Many Eastern Christians, in accord with the Julian calendar, observe Christmas on January 7.
Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije called for “respect of reasonable measures and recommendations of governments and other authorities in the states and regions in which our people live,” as well as “for respect of human freedom as the highest and most valuable God’s gift to men.”
In Kazakhstan, Orthodox Christians “could not observe Christmas in churches because all religious services were cancelled under a nationwide state of emergency imposed after violent clashes between protesters and police.”