Holidays

To my great delight, I have not yet seen or heard an Orthodox Christian raise any objection to the phrase "Happy Holidays." And why should they? According to the Orthodox calendar, Christmas begins a twelve-day celebration (hence the "12 Days of Christmas") that concludes with the feast of Theophany (known in the Western Church as Epiphany). That's two holidays (i.e. holy days) right there.

But wait, there's more...

Between Thanksgiving and the end of January, Orthodox Christians commemorate:

5 of the Twelve Apostles (plus all of the Seventy Apostles on Jan 17),
7 Old Testament Prophets,
No fewer than 51 individual Martyrs, plus the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia (Jan 10), and the Holy Innocents (Jan 11),
The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple (Dec 4),
The Conception of the Theotokos (Dec 22),
The Circumcision of the Lord (Jan 14), plus the feast days of such well-known figures of Church history as:
St John Chrysostom (Nov 26),
St John of Damascus (Dec 17)
St Sabbas (Dec 18)
St Nicholas (Dec 19)
St Ambrose (Dec 20)
St Ignatius of Antioch (Jan 2)
St Joseph the Betrothed (Jan 11)
St Basil (Jan 14)
St John the Baptist (Jan 20), and a whole lot of lesser-known ones.

So, while the Nativity of Christ is the most important day of the season, it is but one of several holy days that Orthodox Christians celebrate, and so the greeting "Happy Holidays" really would not be inappropriate.

While we're on the subject, I have in the past heard Christians object to the abbreviation "X-mas" because they feel it is crossing out Christ. Not to worry. The "x" here is not the English letter "x" and is not the symbol used for "crossing out." It is the Greek letter chi, which, as we have seen, is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ: Χριστός.

The word "Christmas," by the way, is historically unknown in the Eastern Church, which has instead preferred to call the celebration The Feast of the Nativity According to the Flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ (could this title leave any question as to the true meaning of Christmas?). According to Dr. Alexander Roman, the name "Christmas" is from pre-Schism (i.e. Orthodox) England, and,

is a composite of the Calendar feast in honour of which the daily Liturgy was celebrated i.e. "Christ-Mass." In the Old Sarum Rite, there was "Andermas" for St Andrew's Day. Others included: Martinmas, Michaelmas, Ladymas (for the Mother of God), Candlemas (Feast of the Meeting of St Simeon or "Purification"), Johnmas or, in Ireland, Seanmas (and thus the name, "Seamus") and so on.

I have seen another remarkable thing about Christmas in the Orthodox Church. In our western culture, we celebrate during the days leading up to Christmas, and then on the 26th the party is over and the curbs are littered with discarded Christmas trees.

Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, prepare for the Nativity as they do with other important Feasts: with fasting and prayer. In the Orthodox Church, "Advent represents the time before Christ’s birth, when God’s people had become lost and disconnected from Him. Instead of 'pre-celebrating' the Christmas holiday during Advent, the Orthodox Christian faithful participate in a solemn, six-week Nativity fast during this time. It is a spiritual practice that helps people grieve their losses, endure their sadness, feed their souls, and, ultimately, experience joy on Christmas day."1

To Orthodox Christians, the celebration begins--rather than ends--on Christmas Day.

For further reading:
American Christmas and Orthodox Nativity
What Do You Do About Western Christmas?
Dealing with a Secularized Christmas
Christmas--To An Eastern Orthodox Christian
Orthodox Christmas Recipes


1. How to Avoid Christmas Depression

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