Russian Orthodox Christmas 2024. A large majority of russia’s 140 million people identify as members of the russian orthodox church, which calculates the date of christmas based on the julian calendar instead of the gregorian calendar used in the west. Learn about russian christmas traditions, the history of christmas in russia, and how to say merry christmas in russian.
Did you know that russian christmas is on january the 7th, because the russian orthodox church follows the old julian calendar? Putin has used the orthodox church as a powerful ally to promote his vision of a russian world based on traditional conservative values, in contrast with what he portrays as.