Christmas and Easter

• Each Western and Orthodox church has a period of preparation prior to Christmas, known as Advent or Nativity Fast, with liturgical colours of violet-purple-blue and redgold.
• Many Christians in each church attend a service the evening prior to Christmas, known as Christmas Eve or Eve of the Nativity, which can include an all-night vigil.
• Christmas is a day of celebrating, feasting and exchanging gifts, though there is less consumerism in Eastern Orthodox cultures.
• Differences between Western and Eastern churches include a greater focus on fasting prior to Christmas in the Eastern Churches, particularly on the Eve of the Nativity.
• Western churches have distinct traditions during Advent, including Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, carol services, nativity plays and a Christingle service.
• Western churches celebrate Christmas on 25 December (Gregorian calendar), while Orthodox churches celebrate on 07 January following the Julian calendar.
• In the West, there are traditionally three Eucharist services at Christmas: midnight, dawn, day.
• In the East, there is a feast using a white tablecloth to represent the linens in which Jesus was wrapped.
• Both Western and Eastern churches engage in the period of Lent, recalling Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).
• Lent is viewed as a time of spiritual development, self-denial and fasting.
• Holy week is celebrated beginning the sixth Sunday of Lent, remembering Jesus’ celebratory entry into Jerusalem when palm branches were laid down on the path before him by his followers.
• Holy Week includes remembering the last supper on Thursday (Maundy Thursday/Holy and Great Thursday), remembering the events of Jesus’ torture and crucifixion (Good Friday/Holy and Great Friday) and culminating in a joyful celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.
• Differences between Western and Eastern churches include Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday in the West (ashes made from previous years’ palms placed on foreheads) and Clean Monday in the East (spiritual cleansing; fasting).
• The Lenten seasonal colour is purple in the west and white for Orthodox.
• During Lent, Laetare (rejoicing) and Mothering Sundays are celebrated in Western churches, while Orthodox churches have a commemoration of St Gregory Palamas and Mary.
• Good Friday ends with darkness in the West, extinguishing candles and black clothes laid over furniture and symbols.
• In Orthodox churches, a cloth icon (Epitaphios) is placed on a bier (a moveable frame for a coffin) on Good Friday.
• In the West, churches on Easter use white and gold colours and some have a tradition of attaching flowers to the Lenten cross.
• In Orthodox churches, there is a procession outside the darkened church, an announcement that Christ has risen and then all enter to worship.