The Coptic calendar, also known as Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church. This calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar and still in use. 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.
The reform, however, was opposed by the Egyptian priests. The calendar was not used until 25 BC, when the Roman Emperor Augustus formally reformed the calendar of Egypt and keeping synchronized with the newly introduced Julian calendar. To make sure it was not cunfused with the Ancient Egyptian calendar, used 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.
The Coptic Year
The Coptic year is the extension of the ancient Egyptian civil year and 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 29 August in the Julian Calendar or on the 30th in the year before (Julian) Leap Years. As the Julian Calendar, the Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules, so that the extra month always has six days in the year before a Julian Leap Year.
Months
| Thout | Also known as Tout, is the first month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between 11 September and 10 October of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Thout is also the first month of the Season of 'Akhet' (Inundation) in Ancient Egypt, when the Nile floods cover the land of Egypt. The name of the month comes from Thoth, the Ancient Egyptian God of Wisdom. |
| Paopi | Also known as Baba, is the second month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between October 11 and November 10 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Paopi is also the second month of the Season of Akhet (Inundation) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods cover the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Paopi comes from Hapy, the Ancient Egyptian Nile God. |
| Hathor | Also known as Hatour, is the third month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between November 11 and December 9 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Hathor is also the third month of the Season of 'Akhet' (Inundation) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods cover the land of Egypt. The name of the month comes from Hathor, the Ancient Egyptian Goddess of Beauty and Love. |
| Koiak | Also known as Kiahk is the fourth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between December 10 and January 8 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Koiak is also the fourth month of the Season of 'Akhet' (Inundation) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods cover the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Koiak comes from Ka Ha Ka, which means Good of Good, a name of the Ancient Egyptian sacred Apis Bull. |
| Tobi | Also known as Touba is the fifth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between January 9 and February 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Tobi is also the first month of the Season of 'Proyet' (Growth) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods recede and the crops start to grow throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Tobi comes from Amso Khem, a form of the Ancient Egyptian God Amun Ra. The Hebrew word tobi means 'goodness'. |
| Meshir | Also known as Amshir is the sixth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between February 8 and March 9 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Meshir is also the second month of the Season of 'Proyet' (Growth) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods recede and the crops start to grow throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Meshir comes from Mechir, the Ancient Egyptian God genius of wind. |
| Paremhat | Also known as Baramhat is the seventh month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between March 10 and April 8 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Paremhat is also the third month of the Season of 'Proyet' (Growth) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods recede and the crops start to grow throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Paremhat comes from Mont, the Ancient Egyptian God of War. |
| Paremoude | Known as Barmouda is the eighth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between April 9 and May 8 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Paremoude is also the fourth month of the Season of 'Proyet' (Growth) in Ancient Egypt, where the Nile floods recede and the crops start to grow throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Paremoude comes from Renno, the Ancient Egyptian God of severe wind and death. |
| Pashons | Also known as Bashans is the ninth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between May 9 and June 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Pashons is also the first month of the Season of 'Shemu' (Harvest) in Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians harvest their crops throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Pashons comes from Khonso, a god of the moon, or of the Theban trinity and the son of Amoun-Re and Mout. |
| Paoni | Also known as Baona, is the tenth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between June 8 and July 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Paoni is also the second month of the Season of 'Shemu' (Harvest) in Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians harvest their crops throughout the land of Egypt. The name "Paoni" comes from the original Egyptian designation p3-n-In.t "the (month) of the Valley Festival," a reference to the Beautiful festival of the valley celebrated in Thebes. |
| Epip | Known as Abib is the eleventh month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between July 8 and August 6 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Epip is also the third month of the Season of 'Shemu' (Harvest) in Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians harvest their crops throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Epip comes from Apida, the serpent that Horus killed. |
| Mesori | Also known as Mesra is the twelfth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between August 7 and September 5 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Mesori is also the fourth month of the Season of 'Shemu' (Harvest) in Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians harvest their crops throughout the land of Egypt. The name of the month of Mesori comes from Mes-o-ri, an Ancient Egyptian word that mean Birth of Sun. |
| Pi Kogi Enavot | Also known as El Nasii is the thirteenth and last month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between September 6 and September 10 of the Gregorian calendar. That month is also incorporated in the Season of 'Shemu' (Harvest) in Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians harvest their crops throughout the land of Egypt. The name Pi Kogi Enavot means the little month. |
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 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's 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"). 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 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's 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).
Christmas
The choice of 25 December to celebrate the Nativity of Christ was first proposed by Hippolytus of Rome (170–236),[citation needed] but was apparently not accepted until either 336 or 364. 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 at that date turned 25 March into 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 around the winter solstice (Roman Saturnalia or Brumalia). 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 birth of Mithras, the Persian Sun-God whose cult predated Zoroastrianism and was then very popular among the Roman military. Finally, joyous festivals are needed at that time of year, to fight the natural gloom of the season (in the Northern Hemisphere).
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 25 December 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, 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.
Easter
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 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 it self 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 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 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).