Saint Nicholas of Myra looks out from the window of the Grandfather Frost Christmas store in downtown Sitka. St. Michael’s Cathedral — the seat of Orthodox Christianity in Alaska — is in the reflection. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

The Feast of the Nativity (or “Russian Christmas,” as it is commonly called) is celebrated throughout the Orthodox Church in America on January 7. But it’s not as if Eastern and Western Christianity couldn’t agree on the date to celebrate the Nativity. Much of Orthodox Christianity observes the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. So in Sitka — as in many Alaska communities with Orthodox congregations — almost two weeks after many people have been eating turkey leftovers and writing thank you letters, December 25 rolls around for a second time!

Divine Liturgy services on Christmas Day at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Sitka.

This is the choir at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Sitka, led by Kathy Hope-Erickson, participating in the Divine Liturgy. The service this year was especially poignant, since the cathedral – which was previously destroyed by fire in 1966 – sits just a few feet above sea level, and was at risk of inundation had a tsunami developed after last Friday’s magnitude 7.5 earthquake.

That all was well in Sitka on this day felt like a very big Christmas present.

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