks. And will sound together with Europe and the world.”

At the same time, there is another Orthodox Church (non-autocephalous) in Ukraine that is affiliated with and influenced by the Russian Church. This church still celebrates Christmas on January 7.

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What arguments do supporters of celebrating Christmas on December 25 in Georgia put forward?

On December 25, in the Georgian segment of social networks one can often find congratulations of the following content: “Congratulations on the real, not Russian Christmas”. Also on this day, many call on the Georgian Orthodox Church to declare December 25 as the date of Christmas in Georgia.

The main argument that supporters of this idea make is that only the “Russian world” celebrates Christmas on January 7. They demand that the Georgian Orthodox Church switch to a unified Orthodox calendar that is not subject to Russian influence.

Supporters of this idea believe that if Georgia declares December 25 as the date of Christmas, it would take an important step toward getting rid of the influence of the Russian Church.

Georgian writer Lasha Bugadze is among those who believe that moving the date of Christmas to December 25 will be a symbolic act of moving away from Russia and closer to the Europe. In his January 7 Facebook post, he called it a “Russian Christmas.”

“Where there is religion, it is obvious that the argument is absurd. You want to celebrate Christmas according to Julius Caesar’s calendar (January 7), and you want to celebrate Christmas according to Pope Gregory’s calendar (December 25)… But not absurd is the threat that implies a tie to Russia. “January 7″ today is a political date, not a religious date. If it were not political, neither the Ukrainian Church would have started celebrating Christmas on December 25, nor the greatest patriarch of Georgia, St. Ambrosius (Helaia), would have tried to restore the tradition of December 25!”

Those who believe that the church should remain in the Julian calendar system are guided by anti-church and anti-scientific myths and serve anti-Western propaganda, theologian Beka Mindiashvili believes.

According to him, the Georgian Church is governed by the old and astronomically inaccurate Julian calendar:

“In the fourth century, December 25 – the period of the winter equinox – was established as the date for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ. There is a global ecclesiastical consensus on this issue (including that of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches). Christmas should coincide with a period of decreasing time of darkness and increasing day, of light, because, according to the Church, the true light that has entered the world is Christ. Modern “calendar schismatics” claim that our December 25th is not really December 25th, i.e. the equinox does not occur at that time, but the longest night in 14 days is January 7th.”

Beka Mindiashvili also reminds opponents of the idea that in the past the patriarchs of the Georgian Church have tried to support Georgia’s transition to the new calendar.

“In 1924, the Georgian Church under the leadership of Patriarch Amvrosy Khelaya switched to the new style, but due to the unpreparedness of the flock and the chaos created by the communists, it later returned to the old style.

Also [Patriarchs] Kyrion, Leonid, and after them Christopher and Callistratus, quite naturally and in accordance with church logic, were active supporters of the calendar reform,” Mindiashvili notes.

“The transition to the new style was ultimately impossible because of Soviet tyranny, incredible persecution of the Church, terror and repression, the Georgian Church was unable to carry out calendar reform and in fact remained on the old style. So now we celebrate Christmas together with the schismatic patriarchate of Russia and some of its satellites. That is why and in this sense Christmas on January 7 is called “Russian Christmas”. And there is nothing wrong with that, because the worldwide Orthodox Apostolic Church still celebrates Christmas on December 25 according to the ancient sacred tradition.”

In the archives there is indeed a historical document, the decision of the Holy Synod of 1927, which decided that it was necessary to correct the church calendar and celebrate Christmas according to the new style – December 25.

“This decision was signed by four patriarchs of Georgia: Christopher (Tsitskishvili), Kallistrat (Tsintsadze), Melchizedek (Pkhaladze) and Efrem (Sidamonidze). Two of them – Kallistrat (Tsintsadze) and Bishop Stefan (Vasil) Karbelashvili – have been canonized,” Deacon Ilia Chigladze, who shared this document on Facebook, said:

And this is the second decision in favor of the transition of the Georgian Church to the new style. The first was a decree of the 1923 Catholic Council, which was in effect until the spring of 1925, and was suspended due to church unrest.

“We are told that December 25 is Catholic Christmas. But that is a mistake. Why Catholic or Protestant Christmas, when the vast majority of Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on this very day? We must realize that celebrating Christmas on December 25 will not be an innovative decision or reform; on the contrary, it is a return to the original tradition that protects the sanctity of the church calendar,” Deacon Ilia Chigladze says.

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The position of the Church and the government

This year government officials also responded to the controversy on Facebook. “Supporters of January 7” attempted to portray the “supporters of December 25” as anti-national forces, and the celebration of Christmas on January 7 as a national, Georgian-Church tradition that “pseudo-liberals” are taking away from the Georgian people.

Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze published a post that read:

“I would like to remind the pseudo-liberals that the Christian world has been celebrating Christmas according to the Julian calendar since 325, when history had not yet conceived of Russia. At the end of the XVI century the Pope established a calendar different from the Julian calendar, and the Orthodox Church followed the Julian calendar even when the Russian Orthodox Church, unlike the Georgian Orthodox Church, had not even received autocephaly. That is, Orthodox Christmas is first Georgian and then Russian… I wish pseudo-liberals with all my heart and soul to abandon the search for Russia in everything Georgian, to discard pseudo-liberalism and follow the truth. I congratulate every Georgian Orthodox Christian once again and wish you a Merry Christmas.”

The issue is yet another political manipulation and the government’s opponents are trying to speculate to accuse Georgian Dream of moving in the direction of Russia, says Mikhail Sarjveladze, chairman of the parliamentary committee for the protection of human rights and civil integration:

“I have no feeling that any dogmatic issue, i.e. a church issue, can be a symbol of association with Russia. The goal is to find arguments to replicate a pre-announced, non-existent fact in order to accuse the government of moving in a certain direction, which they themselves declare, given their PR strategy.”

The position of the Church is unequivocal: “To refine or improve the calendar or to make any changes in it without proper justification or consent is very harmful to the unity of the Church. This question was decided at the First Ecumenical Council, and it remains only within the competence of the Ecumenical Council to change it… There is no such justification for the inevitable necessity of a new style, and therefore no universal agreement has been reached… Every Orthodox believer who considers himself a member of the Church must know by which calendar his Church lives. Therefore, as members of the Mother Church, we are obliged to celebrate Christmas and all other Christian holidays only according to the old style,” the official website of the Georgian Orthodox Church reads.