An Orthodox believer does not pay as much attention to his birthday as to his personal name day. This is due to a person's special reverence for reverence for his heavenly patron.
Often among believers there is an opinion that the name day and the holiday of Angel Day are a single celebration. Sometimes these concepts in speech are synonymous and are replaced by one another. However, the Orthodox Church shares these days, which are the main holidays for the believer. Thus, instead of one celebration (as many believe), a person should celebrate two joyful personal Christian holidays.
Name days are otherwise called namesake day. This holiday is the day of remembrance of the saint, who is mentioned in the Orthodox calendar and is considered the heavenly patron of the baptized. Historically, Orthodox Christians named children with the names of saints, therefore this name of the holiday is now used. The name day falls on the date of commemoration of the first saint, which falls from the moment of his birth (or baptism, in the case when a person knows the date of the sacrament).
On Angel Day, a person is revered as a heavenly patron from among the angelic host (guardian angel). According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, the guardian angel is given to people at the moment of receiving holy baptism. Therefore, the dating of the Day of the Angel coincides with the christening. Also, Angel Day is celebrated by all Orthodox on November 21, since on this day the Church glorifies all the heavenly host and angelic forces.
The merger of these two holidays in the minds of many modern people can be explained by the historical moment of naming and choosing a name for a child. In the baptismal sequence, the prayer is kept, recited for giving a name on the eighth day from birth. The name was given to a person according to the church calendar in honor of the memory of the saint celebrated on that day. It turned out that the day of commemoration of the saint (name day) and the day of christening coincided in date and were celebrated at the same time. In modern life, this happens extremely rarely, so the dates of these two holidays are different.
