Christmas on the seventh.
The fixed feasts are kept thirteen days behind the civil calendar, so families keep the Nativity while their neighbours are back at work. In Iraq and in the diaspora this means the Ancient Church of the East celebrates alone, and in mixed families twice.
The Julian and Gregorian calendars are now thirteen days apart, so the Nativity falls on 7 January and Epiphany on 19 January by civil reckoning. In Iraq this puts the church's Christmas outside the public holiday that other Christians share, which has practical costs for families and schoolchildren. In the diaspora — Australia, Europe, North America — mixed marriages between the two Churches of the East mean many households simply keep both dates. The moveable feasts are calculated on the same Paschal reckoning both churches use.
The same ground, other faiths
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