We Use The Old Calendar

Yes, we use the “Old Calendar”, more appropriately called, the Julian calendar as introduced in 46 CE by Julius Ceasar.  The Julian calendar was used by the whole world until 1582.   Although the calendar used at the time of Christ, the Julian calendar just not cosmologically accurate enough and patching it up with Leap Days was becoming untenable.  In 1582 Pope Gregory III promulgated what became known as the Gregorian Calendar, which is the calendar used by the political world of modern times.

While there are some differences between the two calendars, the majority of Orthodox Christians adhere to the Julian calendar. The difference is mainly related to the lectionary and the days of Saints and most importantly, Holy Pascha (Easter). However, there are many things that are the same.

In the 16th century, at the time of the new calendar, the Pope more-or-less controlled Western Europe at the administrative level.  The Patriarch of Constantinople did the same for Greece and points East.  The Eastern (Orthodox) and the Western (Papal) had been divorced from each other for 528 years.  What Pope Greory’s new calendar and the establishment of it, would be hardly noticed by the East and certainly not adopted.

The main reason for its rejection was that the celebration of Easter would be altered.  Christian Pascha is to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  The Holy Fathers of the A Ecumenical Council ordered that we celebrate Pascha after the first full moon after the spring equinox. they wanted to prevent Christians from celebrating the Christian Pascha with the Hebrew Passover as Christ is now the Passover (more on that in a later post).

These are the reasons that we celebrate the Saint’s Days, Feast Days, and most importantly Holy Pascha on different calendar days than the Roman/Western world.  They call the Feast of the Nativity (Jan. 7) “Little Christmas”.  We don’t think the Nativity is little.  Not at all.