Coptic calendar

The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the. This is based on the ancient. To avoid the calendar creep of the latter, a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar was introduced at the time of (, in ) which consisted of the intercalation of a sixth  every fourth year. However, this reform was opposed by the Egyptian priests, and the idea was not adopted until, when the Emperor  formally reformed the calendar of , keeping it forever synchronized with the newly introduced. To distinguish it from the Ancient Egyptian calendar, which remained in use by some astronomers until medieval times, this reformed calendar is known as the Coptic calendar. Its years and months coincide with those of the but have different numbers and names.

Coptic year
The Coptic year is the extension of the ancient Egyptian civil year, retaining its subdivision into the three seasons, four months each. The three seasons are commemorated by special prayers in the Coptic Liturgy. This calendar is still in use all over Egypt by farmers to keep track of the various agricultural seasons. The Coptic calendar has 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and an intercalary month at the end of the year of 5 or 6 days, depending whether the year is a leap year or not. The year starts on in the  or on the 30th in the year before (Julian) Leap Years. The Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Julian Calendar so that the extra month always has six days in the year before a Julian Leap Year.

The Feast of marks the first day of the Coptic year. Its celebration falls on the 1st day of the month of, the first month of the Coptic year, which for AD 1901 to 2098 usually coincides with , except before a Gregorian leap year when it is. Coptic years are counted from AD 284, the year became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, especially in Egypt. Hence, the Coptic year is identified by the abbreviation A.M. (for Anno Martyrum or "Year of the Martyrs"). The A.M. abbreviation is also used for the unrelated Jewish year (Anno Mundi).

Every fourth Coptic year is a leap year without exception, as in the Julian calendar, so the above mentioned new year dates apply only between AD and 2099 inclusive in the Gregorian Calendar. In the Julian Calendar, the new year is always, except before a Julian leap year when it's. is reckoned by the Julian Calendar in the Old Calendarist way.

To obtain the Coptic year number, subtract from the Julian year number either 283 (before the Julian new year) or 284 (after it).

Date of
The choice of to celebrate the Nativity of  was first proposed by  of  (170–236), but was apparently not accepted until either 336 or 364. emphatically quoted mystical justifications for this very choice:


 * was considered to be the anniversary of Creation itself. It was the first day of the year in the medieval Julian calendar and the nominal vernal equinox (it had been the actual equinox at the time when the Julian calendar was originally designed). Considering that Christ was conceived at that date turned into the Feast of the Annunciation which had to be followed, nine months later, by the celebration of the birth of Christ, Christmas, on.

There may have been more practical considerations for choosing. The choice would help substitute a major Christian holiday for the popular pagan celebrations around the winter solstice (Roman Saturnalia or Brumalia). The religious competition was fierce. In, Emperor had declared a civil holiday on  (the "Festival of the birth of the ") to celebrate the birth of , the Persian Sun-God whose cult predated  and was then very popular among the  military. Finally, joyous festivals are needed at that time of year, to fight the natural gloom of the season.

That there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8), does not rule out December 25th as Christmas - for contemporary records indicate that this was as likely then as at any time of year. Those who observed what was happening then confirm the weather patterns of the time, and what shepherds did amidst them all.

Until the 16th century, coincided with 29  of the Coptic calendar. However, upon the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, shifted 10 days earlier in comparison with the Julian and Coptic calendars and a further day each time the Gregorian calendar drops a leap day. This is the reason why Old-Calendrists (using the Julian and Coptic calendars) presently celebrate Christmas on, 13 days after the New-Calendrists (using the Gregorian calendar), who celebrate Christmas on.

Date of
According to Christian tradition, died at the ninth hour (that is, the canonical hour of nona or 'noon' in Middle English - 3:00 pm) of the first full day of, when that day fell on a Friday; and arose from the dead at or by the first (canonical) hour of that Sunday. The day of (Pascha or Passover, ), is always at the first or second full moon following the vernal equinox. At the First, held in at , it was decided to celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the so-called.

At the, it became one of the duties of the to determine the dates of the Resurrection and to announce it to the other Christian churches. This duty fell on this officiate because of the erudition at Alexandria he could draw on. The rules to determine this are complex, but the Resurrection is the first Sunday after a full moon occurring after the, which falls on or after , which was its date at the time of the First Council of Nicaea. Shortly before reformed the calendar, the vernal equinox was occurring on the "nominal" date of. This was abandoned at Nicaea, but the reason for the observed discrepancy was all but ignored (the actual is not quite equal to the Julian year of 365¼ days, so the date of the equinox keeps creeping back in the Julian calendar).