Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas |08 January 2020

While the rest of the country is recovering from the seasonal festivities, the Orthodox Christians in Seychelles celebrated their Christmas with a Holy Liturgy held at the Berjaya Bay Resort, yesterday, where Russian tourists also joined in the celebration.

The delay in celebrations is caused by the fact that the Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, instead of the widely used Gregory calendar which other Christian churches have adopted. Because of this, Catholics and other Christian denominations celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25 while the Orthodox followers observe the occasion some 13 days later, usually on January 7.

Henceforth a handful of Orthodox Christians gathered for the Christmas mass conducted by Father Sergios Janosevic, together with a choir which sang hymns in Greek, Old Church Slavonic and English, for the mixed Orthodox community of Seychellois, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Greek and Moldovan faithfuls.

Father Janosevic, who is the general vicar of the Orthodox Christian parish in Seychelles, has been the vicar of the church since its inception in Seychelles ten years ago.

One of the highlights of the mass was the recital of the Christmas message of the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodoros the Second.

In his message, His Beatitude reminded Christians of the love of God and which they can emulate in order to bring peace to the world.

Olga Klymenko, one of the attendees of the mass, noted that Christmas for her is the beginning of a new cycle with new challenges and a time where we reflect on spirituality.

She added that she plans to spend the day celebrating with friends and family.

Father Janosevic on his part noted that people nowadays have lost their way and we all must be more compassionate towards one another.

Christophe Zialor