Peter Costello
Lalibela, Ethiopia ‘Old Christmas is still alive…’
Once again Christ-mas, and all its associations, religious and commercial, has passed over and the New Year approaches. But this is only in Western countries, in Europe, the Americas, and parts of Africa.
In the Levant, those Asian countries where the sun rises each day among the most ancient Christian communities in the world, Christmas will only be celebrated on January 6/7.
These churches, like the Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe, still use the ancient Julian calendar of Roman times, rather than the now largely current Gregorian.
In some places these dates are called “Old Christmas”, or in rural Ireland, Nollaig an mBán, perhaps because after the calendar change came about, moving the feast some eleven days, the mothers of families clung on to the old time religious and family traditions.
The calendar changes
The change of calendar came about in this way. Over the centuries, the old Roman calendar established by Julius Caesar had got out of synchronisation with the actual movements of the heavenly bodies. In October 1582, after long discussion, a new calendar was introduced at the prompting of Pope Gregory XIII – hence the name Gregorian calendar.
This seemed to many of the public to remove ten days (at that time) from the calendar, placing Christmas back in time. This reform, a very necessary one, was resisted by the Protestant countries of northern Europe at first.
But slowly between 1610 and 1753 the calendar was adapted across Europe. When Britain and Ireland changed in 1752 the time differential had added another day, hence the demonstrations in some parts of England to “give us back our 11 days”. In Ireland what the Pope had proposed had always been acceptable.
Yet the Julian calendar remained in use among Orthodox countries of Eastern Europe and the cultures of the Oriental Churches in the Middle East for most civil and religious purposes.
However, in the latter part of the 19th Century and early part of the 20th Century the Gregorian calendar at last became almost universal, except for the celebration of Christmas in some cultures.
Hence the separation of celebrations in time at the present day between these islands and the countries around Mesopotamia among their Christian communities.
As we in Ireland approach our New Year a brief overview of those cultures in the Middle East among which the old year will linger on a little longer might be of interest.
Christmas in Middle East
Those countries that surround the Holy Land – Egypt, where according to tradition the child Jesus had found refuge from the impious King Herod, and the other countries of Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Assyria, Armenia (Greater and Lesser), Mesopotamia, Persia, and even further on in Central Asia, Sinkiang and China, and in particular the Malabar coast of India – have Nativity tradition of their own.
For those used to the familiar religious division among Christians in Europe and North America, the Middle East can seem a confusing place. Some time ago while attending at a lecture in the Royal Irish Academy, a gentleman sitting beside me in the course of our conversation about the Middle East referred to “those heretics”.
This took me aback. ‘Heretic’ is not a word in much use among most Christians today.
The attitudes and divisions of the past (in keeping with the now well-developed links between Rome and the Oriental Churches of all kinds) have been replaced by a deeper understanding of exactly how doctrinal divisions that once loomed so large in people’s imaginations came about.
Closely examined, some of the theological niceties of the past now seem less certain, ancient ideas less that fully explicit. Essentially the nature of Christ is a mystery: we can attempt within our powers of thought to explain it; but we cannot truly understand what it is, only what we think it is.
We no longer live in the Byzantium of Justinian and Theodora where the rival chariot-racing gangs adopted different views on the nature of Christ and under different colours rioted with each other about them in the street; rather as if Manchester United were Monophysites and Liverpool were Nestorians. F
action fighting is a curse on any community; so it proved then, and so it is now. Casually calling someone a heretic is a form of faction fighting.
With all the Christian communities of the Middle East now in great danger from both jihadists and some states, it behoves us all to stand with these communities who invoke the name of Jesus in a sense of solidarity, whether they are Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Uniate Catholics, Maronites, Copts, Ethiopians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, or the various followers of St Thomas in India (about who I have written before).
Many of these now have communities of varying size present in the cities and towns of Ireland, where their clergy can be encountered in their distinctive robes.
Among the newest are the St Thomas Anglicans who have taken over the little church of St Thomas (formerly used by the Church Ireland) in Cathal Brugha Street, adherents of the Malankara Orthodox Church.)
These ancient Christian communities, no matter what they nature and history, and indeed their formal relationship with Rome, all deserve the support and the prayers of those in Europe and North America, where conditions of peace, freedom and tolerance prevail. Indeed many of the small groups flourish more in France, England or North America.
But for many it is a matter of sadness that such violence is visited upon communities who have survived long centuries, indeed millenniums, in the Middle East, reminding all that these are the descendants, the representatives of those who first heard the “Good News” of the Gospel.
In a crisis, divisions count for nothing. This is the essential thought we should have in celebrating Christmas at this season, on whatever date it is we conform to.
Christmas scenes in the Orient
The Coptic Christmas
Today the largest Christian community in this great area is to be found in Egypt among the Copts, whose adherence dates back to the 1st Century AD.
There is now a significant Coptic colony in Dublin today, and their clergy are prominent at the National Day celebrations at the Egyptian Ambassador’s residence in Foxrock.
The Coptic month leading to Christmas is called Kiahk. For the 43 days before, from November 25 to January 6, Coptic Orthodox Christians have a special fast where they basically eat a diet free of animal products. On the Coptic Christmas Eve (January 6), Copts go to church for a special liturgy.
The services normally start about 10.30 pm, but some churches open earlier and people meet there with their relatives and friends from 9.00pm onwards. The services are normally finished shortly after midnight, but some go to sunrise on their Feast of the Nativity.
When the Christmas service ends people go home to eat their big Christmas feast. All the foods contain meat, eggs and butter, all the things they never ate during the fast. On the Orthodox Christmas Day (7), people come together in homes for parties and festivities.
Christmas in Ethiopia
Egypt is now largely a Muslim country, though the Copts form a significant minority. However Ethiopia, the ancient Abyssinia, has been Christian since earliest times too, claiming indeed even more ancient connections with the Israel of Solomon.
In the rural part of the country the ancient celebrations go on still, for instance at the famous shrine of Lalibela. As in early Christian Ireland, the liturgy is performed inside a church, while the congregation gathers around outside (much as Gallarus was perhaps used). These ceremonies are colourful and very moving.
Palestine
Christmas is very important in the Palestinian Territory as it contains Bethlehem. The village is about six miles south of Jerusalem. Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’, and in prehistory was famous for growing wheat for making into bread.
Only about 20% of Palestinians are Christian, but many Muslim Palestinians are also proud that Jesus was born in Palestinian Territory – he is after all one of the great prophets of Islam.
Aside from the Latin Christmas in Bethlehem, the Oriental Churches, the Orthodox and the Armenians then have theirs in January, so the little town gets a double helping of celebrations.
The Church of the Nativity is shared by the Eastern denominations and the Latin Catholics. For the Oriental Christmas, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem travels to the town, to preside.
For these weeks the town is decorated with lights and their parades as well. A feature of these is the playing of bagpipes – said to be a relic of the days of the Mandate when the area was occupied by British soldiers from Scotland. These give the whole night an oddly Celtic character, as if it were in Ireland or Brittany.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, 35% of the population are Maronite Catholics, who are as fond of Christmas cribs as we are in Ireland. It’s traditional for the scene to be based around a cave rather than a stable – which is far more in keeping with what must have the real setting of the nativity.
In Beirut, however, a more modern, Americanised Christmas is celebrated even by those who are Christians, or only nominally so. But Beirut, the “Paris of the orient” as some called it in the days of the French Mandate, has always been a commercial city.
Syria and Iraq
Western reports from both Syria and Iraq often give a confused picture. It is easy for European and American reports to speak carelessly of these as Muslim countries forgetting that for four centuries they were almost completely Christian, and for centuries after the advent of Islam, Muslims and Chrstians lived side by side.
There were troubles from time to time, but the Christian communities survived and indeed thrived. However these days, the shocking disparities of wealth between say Saudi Arabia and the impoverished oil-less states to the north is one of the motivating factors, in riots, civil war, and vengeful terrorist.
Chrstians are all too easily seen by jihadists, not as neighbours or fellow citizens, but as dangerous agents of the American and the former colonial powers.
With the hopeful extinction of ISIS this may change; but Christian communities and thier churches are still open to bomb attacks and shootings.
Iran
In contrast to, say, Egypt or Ethiopia, in Iran Christians tend to be urban, with 50% living in the capital Tehran. In Iran, Christianity is considered a Western influence and a threat to the Islamic identity of the Republic. These days there are many converts from Islam to Christianity and these are the object of persecution by the government. Other Protestant communities who evangelise Muslims are the second most persecuted group.
Communities of expatriate or migrant Christians from Asia and the West sometimes experience forced church closures, while historical Christian communities made up of Armenian and Assyrian Christians are protected by law, but are treated as second-class citizens.
Arrest and violence are commonplace for anyone engaged in Christian ministry or evangelism. Many Armenians have migrated to the Republic of Armenia or have joined relatives or friends in Europe or North America.
*****
The declaration by President Trump that the US Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem (at an uncertain date in the future) threatens to disrupt efforts to achieve peace and a Two-State solution to the Palestinian Question. But as protests increase throughout the Middle East, his rash words are considered by many commentators to imperil Christians of all kinds throughout the Middle East.
This season we may find that on whatever day Christmas is actually celebrated, Peace on Earth and Goodwill among men, the true message for the Nativity, may be threatened. As they used to say in World War II: “Careless words cost lives.”