Sis wrote:
Anna1111 wrote:
Rather Ironically, St. Nicholas. altho Greek, does not visit Greek homes in the Old Country for Christmas (tho he visits many Greek-American homes). St. Basil (aka Agios Vassilios) visits them on St. Basil's day - which is also New Year's Day. It's kinda nice, because Christmas is more focused on Church & feasting that way, and the excitement of the gifts isn't so intertwined.
I tho't the Church did gifts on Jan 6?
BTW - I stole that saying I posted; *I* didn't say it.
It occurred to me in the night that maybe the reason you thought this is that the Russian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7? They have the old calendar, and that's when Christmas lands for them. For us Greek Orthodox, we celebrate on Dec 25 with the same calendar as the rest of the U.S. - we DO have 12 Days of Christmas that start on Christmas day - but Jan 6 for us is Theophany - the Feast of the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan. A celebration - but not a gift-giving event.