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The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar describes and dictates the rhythm of the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
. It is also shared with minor variations by the Byzantine Catholic churches that recognize the Pope of Rome. Associated with each date are passages of Holy Scripture, Saints and events for commemoration, and many times special rules for fasting or feasting that correspond to the day of the week or time of year in relationship to the major feast days.

There are two types of feasts in the Orthodox Church calendar: fixed and movable.






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The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar describes and dictates the rhythm of the life of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
. It is also shared with minor variations by the Byzantine Catholic churches that recognize the Pope of Rome. Associated with each date are passages of Holy Scripture, Saints and events for commemoration, and many times special rules for fasting or feasting that correspond to the day of the week or time of year in relationship to the major feast days.

There are two types of feasts in the Orthodox Church calendar: fixed and movable. Fixed feasts occur on the same calendar day every year, while movable feasts change each year. The moveable feasts are generally relative to Pascha
Easter

Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christianity liturgical year.Christians believe that Jesus was Resurrection of Jesus from the dead three days after his Crucifixion of Jesus, and celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday , two days after Good Friday....
 (Easter), and so the cycle of moveable feasts is referred to as the Paschal cycle
Paschal cycle

The Paschal cycle in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Easter . The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha....
.

Fixed feasts


The following list of dates links only to fixed feasts of the Orthodox Church. These are the fixed dates; the particular day on which that date is observed differs depending upon whether one follows the Julian Calendar
Julian calendar

The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus....
 (sometimes referred to as the "Old Calendar") or the Revised Julian Calendar
Revised Julian 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 Orthodoxy adopting it and the Gregorian calendar scheme that has come to predominate worldwide....
 ("New Calendar"). All dates having to do with Pascha
Easter

Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christianity liturgical year.Christians believe that Jesus was Resurrection of Jesus from the dead three days after his Crucifixion of Jesus, and celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday , two days after Good Friday....
 (Easter) - the beginning of Great Lent
Great Lent

Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important fasting season in the church year in Eastern Christianity, which prepares Christians for the greatest feast of the church year, Easter ....
, Ascension, Pentecost
Pentecost

Pentecost is one of the prominent feasts in the Christianity liturgical year, celebrated the 49th day after Easter Sunday?or the 50th day, inclusively, whence its name is derived from the Greek....
, etc. - are "moveable" feasts, and thus are not on this calendar (see Paschal cycle
Paschal cycle

The Paschal cycle in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Easter . The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha....
).

The following should be remembered in using the following calendar:
  • For the day on which those churches which follow the Julian Calendar celebrate any date's fixed commemoration, add 13 days to the date below. For example, Christmas Day (December 25) on the Julian Calendar falls on January 7 of the modern Gregorian Calendar
    Gregorian calendar

    The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas....
    .
  • For those churches which follow the Revised Julian Calendar the dates below correspond exactly to the dates on the Gregorian Calendar.


The Orthodox liturgical year
Liturgical year

The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgy seasons in Christianity churches which determines when Calendar of saints, Memorial s, Commemoration s, and Solemnity are to be observed and which portions of Scripture are to be read....
 begins on September 1.

September1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
October1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
November1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
December    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
January1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
February1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 (29)
March1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
April1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
May1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
June1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
July1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
August1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31


Moveable feasts

Pascha is, by far, the most important day in the ecclesiastical year, and all other days, in one way or another, are dependent upon it. Pascha falls on different calendar dates from year to year, calculated according to a strict set of rules (see Computus
Computus

Computus is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. The name has been used for this procedure since the early Middle Ages, as it was one of the most important computations of the age....
 for details). While the Fixed Cycle begins on September 1, the new Paschal Cycle begins on "Zaccheus Sunday" (the beginning of the preparatory season before Great Lent
Great Lent

Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important fasting season in the church year in Eastern Christianity, which prepares Christians for the greatest feast of the church year, Easter ....
), eleven Sundays before Pascha, and continues until the Zaccheus Sunday of the following year. The Epistle and Gospel readings at the Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy

The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine church tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholic Churches....
 throughout the year are determined by the date of Pascha.

Great Feasts

There are Twelve Great Feasts throughout the church year—not counting Pascha, which is above and beyond all other feast days. These are feasts which celebrate major historical events in the lives of Jesus Christ or the Theotokos
Theotokos

Theotokos is a title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches....
 (Virgin Mary). Of these, three are on the Paschal Cycle:
  • Palm Sunday
    Palm Sunday

    Image:Meister der Palastkapelle in Palermo 002.jpg|thumb|300px|'The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem' mosaic by the Master of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo .]]...
     (the Sunday before Pascha)
  • Ascension (forty days after Pascha)
  • Pentecost
    Pentecost

    Pentecost is one of the prominent feasts in the Christianity liturgical year, celebrated the 49th day after Easter Sunday?or the 50th day, inclusively, whence its name is derived from the Greek....
     (fifty days after Pascha)


The other Great Feasts are on the Fixed Cycle:
  • The Nativity of the Theotokos
    Nativity of the Theotokos

    The Nativity of the Theotokos, celebrating the birth of Mary , is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical year....
     (8 September)
  • The Elevation of the Holy Cross
    Elevation of the Holy Cross

    The Elevation of the Holy Cross is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on September 14. It is one of the two feast days which is held as a strict fast....
     (14 September)
  • The Presentation of the Theotokos (21 November)
  • The Nativity of the Lord (25 December)
  • The Theophany (Epiphany) of the Lord (6 January)
  • The Presentation of the Lord
    Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

    The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus, and falls on or around 2 February. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Presentation is the fourth Rosary#The Mysteries of the Rosary....
     (2 February)
  • The Annunciation
    Annunciation

    In Christianity, the Annunciation is the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus, by the angel Gabriel that she would Conception a child to be born the Son of God....
     (25 March)
  • The Transfiguration
    Transfiguration

    Transfiguration may refer to:In religion:* Transfiguration of Jesus, an event reported by the Synoptic Gospels in which Jesus underwent transfiguration with the prophets Moses and Elijah...
     (6 August)
  • The Dormition (Falling Asleep) of the Theotokos (15 August)


In addition, the feast day of the patron saint
Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges....
 of a parish church
Parish church

A parish church, in Christianity, is the local church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopalian church governance churches....
 or monastery
Monastery

Monastery , a term derived from the Greek language word ???ast?????, neut. of ???ast????? - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of Monk, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in Cenobium or alone ....
 is counted as a Great Feast, and is celebrated with great solemnity.

Liturgical seasons

In addition to Great Lent, there are three other lesser lenten seasons in the church year:
  • Nativity Fast
    Nativity Fast

    The Nativity Fast, is a period abstinence and penance practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches, in preparation for the Nativity of Christ, ....
     (40 days in preparation for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord)
  • Apostles' Fast
    Apostles' Fast

    The Apostles' Fast, also called the Fast of the Holy Apostles, the Fast of Peter and Paul, or sometimes St. Peter's Fast, is a fasting observed by Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians....
     (variable time from the second Monday after Pentecost until the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
    Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

    The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, or properly the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, is a feast commemorating the martyrdom at Rome of the apostles St....
    )
  • Dormition Fast (2 weeks from 1 August to 14 August in preparation for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos)


The season from the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee (three weeks before the Great Lent) through Holy Saturday is called Triodion
Triodion

The Triodion , also called the Lenten Triodion , is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine rite during Great Lent and the preparatory weeks leading up to it....
, while the season from Pascha through Pentecost is called the Pentecostarion
Pentecostarion

The Pentecostarion is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite during the Paschal Season which extends from Easter to the Sunday following All Saints Day ....
.

Printed calendars

Because of the complexity created by the intersection of the various cycles, a number of Orthodox institutions will print an annual calendar (Russian: Spisok) which contains rubrics for the services during that particular year. Simpler wall calendars will show the major commemoration of the day together with the appointed scripture readings.

See also

  • Byzantine calendar
    Byzantine calendar

    The Byzantine calendar was the calendar officially used by the Byzantine Empire from 988 by Basil II until it was conquered in 1453. It was identical to the Julian calendar except that the names of the months were transcribed from Latin into Greek language, the first day of the year was 1 September, and its year one was 6th millennium BC, th...
  • List of Eastern Orthodox saint titles