Christmas is Coming - 8/15/2025
Posted November 15th, 2025
Another blessed period of fasting begins today. An effort to turn our minds to God, each one according to his own powers and his spiritual "philotimo" and always in consultation with his spiritual Father.
During the first years of Christianity this fast lasted a few days, while the celebration of Christmas was not on December 25 but was celebrated with the Epiphany on January 6.That changed the fourth century when the Church wanted to resolve the confusion among the Christians of the time, who celebrated ,with the pagans, on December 25, a holiday related to the sun. The Church sanctified this phenomenon in this way and that is why in the apolytikion of the feast, Christ is referred to as the "Sun of Righteousness".
This fast begins on November 15 and lasts until December 24. On December 25th, when we celebrate the birth of Christ, we do not fast no matter what the day is. During this forty-day fasting period we abstain from meat and dairy products. We can have fish every day, except Wednesdays and Fridays. On November 21, the day of the celebration of the Entrance of the Theotokos, we eat fish even if it is Wednesday or Friday. We eat fish until December 17.
Ηymnologically, our Church on the day of the celebration of Entrance of the Theotokos, starts to prepare us intensively for the great feast of Christmas. Every day we chant "Christ is born, glorify Him". This masterpiece invites us to take advantage of time and celebrate the birth of our Christ.
Everything is intertwined and becomes a celebration. The past, the present, the future. Our Church teaches us not to simply remember but to participate in the events that marked humanity. To experience each event as a present one. He is born now, the savior of man from the decay of death. The young Adam, who gives a solution to the drama of man. Our Christ who, in love with his creature, dresses human nature while holding His divine one. He receives his human nature from the Virgin with Her consent and lifts it with His Resurrection and Ascension, to the right of the Father.
We must add that our Church has established during this period of 40 days to do the Divine Liturgy every day, the sacred forty-days Liturgies.
In order to understand how important these Liturgies are, let each one of us consider that is invited to a daily banquet, to which Christ is offered as food for the remission of our sins and eternal life. I need to highlight here the importance of the memorialization of the names by the priest, for forty days.
Unfortunately, Christmas fasting is unknown or underestimated by a lot of orthodox people in America because of the secularization of the orthodox churches in America. Often one is considered an extraterrestrial being and is characterized as a fanatic, when he confesses that he is fasting. The answer is briefly and simply: if Christ fasted for forty days in the desert how many days should we fast?
I conclude my letter with two recommendations: first, the following link. It will help you to bring the Liturgical time back to your lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5GF2Fd1Z-g
And second: the book of Thomas Hopko “The Winter Pascha’’. I am sure that it will be your best companion to this forty-day journey towards Christmas.
Blessed forty days fasting!
Fr. Christos