In pictures: Orthodox Christians around the world mark Christmas
Orthodox Christians around the world are celebrating Christmas, even as two of the faith’s most populous nations – Russia and Ukraine – continue to fight in Europe’s largest conflict since World War Two.
More than 200 million Christians around the world are associated with Orthodox Churches. Most of them celebrate Christmas on 7 January as they follow the Julian calendar, unlike those Christian denominations which follow the Gregorian calendar.
And while the majority of Orthodox Christians are based in eastern Europe, ceremonies and processions have taken place across the world – including in the Middle East where Orthodox Churches are the most common form of Christianity.
Across Ukraine, celebrations were coloured by the ongoing war. Ukrainian troops fighting near the front line in the Donbas region toasted each other during a brief moment of respite.
In Kyiv, believers lit candles at St Volodymyr’s Cathedral. Millions of other Ukrainians flocked to churches across the country at the end of a brutal year of war.
At the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, led celebrations. The leader of some 110 million believers, Kirill has been a vocal supporter of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Inside the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin cut a solitary figure as he attended a service at the Annunciation Cathedral. He had sought to declare a brief ceasefire in Ukraine to mark the occasion, but was rejected by Kyiv.
In Serbia, people attended the annual bonfire of dried oak branches – the badnjak – the at the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade. The fire symbolises that built by the shepherds to warm the baby Jesus in his manger.
In Ethiopia, where there are more than 36 million Orthodox Christians, priests led believers to mark Christmas Eve – or Gena – at Saint Mary’s Church in Lalibela.
And at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem – said to be the birthplace of Jesus – believers gathered to mark one of the most important days in the Orthodox faith.
Greek Orthodox Christians now celebrate Christmas on 25 December but Friday was still a special day – the Feast of the Epiphany. These believers held up a wooden cross after retrieving it from the waters of the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey.
