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You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Christianity - General > Eastern Orthodox > calanders
Expert: Herman - 11/5/2009
Question
Hi Herman,
I'm sure this question pops up regularly. please can you explain the different calenders used and why?
Many thanks.
Answer
I assume you are referring to what is often called the "Old Calendar/New Calendar" controversy. Many Orthodox Churches still use the ancient calendar used by the Roman Empire, called the "Julian" or "old" calendar to set the Church Liturgical Cycle for the fixed feasts. Other churches, particularly those under the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople (Istanbul) use the "Gregorian" or "new" (civil) calendar.
The Gregorian calendar was implemented by Pope Gregory for the Catholic Church in 1582 because it was noticed that the Julian calendar was "slipping" due to errors in accounting for leap years, used to adjust for the difference in the Earth's rotation around its axis and its orbit around the Sun. In that year the calendar was "set ahead" 10 days to bring things back into alignment. This Gregorian calendar has become used by most countries as their civil calendar. The Britaish Empire (which included the American colonies at the time) did not accept the Gregorian calendar until 1752. The Ecumenical Patriarch decreed its use for the churches under its authority in 1923, by which time the two calendars differed by 13 days. This is why "Russian" Christmas is 13 days after "Western" Christmas. This only affects the "fixed" feasts since both Old and New Calendar Churches use the same calculations for determining the date of Holy Pascha and all the "moveable" feasts are based on that.
Objections to the "New" calendar by the "Old" calendar churches are primarily because the decision to switch was done unilaterally by the Ecumenical Patriarch without consulting the other Patriarches and churches. There seems to be some who like keeping "church" time different from "secular" or civil time. There is also some resentment in certain circles since the Gregorian calendar is seen as essentially a Papal innovation and simply not "Orthodox".
In my diocese we have parishes that are on the old calendar but others that are on the new calendar, so we are a "mixed" bag of sorts. Using the civil calendar certainly helps keep things less confusing.
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