Questions

Question first appeared on December 16, 2001
Why can=t the Christmas tree remain in the Sanctuary until the Feast of Epiphany?

And, Can the Christmas tree stay in the Sanctuary until January 7, after the Feast of Epiphany, because I remember celebrating the birth of Jesus on that day?

The short answer isBit=s a Christmas tree, not an Epiphany tree. But, your questions arise out of a confusion of several conflicting facts which require further explanation.

When the Feast of Epiphany began to be celebrated on January 6 in the early Church it contained all of the events of the early life of Jesus ChristBHis birth, youth, and the event of His baptism in the river Jordan. There was no separate feast day dedicated strictly to the event of His birth.

Sometime later the Church in the west, headquartered in Rome, adopted the date of December 25 to celebrate the Nativity of Christ. Their reasoning was based on transforming the old pagan festival celebrating the winter solstice, the Areturn@ or the movement of the sun back to the northern hemisphere. They substituted the birth of the ASon@ for the return of the Asun.@ Within a short time the Church in the east followed suit, and the celebration of Christ=s nativity and His baptism was separated to the two dates, December 25 and January 6, respectively.

These changes occurred while the Christian world still used the Julian calendar which was produced before the time of Christ. However, this calendar is inaccurate in that it loses one day approximately every 160 years. In 1582, Pope Gregory in the Christian west developed a new calendar that corrected this error and bears his name, the Gregorian calendar. This is the political/social calendar that the entire world still uses today.

Confusion arises because the Eastern Orthodox Church continued to use the Julian calendar for its liturgical year. By this time the Julian calendar is thirteen days later than the Gregorian calendar. This means that December 25 (J) is January 7 (G). Adding to this is a split between the Orthodox Churches worldwide. Beginning in the 1920's, many of the autocephalous churches (Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, etc.) adopted the newer Gregorian calendar, while others (Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc.) still use the Julian. For this reason many Orthodox Christians still celebrate or remember celebrating Christmas on January 7 (G).

Our patriarchate uses the Gregorian calendar. We celebrate the Nativity of Christ on December 25 (G). The leave-taking of the Feast of the Nativity is December 31 (G). Therefore, we take the tree down after the Sunday following the Nativity and by the leave-taking on December 31.