Coptic calendar

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Gregorian calendar 28 March 2024
Coptic calendar 19 Paremhat 1740

The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is a liturgical calendar used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and also used by the farming populace in Egypt. It was used for fiscal purposes in Egypt until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar on 11 September 1875 (1st Thout 1592 AM).[1] This calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar. To avoid the calendar creep of the latter (which contained only 365 days each year, year after year, so that the seasons shifted about one day every four years), a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar was introduced at the time of Ptolemy III (Decree of Canopus, in 238 BC) which consisted of adding an extra day every fourth year. However, this reform was opposed by the Egyptian priests, and the reform was not adopted until 25 BC, when the Roman Emperor Augustus imposed the Decree upon Egypt as its official calendar (although initially, namely between 25 BC and AD 5, it was unsynchronised with the original implementation of the Julian calendar which was erroneously intercalating leap days every third year due to a misinterpretation of the leap year rule so as to apply inclusive counting).[2] 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 or Alexandrian calendar. Its years and months coincide with those of the Ethiopian calendar but have different numbers and names.[3]

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Coptic calendar does not skip leap years three times every 400 years, and therefore it stays synchronised with the Julian calendar over a four-year leap year cycle.[4] [5]

  1. ^ United States Congressional Serial Set. Vol. 1673. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1876. p. 1348. Archived from the original on 2022-06-12. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  2. ^ Nabil, Michael. A Brief History of Patriarchs Coptic Church. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. p. 7. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  3. ^ Tamrat, Tadesse (2008). "Ethiopian Calendar & Millennia Highlights". International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 3 (2): 177–88. JSTOR 27828897. Archived from the original on 13 September 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  4. ^ According to "Conversion of Coptic and Julian dates". Universität Zürich. Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Coptic dates corresponding to Julian dates separated by multiples of four years, or multiples of 100 years, all give the same day and month.
  5. ^ Fr. John Ramzy. "The Glorious Feast of Nativity: 7 January? 29 Kiahk? 25 December?". Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Archived from the original on 2002-06-20. States that Christmas has always been celebrated on 29 Kiahk in the Coptic calendar, and that this is equivalent to 25 December in the Julian calendar.

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