Guest Q: "Harau, I suspect that your knowledge is limited with respect to the Orthodox practices. The churches in the US have mostly gone to Dec, 25, but not elsewhere."

I don't deny my knowledge of Orthodox practices is limited (in fact, I'd never heard of the New-vs-Old Calendarists thing, only the basic Julius-vs-Greg one) but the issue on which I was differing with you and your cited authority was your assertion that the Greek Orthodox are currently celebrating Christmas on (Gregorian) January 8th. On that point I am virtually sure that you and Mr. Rogov are incorrect. This near certainty is based on the issue of when leap year is observed in the two calendars - which is in fact the main difference between the two. The Julius figured a leap year every four years would be close enough for government work, but by the time Gregory checked the numbers it was clear that tweaking was in order, to the tune of reducing the number of leap years by 3 out of every 400 years. And since 2000 was one of the exceptions that proved the rule, Jan. 7 did not change to Jan. 8 for Xmas purposes.

Now, Greek Orthodox may celebrate Chou En-Lai Day on January 8th, along with the rest of the world. I know I will, thanks to Abby.

Haruo