Savalas Family Calendar and about the
Greek Orthodox Calendar                 
                        *   *   *   *   *   *
  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
  *   *   *   *    *    *   *      [1]
   *Home   *Shop [2]
  *Media [3]
  *News [4]
  *Games [5]
  *Friends [6]
  *About [7]
  *Info [8]
  *Help [9]
  *Family [10]
  *Contact [11]
 HTTP://SAVALAS.TV [12]
/ ABOUT / CALENDAR / 
-------------------------
QUICK LINKS: OUR CALENDAR DATA  FEEDS
[13]
- SAVALAS FAMILY CALENDAR [14]
 - GREEK CALENDAR [15]
- ABOUT THE GREEK  ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS
CALENDAR [16]
-------------------------
SAVALAS
FAMILY CALENDAR  DATA FEEDS:  
[17]
 -   [18]
 -   [19]
-------------------------
THE
SAVALAS FAMILY CALENDAR
-------------------------
THE
GREEK ORTHODOX CALENDAR
RELIGIOUS
 CALENDAR: HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
  Within the Orthodox Church feast days
and fast days are reckoned  according to
two distinct calendars, the Julian
Calendar and the Gregorian  Calendar.
The first is attributed to the Roman
Emperor Julius Caesar,  whose name it
bears. It was later corrected in the
sixteenth century  by Pope Gregory XIII
due to the ever-increasing discrepancy
between  calendar time and calculated
astronomical time. Thus the Gregorian
Calendar  came into being. 
Old And New Calendars
  Inasmuch as the Julian Calendar had
been in continuous use in the  Christian
East and West throughout the centuries,
the subsequent introduction  of the
Gregorian Calendar in the West created
yet another anomaly in  the
deteriorating relations between the two
Churches. The need for correction  of
the Julian Calendar was well understood
in the East and had even  led some to
devise a new calendar themselves.
Nevertheless, the Julian  Calendar
remained in use throughout the Byzantine
period and beyond.  Despite the efforts
of the emissaries of Pope Gregory to
convince the  Orthodox to accept the New
(Gregorian) Calendar, the Orthodox
Church  rejected it. The main reason for
its rejection was that the celebration 
of Easter would be altered: contrary to
the injunctions of canon 7 of  the Holy
Apostles, the decree of the First
Ecumenical Synod, and canon  1 of
Ancyra, Easter would sometimes coincide
with the Jewish Passover  in the
Gregorian calendar. 
  This is where the matter stood until
the end of World War I. Until  then, all
Orthodox Churches had strictly abided by
the Old (Julian)  Calendar, which at
present is 13 days behind the New
Calendar long since  adopted by the rest
of Christendom. In May of 1923, however,
an "Inter-Orthodox  Congress" was
convened at Constantinople by the then
Ecumenical Patriarch,  Meletios IV. Not
all Orthodox Churches were in
attendance. The Churches  of Serbia,
Romania, Greece, and Cyprus were; the
Churches of Alexandria,  Antioch and
Jerusalem, although invited, were not;
the Church of Bulgaria  was not invited.
Several issues were under discussion at
the congress,  one of which was the
adoption of the New Calendar. No
unanimous agreement  was reached on any
of the issues discussed. Several of the
Orthodox  Churches, however, did
eventually agree, though not all at the
same  time, to adopt the New Calendar.
These were the Churches of
Constantinople,  Alexandria, Antioch,
Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and
most recently,  Bulgaria (1968); on the
other hand, the Churches of Jerusalem,
Russia  and Serbia, along with the
monasteries on Mt. Athos, all continue
to  adhere to the Old Calendar. 
CALENDAR PROBLEMS AND IMPLICATIONS AMONG
THE ORTHODOX CHURCHES IN  THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY
The Old Calendarists
  The result of this situation is
unfortunate indeed. The Orthodox 
Churches which have adopted the New
Calendar observe Christmas with  the
other Churches of Christendom on
December 25; the Orthodox Churches 
which have not adopted it celebrate
Christmas 13 days later, on January  7.
Epiphany is celebrated by the former on
January 6 and by the latter  on January
19. And so it is with all the great
feasts of the Christian  Calendar but
one. Easter, the feast of feasts,
continues to be calculated  by all
Orthodox Churches to the dates of the
Old Calendar. Consequently,  all
Orthodox Churches observe the event of
Christ's Resurrection on  the same day,
regardless of when the rest of
Christendom does. An exception  to this
general rule is the Orthodox Church of
Finland. Owing to the  fact that it
makes up less than 2 per cent of the
population of a predominantly  Lutheran
country, it observes Easter according to
the New Calendar for  practical reasons.
  It may well be that the date of
Orthodox Easter occasionally coincides 
with that of the other Christian
Churches; however, it may also occur  as
much as 5 weeks later. Thus arose the
formula applied by the Orthodox 
Churches adopting the New Calendar;
viz., that immovable feast days  are to
be observed 13 days earlier than in the
Old Calendar, while Easter  and all
movable feast days dependent on it are
still calculated according  to the Old
Calendar--which was seen as a compromise
with those who opposed  the change. On
the one hand, the necessary revisions
were made to correct  the Old Calendar;
on the other hand, the calculation of
Easter was retained  as before so as not
to violate the holy canons.
Nevertheless, this compromise  was to
prove incapable of preventing the schism
of "Old Calendarists"  which ensued. 
  As is always the case with reform
movements, there was strong opposition 
to the adoption of the New Calendar,
especially in Greece. What differed  in
this situation, however, was that reform
was initiated by the established  Church
together with the total backing of the
state. Groups of "Old  Calendarists" or
Palaioemerologitai, refused to abide by
the Church's  decision and continued to
follow the Old Calendar for both movable
and  immovable feast days. The basis of
their refusal to abandon the Old 
Calendar rested on the argument that
canons ratified by an Ecumenical  Synod
knew only of the Julian Calendar.
Therefore, nothing less than  an
Ecumenical Synod had the authority to
institute a reform of such  proportion.
In view of their refusal to submit to
the authority of the  Church of Greece,
they were excommunicated by the official
Church. This  was not the case with the
monasteries of Mt. Athos. Although all
but  one (i.e., 19 monasteries)
continued to follow the Old Calendar,
they  are under the jurisdiction of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople with 
which they continue to be in communion.
Despite attempts by the civil 
authorities in Greece to suppress them,
the "Old Calendarists" continue  to
exist there and abroad and to maintain a
hierarchy of their own together  with
parishes and monasteries. 
HOLY DAYS IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
  The ecclesiastical year, which
according to Byzantine practice begins 
on the first of September, is divided
between movable and immovable  or fixed
holy days. The movable holy days are
determined by the date  of Easter, the
most important of all feast days, which
is in a class  by itself. The
determination of the date of Easter was
definitively  regulated by the decision
of the First Ecumenical Synod, held in
Nicaea  (325). Next in importance to
Easter are the "twelve great feasts," of
 which three are movable. Eight of these
feasts are devoted to Christ  and four
to the Virgin Mary. There are also a
number of feast days of  varying
importance, most of which commemorate
the more popular saints. 
HOLY DAYS DEDICATED TO CHRIST AND THE
VIRGIN MARY
The "twelve Great Feasts," As They Occur
In Chronological Order After  September
1, Are As Follows:
   *The Nativity of the Virgin Mary
(September 8)   *The Elevation of the
Life-giving Cross (September 14)   *The
Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the
Temple (November 21)   *Christmas
(December 25)   *Epiphany (January 6)
  *The Presentation of Christ in the
Temple (February 2)   *The Annunciation
(March 25)   *Palm Sunday (the Sunday
before Easter)   *The Ascension (40 days
after Easter)   *Pentecost (50 days after
Easter)   *The Transfiguration (August 6)
  *The Repose of the Virgin Mary (August
15) 
FAST DAYS AND FAST PERIODS
Four Main Fast Period Are Included In
The Ecclesiastical Year. They  Are:
   *The Great Fast (Lent)--beginning on a
Monday 7 weeks before  Easter.   *Fast of
the Apostles--varying in length from 1
to 6 weeks; it  begins on a Monday, 8
days after Pentecost, and ends on June
28--the  eve of the feast of Saints
Peter and Paul.   *Fast of the Repose of
the Virgin Mary--August 1 to 14.
  *Christmas Fast--lasting 40 days, from
November 15 to December  24. 
  Individual fast days include the feast
of the Elevation of the Holy  Cross
(September 14), the Beheading of St.
John the Baptist (August  29), and the
eve of Epiphany (January 5), as well as
all Wednesdays  and Fridays. There is no
fasting, however, between Christmas and
Epiphany,  during the tenth week before
Easter, the week after Easter and the
week  after Pentecost. 
  Although the term denotes total
abstinence from food or drink, fasting 
as practiced in the Orthodox Church
means abstinence from meat, fish,  dairy
products, olive oil, and wine. Total
abstinence is reserved for  the fast of
several hours duration preceding holy
communion. The rules  for fasting
prescribed by the holy canons are quite
rigid; and, although  they are still
observed in the monasteries and by the
very devout, most  Orthodox Christians
today find it difficult to uphold the
traditional  practice for the length of
time prescribed. Nevertheless, any
deviation  from the norm is permitted
only following consultation with one's
spiritual  father or with the prior
approval of the local hierarchy. 
ORTHODOX EASTER
  The determination of the date of Easter
is governed by a computation  based on
the vernal equinox and the phase of the
moon. According to  the ruling of the
First Ecumenical Synod in 325, Easter
Sunday should  fall on the Sunday which
follows the first full moon after the
vernal  equinox. If the full moon
happens to fall on a Sunday, Easter is
observed  the following Sunday. The day
taken to be the invariable date of the 
vernal equinox is March 21. 
  Herein lies the first difference in the
determination of Easter between  the
Orthodox Church and the other Christian
Churches. The Orthodox Church  continues
to base its calculations for the date of
Easter on the Julian  Calendar, which
was in use at the time of the First
Ecumenical Synod.  As such, it does not
take into consideration the number of
days which  have since then accrued due
to the progressive inaccuracy of the
Julian  Calendar. Practically speaking,
this means that Easter may not be
celebrated  before April 3 (Gregorian),
which had been March 21--the date of the
 vernal equinox--at the time of the
First Ecumenical Synod. In other  words,
a difference of 13 days exists between
the accepted date for  the vernal
equinox then and now. In the West, this
discrepancy was addressed  in the 16th
century through the adoption of the
Gregorian Calendar,  which adjusted the
Julian Calendar still in use by all
Christians at  that time. Western
Christians, therefore, observe the date
of the vernal  equinox on March 21
according to the Gregorian Calendar. 
  The other difference in the
determination of Easter between the
Orthodox  and other Christian Churches
concerns the date of Passover. Jews
originally  celebrated Passover on the
first full moon following the vernal
equinox.  Christians, therefore,
celebrated Easter on the first Sunday
after the  first full moon following the
vernal equinox. After the destruction 
of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the other
tragic events which gave rise  to the
dispersal of the Jews, Passover
sometimes preceded the vernal  equinox.
This was occasioned by the dependence of
the dispersed Jews  upon local pagan
calendars for the calculation of
Passover. As a consequence,  most
Christians eventually ceased to regulate
the observance of Easter  by the Jewish
Passover. Their purpose, of course, was
to preserve the  original practice of
celebrating Easter following the vernal
equinox. 
  As an alternative to calculating Easter
by the Passover, "paschal  (Easter)
cycles" were devised. The Orthodox
Church eventually adopted  a 19 year
cycle, the Western Church an 84-year
cycle. The use of two  different
"paschal cycles" inevitably gave way to
differences between  the Eastern and
Western Churches regarding the
observance of Easter.  Varying dates for
the vernal equinox increased these
differences. Consequently,  it is the
combination of these variables which
accounts for the different  date of
Orthodox Easter, whenever it varies from
the rest of Christendom.     
    Donations & Payments [20]
 Savalas.TV Audio Logo
Skip to Main Content
 Page Text-Only Version
  Print
This Page Now
Savalas.TV RSS Feed
 Savalas.TV Sitemap
 Accessibility Help
Close-Captioned Media [21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
       [36]
[37]
 [38]  Online [39]
Now [40]:
24 [41]
- Total [42]:
[43]-
Privacy [44]
- Safety [45]
- Security [46]
- Trust [47]
- 508 [48]
- DNS [49]
- XHTML [50]
- CSS [51]
- WCAG [52]
- 508 [53]
- WAI [54]
- BITV [55]
- SEO [56]
   

Click to Toggle Link List