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In pictures: Orthodox Christmas

Millions of Orthodox Christians around the world – mostly in Eastern Europe – mark the birth of Jesus.

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Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill leads a Christmas service at Christ the Savior cathedral in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox church celebrates Christmas following the Julian calendar.
Published On 8 Jan 2014
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana Medvedeva attend the Christmas Mass in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow.
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Worshippers in Cairo attend Orthodox Christmas Eve Mass. Millions of Egyptian Christians on Monday thronged churches across the mainly Muslim nation for Christmas Mass, held amid unusually tight security.
Coptic Pope Tawadros II swings an incense burner during Christmas Eve Mass at Cairo(***)s St Mark(***)s Cathedral, seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope, in Cairo.
A protester prepares celebratory dinner for demonstrators on the eve of Orthodox Christmas at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, where pro-European integration supporters are holding a rally.
Kosovo Serb youths carry oak branches as they prepare to celebrate Orthodox Christmas eve in the village of Badovc. Serbs in Kosovo celebrate by gathering to pray and burning dried oak branches and leaves, which they believe will bring luck for the new year.
People burn dried oak branches in front of St Sava church in Belgrade, Serbia, during a liturgy marking Orthodox Christmas.
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Metropolitan of Volgograd and Kamyshin German arrive before a service on the eve of Orthodox Christmas in Kazan Cathedral in Volgograd, Russia.
A member of the Greek Orthodox clergy waits for the arrival of Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Metropolitan Theophilos before the Eastern Orthodox Christmas procession outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.