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The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and still used in Egypt. This calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar. To avoid the calendar creep of the latter, a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar was introduced at the time of Ptolemy III (Decree of Canopus, in 238 BC) which consisted of the intercalation of a sixth epagomenal day every fourth year. However, this reform was opposed by the Egyptian priests, and the idea was not adopted until 25 BC, when the Roman Emperor Augustus formally reformed the calendar of Egypt, keeping it forever synchronized with the newly introduced Julian calendar. 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 Ethiopian calendar but have different numbers and names.

Coptic year[link]

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 one intercalary month at the end of the year of 5 days in length, except in leap years when the month is 6 days. The year starts on 29 August in the Julian Calendar 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.^{[citation needed]}

The Feast of Neyrouz marks the first day of the Coptic year. Ignorant of the Egyptian language for the most part, the Arabs confused the Egyptian new year's celebrations, which the Egyptians called the feast of Ni-Yarouou (the feast of the rivers), with the Persian feast of Nowruz.^[1] The misnomer remains today, and the celebrations of the Egyptian new year on the first day of the month of Thout are known as the Neyrouz. Its celebration falls on the 1st day of the month of Thout, the first month of the Egyptian year, which for 1901 to 2098 usually coincides with 11 September, except before a Gregorian leap year when it is 12 September. Coptic years are counted from 284, the year Diocletian 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"). Note that A.M. abbreviation is also used for unrelated calendar eras (such as the Byzantine and Jewish calendar epochs) which start at the putative creation of the world; it then stands for 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 1900 and 2099 inclusive in the Gregorian Calendar. In the Julian Calendar, the new year is always 29 August, except before a Julian leap year when it is 30 August. Easter 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 Christmas[link]

Coptic Christmas is observed on the 7th day of January. The 25 December Nativity of Christ was attested very early by Hippolytus of Rome (170–236) in his Commentary on Daniel 4:23: “The first coming of our Lord, that in the flesh, in which he was born at Bethlehem, took place eight days before the calends of January, a Wednesday, in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, 5500 years from Adam.” Another early source is Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea (115-181):"We ought to celebrate the birth-day of our Lord on what day soever the 25th of December shall happen." (Magdeburgenses, Cent. 2. c. 6. Hospinian, de orign Festorum Chirstianorum). However, it was not until 367 that December 25 was begun to be universally accepted. Before that, the Eastern Church had kept January 6 as the Nativity under the name "Epiphany." John Chrysostom, in a sermon preached in Antioch in 387, relates how the correct date of the Nativity was brought to the East ten years earlier. Dionysius of Alexandria emphatically quoted mystical justifications for this very choice. 25 March 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 on that date, 25 March was recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation which had to be followed, nine months later, by the celebration of the birth of Christ, Christmas, on 25 December.

There may have been more practical considerations for choosing 25 December. The choice would help substitute a major Christian holiday for the popular Pagan celebrations surrounding the Winter Solstice (Roman Sol Sticia, the three day stasis when the sun would rise consecutively in its southernmost point before heading north, December 21, 22 and 23. The celebrations began a full week prior to the religious observance and the drunken revelers were expectantly sobered and orgies exhausted by the festivals close, prompting the eve or vigil of the 24th/25th as an optimally moral and safe time for the Feast of Christ's Nativity). The religious competition was fierce. In 274, Emperor Aurelian had declared a civil holiday on 25 December (the "Festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun") to celebrate the deity Sol Invictus. Finally, joyous festivals are needed at that time of year, to fight the natural gloom of the season (in the Northern Hemisphere).

Until the 16th century, 25 December coincided with 29 Koiak of the Coptic calendar. However, upon the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, 25 December shifted 10 days earlier in comparison with the Julian and Coptic calendars. Furthermore, the Gregorian calendar drops 3 leap days every 400 years to closely approximate the length of a solar year. As a result, the Coptic Christmas advances a day each time the Gregorian calendar drops a leap day (years 1700, 1800, and 1900). This is the reason why Old-Calendrists (using the Julian and Coptic calendars) presently celebrate Christmas on 7 January, 13 days after the New-Calendrists (using the Gregorian calendar), who celebrate Christmas on 25 December. By 2100, the Coptic Christmas will be on the Gregorian date of 8 January.

Date of Easter[link]

According to Christian tradition, Jesus died at the ninth hour (that is, the canonical hour of nona—3:00 pm) of the first full day of Pesach, when that day fell on a Friday; and arose from the dead at or by the first (canonical) hour of the next Sunday. The day of Pesach (Pascha or Passover, 14 Nisan), is always at the first full moon following the northern vernal equinox. At the First Ecumenical Council, held in 325 at Nicaea, it was decided to celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the so-called Paschal Full Moon, as for the Christian church to differentiate itself from their Jewish counterparts.

At the Council of Nicaea, it became one of the duties of the patriarch of Alexandria to determine the dates of the Easter 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 Easter is the first Sunday after a full moon occurring after the northern vernal equinox, which falls on or after 21 March, which was its nominal date at the time of the First Council of Nicaea. Shortly after Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, the northern vernal equinox was occurring on the nominal date of 25 March. This was abandoned shortly after Nicaea, but the reason for the observed discrepancy was all but ignored (the actual tropical year is not quite equal to the Julian year of 365¼ days, so the date of the equinox keeps creeping back in the Julian calendar).

Coptic months[link]

• Thout
• Paopi
• Hathor
• Koiak
• Tobi
• Meshir
• Paremhat
• Paremoude
• Pashons
• Paoni
• Epip
• Mesori
• Pi Kogi Enavot (the Little Month)

See also[link]

• Egyptian calendar
• Ethiopian calendar
• Computus

References[link]

1. ^ Egyptian Calendar of the Martyrs

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saints days

• The Orthodox Ecclesiastical Calendar
• Ancient Egyptian Calendar and Coptic Calendar by Andrew Fanous
• The Coptic Calendar by Bishop K. R. Dawood

v t e Calendars of Saints and Commemorations Anglican Communion List of Anglican Church Calendars · Church of England · Anglican Church of Australia · Anglican Church of Canada · The Episcopal Church · Anglican Church of Korea · Province of Melanesia · Scottish Episcopal Church · Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui · Anglican Church of Southern Africa Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar Oriental Orthodox Coptic calendar · Armenian Apostolic Church Protestant churches Lutheran commemorations Roman Catholic Current Roman Rite Calendar · Tridentine Calendar · General Roman Calendar of 1954 · General Roman Calendar of 1962

Bishop Angaelos (born 1967) is a general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria consecrated by Pope Shenouda III on 14 November 1999. In this capacity, he is a member of The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

He is currently the Patriarchal Exarch for the Youth Ministry at the Patriarchal Center and the Coptic Orthodox Theological College at Stevenage, United Kingdom.^[1]

Bishop Angaelos specialises in youth ministry and is based at the Coptic Orthodox Church Centre in Stevenage, but also travels extensively, lecturing to Coptic youth at various youth conventions and conferences throughout the world.

Since November 1999, Bishop Angaelos has established the Joint United Kingdom Youth Committee, a national youth association, and the official Public relations office for the Coptic Church in the United Kingdom.

At the ecumenical level, Bishop Angaelos is very active at the local, national and international level.

Prior to his consecration as Bishop, Bishop Angaelos was delegated by Pope Shenouda to serve as the first permanent parish priest for Archangel Michael & Saint Anthony Coptic Orthodox Church in Stevenage, England.

Early life[link]

His Grace Bishop Angaelos was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1967 and immigrated with his family to Australia as a young child in 1973. He spent all of his childhood and early life in Sydney, obtained his Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science, Philosophy and Sociology, and went on to do postgraduate studies in law whilst working in the same field.

Conceration and Beyond Bishop Angaelos returned to Cairo in January 1990 to join the monastery of Saint Bishoy in Wadi-El-Natroun. He became a novice (by the name of Brother Arsenius) of the monastery, and was subsequently consecrated a monk (Fr. Angaelos) on 31 October 1990 by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III. Father Angaelos remained at the monastery of Saint Bishoy, being administrator of the Papal Residence and Conference Centre there, and was secretary to His Holiness Pope Shenouda for a period of six years.

With the blessing and guidance of His Holiness, Fr. Angaelos commenced the publication the official internationally-circulated English magazine of the Coptic Church, ‘El-Keraza' and remains the editor of this magazine, working with an international youth editorial and distribution committee that he established specifically for this purpose.

In June 1993 Fr. Angaelos was ordained a priest and continued his responsibilities in Egypt. In December 1995, he was delegated by His Holiness to serve as the first permanent parish priest for Archangel Michael & Saint Anthony Coptic Orthodox Church in Stevenage, England, while at the same time paying particular attention to youth ministry.

Fr. Angaelos developed and expanded his youth ministry in the UK as well as his local parish. He also established the Saint Athanasius Coptic Theological College at the Coptic Centre in Stevenage in 1997, which was officially inaugurated by His Holiness the pope.

Through the service of the past years, the Coptic Orthodox Church Centre is now also home to a number of activities including: ‘Saint Athanasius the Apostolic Coptic Theological College', Coptic Orthodox Church U.K. Press and Public Relations Office, C.O.P.A. (Coptic Orthodox Publishers Association), ‘Saint Athanasius Papal Publication Centre', ‘El-Keraza English Magazine', as well as other local and general activities. The Centre also acts as the focal point for official and ecumenical relations between the Coptic Church and other bodies in the UK and abroad.

On 14 November 1999, Fr. Angaelos was consecrated as General Bishop, and Bishop Angaelos returned to the United Kingdom, whereupon he has continued to expand his ministry.

Youth Service & Other Services[link]

Since November 1999, His Grace has established the Joint U.K. Youth Committee, a national youth association, and the official Public relations office for the Coptic Church in the United Kingdom. He has also been nominated by His Holiness to oversee Archangel Michael and Saint Marys Church in London, as well as matters at other churches that may arise from time to time.

Bishop Angaelos continues to specialise in youth ministry and is based at the Coptic Centre in Stevenage, but also travels extensively, lecturing to Coptic youth at various youth conventions and conferences throughout the world. In 2001, His Grace established graduate conventions in the United Kingdom, as well as on the East and West Coast of the United States, in New York (‘Kononia') and Los Angeles respectively. His annually-attended conferences include:

UK Coptic Youth Conference for Secondary School UK Coptic Youth Conference for College students & Undergraduates Graduate UK Coptic Youth Conference European Youth Conference UK Annual Young Coptic Youth Conference ‘Koinonia' Graduate Youth Conference - East coast of the USA ECCYC - East Coast Coptic Youth Convention, USA CCYC - Capital Coptic Youth Convention (Washington DC) SSCYC - Southern States Coptic Youth Convention, USA The Bay Area Youth Convention, San Francisco, USA The LA Coptic High School Convention The LA Coptic College and Graduate Convention The LA Young Coptic Professionals Convention Coptic Youth Conventions, Ontario, Canada The Eastern Canada Coptic Youth Convention Western Canada Youth Convention Winter Youth Convention, Melbourne COYA Youth Convention, Sydney Coptic Youth Convention of the Netherlands Mid-West US Coptic Youth Convention North California Coptic Youth Convention Besides established annual conferences and conventions, he also travels to conduct local retreats and seminars in various Coptic dioceses and communities.

To support students a series of FOCUS (Fellowship of Coptic Christian University Students) has been established of various university campuses, and as part of his service for the youth and the community, Bishop Angaelos has established the ‘Coptic City Mission', a group of youth who visit the homeless on the streets of London every week, distributing food, clothes and a comforting word.

To assist in active youth ministry, Bishop Angaelos writes a series of short spiritual publications and is the author of ‘The Altar in the midst of Egypt', a brief introduction to the Coptic Church, a book published as an introduction to the Coptic Church, especially aimed at Coptic Youth and those of no previous interaction with the Church. In keeping with the needs of his ministry, Bishop Angaelos also personally oversees the maintenance of an up-to-date website for all service at the Centre in Stevenage www.CopticCentre.com and a website dedicate to youth ministry in the UK www.CopticYouthMission.com.

Bishop Angaelos was actively involved in a national multi-denominational conference for Christian youth workers called ‘Youthwork: The Conference' in 2003, and has been the force behind the first broadcast of a series of interviews at prime morning time on Premier Christian Radio in the UK, introducing the Faith and History of the Coptic Church.

Ecumenical Service[link]

At the ecumenical level, His Grace is very active at the local, national and international level, commencing with his positive role in Churches Together in Stevenage even as a parish priest. Bishop Angaelos also headed the successful application for official membership of the Coptic Church into Churches Together in England and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, ant currently sits on the Faith and Unity Group, the Enabling Group for Youth Work, and various other committees of Churches Together in England. With his membership of and presence in the Council of Oriental Orthodox Churches, His Grace has bee very active, and arranged and hosted a special Oriental Orthodox Liturgical Celebration and luncheon at the Coptic Centre.

At the international level, in 2001 Bishop Angaelos accompanied His Holiness Pope Shenouda on his official visit to the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Turkey, and has also internationally officially represented the Coptic Church in the United Kingdom, Russia, Armenia, and on various other occasions, and he continues to do so. His Grace also attended the enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury as official envoy of His Holiness the Pope, and is on the official Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Theological Commission.

At the official level, His Grace represents the Coptic Church in the United Kingdom at public and official occasions, and has been the guest of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip at official occasions, and at their Windsor Castle residence. He has also been host the The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury during the archbishop's special visit to the Coptic Centre in May 2004.

See also[link]

• The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church
• Coptic Orthodox Church in Europe
• List of Copts

References[link]

External links[link]

• Coptic Orthodox Centre Stevenage
• http://bishopangaelos.org