|
By Melissa Leong, Staff Reporter, Toronto Star
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Jan. 7, 2004
When it's Christmas Eve, you make it fit.
Last night, more than 1,000 people packed into the St. Mark's Coptic
Christian Orthodox Church to celebrate Christmas Eve according to the Julian
calendar. The oldest Coptic church in North America seats only 600.
People lined up plastic chairs in an adjourning community centre and set up
television screens to watch the evening mass. Some families came and left
early to make room for late-coming families.
"It's the most important thing to celebrate - the birth of Christ," said
Albert Anton, a church member of more than 30 years. "And you celebrate it
at church."
He's come every Christmas Eve since 1967. In the Greater Toronto Area,
124,000 Orthodox Christians, including Ukrainians, Serbians, Macedonians,
Bulgarians, Russians and others who follow the Julian calendar, are
celebrating Christmas today.
Many Eastern European countries celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, in accordance
with the Julian calendar created by Julius Caesar. Most of the world uses
the Gregorian calendar, initiated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as a
corrected version of the Julian calendar.
Anton attended church earlier in the evening to sign hymns and recite
praises in Arabic, Coptic and English. The four-hour long service began with
a procession of 80 deacons. The church was heavy with incense and song. The
deacons wore white robes with red stoles. They had gold, Coptic crosses
embroidered on them.
St. Mark's Church is building a massive $200 million complex in Markham
which includes a 1,000-seat church that will hold services in Egyptian, a
2,500-seat cathedral for English services and a private, non-parochial
school for about 375 students from Grades 1 to 12. Church member Mofeed
Michael said St. Mark's congregation has grown from 23 families in 1964.
The Coptic Christian Orthodox Church is based on the teachings of the
evangelist St. Mark, who brought Christianity to Egypt in the first century
AD. There are about 35,000 orthodox Copts living in Toronto.
After the service, 43 days of fasting from meat and diary products ended in
a huge feast after midnight.
Mina Gerges, 19, went to a family friend's home to eat turkey and Egyptian
cuisine. People also eat symbolic food such as lamb, said Father Marcos
Marcos, St. Mark's priest.
"Christ is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world," said the
73-year-old father of two. His daughter-in-law brought his grandchildren
from Malta to celebrate Christmas. People fast in other ways as well, Gerges
explained.
"Your heart has to fast from sin," he said. "During the 43 days, you want to
become a better person."
Some families exchange gifts on Jan. 7. "We can shop on Boxing Day," Gerges
said.
He planned to open presents under the Christmas tree this morning.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1073430609832&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845 FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
|
back
