January 14 — Circumcision of the Lord: the history and traditions of the Orthodox holiday

Every year on January 14, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Circumcision of the Lord. In 2026, it falls on a Wednesday. Although this holiday is not one of the twelve, it has a special significance for believers. Read about the history, traditions and prohibitions of the celebration in the Izvestia article.

The Circumcision of the Lord in 2026 — the history and significance of the holiday

The rite of circumcision has an Old Testament origin. According to legend, one day God appeared to the righteous Abraham, the ancestor of all Jews, and predicted that a great nation would come from him. At that time, Abraham was 98 years old, and his wife Sarah was 89. The couple had no children, but despite their advanced age, they did not doubt the words of the Creator.

A year later, the Lord visited the family again to make good on His promise. As a sign of special patronage to the family of Abraham, God ordered the rite of circumcision to be established, which all the men in the family performed on the same day. A year later, Sarah gave birth to her long-awaited first child Isaac. Since that time, Jews, as descendants of Abraham, performed circumcision on male infants on the eighth day of their lives. This rite symbolized loyalty to God and separated Jews from Gentiles.

What does the Circumcision of the Lord mean: the spiritual meaning of the January 14 holiday

On the eighth day after his birth, Jesus Christ was also circumcised. In this way, God the Son showed that he did not come to break the old law, but to fulfill it. During the ceremony, he was also given the name Jesus (Savior), which the archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary on the day of the Annunciation.

From a theological point of view, Jesus accepted circumcision in order to set an example for people to strictly observe God's commandments. After all, according to Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), before establishing a New Law, God the Son had to fulfill the Old One. This event is also considered a confirmation that Christ was a real man of flesh and blood, and not a ghostly incarnation of the Lord, as some heretics of the past claimed.

Circumcision symbolizes limitation and removal. Another meaning of the rite is the "circumcision" of sinful passions and human vices. In the New Testament, circumcision gave way to the sacrament of Baptism, of which it was the prototype.

Circumcision of the Lord — traditions of the church holiday on January 14th

Christians have been celebrating the circumcision of the Lord since the fourth century. In Russia, it is organically intertwined with other calendar celebrations. Now the holiday falls on the Old New Year — in pre-revolutionary Russia, this date coincided with the beginning of the new calendar year. In addition, on January 14, the Church honors the memory of one of the most revered saints, Basil the Great.

Being on the calendar between Christmas and Epiphany, Circumcision often remains in the shadow of more famous celebrations. Nevertheless, there are many unique traditions associated with this day.

In Little Russia (a region that existed during the Russian Empire and included the territories of modern western Russia, parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Poland), it was customary to give generously on the eve of the holiday. Young people walked through the streets singing festive songs, receiving treats from the hosts in return. This ritual is similar to caroling, which was held on Christmas Eve to glorify the birth of Christ.

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In Bulgaria, young people learn folklore songs for the holiday, mentioning the Circumcision of the Lord. Then the young people take with them "surovachki" (branches of a tough shrub) and gather in the temple, where they perform these songs. As a reward, they receive various sweets from the clergy.

What not to do on the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord on January 14th

Like other church holidays, the Circumcision of the Lord has a number of limitations. On this day, you should not engage in heavy physical labor — according to popular beliefs, working on a holiday can bring setbacks. It is also not recommended to arrange noisy holidays and feasts, because a church holiday should be devoted to prayer and reflection.

What else can not be done on January 14th

• girls can look in someone else's mirror — you can "transfer" your beauty to its owner.;
• to take anything out of the house - you can "take out" luck;
• Doing needlework (sewing, knitting, weaving) can complicate and confuse your life.;
• to refuse alms to those who ask for it leads to poverty;
• Cutting your hair and nails is believed to shorten your life.;
• For girls to spend an exclusively female company day — the year will be spent alone;
• wearing dirty and torn clothes leads to failures.

Folk signs for January 14th

There are many folk traditions associated with the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, which were used to judge the weather and the future harvest. So, if there are a lot of stars in the sky on a holiday, they knew that in the coming year there would be no shortage of grains, vegetables and fruits.

Other signs of the day

• frost on the trees in the morning — for a rich harvest of grain crops;
• A thaw leads to a rainy summer;
• snowfall — towards late spring and snowy winter;
• The south wind leads to a hot summer, the east wind leads to a plentiful harvest of fruits, the west wind leads to an abundance of milk and fish, and the north wind leads to a large number of nuts.;
• a clear sunny day — the year will pass safely.

Earlier, Izvestia reported on the signs and traditions of the Lavish Evening national holiday.