Moscow Patriarch Alexy II today launched an appeal to live "a life of love, without forgetting our responsibilities toward others" and placing the family at the centre, during a television message for the Christmas observance of the Orthodox who follow the Julian calendar, like the Russians.Yesterday the head of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the vigil liturgy, according to tradition, in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
Among those present was deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is now believed to be the future Russian president.
The patriarch extended to him his wishes "that the joy of this holy feast give you strength and courage in your service for the good of our long-suffering people and Fatherland."
There are about 150 million Orthodox Christians who today - in Russia, in the Holy Land, and in some of the other Eastern Orthodox Churches - are celebrating Christmas according to the Julian calendar.
This is thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar used by Catholics, Protestants, some of the Orthodox, like the ecumenical patriarch, and the secular world.
But on January 7 in Russia, both the secular and religious world celebrate Christmas as a national holiday, and the religious fasting from meat, sweets, and alcohol begun on November 28 comes to an end.
"Abortion, divorce, the hunt for profit and pleasure, neglect of one's own children who often fail to receive affection and education from their parents; all this," Alexy II emphasizes, "transforms the life of the individual and of the entire country into an existence without happiness and full of remorse of conscience."
Christmas was, for head of state Vladimir Putin, an occasion to repeat his summons "to national unity and to respect for traditional values", themes that he often recalls for the population. Putin participated in the Christmas celebrations in the ancient city of Veliky Ustyug, which for the Russians is the home of Santa Claus (whom they call Father Frost).
From here, Putin sent his Christmas greetings to the citizens: "This feast . . . turns us to eternal spiritual values that unite millions of people, values that play a special role in the Russian history and feed our national culture".
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