Christmas in Eastern Orthodox Churches

English: Russian poet Boris Pasternak. Русский: Русский поэт Борис Пастернак. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy Christmas (when it comes; Christmas Day is on 7th in the Julian calendar) to all my Russian friends, colleagues, and former Russian-speaking students, as well as to other Eastern Orthodox adherents from other cultures. Just as we in the West finish our Christmas and Epiphany celebrations, so they begin in what was once the Eastern half of Christendom. I once took a group of Hungarian students ‘west’ for the first time on 6th January 1991, to Birmingham. We began with a tour of Selly Oak and Bourneville. We visited the Serbian Orthodox Church, where there was a truly wonderful Christmas Eve service taking place, led by a male voice choir singing vespers, the congregation standing in the domed auditorium. Even in the dim candle-light, the colourful frescoes added to the sacred atmosphere. We had travelled west to be transported east!

Here, I’ve ‘imported’ an ‘iconic’ picture from a sixteenth century text held in the Hungarian National Library, ‘A Napkeleti Bölcsek Hódolata’ (‘The Oriental Wise Astrologers’). A print of this appears in a multi-lingual anthology of poetry, ‘Karácsonyi csillag’, published by Európa Press, Budapest, in 1990, which I was given for my first Christmas in Hungary, just two weeks before the sojourn in Birmingham.

The illustration (below) appears opposite Boris Pasternak‘s poem in Russian, ‘Christmas Star’, with a translation into Hungarian provided by Judit Pór.

A Napkeleti Bölcsek Hódolata, Francia Művész, 15. Század Vege. Hóráskönyv.

Boris Pasternak during the First Congress of Soviet Writers, in 1934 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ez a tél. Ez a tél.

Feleútban a hegynek

fel a sziklaodúban fázik a gyermek

Fuj a pusztai szél

Ökör melegíti, meleg lehelet.

Csak állnak a barlang

középben a barmok,

a valyu felett dús pára lebeg.

Lerázza a pásztornép

szalmát a subárol

félébren a távol

éjfélbe bámul már odafent.

Lenn hóban a kis temető meg a rét

meg a kert, kocsi rúdja

mered ki a bucka

alól, tele van csillaggal az ég.

Köztük mécsnél bátortalanabb

csillag – sose járt itt

azelőtt – haloványlik,

és Betlehemét keresi, oda tert…..

Related articles:

• Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord – Reflection (swordsoftruth.com)
• The Magi and Death Before Birth – Truth and Charity Forum (servusfidelis.wordpress.com)
• Epiphany: Balthasar, Melchior & Gaspar (michelinewalker.com)
• Sunday Angelus: “Let God be known throughout the world” (en.radiovaticana.va)
• Epiphany (jessicahof.wordpress.com)
• A Benedict XVI Epiphany (firstthings.com)