Photos Provided St. Nicholas visits St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Barton, dressed in Bishop robes, to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, around Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Orthodox Christians in the Ohio Valley will celebrate Christmas on Tuesday, Jan. 7, marking the birth of Jesus Christ.

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Barton and Holy Resurrection Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church are the only churches in the Ohio Valley that celebrate Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7, according to the Rev. Michael Kabel of St. Nicholas Church.

Orthodox Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ 13 days after other Christians mark the occasion on Dec. 25. The reason Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7 instead of Dec. 25 is because they follow the Julian calendar, which is different from the Gregorian calendar that is more popular.

The Julian calendar runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar is the first calendar that was created during the reign of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. Due to the increasing difference between calendar time and calculated astronomical time, the calendar was corrected in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII, which made the Gregorian calendar the new, more widely accepted calendar, according to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

The archdiocese explains that the Gregorian calendar was introduced in the West, which created another anomaly in relations between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. The Julian Calendar remained in use throughout the Byzantine period and after in Orthodox circles.

Kabel said the date of Jan. 7 is not a matter of belief, faith or a theological point, but many people cling to their ethnic identity, which makes them distinct from everybody else, and follow the tradition of the old calendar.

Orthodox Christmas is one of the biggest services celebrated at the church in Barton, with more people than usual attending. Kabel described the service as very joyful and solemn.

He noted that many people say all the commercialism and the secularism of Dec. 25 is gone by Jan. 7, so Orthodox Christians can have a more spiritual experience and not have to worry about Santa Claus and gifts.

Kabel said Orthodox Christmas is more of an ethnic expression. He pointed to how various ethnic groups, depending on what country they come from, have certain customs attached to the observance of Christmas. Each group, including Greeks, Russians, Serbians, Carpatho-Russians and mainly Slovakians brought their customs with them to their church.

Kabel said many people end up having two Christmases: one to celebrate with their family and friends on Dec. 25, giving and receiving gifts and celebrating Santa Claus, and then to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ on Jan. 7.

Before the Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m. Jan. 6, St. Nicholas Church has singing of the traditional carols that people brought with them from their native countries at 6:30 p.m. Members sing traditional carols but also Russian ones that people brought over, singing them in English and Russian.

On Christmas Day, the church has a service beginning at 9 a.m. with Christmas carols and the liturgy following at 10 a.m. The church also celebrates for a couple days after Jan. 7. Services start at 9 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and everyone is welcome, Kabel said.

Before the service on Christmas Eve, people will have a fasting dinner because the day before Christmas is a day of strict fasting, not eating meat, milk, eggs or dairy products. For the feast, there are 12 dishes that are served that represent the 12 Apostles.

The period of preparation is called the Nativity Fast or Advent, however it’s longer than in the Western calendar.

“It’s a time to prepare, time to get ready for Christmas, a time when people want to make their confessions and get themselves prepared to celebrate,” Kabel said. “There’s a lot of fasting going on at that time, too.”

Members of the church used to bake nut rolls before Christmas for fundraising, but the church does not carry on that tradition currently because of the lack of help available to the women from the church who make them.

As the church goes through the Advent period, it really celebrates St. Nicholas – the inspiration for Santa Claus and the patron saint of the church. He was an Orthodox bishop who lived in the 4th century. St. Nicholas, as portrayed by a local resident, visits the church dressed in a bishop’s robes to give children goodies and have dinner.

“They appreciate the more quiet and calm situation by the time they celebrate on the seventh of January,” Kabel said. “The church is brightly decorated. We have on the light vestments, gold vestments. We have the flowers in the trees, like everybody else.”