Great Twelve feast
Nativity of Christ
Ближайшее празднование — 7 January 2027 день в календаре →
Послабление поста: No fasting
God is born in a cave kept for animals, because there was no room at the inn. Christianity begins with that detail: the Almighty arrives where no one expected him and where no one is invited.
The emperor Augustus had ordered a census, and everyone had to register in the town of his family. Joseph and Mary, close to giving birth, walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem — some ninety miles. The town was crowded, the inn was full, and they took shelter in a cave where shepherds drove their flocks in bad weather. There Christ was born, and his Mother laid him in a manger, an animals' feeding trough.
The first to know were shepherds: men of the lowest standing, whose testimony was not even accepted in court. An angel appeared to them and the night sky opened into a chorus: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men. And from the east, following a star for months, came the magi — foreign astronomers of another faith, bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh. King Herod, hearing of a newborn King, ordered every infant in Bethlehem killed.
The icon
Look closely at the icon of the Nativity: the Child lies not in a cradle but in the dark opening of a cave, wrapped in bands like a body prepared for burial. The iconographer is not frightening anyone — he is telling the truth: the one born here came to die. In one corner sits Joseph, an old tempter bending toward him with doubt; nearby women wash the newborn in a basin, the most earthly detail on an icon of God made man.
How it is kept
January 7 (December 25 on the old calendar). The feast is preceded by a forty-day fast, and on its last day, the Eve, many eat nothing until the first star appears, then take sochivo, boiled wheat with honey. The festal liturgy is served at night. From the Nativity to Theophany come the Svyatki — fast-free days for carolling, visiting and works of mercy.
Your Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone upon the world the light of knowledge; for by it those who worshipped the stars were taught by a star to worship You, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know You, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory to You.