Re: Religion and Holidays, were Socialism (WAS: Re: Why Can't We Just Not Talk Politics?

On Fri, Jan 02, 2004 at 11:53:16AM -0500, Isidora Zamora wrote:
> Insofar as we observe New Year, we observe Gregorian New Year, because we
> use the Julian calendar only for liturgical time,
That's what I figured.  Thanks. :)

> the Eastern Orthodox Church New Year is September 1st
Hm.  Sept 1 Julian = Sept 14 Gregorian?  That's my parents' wedding
anniversary.   :)

According to the _Oxford_Companion_to_the_Year_:

        From the mid-fifth century (perhaps from 462), 1 September was
        the first day of both the calendar year and the 'Greek'
        indiction year at Constantinople; it is still the beginning
        of the Orthodox ecclesiastical year.

It doesn't say why that date was chosen, however.

(The Indiction was a 15-year cycle used for taxation in the Roman empire;
it is one of the components of Scaliger's 7,980-year Julian cycle, upon
which the astronomical Julian Day count is based.  AD 2004 is the 6717th
year of the current Julian cycle, making it the 12th year of the current
indiction - not that we use that for anything anymore. :) )

Sept 1 is also the feast day of St. Giles in the Church of England,
of St. Loup in the RC, and  of St. Fiacre in France and Ireland.

More secularly, it is the traditional first day of the oyster-eating
("months containing an R") and partridge-shooting seasons, the latter
resulting in it sometimes being jocularly referred to as "St Partridge Day".

-Mark

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