Monday, December 23, 2024

 

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 23rd of December 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Today, we have another question. We are trying to get as many in as possible. Jennifer from Clovis wrote in, but, as I learned, it is not Clovis, California, but Clovis, New Mexico, home of Clovis Ruffin, a fashion designer named for the town he was born in.

Of course, Clovis was the king of the Franks. He converted and had the Frankish kingdom become Christian, with mixed results.

Jennifer asked about Eastern Orthodox Christmas. Since it didn’t make the weekend show, I wanted to respond here.

First, “Eastern Orthodox” is a big tent. There are some generalities and some peculiarities. Also, I’ll speak from the historic tradition, not what your neighbor James says, who became Eastern Orthodox after leaving Calvary Chapel (that’s a made-up person, btw, but a type- on 1517, we have an article on the recent shift for younger folk to Orthodoxy).

When we speak of the “peculiarities” within the Eastern Orthodox tradition, I mean that the churches are “ethnic” churches- so we get the “Greek” Orthodox and the “Russian” Orthodox, and the question with some practices and customs has to do with how “Greek” it is, or how “Orthodox” it is. How “Southern” is a Southern Baptist church, and how “Baptist” is it? That is, we will always have a secular and sacred dichotomy as long as this era lasts.

With the Eastern Orthodox, because they come from remote places (at least here in North America), they tend to have come from family lines that held their culture and religion close- and for some good reasons. For many in the Orthodox tradition, this connection is as close as it is for some American traditions- and so, in America, it might stick out. 

Many in the Eastern Orthodox Church use the Julian Calendar; some use a “revised” Julian calendar, which looks like our Gregorian Calendar; and many have a mixed calendar, not unlike a Muslim who would have referenced the Islamic calendar for religious observances but had to pay rent at the end of the Gregorian month or get evicted.

So, St. Nicholas Day, the traditional day for gifts, is on December 19th, and December 25th is January 7th. This is confusing because some Orthodox use a Gregorian calendar but celebrate Epiphany, which is January 6th. 

As recently mentioned on the show, the Eastern tradition of penance and fasting is virtually unknown in the Thanksgiving to Christmas rush. A fast typically lasts until Christmas Eve. You might wait for the first star in the sky, and then the feast after the fast is on (and those are usually the best).

Some old Easter European states or those affected by the Iron Curtain may have switched their festivities to the New Year's holiday to avoid government censure for unapproved religious activities.

You might find them more “religious” than our modern cultural Christmas- ours would to if it weren't so modern. By holding on to the old traditions with religion and culturally Eastern Orthodox, Christmas might look explicitly Christian and a little out of place.

For my money, the Eastern churches do a great job conveying the mystery of the incarnation… I’ve heard it both that they do Christmas better and we do Easter better, AND the exact opposite. Let’s call of the competition. But it reminds me of one of the great translated poetic pieces celebrating the Incarnation- it comes from a sixth-century Greek hymn writer named St. Romanos the Melodist, and it is called a Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ with its stunning refrain “A Little Child, God Before the Ages”- it will be the reading for today’s show.

Thanks, Jennifer, for this question and the others. I collect them all and appreciate your emails at danv@1517.org.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- from Romanos the Melodist from his Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ.

Today the Virgin gives birth to him who is above all being,

and the earth offers a cave to him whom no one can approach.

Angels with shepherds give glory,

and magi journey with a star,

for to us there has been born

a little Child, God before the ages.

 

Bethlehem has opened Eden, come, let us see;

we have found delight in secret, come, let us receive

the joys of Paradise within the cave.

There the unwatered root whose blossom is forgiveness has appeared.

There has been found the undug well

from which David once longed to drink.

There a virgin has borne a babe

and has quenched at once Adam’s and David’s thirst.

For this, let us hasten to this place where there has been born

a little Child, God before the ages.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of December 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who only looks Eastern Orthodox- he is  Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who wishes more Christmas stories were told with Muppets and live actors… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.