Moscow (AsiaNews)
- In Russia Christmas is celebrated twice. Most
of the Russians, for whom the main holiday is the New Year, December 25 is the
"Catholic Christmas", but in fact it is also Christmas for Lutherans
and Anglicans (along with some Methodists, Baptists and Pentecostals) who
follow Gregorian
calendar and celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. The
Russian Orthodox Church, like some Protestant churches, has retained, however, the
old Julian calendar for religious holidays, 13 days "later" than the
Gregorian calendar. For
this reason the Orthodox Christmas falls on January 7 and Epiphany on January 19.
The
Director of the Information Centre of the Archdiocese of Mother of God in
Moscow, Father Kirill Gorbunov, remembers, however, that the "feast is one
for all Christians." "To
all the faithful, the main aspect of this day is Mass," said the priest,
according to whom at least 5 thousand faithful will flock to the Cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception in the Russian capital.
The
midnight Mass will be in Russian, but 25 others will be held in Polish, Spanish
and English. The
majority of Catholics in Moscow come from countries of Catholic tradition, but
there are also Vietnamese, Korean and Armenian communities.
Here,
too, Christmas is a holiday to spend with family. At dinner
the night of 24 and then lunch together the next day. The
pervading tradition is Polish cooking which includes: kissel oats (starch jelly
with fruit juice), red borsch (beet soup) with Uszka (a kind of ravioli), carp
roasted and sweet bread with honey (chalka).
According
to the latest official estimates (2004), the Archdiocese of the Mother of God
in Moscow has 200 thousand faithful.