St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-03-16
Notes from Turkey.
FASTS AND FEASTS.-III.

To the Editor of the CdLedOnian
The Calendar of the Greek Church is
remarkable for the number of its feast
days. In fact every day is devoted to
some special saint,-and as the names
of these calendar saints are those most
frequently given to children, his ''name
day." as it is called, is by each person
observed as special feast day, or holy
day, or holiday,-for the three terms
are Synonymous in the East,-in honor
of his patron saint.
Fortunately the observance of all
these days is not enjOined upon even
the most rigorous devOtee of the church,
but | am told that of the 365 days in a
year, about $50 are enjoined to be OBJ
served as feast days.
Many of these days are regarded as
of far more importance than the Sab
bath, and are kept more carefully. The
keeping of a holy day, with an oriental
Christian means to abstain from labor.
Be it Sunday, or st. Cyril's, or st.
Nicholas day, no one will perform
manual labor,-but after the service in
the church, which for convenience is
put as early as possible, sometimes at
six o'clock, the day is given up to feast
ing, visiting and revelry.
AS may be supposed, these numerous
feast days are great drawbac to in
dustry, and upon the poor they are a
burden. At this season of the year
there are several weeks which are near
ly lost for business on this account.
We have just passed through the
Christmas season. 1t may seem strange
to some of your readers that in Con
stantinople we have three Christmas
days in year instead of one. Decem-
Der 25th is observed 10y the Roman
Catholics and Protestants. January 9th
by the Greeks, and January 18th by the
Armenians. 1t is well known that the
day of Christ's birth is not certain, and
the difference of custom | have men,
toned in the time of its celebration is
not difficult of explanation.
In the early history of the Greek
church the 9th of January was observed
as the birthday of our Lord, the ami
versary of Epiphamy,-the appearance
of the star which guided the wise men
to the infant Christ, as well as the day
of his baptism, occurring at the same
time.
The church in Rome, however, adopt
ed the 25th of December for the birth
day of Christ, perhaps to have its fes-
tival coincide with the old Roman feast
| the Saturmalia. These two days were
observed by the Eastern and Western
branches of the church until the time
of Chrysastam, in the latter part of the
fourth century, when the Greek brancf
determined to conform to the custom
of the Church of Rome and adopted
December 25th. This, then, was con
sidered as Christmas day for 1900 years
but as the GregOrian calendar was no
accepted by the Greeks their 25tl
of December now falls on the 9th o
January. New style.
The Armenians, meanwhile, did no
adopt the day celebrated by the Roman
Church, but have always clung TO tn
old date, which became the 18th o
January, n. S.
Lest any one should make the mis-
take which ! have heard made of ask
i ing what day the Turks celebrate a
Christmas, Twill state that the blrthda,
of their Prophet, which they observ
with appropriate ceremonies, illumina
tions. ETC., varies from year to year, s