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Question about Dates

TITLTITL
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
Why is Christmas (January 7th) and New Years (January 1st) two different dates? Doesn't the calender start at Jesus' birth? Also can someone explain the controversy between December 25th and January 7th, I remember it has something to do with the Catholic Pope changing the date or something... I can't remember the story exactly :)

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to all Tasbeha.org Family!

Comments

  • TITLTITL
    Does no one seriously know the answer to this? I just found it interesting that whenever people post things about atheism, dating, or even porn, EVERYONE wants to read and reply but when questions arise about church theology, no one even bothers.. sorry but thats just sad. Btw I did the research myself and found an answer to part of my question: http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/coptic_calendar/nativitydate.html (thats the difference between jan 7th and dec 25). In case anyone else was wondering...
  • PaulSamirPaulSamir
    thanks for posting that link it i was wondering that question myself
  • sodr2sodr2
    [quote author=hottchico link=topic=8648.msg109004#msg109004 date=1262808602]
    Does no one seriously know the answer to this? I just found it interesting that whenever people post things about atheism, dating, or even porn, EVERYONE wants to read and reply but when questions arise about church theology, no one even bothers.. sorry but thats just sad. Btw I did the research myself and found an answer to part of my question: http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/coptic_calendar/nativitydate.html (thats the difference between jan 7th and dec 25). In case anyone else was wondering...

    thx
  • PaNo5PaNo5
    And for the date between New Year (January 1) and Coptic Christmas (January 7), Cesar did a calendar that was 11 minutes more than a solar year , which led to have 7 days forward, after 1500 years.

    P.S. I've heard it's gonna increase by 1 day on 2100. ( I just heard that from my father, I dont know if it stands at all).

    Hope I helped,

    May God bless you.
  • TITLTITL
    You're dad's right..

    The Coptic calendar          The Western calendar              The difference in days            The chronological order

    29th of Kiahk                        4th of Jan.                                10 days                15th of Oct. 1582A.D. - 1600 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        4th of Jan.                                10 days            1st of March 1600 A.D. - Feb.1700 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        5th of Jan.                                11 days            1st  of March 1700 A.D. - Feb. 1800 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        6th of Jan.                                12 days            1st of March 1800 A.D. - Feb. 1900 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        7th of Jan.                                13 days            1st of March 1900 A.D. - Feb. 2000 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        7th of Jan.                                13 days            1st of March 2000 A.D. - Feb. 2100 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        8th of Jan.                                14 days            1st of March 2100 A.D. - Feb. 2200 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        9th of Jan.                                15 days            1st of March 2200 A.D. - Feb. 2300 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                        10th of Jan.                              16 days            1st of March 2300 A.D. - Feb. 2400 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                      10th of Jan.                                16 days            1st of March 2400 A.D. - Feb. 2500 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                      11th of Jan.                                17 days            1st of March 2500 A.D. - Feb. 2600 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                      12th of Jan.                                18 days            1st of March 2600 A.D. - Feb. 2700 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                      13th of Jan.                                19 days            1st of March 2700 A.D. - Feb. 2800 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                      13th of Jan.                                19 days            1st of March 2800 A.D. - Feb. 2900 A.D.

    29th of Kiahk                      14th of Jan.                                20  days          1st of March 2900 A.D. - Feb. 3000 A.D.



    http://www.christmasarchives.com/christmas_in_egypt.html
  • peter986532peter986532
    The Coptic New Year usually falls on September 11th:

    From: http://freecopts.blogspot.com/2005/09/september-11th-coptic-new-year-martyrs.html

    Fr. Tadros Malaty says the Coptic Calendar is a continuation of the ancient Egyptian calendar, as the very first calendar ever known by man on planet earth! It goes back 4241 BC. The word “Nayrouz” is of Coptic origin. The stem is niiaro-oo meaning: “the rivers.” The suffex “ouz” is Greek, thus, the word “ Niiaroouz”.
    Mid September is usually where the waters of the Nile river rises, so the prayers are lifted to God for the rising of the waters of the rivers for irrigation and ask for His blessings at the beginning (crown) of the Coptic Calendar year. When the Persian ruled Egypt from 525-405 BC, they adopted the word and incorporated it in their language and took it to mean “the beginning of their Persian year,” and called it “Nayrouz.” The word “Nayrouz” in Persian, means “the new year.”

  • gregorytheSinnergregorytheSinner
    As someone answered before, the reason for the discrepancy is the fact that while most of the Western world switched over to the Gregorian [After Pope Gregory the Catholic Pope who formulated this calender] the Eastern world [although a lot of them have switched to the Gregorian Calender as well] still followed the Julian Calender.  I believe other than us, the Ukrainian Church and all it's sister churches celebrate Christmas on the 7th.  So the date is not a 'coptic/oriental' orthodox thing, its more regional than anything.
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