Merry Orthodox Christmas!

 
Merry Orthodox Christmas to Alex Ovechkin, Sergei Fedorov, Victor Kozlov, Alex Semin, Simeon Varlamov and Ted Leonsis family!

It is today, January 7, 2009.

Some excerpts from Wikipedia:

Eastern is a term often applied in the Western World for the sake of clarity. Almost from the very beginning Christians referred to the Church as the "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church". Today, in addition to the Orthodox Church, a number of other Christian churches lay claim to this title (The Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, and others); however, the Eastern Orthodox Church sees these other churches as break-away groups, with the Assyrians and Orientals breaking away from the church after the first few centuries and the Roman Catholics in the 11th century.

The term “Orthodox” translates from the Greek to mean “Correctly Believing” or "Correctly Glorifying God" (from the adjective orthos = correct, right & the verb dokeo,-o = I see, I believe or the noun doxa = glory) and was adopted by the Church in order to distinguish itself from what was becoming a larger and larger body of non-orthodox Christian denominations.

What unites the Orthodox is theology, although there are variations in style depending on country of origin and/or local custom. These local customs are referred to as differences in “Typica” and are accepted by church leaders since they are not perceived to conflict theologically with basic Orthodox teachings.

Thus it is that many Orthodox Churches adopt a national title (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc.) and this title serves to distinguish which language, which bishops, and which typica is followed by that particular congregation.

Eschatology

Orthodox Christians believe that when a person dies the soul is temporarily separated from the body. Though it may linger for a short period on Earth, it is ultimately escorted either to paradise (Abraham's bosom) or the darkness of Hades, following the Temporary Judgment; Orthodox do not accept the doctrine of Purgatory which is held by Roman Catholicism. The soul’s experience of either of these states is only a “foretaste” -being experienced only by the soul - until the Final Judgment, when the soul and body will be reunited.


Last Judgment. 12th-century Byzantine mosaic from Torcello Cathedral.

The Orthodox believe that the state of the soul in Hades can be affected by the love and prayers of the righteous up until the Last Judgment. For this reason the Church offers special prayer for the dead on the third day, ninth day, fortieth day, and the one-year anniversary after the death of an Orthodox Christian.

timeanddate.com:

Many Orthodox Christians annually celebrate Christmas Day on or near January 7 to remember Jesus Christ’s birth, described in the Christian Bible. This date works to the Julian calendar that pre-dates the Gregorian calendar, which is commonly observed.

Christmas Day is a public holiday on January 7 in countries such as Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Russia, and the Ukraine. Some countries, such as Armenia, observe Christmas Day on January 6.

According to Wikipedia it could be that Ted's family celebrates Christmas based on a new calendar, as most of the Greece...

Those Orthodox Churches which remain in full communion with the New calendarists and yet continue to use the Julian calendar, include the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Georgian Orthodox Church. (The Julian calendar is also used by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia which has reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church.) Mount Athos subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople also follows the Julian Calendar.