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The Coptic Calendar And The Church Of Alexandria

The Pharaonic Calendar And The Coptic Calendar

The Pharaohs knew their calendar from the year 4240 B.C. The famous Greek historian Herodotus mentions that the Egyptians excelled the Greeks in adjusting their solar year by appending 5 days to the total of 12 months.

Early Egyptian Christians used the Pharaonic systems of reckoning time, modified them a little bit, and adapted them to their Church life and their daily life, especially for agricultural system. The liturgical day of Christians in Egypt began, then as now, at sunset, like the Jewish, and Greek days. The seven-day week is used, with its first day (Sunday) made the Lord’s Day.

The Christian Copts still use the Coptic year, whose origin is Pharaonic. The year is divided into twelve months of thirty days each, plus five more days, called epagomenai, at its end, as well as the extra day whose intercalation at the end of every fourth year as a sixth epogomenal day was ordered by Ptolemy III Euergetes in 238 B.C., in order to rectify the old discrepancy between the calendar year of 365 days and the natural solar year.

The year was divided into three seasons of equal length, each comprising four months, the season of the flood, then that of cultivation, and thirdly the season of the harvest and fruits. This division is still used in the liturgical rites of the church in Egypt and overseas, until a synodical creed was issued for collecting the three litanies of water, fruits, and weather in one litany for overseas, as the circumstances there differs than that in Egypt.

The Pharaonic Calendar And The Julian Calendar

The Roman adaptation of the Egyptian solar calendar introduced by Julius Caesar, with the technical aid of the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, in 46 B.C.

The Abakti And The Christian Pasch The Coptic Calendar

Since the fourth century, as many of the Copts were martyred, they considered the Era of Diocletian as the golden age, and chose the year of Diocletians’s military election as emperor in November 284 as the starting point of their calendar. The Era of Diocletian is usually called the "Era of the Martyrs," and its abbreviation is A.M. (for anno-martyrdum).

We can understand why the Copts are interested in thus era from the writing one of the fathers of the Church who was contemporary of the reign of Diocletian: "If the martyrs of the whole world were put on one arm of the balance and the martyrs of Egypt on the other, the balance would tilt in favor of Egyptians."

The Coptic Months

Although the exigencies of modern life have led to extensive use of the Gregorian calendar and of the Islamic calendar with years reckoned from the Hegira, the Coptic church also continues to observe Alexandrian years beginning on the Julian 29 August in an ordinary year, and to reckon the succession of years according to the Era of Diocletian or "of the Martyrs." For twelve months of thirty days, the ancient Egyptian names introduced in the first half of the first millenium B.C. are retained, in forms that are copticized or arabized. In the Bohairic dialect, the epagomenal period added at the end of the year is called "the little month." In Arabic the same period is called al-Nasi, "the extension (of time)" or "postponement."

To convert a Coptic or Ethiopian date (day and month) to its Julian equivalent in an ordinary year (a year A.M. of Ethiopian not divisible by 4), add the numeral of the Coptic or Ethiopian month in question (which can be found in the accompanying table). For instance, to find the Julian date corresponding to the Coptic 15 Kiyahk in an ordinary year, add 15 (the numeral of the day of Kiyahk) to 26 November (the day before the beginning of the Julian period corresponding to the month of Kiyahk in an ordinary year). Thus, 15 plus 26 November becomes 41 November, that is, 11 December.

To convert a year A.M. to the corresponding year(s) A.D. add 283 to the year A.M. from 1 Tut through 31 December: add 284 to the year A.M. from 1 January to the end of the Coptic year. Thus, A.M.1700 equals A.D.1983/1984.

The Julian Calendar

The Julian year was extended to 445 days by intercalation in order to bring the civic year into line with the solar year. While the Egyptians divided the solar year of 365.25 days into 12 months of 30 days each, with 5, or in every fourth year, 6, intercalary days added after the last day of the twelfth month, the Romans, in their Julian calendar, retained the 31 days of March, May, Quintilis (July), and October, and the 28 days of February, as they had been in the older Roman calendar, but increased the other months, which until then all had 29 days, by one day (June, April, September, November) or two days (January, Sextilis [August], December), in order to have an annual total of 365 days. The intercalary month previously inserted periodically, at the discretion of pontifex maximus, after 23 February was replaced by the intercalary day inserted every fourth year after 23 February, and in such a year the 24 February (ante diem sextum Kalendas Martias) was counted twice, the intercalary day being ante diem his sextum Kalendas Martias, hence the expression annus bissextilus for "leap year." In the first thirty-six years of the Julian calendar’s use, the extra day was intercalated every three years instead of every four, by mistaden interpretation of the original prescription, and in 9 B.C.Augustus prohibited the inntercalation of the extra day until A.D. 8. The vernal equinox was placed on 25 March, and the year began on 1 January.

The Julian calendar remained in general use in the Western world until it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, itself a reform of the Julian calendar, in various countries between 1582 and 1924. It is still used for the calculation of Easter and the movable feasts dependent on Easter in the Chalcedonian Orthodox churches.

Months Of The Coptic Calendar

Of all survivals from Pharaonic Egypt, the calendar is the most striking. Each of the twelve months of the Coptic calendar still carries the name of one of the deities of feasts of ancient Egypt. Without doubt, this reflects the conservatism that characterizes the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, who are reluctant to set aside their traditional way of life.

Documents from around the fifth century B.C., such as the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine, indicate that the great festivals held in honor of certain divinities gave their names to the month in which that particular celebration occurred. The Copts did not change the names of the Pharaonic months:

Tute: (September 11-12 to October 10-11). It was dedicated to Thoth, god of wisdom and science, inventor of writing , patron of scribes, and "he who designates the seasons, months, and years." Thoth presided over the "House of Life," where were composed and copied all texts necessary for the maintenance and replenishment of life.

Babah: (October 11-12 to November 9-10). During the second month was celebrated the " Beautiful feast of Opet.’’ whose name Paopi signifies "that of Opet." We see Amon-Ra traveling from Karnak to Luxor to celebrate the famous festival of Opet, from which the month Babah derives its name."

Hatur: (November 10-11 to December 9-10). It commemorated Hathor, the "Cow of Heaven," who gave birth to the sun and to all beings, gods, and men.

Kiahk: (December 10-11 to January 8-9). This month derives its name from a ritual vase that was probably used for meauring incense and was very important in the celebration of the funerary feast originally known as the Union of the Ka.

Tubah: (January 9-10 to February 7).

Amshir: (February 8-9 to March 9-10). It is related to fire and represented in the lists of festival objects by a brasier from which fire escapes.

Baramhat: (March 10 to April 8).

Baramudah: (April 9-10 to May 8).

Bashans: (May 9 to 7 June).

Baounah: (June 8 to 7 July).

Abib: (July 8 to 6 August).

Misra: (August 7 to 5 September).

Nasi: (6 September to 10-11 September).