Orthodox Celebrate

From the BBC:

“In pictures: Orthodox Christians around the world mark Christmas”

Orthodox Christians around the world are celebrating Christmas, even as two of the faith's most populous nations - Russia and Ukraine - continue to fight in Europe's largest conflict since World War Two. More than 200 million Christians around the world are associated with Orthodox Churches. Most of them celebrate Christmas on 7 January as they follow the Julian calendar, unlike those Christian denominations which follow the Gregorian calendar. And while the majority of Orthodox Christians are based in eastern Europe, ceremonies and processions have taken place across the world - including in the Middle East where Orthodox Churches are the most common form of Christianity.

(Across Ukraine, celebrations were coloured by the ongoing war. Ukrainian troops fighting near the front line in the Donbas region toasted each other during a brief moment of respite.)

(In Kyiv, believers lit candles at St Volodymyr's Cathedral. Millions of other Ukrainians flocked to churches across the country at the end of a brutal year of war.)

(In Serbia, people attended the annual bonfire of dried oak branches - the badnjak - the at the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade. The fire symbolises that built by the shepherds to warm the baby Jesus in his manger.)

(In Ethiopia, where there are more than 36 million Orthodox Christians, priests led believers to mark Christmas Eve - or Gena - at Saint Mary's Church in Lalibela.)

(And at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - said to be the birthplace of Jesus - believers gathered to mark one of the most important days in the Orthodox faith.)

^ Orthodox Christmas around the World. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64194408