A Christian Christmas

Moscow—In the Soviet Union Christmas normally begins in the Baltics, for it is only there that Catholics and Protestants commemorate the holiday according to the Gregorian Calendar—the so-called “new style.” The other churches—the Russian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Gregorian Church, to be sure, but even the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite and Baptists and other Protestants—celebrate Christmas 13 days later, according to the Julian Calendar.

This year, however, it would not suffice to describe only what was happening in the Baltics on December 24 and 25, although there, for the first time in dozens of years, Christmas not only was celebrated nationwide, but was even recognized as a national holiday by the Communist authorities. In Lithuania all 630 Catholic churches summoned believers to Mass by tolling their church bells for the first time since the Soviet takeover in 1940. In Vilnius Cathedral, Archbishop Julionas Stepanavicius celebrated Mass, which was broadcast over the radio and television, to be heard by all Lithuanians. Throughout the republic there were concerts of religious music, and city squares for the first time displayed brightly shimmering Christmas trees.

SG

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Sergei Grigoryants

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Moscow—In the Soviet Union Christmas normally begins in the Baltics, for it is only there that Catholics and Protestants commemorate the holiday according to the Gregorian Calendar—the so-called “new style.” The other churches—the Russian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Gregorian Church, to be sure, but even the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite and Baptists and other Protestants—celebrate Christmas 13 days later, according to the Julian Calendar.

This year, however, it would not suffice to describe only what was happening in the Baltics on December 24 and 25, although there, for the first time in dozens of years, Christmas not only was celebrated nationwide, but was even recognized as a national holiday by the Communist authorities. In Lithuania all 630 Catholic churches summoned believers to Mass by tolling their church bells for the first time since the Soviet takeover in 1940. In Vilnius Cathedral, Archbishop Julionas Stepanavicius celebrated Mass, which was broadcast over the radio and television, to be heard by all Lithuanians. Throughout the republic there were concerts of religious music, and city squares for the first time displayed brightly shimmering Christmas trees.