Great Britain’s most remote community still hasn’t celebrated Christmas, for one huge reason.
It’s only been two days since the 25 December, though that is when most of the world celebrated Christmas.
However, other countries such as Russia, Egypt and India celebrate the day on different dates as part of their cultures and religions.
But people inhabiting this British island will also celebrate the New Year a fortnight after the rest of the UK.
The island is just three and a half miles in length, with a width of two and a half miles, as well as a population of just 30, working out to just three people per kilometre when it comes to population density.
It’s called Foula, and it’s located in Shetland, Scotland.
A whole 16 miles from mainland Shetland and 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, it’s on the same latitude as southern Greenland.
The community only got running water in 1982 and electricity by 1984, via a diesel generator.
To get here in the first place, you’d need to take a ferry from Walls in Shetland’s mainland for two hours, or a flight from Tingwall for 15 minutes.
Best known for its wildlife and for being used for 1937 film The Edge of the World, Foula also has the second highest sea cliff in the UK.
But why do they celebrate Christmas in what would be our first week of January?
It’s all to do with the ancient calendar that they follow, called the Julian calendar.
The ‘feast days’ of the Julian calendar, known as Yule, is on 6 January, while their Newerday (New Year) is on 13 January.
Foula’s inhabitants boast strong Norse traditions, and the islanders often spend Christmas in one house to exchange gifts, much like the rest of us do with our families.
Most of the world uses the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who first introduced it in 1582, with Britain starting to follow the calendar in 1752.
This was due to the fact that the Gregorian calendar only has a 0.002 percent correction on the length of a year, though the difference in days went from Julian being 13 days behind to 12 in 1900, when the Julian calendar didn’t have a leap year in 1900.
They aren’t the only ones that use the Julian calendar in the 21st century, though.
The Julian is used by the Berbers of the Maghreb in the Berber calendar, while Ukrainian Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas with everyone else for the first time in 2023, despite using the Julian calendar.
Russia now follow the Gregorian calendar though, as most of their residents do.
When interviewed by the DailyMail on the difference in days, a Foula resident explained: “It is not just part of our tradition but the world’s. It is everybody else who changed, not us.
“We are not unique, other parts of the world such as areas of Russia, still celebrate the old calendar.”
