Church Web Site:
http://saintmark.com
E-mail:
General Information
Postal Address:
427 West Side Ave
PO Box 4397
Jersey City, NJ 07304
U.S.A.
Directions
The Coptic Calendar of MartyrsToday's Date: Amshir 12, 1735
The purpose of this page is to clear up a few questions that some might have regarding the calendar system that the Coptic Orthodox Church follows. To learn about the historic origins of the Coptic Calendar please read the article below tracing the Coptic Calendar to the ancient Egyptians. We have put up a program that calculates the date of all major Coptic holidays including the Orthodox Easter for any year after 1902 A.D. and also calculates a few other Church Holidays. Also on this page you will find some very useful links regarding the controversy of the use of different calendar systems. The Coptic Orthodox Church uses the Old Calendarist approach in determining the dates of Easter and the other Church Occasions that are dependent on the date of Easter. If you are interested in studying more about the Coptic Calendar and the difference between this Calendar and the Western or New Calendars, follow this link to other relevant resources. Quick Facts: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 11 September in the Gregorian Calendar or on the 12th in the year before (Gregorian) Leap Years. The Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Gregorian so that the extra month always has 6 days in the year before a Gregorian Leap Year. The names of the months and their starting dates are as follows:
Some Historic Aspects on its Origin:The Feast of Neyrouz marks the first day of the Coptic Calendar
known as the Year of the Martyrs "ANO MARTYRUM, A.M." Its celebration falls
on the 1st day of the month named Tut, the first month of the Coptic year, which
usually coincides with the 11th day of September. Similar sightings were recorded in the 7th year of the reign
of King Senuse'rt the third (1878-1841 B.C.) of the third Dynasty. The dating
of the event was the 16th day of the 4th month of the 2nd season. Discrepancies
between the yearly Stellar cycle and Solar cycle were realized along the course
of centuries or millennia. The difference is very slight, however, along the
course of time it became visible and chaotic. The following ancient Egyptian
interesting stories i illustrate the resulting effect of the widening gap. A
record from an inscription from the reign of King Amenemhet the 3rd (1842-1797
B.C.) describes a visit of his treasurer Harurre to Serabit elKhadem, in Sinai,
to extract turquoise ore in the third month of what was, according to the civil
calendar, winter. The fact was, according to the inscription, the weather was
that of high summer. Harurre describes how he and his men suffered badly from
the mountains that brand the skin with the intense heat. The civil calendar,
then, was out of phase with Solar cycles by about seven months. A papyrus of
the Ramesside period describes in the 13th century B.C. "Winter is come in Summer,
the months are reversed, the hours in confusion".
Coptic Holidays and Easter Calculations:The following is a program that will calculate the Date of the Coptic Orthodox Easter in addition to all major fasts and feasts of the Coptic Church for the given year. Please enter a year (Between 1902 and 2037): Relevant Resources:
|