In some Eastern European and Middle Eastern countries Christmas is officially celebrated on January 7.
That is because many Orthodox Christian churches follow the Julian calendar for religious celebrations.
The Julian calendar runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, the standard international calendar in use today.
"When we open the church calendar on January 7, we're actually looking at the date December 25," Father Alexander Morozow of the Russian Orthodox Church in Canberra said.
"So we still have that same date, we're just using a calendar that hasn't caught up.
The Julian calendar took effect under the reign of Julius Caesar in 45BC.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII created a new calendar to correct the discrepancy between calendar time and calculated astronomical time. It became known as the Gregorian calendar.
But to begin with only Catholic countries adopted the changes and Orthodox Christian countries remained on the Julian calendar.
Over time, those countries adopted the Gregorian calendar for secular use but the Orthodox churches continued to base their liturgical calendar on the Julian timetable.
In 1923 a revised version of the Julian calendar was introduced bringing Christmas Day in line with the Gregorian calendar, but it was only adopted by some of the Orthodox Christian countries including Greece, Cyprus and Romania.
Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia-Skopje, Moldova and Montenegro continue to celebrate Christmas on January 7. Continue Reading
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