Coptic Christmas
Coptic Christmas is the Feast of the Nativity of Christ as the Coptic Orthodox Church keeps it: on 29 Kiahk of the Coptic calendar, which is 7 January in the Gregorian calendar; in a Coptic leap year it is kept on 28 Kiahk, so that it stays on 7 January. A fast of 43 days, or 42 in a leap year, leads up to it, and the month of Kiahk has praises of its own. In Egypt, 7 January is an official holiday.
Key facts
- 7 January, which is 29 Kiahk in most years
- 43 days in most years, from 16 Hatour (25 November in a common year)
- Kiahk, with its own praises
- Since a decision of December 2002
- The midnight liturgy led by the Pope
The date
The Coptic Encyclopedia records that the feast is kept on 29 Kiahk. In the Julian calendar that is 25 December; in the Gregorian calendar, which Egypt adopted on 11 September 1875, it is 7 January. The thirteen days between those two dates are the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars in the years 1900 to 2099. In a common year Kiahk runs from 10 December to 8 January and Hatour, the month before it, from 10 November to 9 December. In a leap year, the encyclopedia's entry on the pre-Nativity fast adds, the feast is kept a day early, on 28 Kiahk, which is again 7 January.
The fast
In most years the Nativity fast begins on 16 Hatour and ends on the eve of 29 Kiahk: 43 days. In a leap year it is 42. The Coptic Encyclopedia's 1991 entry on fasting gives the reckoning: a 40-day fast, after the fast of Moses before he received the Law, with three days added in memory of the moving of the Muqattam hill in the tenth century, under Pope Abraham ibn Zur'ah. Its 2024 entry on the pre-Nativity fast calls this the prevalent explanation, and offers as more historically accurate 42 days plus the one-day paramone. Pope Tawadros II put the reckoning of 40 days and three to a congregation at the beginning of the fast, on 26 November 2025.
The strict observance, as the encyclopedia describes it, is total abstinence from food until three o'clock in the afternoon and from animal fat afterwards.
The length was not always 43 days. The earliest known pre-Christmas fast in Egypt was the paramone, one day of strict abstinence on the eve of the feast. Canon 15 of the regulations of Pope Christodoulus, who died in 1077, is the earliest mandate for 43 days, and fasts of other lengths were kept in Egypt into the eighteenth century.
Kiahk
The fast is the church's Advent, and the month of Kiahk is the last part of it. Throughout the month the Kiahk psalmody is chanted in the form known as the "seven and four", seven Theotokia and four Hoos, which the encyclopedia calls joyful singing in expectation of Christ's coming. The Patriarchate's page on church music says the prayers take on their Kiahk character from the first day of the month, and calls the Kiahk praise one of the most prominent features of the period in which the church prepares for the Nativity.
The feast
The Nativity is celebrated with a midnight service, followed by the ringing of the church bells; the largest service is the one the Pope leads, which Egyptian television broadcasts. Pope Tawadros II led the Christmas liturgy at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the New Administrative Capital on 6 January 2022 and 6 January 2024, with the President of Egypt attending. After the service families break the fast with fatta, a meal of meat and rice, and kahk, sweet biscuits marked with a cross.
A public holiday
The State Information Service records that in December 2002, 7 January was made an official holiday for Christians and Muslims alike.
Pope Christodoulus, whose regulations hold the earliest mandate for a 43-day fast, dies.
7 January is made an official holiday in Egypt.
The President attends the Nativity liturgy at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the New Administrative Capital.
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