Today we celebrate Orthodox New Year: Here is why we are celebrating it and for how long!

Serbs will celebrate the Orthodox New Year in the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

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This holiday is better known as "Serbian New Year" and it follows the old, Julian calendar.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians decided in 1919 to discard the old, Julian calendar and to accept the Gregorian, which was already used in a better part of the world.

The term "Serbian New Year" came into practice in 1923.

Many Serbs continued celebrating New Year according to the old calendar, because this tradition had a practical sense.

Being Orthodox believers, many Serbs were fasting for 40 days before Christmas, so they had the chance to celebrate the New Year on January 13 because then they could eat and drink what they liked.

This tradition was not popular in the Croatian part of the kingdom and there were many calls for the King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic to forbid it.

Purely out of spite, many Serbs continued celebrating "their" New Year, which honed the name "Serbian New Year".

Not many people know that there was a chance of Serbian orthodox Church accepting the new Julian calendar made by Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković, who came up with the solution of New Year's Eve coming on the same date like in the Gregorian calendar.

(Telegraf.co.uk)