Calendars v • d • e
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Selected use	Assyrian · Armenian · Attic · Aztec (Tonalpohualli – Xiuhpohualli) · Babylonian · Bahá'í · Bengali · Berber · Bikram Samwat · Buddhist · Celtic · Chinese · Coptic · Egyptian · Ethiopian · Calendrier Républicain · Germanic · Hebrew · Hellenic · Hindu · Indian · Iranian · Irish · Japanese · Javanese · Juche · Julian · Korean · Lithuanian · Malayalam · Maya (Tzolk'in – Haab') · Minguo · Nanakshahi · Nepal Sambat · Pawukon · Pentecontad calendar · Rapa Nui · Roman · Soviet · Tamil · Thai (Lunar – Solar) · Tibetan · Burmese . The word Calendar consist of two words 1 Cal ( in Pashto means Year in Hindi and Persian is Sal- also means Year In current use Assyrian calendar Astronomical year numbering Bahá'í calendar Bengali calendar Astronomical year numbering is based on AD ( Anno Domini)/CE ( Common Era) year numbering but follows normal Decimal Integer numbering more strictly The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar ( Arabic: التقويم الهجري at-taqwīm al-hijrī; Persian: تقویم هجری قمری ‎ The ISO week date system is a Leap week calendar system that is part of the ISO 8601 date and time standard A lunisolar calendar is a Calendar in many Cultures whose date indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar Year. A solar calendar is a Calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the Sun (or equivalently the apparent position of the sun moving A lunar calendar is a Calendar that is based on cycles of the Moon phase. This article is about the calendar introduced in the 1950s See Old Assyrian calendar for the ancient calendar The Armenian calendar is the traditional calendar of Armenia. The Attic calendar is the Calendar that was in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian Polis. The Aztec calendar is the Calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. The tonalpohualli, a Nahuatl word meaning "count of days" is a 260-day sacred period (often termed a " Year " in use in Pre-Columbian The Xiuhpohualli was a 365-day Calendar used by the Aztecs and other Pre-Columbian Nahua peoples in central Mexico The Babylonian calendar was a Lunisolar calendar with years consisting of 12 Lunar months each beginning when a new crescent moon was first sighted low The Bahá'í calendar, also called the Badí‘ calendar, used by the Bahá'í Faith, is a Solar calendar with regular years of 365 days and Leap The Bengali calendar ( বঙ্গাব্দ Bônggabdo or বাংলা সন Bangla Shôn) or Bangla calendar is a traditional solar Calendar The Berber calendar is the annual Calendar used by Berber people in North Africa. Bikram Samwat ( Bikram Sambat, or Vikram Samvat, Devnagari:बिक्रम संवत abbreviated "B The Buddhist calendar is used on mainland Southeast Asia in the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar (formerly Burma The term Celtic calendar is used to refer to a variety of calendars used by Celtic-speaking peoples at different times in history The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, incorporating elements of a Lunar calendar with those of a Solar calendar. The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and still used in Egypt The ancient civil Egyptian calendar had a year that was 365 days long and was divided into 12 months of 30 days each plus 5 extra days (epagomenes Greek ἐπαγόμεναι The Ethiopian calendar ( Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ዘመን አቆጣጠር ye'Ītyōṗṗyā zemen āḳoṭaṭer) also called the Ge'ez calendar, The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a Calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and used by the French government The Germanic calendars were the regional agricultural Almanacs used amongst the Germanic peoples prior to the adoption of the Julian and later the Gregorian The Hebrew calendar (הלוח העברי ha'luach ha'ivri) or Jewish calendar is a Lunisolar calendar used by Jews for predominantly religious The Hellenic calendar &mdashor more properly the Hellenic calendars, for there was no uniform calendar imposed upon all of Classical Greece &mdashbegan in most Greek The Hindu calendar used in ancient times has undergone many changes in the process of regionalization and today there are several regional Indian Calendars, as The Indian national calendar (sometimes called Saka calendar) is the official civil calendar in use in India. The Iranian calendar or Solar Hejri (تقویم هجری شمسی؛ سالنمای هجری خورشیدی Taqwim Hejri Shamsi Salanmay Hejri Khurshidi) is an astronomical The Irish calendar does not observe the typical astronomical seasons (beginning in the Northern Hemisphere on the Equinoxes and Solstices, or the meteorological seasons Since January 1, 1873, Japan has used the Gregorian calendar, with local names for the months and mostly fixed holidays The Javanese calendar is a Calendar still in use by the Javanese people of Indonesia concurrently with two other important calendars the Gregorian The Juche Idea (주체사상 Juche Sasang) is the official state Ideology of North Korea and the Political system based on it The traditional Korean calendar is a Lunisolar calendar which like the traditional calendars of other East Asian countries was based on the Chinese calendar The Lithuanian calendar is unusual among Western countries in that neither the names of the months nor the names of the weekdays are derived from Greek or Norse mythology Malayalam calendar (also known as Malayalam Era or Kollavarsham) is a solar Sidereal calendar used in the state of Kerala in South India The Maya calendar is a system of distinct Calendars and Almanacs used by the Maya civilization of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and by Tzolk'in (in the revised Guatemala Mayan languages Academy Orthography which is now preferred formerly and commonly tzolkin) is the name bestowed by The Haab' is part of the Maya calendric system used by peoples of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. The Republic of China calendar (民國紀元 is the method of numbering years currently used in the Republic of China ( Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen The Nanakshahi (ਨਾਨਕਸ਼ਾਹੀ nānakashāhī) calendar is a Solar calendar that was adopted by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee The Lunar calendar Nepal Sambat ( Nepal Bhasa: नेपाल सम्बत is commonly used in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal. The Pentecontad Calendar is a unique agricultural Calendar system thought to be of Amorite origin in which the year is broken down into seven periods of fifty days The Rapa Nui calendar was the indigenous Lunisolar calendar of Easter Island. The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the foundation of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. }The Tamil Calendar is used in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in India, and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, The Thai lunar calendar ( Thai: ปฏิทินจันทรคติ Patitin Chantarakati) (literally Against-the-Sun Moon-Ways) is Thailand The Thai solar calendar, Suriyakati (สุริยคติ has been the official and prevalent Calendar in Thailand since it was adopted by King The Tibetan calendar is a Lunisolar calendar, that is the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 Lunar months each beginning and ending with a New moon The traditional Burmese calendar is a Lunisolar calendar based on both the phases of the moon and the motion of the sun Vietnamese· Xhosa · Zoroastrian
	Calendar Types
	Runic · Mesoamerican (Long Count – Calendar Round)
	Christian variants
	Julian calendar · Calendar of saints · Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar · Liturgical year
Rarely used	Darian calendar · Discordian calendar
Display types and applications	Perpetual calendar · Wall calendar · Economic calendar

The Revised Julian calendar or, less formally, New Calendar, is a calendar scheme, originated in 1923, which effectively discontinued the 340 years of divergence between the naming of dates sanctioned by those Eastern Orthodox churches adopting it and the Gregorian calendar scheme that has come to predominate worldwide. This article is about the Vietnamese holiday For the 1968 military operation that began on that holiday see Tết Offensive. By the traditional Xhosa calendar, the year began in June and ended in May when Canopus, a large star visible in the Southern Hemisphere, signalled the The Zoroastrian calendar is a religious Calendar used by members of the Zoroastrian faith and it is an approximation of the (tropical Solar calendar. The Runic calendar is a Perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In the Mesoamerican calendars, Calendar Round dates are composed by interlacing the dates of a 260-day period ( Tzolk'in in the Maya Calendar, Tonalpohualli The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita The Calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a Liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more Saints The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar describes and dictates the rhythm of the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when The Darian Calendar is a proposed system of time-keeping designed to serve the needs of any possible future human settlers on the planet Mars. The Discordian or Erisian calendar is an alternative Calendar used by some adherents of Discordianism. A perpetual calendar is a Calendar which is good for a span of many years such as the Runic calendar. A wall calendar is a Calendar intended for placement on a wall Economic calendar is a type of Calendar that is intended to inform financiers and traders about the scheduled major economic numbers (like CPI, The word Calendar consist of two words 1 Cal ( in Pashto means Year in Hindi and Persian is Sal- also means Year Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today In 2800 the two schemes will diverge again, though more slowly than the Julian and Gregorian do. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita

The term "Revised Julian" is informative primarily in describing the fact that it replaces the de facto Orthodox endorsement of the Julian scheme, and has the effect of avoiding any implicit recognition of Pope Gregory XIII's promulgation of a system with the same goals and general approach in the Gregorian reform of 1582. Pope Gregory XIII (January 7 1502 &ndash April 10 1585 born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585 A calendar reform is any significant revision of a Calendar system

Contents 1 History 2 Adoption 3 Criticism 4 Defense 5 Notes 6 External links

History

The Revised Julian calendar was proposed for adoption by the Orthodox churches at a synod in Constantinople in May 1923. A synod (also known as a council) is a council of a church, usually a Christian church convened to decide an issue of doctrine administration or application Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS The synod synchronized the new calendar with the Gregorian calendar by specifying that the next 1 October of the Julian calendar would be 14 October in the Revised Julian calendar, thus dropping thirteen days. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world today Events 331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita Events 1066 - Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings - In England on Senlac Hill seven miles from Hastings, the forces It then adopted a leap year rule that differs from that of the Gregorian calendar: Years evenly divisible by four are leap years, except that years evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900, then they are leap years. A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or in the case of Lunisolar calendars an extra month in order to keep the This means that the two calendars will first differ in 2800, which will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, but a common year in the Revised Julian calendar. A common year is a common type of Calendar year. It has exactly 365 days and so is not a Leap year. This leap year rule was proposed by the Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković, an astronomical delegate to the synod representing the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Milutin Milanković ( Serbian Cyrillic: Милутин Миланковић ( May 28, 1879, Dalj, West Syrmia region near The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croato-Slovene ie Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene: Kraljevina Jugoslavija ^[1]

Milanković selected this rule, which produces an average year length of 365. 242222… days, because it was within two seconds of the then current length of the mean tropical year. A tropical year (also known as a solar year) is the length of time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons as seen from Earth However, the current vernal equinox year is slightly longer, about half-way between the two lengths, so for a few thousand years the Revised Julian calendar will do a marginally worse job than the Gregorian calendar at keeping the vernal equinox on March 21; it will be on March 22 more often than the Gregorian calendar will put it on March 20. An equinox is the event of the Sun passing over the Earth's equator in its annual cycle Events 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. However the Revised Julian calendar is more accurate regarding the length of the mean tropical year when compared to Gregorian calendar. A tropical year (also known as a solar year) is the length of time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons as seen from Earth But the length of a day is increasing by about 1. A day (symbol d is a unit of Time equivalent to 24 Hours and the duration of a single Rotation of planet Earth with respect to the 7 milliseconds per century (see tidal acceleration), so the number of days per year decreases by about 0. A millisecond (from Milli- and Second; abbreviation ms is one thousandth of a Second. Tidal acceleration is an effect of the Tidal forces between an orbiting Natural satellite ( i 0001 each millennium. This means that in the long run, the Revised Julian calendar will also be inaccurate even if the mean tropical year is the basis.

The synod also proposed the adoption of an astronomical rule for Easter: Easter was to be the Sunday after the midnight-to-midnight day at the meridian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (35°13'46"E or UT+2^h20^m55^s for the large dome) during which the first full moon after the vernal equinox occurs. Astronomy (from the Greek words astron (ἄστρον "star" and nomos (νόμος "law" is the scientific study Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Sanctum Sepulchrum also called the Church of the Resurrection, ( Greek: Ναός της Αναστάσεως Naos tis Anastaseos Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the Full moon is a Lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. Although the instant of the full moon must occur after the instant of the vernal equinox, it may occur on the same day. If the full moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. However, all Eastern Orthodox churches rejected this rule and continue to use the Julian calendar to determine the date of Easter (except for the Finnish Orthodox Church, which now uses the Gregorian Easter). Computus ( Latin for Computation) is the Calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. Structure and organization Along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland the Orthodox Church of Finland has a special position in Finnish law

Adoption

The Revised Julian calendar was adopted by the Orthodox churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria (the last in 1963), called the New calendarists. History Early history Christianity in Byzantium existed from the time of the Twelve Apostles, but it was in the year 330 that the Roman Emperor The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, also known as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa ( Greek:) is one of the autocephalous The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, also known as the Eastern Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Patriarchate The Church of Greece ( Greek: Ekklēsía tês Helládos, ekliˈsia tis eˈlaðos is one of the fifteen Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches The ancient Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus ( Greek: Ekklēsía tês Kýprou) is one of the fourteen or fifteen independent (' autocephalous The Romanian Orthodox Church ( Biserica Ortodoxă Română in Romanian) is a Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church History The establishment of the church was undertaken after the Treaty of Riga left large amount of territory previously under the Russian Empire, as part The Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Българска православна църква Bălgarska pravoslavna cărkva) is an Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The New calendarists are those Eastern Orthodox Churches that adopted the Revised Julian calendar, namely the Orthodox churches of Constantinople Alexandria Antioch It was rejected by the Orthodox churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Republic of Macedonia and the Greek Old Calendarists. The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem ( Greek: Patriarcheîon Hierosolýmōn, Arabic كنيسة الروم الأرثوذكس في القدس See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure The Serbian Orthodox Church ( Serbian: Српска Православна Црква / Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva; СПЦ / SPC) or the Christianity in ancient and feudal Georgia According to tradition when the Apostles were sent out to preach the Gospel to the nations of the world the Apostle History Origins After the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, the Emperor Basil II acknowledged the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Greek Old Calendarists ( Greek: Παλαιοημερολογίτες Paleoimerologites) are groups that separated from the Orthodox Church of Greece Although Milanković stated that the Russian Orthodox Church adopted the Revised Julian calendar in 1923, the present church continues to use the Julian calendar for both its fixed festivals and for Easter. A solution to this conundrum is to hypothesize that it was accepted only by the short-lived schismatic Renovationist Church, which had seized church buildings with the support of the Soviet government while Patriarch Tikhon was under house arrest. The word schism (ˈsɪzəm or /ˈskɪzəm/ from the Greek σχίσμα skhísma (from σχίζω skhízō, "to tear to split" The Living Church (Russian Живая Церковь, живоцерковники) also called Renovationist Church or Renovationism (Russian A soviet (сове́т, "council" originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. Saint Tikhon of Moscow ( January 19, 1865 &ndash April 7, 1925) born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin (Василий Иванович After his release, on 15 July 1923, he declared that all Renovationist decrees were without grace, presumably including its acceptance of the Revised Julian calendar. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Criticism

While the Revised Julian calendar has been adopted by many of the smaller national churches, a majority of Orthodox Christians continue to adhere to the traditional Julian Calendar, and there has been much acrimony between the two parties over the decades since the change, leading sometimes even to violence, especially in Greece. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

Critics see the change in calendar as an unwarranted innovation, influenced by Western society. Westernization or occidentalization (from occident, see wiktionary) is a process whereby societies come under or adopt the Western They say that no sound theological reason has been given for changing the calendar, that the only reasons advanced are social.

The argument is also made that since the use of the Julian Calendar was implicit in the decision of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea (325) which standardized the calculation of the date of Pascha (Easter), no authority less than an Ecumenical Council may change it. The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day İznik in Turkey) convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine Events By Place Roman Empire Gladiatorial combat is outlawed in the Roman Empire Computus ( Latin for Computation) is the Calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. This is a general introduction to ecumenical councils For the Roman Catholic councils, see Catholic Ecumenical Councils. The adoption of a new calendar has broken the unity of the church, undoing the whole purpose of the council of Nicea, so once again, "on the same day some should be fasting whilst others are seated at a banquet. "^[2]

Liturgical objections to the New Calendar stem from the fact that it adjusts only those liturgical celebrations that occur on fixed calendar dates, leaving all of the commemorations on the moveable cycle on the original Julian Calendar. The Paschal cycle in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches is the cycle of the Moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter This upsets the harmony and balance of the liturgical year. The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when This disruption is most noticeable during Great Lent. Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important Fasting season in the Church year in Eastern Christianity, which prepares Christians Certain feast days are designed to fall during Lent, such as the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste or the Holy Forty (Ancient/ Katharevousa Greek Ἃγιοι Τεσσεράκοντα Demotic Άγιοι Σαράντα The Feast of the Annunciation is also intended to fall either before Pascha or during Bright Week. In Christianity the Annunciation ( grc Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου, Evangelismós tēs Theotókou in Greek) is the revelation Bright Week Lambri --> or Renewal Week is the name used by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Sometimes, Annunciation will fall on the day of Pascha itself, a very special concurrence known as Kyrio-Pascha, with special liturgical practices appointed for such an occurrence. However, under the Revised Julian calendar, Kyrio-Pascha becomes an impossibility. The Apostles' Fast displays the most difficult aspect of the Revised Julian calendar. The fast begins on the moveable cycle and ends on the fixed date of June 29; since the Revised Julian calendar is 13 days ahead of the traditional Julian calendar, the Apostles' Fast is 13 days shorter for those who follow the New Calendar, and some years it is completely abrogated. Events 512 - A Solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland. Furthermore, critics of the New Calendar point out the definite advantage to celebrating Nativity separately from the secular observance of Christmas and New Year with its use of alcohol and ribald partying. For depictions in painting and sculpture see Nativity of Jesus in art. The New Year is an event that happens when a Culture celebrates the end of one Year and the beginning of the next year

Critics also point out that proponents of the New Calendar tend to use worldly rather than spiritual justification for changing the calendar: wanting to "party with everyone else" at Christmas; concern that the gradual shift in the Julian Calendar will somehow negatively affect the celebration of feasts that are linked to the seasons of the year. However, opponents counter that the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere, where the liturgical celebrations are no less valid. Southern Hemisphere is the half of a Planet that is South of the Equator —the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' Proponents also argue that the Revised Julian Calendar is somehow more "scientific", but opponents argue that science is not the primary concern of the Church; rather, the Church is concerned with other-worldliness, with being "in the world, but not of it", fixing the attention of the faithful on eternity. Scientifically speaking, neither the Gregorian Calendar nor the Revised Julian is absolutely precise. This is because the solar year cannot be evenly divided into 24 hour segments. So any public calendar is imprecise; it is simply an agreed-upon designation of days.

Defense

For their part, supporters of the Revised Julian Calendar can point to what may well constitute a divine sanction of that calendar. An icon of the All-holy Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, located in Saint Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church on the north-west side of Chicago, began weeping on the feast of St. Nicholas, which is the patronal feast day of the temple, according to the Revised Julian Calendar -- namely, on December 6, 1986. Presumably, if God disapproved of the New Calendar, the Heavenly Queen would also disapprove, and presumably in that event her icon would not have started weeping on December 6, but instead 13 days later, which would have been the patronal feast of the parish had the parish been observing the Julian Calendar.

Supporters of the Revised Julian Calendar can also point to certain pastoral problems that are resolved by its adoption. (1) Parishes observing the Julian Calendar are faced with the problem that parishioners are supposed to continue fasting throughout western Christmas and New Year, seasons when their families and friends are likely to be feasting and celebrating New Year's, often with parties, use of liquor, etc. This situation presents obvious temptations, which are eliminated when the revised Julian Calendar is adopted. (2) Another pastoral problem is the tendency of some local American media to focus attention each year on the Jan. 7 (N. S. ) / Dec. 25 (O. S. ) celebration of Christmas, even in localities where most Orthodox parishes are following the Revised Julian Calendar. This strongly suggests that these local media prefer the Orthodox to be on the Julian Calendar; and of course, it makes sense that they would, since an article on "Russian Christmas" sells more newspapers than one on the Orthodox Dec. 25 observance of Christmas. So too, in all likelihood, do certain non-Orthodox churches profit from the Orthodox remaining Old Style, since the January 7 observance of Christmas among the Orthodox tends to focus attention on ethnic identifications of the feast, rather than on its Christian, dogmatic significance; which, in turn, tends to foster the impression in the public mind that for the Orthodox, the feast of Christ's Nativity is centered on an ethnic identification, or even more, on the observance of the Julian date of the feast, which appears to many as a practice that is charming and quaint, but also anachronistic, unscientific and hence ultimately unreasonable and even cultish. For to many western Christian Americans and Europeans, and to many Orthodox as well, continued adherence to the Julian Calendar may be viewed as being out of step with cosmic reality and with present-day scientific knowledge. (3) Some Orthodox themselves may unwittingly reinforce this impression by ignorance of their own faith and by a consequential exclusive, or excessive, focus on the calendar issue: it has been observed, anecdotally, that some Russians cannot cite any difference in belief or practice between their faith and the faith of western Christians, except for the 13-day calendar difference.

Against the Revised Julian calendar, the argument is made that inasmuch as the use of the Julian Calendar was implicit in the decision of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea (325), no authority less than an Ecumenical Council may change this decision. However, it is significant that the "decision" was not really an explicit decision, or even a decision at all, but rather an implicit acceptance of the civil calendar of the time, which happened to be the Julian calendar (the explicit decision of Nicea being concerned, rather, with the date of Easter). By virtue of this, defenders of the New Calendar argue that no decision by an Ecumenical Council was or is necessary today in order to revise (not abandon) the Julian calendar; and further, that by making the revision, the Church stays with the spirit of Nicea I by keeping with the (reasonably accurate) civil calendar in all its essentials -- while conversely, failure to keep with it could be seen as a departure from the spirit of Nicea I in this respect. Lastly, it is argued that since the adoption of the Revised Julian calendar evidently involves no change in or departure from the theological or the ethical teachings of Orthodox Christianity, but rather amounts to a merely disciplinary or administrative change -- a clock correction of sorts -- the authority to enact that change falls within the competency of contemporary, local episcopal authority. Implicit acceptance of this line of reasoning, or something very close to it, underlies the decision to adopt the New Calendar by those Orthodox Churches which have done so.

It follows that, in general, the defenders of the New Calendar hold the view that in localities where the Church's episcopal authority has elected to adopt the New Calendar, but where some have broken communion with those implementing this change, it is those who have broken communion who have in fact introduced the disunity, rather than the New Calendar itself or those who have adopted it -- although most would agree that attempts at various times to mandate the use of the New Calendar through compulsion, have magnified the disunity.

To the objection that the New Calendar has created problems by adjusting only the fixed calendar, while leaving all of the commemorations on the moveable cycle on the original Julian Calendar, the obvious answer, of course, is that the 1923 Synod, which adopted the Revised Julian calender, did in fact change the moveable calendar as well, and that calendar problems introduced as a result of the adoption of the (fixed) New Calendar alone, would not have existed had the corrections to the moveable calendar also been implemented.

According to the defenders of the New Calendar, the argument that the December 25 (N. S. ) observance of Christmas is a purely secular observance and is therefore an unsuitable time for Orthodox Christians to celebrate Christ's Nativity, is plainly inaccurate, since the December 25 observances of Christ's birth among western Christians (and today, among many Orthodox Christians) obviously occur overwhelmingly in places of worship and involve hymns, prayers, scripture readings, religious dramas, liturgical concerts, and the like. Defenders of the New Calendar further note that, to the extent that December 25 is a secular observance in the western world, January 7 (i. e. December 25 O. S. ) appears to be becoming one as well, in Orthodox countries that continue to follow the Old Calendar. In Russia, for example, January 7 is no longer a spiritual holiday for Orthodox Christians alone, but has now become a national (hence secular) holiday for all Russians, including non-Orthodox Christians, people of other religions, and nonbelievers. Where this will lead in the end remains to be seen.

Perhaps the most potent arguments made by the defenders of the Revised Julian calendar for their view, are those made on the basis of truth (notwithstanding that the detractors of that calendar make the claim that the Old Style date, Jan. 7 / Dec. 25, is the true celebration of Christ's Nativity). Arguments from truth can take two forms: (1) If a calendar is a system for reckoning time based on the motions of astronomical bodies -- specifically the movements of the sun and moon, in the case of the church calendar -- and if precision or accuracy is understood as one aspect of truth, then a calendar that is more accurate and precise with respect to the motions of those bodies must be regarded as truer than one which is less precise. In this regard, some of those who champion the Old Calendar as truth (rather than for pastoral reasons, as seems to be the case with the national Churches that adhere to it) may appear, to those following the New Calendar, as the defenders of a fiction. (2) Some defenders of the Revised Julian calendar argue that the celebration, in any way or form, of two feasts of Christ's Nativity within the same liturgical year is not possible, since according to the faith there is only one celebration of that feast in a given year. On this basis, they argue that those who prefer to observe a "secular" feast of the Nativity on Dec. 25 and a "religious" one on Jan. 7, err in respect of the truth that there is but one feast of the Nativity each year.

Notes

External links

• Liturgical Havoc Wreaked by the "New Julian" Calendar by Hieromonk Cassian
• The Essence of the Church Calendar
• Paschalia—Notation of time by S. V. Bulgakov, Handbook for Church Servers, 2nd ed. , 1274 pp. (Kharkov, 1900) pp. 635-6, explaining the liturgical differences between the Old Calendar and the New Calendar
• On the Question of the "Revised Julian Calendar" by Father George Lardas

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