Today Is...Orthodox Christmas

January 7 is Christmas Day for Russian Christians, the Jerusalem Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as well as for some Protestants who are made to wait an extra 13 days after the other Christians have unwrapped their presents because they still use the old Julian Calendar.
According to the Julian calendar, created under the reign of Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the holidays come thirteen days after the Christmas festivities in the Catholic Church.
Christmas in the Orthodox Church is traditionally preceded by forty days of praying and fasting, during which the faithful should refrain from eating meat and deny themselves any form of entertainment. By learning to temper the body, one attains spiritual perfection, believers hope.
Russia may have the snow but i think our idea of Christmas and eating our own body weight in mince pies and chocolate while sleeping through the King's speech is better.
Being Christian they abide by all the other religious Christian stuff but i wasn't interested enough to look up what Orthodox Christianity is all about, i'm a non-orthodox Christian and i have no idea what my own religion is all about so Merry Christmas to all Orthodox Christians and don't worry about being 13 days behind the rest of the Christian religion because both of you hold views that are centuries out of date anyway so what's an extra near fortnight.