While many are taking down Christmas decorations and getting ready for the next holiday, some of the Eastern Orthodox Christmas begins Sunday.

After 40 days of fasting, Serbian and Russian Orthodox in Northern Nevada begin eight days of feasting and celebration. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the nativity birth of Jesus Christ almost two weeks after December 25, because it follows the Julian calendar.

The holiday is filled with traditions and customs. Some are part of the area’s practices. Fasting is an important preparation for the holy day and people refrain from animal products.

“Eat, drink and be merry is not part of the preparation,” said Nona Katzenstein, church warden for Holy Royal Martyrs of Russian Orthodox Church. “We will break the fast Sunday at lunch.”

There is not a lot of gift giving, instead the preparation for Orthodox Christmas is to “focus on our soul, spiritual needs and to focus on the feast that we’re celebrating,” said the Rev. James Barfield, rector for St. John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox Mission Parish. Because members of the church mostly are Americans, Barfield said not many of the passed down traditions are practiced. “Come to church, and we’ll be more ethnic,” he said. “I’m always game for that.”

Christmas Eve, Badnje Vece in Serbian, is the beginning of the celebration. According to tradition, the father and oldest son go to the nearest forest on the morning of Christmas Eve and cut the Badnjak tree. It is burned for prosperity. “Some Serbian churches, they have a bonfire,” Barfield said. “It’s a crossover tradition from the Serbian people. It parallels the Christmas tree really.”

While some Eastern Orthodox members eat a 12-course dinner representing each month of the year, Serbians traditionally eat baked beans or prebranac, fried fish and then dried fruits.

“It is a very beautiful tradition,” Barfield said. “If we had a bigger dining hall, I would probably do that.” Barfield said they will greet each other on Christmas Day with “Christ is born.” And the response is “Glorify Him.”

It’s Christmas today for Orthodox Christians and Eastern Rite Catholics who follow the Julian calendar for religious events.

About 6,000 Londoners in Canada, celebrated Christmas Eve last night on a day when many city residents took down coloured lights and disposed of dried out fir trees.

It’s Christmas today for Orthodox Christians and Eastern Rite Catholics who follow the Julian calendar for religious events instead of the Gregorian dates familiar to most Canadians.

“This is a very holy time and the most important family occasion of the year for parishioners who follow their traditions,” said Rev. Zen Didukh of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Christ the King on Nelson Street.

Last night, a few blocks from the church, most homes no longer displayed the signs of Christmas. But white, green and red lights still shone brightly on two trees on the front lawn of the Hryckiw family. Inside, the Hryckiw family was preparing to sit down to a meal prepared in a manner learned from their mothers and grandmothers.

In a Ukrainian household, 12 dishes are served on Christmas Eve, all meatless and none containing dairy products. And today they will eat meat, turkey, chicken and pork. The 12 dishes, symbolic of Christ’s 12 Apostles, include a braided bread called kolach, wheat cooked with honey, poppy seeds and chopped nuts, borshch (beet soup) with perogies, fish, cabbage rolls, beans and fruit.

The Christmas Eve feast signifies the end of a period of fasting, said the priest. “Some people fast for five or six weeks. They don’t eat meat or dairy foods for three days a week during that time. It’s a period of fasting, prayer and performing charitable works.”

After dinner last night, they planned to attend mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and other gifts from God. As for Earthly gifts, exchanged by family members and friends, the tradition varies from family to family living in London, Canada.

Some families will exchange gifts (today), but many won’t. That’s because most Ukrainians give gifts, especially to children, on the feast of St. Nicholas in early December. It’s a misconception that Ukrainians take advantage of Boxing Day sales to acquire gifts for their Christmas. Most of them have already exchanged gifts by then. When their Christmas comes, they place the emphasis on God and family.

Carolling is a must on Christmas also. They sing carols at home, in church and at the homes of their friends.

Culture, costumes and ethnic cuisine, it’s all part of today’s colourful Ukrainian Christmas celebration.

For thousands of Winnipeg residents of Ukrainian descent following the Julian calendar, January 7 brings an occasion to mark the birth of Christ more than a week after most of us have put away our yuletide decorations. It’s a spiritual day, largely without gifts and more about meaningful family gatherings.

With a 12-course meal and traditional old-country clothing, Daria Zmiyiwsky and family spared no effort last night to celebrate Ukrainian Christmas Eve.

“It’s such an incredible night and so rich with tradition,” Zmiyiwsky said before gathering with her family and friends, about 30 in all, at a relative’s home. “Everybody comes dressed in Ukrainian costumes. We have a lot of ceremonies we go through.”

Before digging into a feast of a dozen meatless dishes as part of Ukrainian custom, the Christmas Eve ceremonies include a skyward gaze, led by children, to find the “first star”, a sign the traditional meal can begin.

“They’re following the star, that’s the correlation,” Zmiyiwsky said. “We look for the star, and the star is the resemblance of the birth of Jesus Christ.”

Traditional carols such as Boh Predvichnyj, Ukrainian for “God eternal,” may precede the meal, which is led off by one of the elder male family members carrying a sheaf of wheat, or “didukh”, three times around the house before laying it in a corner. That’s what Zmiyiwsky describes as a “representation of the people who have died” in the family, to honour them during the feast.

“It’s symbolic of our ancestors and it represents food, the wheat crops,” said Evhan Uzwyshyn, who carried the sheath and its “grandfather spirit” for his family while wearing a traditional embroidered shirt.

The meal might take 90 minutes to eat, and for good reason. The dozen courses include boiled jellied fish, kapusta soup and pickled herring and are led by kutya, a mix of poppy seeds, wheat and honey.

Keeping this celebration together is a growing concern as the adults grow older, hoping their kids won’t lose the Ukrainian Christmas Spirit as years go by.

“What about our ancestors? What about the people who taught us these traditions? We can’t forget them. We have to make sure our children know about these people and how hard they worked,” Zmiyiwsky said.