Orthodox Christmas 2027 Is Thursday, January 7; Three Kings Day Is Wednesday, January 6

Orthodox Christmas 2027 falls on Thursday, Jan. 7, and Three Kings Day falls the day before, on Wednesday, Jan. 6. The Jan. 7 date comes from calendar arithmetic: Dec. 25 on the Julian calendar is Jan. 7 on the Gregorian calendar used in the United States. The tables below give the weekdays through 2030 and show when the date will shift.

Why is Orthodox Christmas on January 7?

Churches that keep the Julian calendar celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 by that calendar. From March 1, 1900 through Feb. 28, 2100 the Julian calendar runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Add 13 days to Dec. 25 and you reach Jan. 7 of the next Gregorian year. We checked this with a Julian-to-Gregorian conversion of Dec. 25 for each year in the table below.

Julian Dec. 25 of	Gregorian date	Gap in days
1900	Jan. 7, 1901	13
2026	Jan. 7, 2027	13
2099	Jan. 7, 2100	13
2100	Jan. 8, 2101	14

The 2100 row is the first change. Feb. 29, 2100 does not exist in the Gregorian calendar but does in the Julian one, so the gap widens to 14 days and Julian Christmas moves to Jan. 8. Nobody reading this will see it, but it explains why “Jan. 7” is a rule of the current century and not a fixed fact of the church year.

What weekday is Orthodox Christmas from 2027 to 2030?

Three Kings Day (Epiphany) is Jan. 6 on the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar’s Christmas Eve is Dec. 24, which is Jan. 6 on the Gregorian calendar, so in 2027 the two share a Wednesday. Weekdays below are computed from the calendar.

Year	Three Kings Day and Orthodox Christmas Eve (Jan. 6)	Orthodox Christmas (Jan. 7)
2027	Wednesday	Thursday
2028	Thursday	Friday
2029	Saturday	Sunday
2030	Sunday	Monday

Which other January 2027 dates fall nearby?

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lists New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day as federal holidays. In 2027 New Year’s Day is Friday, Jan. 1, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, Jan. 18, the third Monday of the month. See what is closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2027 for that day, and the January 2027 calendar printable for the whole month. For the other holiday that week, when is Christmas Day gives the Dec. 25 date.

The printable below puts all four dates on one January 2027 page. Orthodox Christmas is not on the OPM list.

Did Ukraine change its Christmas date?

Yes. The Irish Times reported on July 29, 2023 that Ukraine moved its official Christmas Day holiday to Dec. 25. Word&Way reported the same move on July 31, 2023. This story does not list which national churches keep Jan. 7, because we could not confirm that from church sources.

Another winter date set by a different calendar is Lunar New Year 2027.

Print the January 2027 holiday dates

The one-page printable marks Jan. 1, Jan. 6, Jan. 7 and Jan. 18, 2027. A printable yearly calendar and the January printable calendars cover the rest of the year.