Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Hilarion MOSCOW, January 7 The chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, wished the believers an end to the coronavirus pandemic and fewer diseases and deaths for Christmas. The coronavirus pandemic that has befallen us is over. So that we all be happy, that the Lord strengthens and helps each of us on our path in life. I cordially congratulate you all on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, «he said in an address published on the website jesus-portal.ru. One of the 12 main holidays of Christianity — Christmas — is celebrated on January 7 in the Russian Orthodox Church and in some other local Orthodox churches of the world, as well as Catholics of the Eastern rite and Protestants adhering to the Julian calendar. It is dedicated to events more than 2,000 years ago, when a pregnant woman The Mother of God and her husband Joseph came to Bethlehem. There were no places in the Bethlehem hotels, so they spent the night in a cave intended for cattle, where Jesus was born. In a cave, lying in a manger (cattle feeder), instead of a cradle, he is depicted on icons and in Christmas nativity scenes. The first to see the newborn were the shepherds, who were informed about the birth of the Savior by an angel. And even earlier, the Magi went to Bethlehem with the gifts of the Magi: they saw in the sky a phenomenon that is now called the Star of Bethlehem. some Protestants who adhere to the Julian calendar. Christians who adhere to the Gregorian and New Julian calendar celebrate it on the night of December 24-25. This is the Roman Catholic Church, some Protestants (Lutherans, Anglicans, part of the Methodists, Baptists and Pentecostals), as well as part of the Orthodox churches: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Romanian, Bulgarian, Cypriot, Greek, Albanian churches and the Orthodox Church in America. And in the Orthodox churches of the Czech lands and Slovakia, Christmas is celebrated twice — according to the Julian and New Julian calendars.
