site.btaChristmas to Be Celebrated in Parts of Balkans on Tuesday

Orthodox Christians in Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Republika Srpska (one of the two entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina) are preparing to celebrate Christmas on January 7. Orthodox Christians in North Kosovo and the monastic community in Mt Athos will also celebrate Christmas on Tuesday. These countries and regions mark Christmas according to the Old (Julian) Calendar.

In most parts of the world, including Bulgaria, the date of Christmas is set according to the New (Gregorian) Calendar, so there Christmas falls on December 25.

January 7 is also Christmas in Russia, Belarus and Georgia and for many Orthodox Christians in Moldova. In 2023, Ukraine switched to celebrating Christmas according to the Gregorian Calendar to set itself apart from the Russian Church.

In the Julian Calendar countries and regions in the Balkans, one of the Christmas Eve rituals is cutting off a log, called budnik, and placing it on the fire to burn until the next day, when the birth of Jesus is announced.

Christmas Eve traditions involve a public liturgy and a vegetarian dinner in the family, which typically includes honey, onion, common beans, cabbage, fish, fruit, dried plums, and nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts), the Serbian newspaper Danas says. Bread made on the morning of Christmas Eve is placed on the table in the evening and torn into pieces by hand.

It is also customary to bring wheat into the house together with the budnik, to ensure fertility in the new year.

On the eve of this major Christian feast, floors are strewn with hay to make the house look like the manger in Bethlehem where the infant Jesus was laid after birth.

You can't sleep on the night of Christmas Eve, you need to stay awake and wait for the moment of Jesus' holy birth.

Some people put cash on the table in the hope that it will bring abundance throughout the year, the Serbian daily Kurir says. For the same purpose, you can eat poppy seeds on the day of Christmas Eve. You should not drink alcohol, because otherwise you will have a "drunk year."

Nothing should be taken out of the house on Christmas Eve.

According to another tradition, walnuts are cracked on the night before Christmas to divine the family's luck and health in the new year.

Among the Balkan nations, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania celebrated Christmas on December 25 according to the Gregorian Calendar. And so did 174,000 Orthodox Christians in Albania. The number is based on the latest population census in the Adriatic country.