Israel’s official Twitter channel posted this:
#MerryChristmas to Christians in Israel & around the world. Have a joyous holiday! pic.twitter.com/eRn0pjZOwX
— Israel ????? (@Israel) December 24, 2014
And while the message is festive, the underlying fail isn’t.
That’s the Gorny Monastery on the slopes of Ein Kerem, Jerusalem.
Gorny Monastery is a Russian Orthodox Monastery which was built in Ein Kerem in 1871 as a part of Russia’s attempt to establish its hold in the Holy Land. For this reason it was also named “Moskovia” after the city of Moscow. The Gorny Monastery spreads over hundreds of dunams and includes three churches – two small and one big. The large church, the Church of the Holy Trinity, has domes and golden crosses by which this place is recognized.
In case you lived under a rock for the past millenia, Orthodox Christianity, including Russian Orthodoxy, celebrate Christmas on January 7th, as opposed to Western Christianity that does so today.
Sure, this picture is still relevant 13 days from now, but one cannot escape the feeling that the people operating Israel’s official Twitter channel are actually clueless about the different denominations.
According to Real Jstreets, Israel’s Government Press Office issued a National and Interfaith calendar with all the holidays and religious observance days for all religions, it included high quality pictures. And on January 7th, it has ‘Orthodox Christmas.’
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the fail.
Edit: This image doesn’t in fact appear in the GPO’s National and Interfaith calendar. The Twitter handle selected it by themselves.
Furthermore, as unplugged mentioned in the comments, Eastern Christianity celebrates Christmas on December 25th, but on the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian calendar – the most common worldwide calendar used by Israellycool, Twitter, and the Israeli government.
