For Orthodox Christians around the world, Wednesday is Christmas Day, marked by Church services and other celebrations. The Orthodox faithful schedule their religious ceremonies according to the old Julian Calendar so Christmas and Easter fall later than those marked by other Christian faiths. In the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, most are marking Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, but the minority Serb population has joined in the Christmas celebrations, as our Foreign Affairs correspondent Fergus Nichol reports:

At Sarajevo's Serbian Orthodox church of St Michael the Archangel the congregation sings Christmas hymns amid the candlelit splendour of gold-painted icons and ornate tapestries.

Elderly parishioners take turns to bow and kiss the icons hanging on the church's centuries old walls. It's a scene that's being repeated in Orthodox churches across Serbia and Bosnian Serb territory today, but in Sarajevo it's different.

Here Serbs are a minority in the Muslim-dominated city. But there's no sign of tension despite the fact that before, during and occasionally since the Bosnian war, religion has been a emotive factor in intercommunal hostility.