Macedonian businesses have given up on their initiative to change the date when Christmas is celebrated. Macedonia marks Christmas according to the Julian, old style calendar, on January 7th, but businesses have often pushed to have it moved to the Gregorian calendar on December 25th, in order to bettter coordinate work with international partners. But Biljana Peeva Guric, from the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, says that this push is all but abandoned.

We do not have an official initiative, and privately, business owners are divided. Those who export in western countries would like to see the change happen. For them, they face a period of 15 days with misaligned major holidays which often causes unpredictable issues. Others, who are oriented toward the domestic market, do not have an issue with the date as it’s currently set, Peeva said.