Articles

STROMATA (*), Part III

by Ed Rizkalla

 “Sing unto the Lord a new song, O people who love Christ our God.”

The days of fun in the sun are drawing to a close as families are spending the last of their summer vacation time with their children prior to sending them back to school. Classes in some of the schools in our local area have already started, with the rest of them to follow suit shortly. Summer brings back memories of the care-free days when one was still a young man. One of my favorite summer-songs used to be “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, those days of soda and pretzels and beer” by the late artist Nat King Cole. Nat King Cole perhaps expressed a sentiment that many of us shared as he continued on “You’ll wish that summer could always be here.”

As the days of summer pass by the Coptic year 1725 A.M. is drawing to a close. The 1st of the Coptic month of Tut ushers in a new year, 1726 on the Coptic calendar of the “Years of the Martyrs” or “anno martyri” (A.M) in Latin. The 1st of Tut, at this time coincides with September 11th, on the Gregorian calendar. The New Coptic Year, Feast of al-Nayrouz (عيد النيروز) as it is called in Egypt, is a joyous celebration of the Christian martyrs, each of whom has accepted to sacrifice his or her life in testimony of Jesus Christ the Lord. Among the popular traditions for celebrating the New Coptic Year in Egypt is eating the sweet fruits abundant at this time of the year, e.g. dates and guava. It was common among vendors selling dates to call the attention of potential buyers passing by saying (قلبك أبيض يانصراني) or your heart is white O Nazarene. Their call reflects a Coptic tradition that red dates symbolized the martyrs, as their outside color is red resembling their blood which was shed, whereas the dates’ inner color is white symbolizing the purity of their hearts. The New Coptic Year is however a modest celebration, observed by the Copts as one of the feasts on the liturgical year of the Coptic Orthodox Church. One of the Coptic hymns for the New Coptic Year aptly says:

with Your goodness O Lord,

the rivers and the fountains,

the plants and the fruits.

…

We praise and glorify Him,

and exalt Him above all,

as a Good one and the Lover of man,

have mercy upon us according to Your great mercy.”

The Coptic calendar is in fact a continuation of the ancient Egyptian solar calendar. The names of its months have retained the names of the ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses, e.g. its first month “:owut” Tut is named after the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom Thoth, and its third month “A;wr” Hatur is named after the ancient Egyptian goddess, Hathor. The ancient Egyptian calendar however used regnal years, which usually counted year one as the year in which a pharaoh accedes to the throne. After Egypt lost its independence, the practice to use regnal years continued on. The Roman emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD) conducted a major persecution against Christians all over the Roman empire, which was later on called the “Great Persecution”. In Egypt, the “Great Persecution” was extremely severe, as tens of thousands of Copts accepted martyrdom in testimony of Christ the Lord. Among the martyrs of the Great Persecution is Saint Peter, the 17th Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who was martyred in 311 AD and is known as the “seal of the martyrs”. The Copts accordingly renamed their calendar as the “Years of the Martyrs” in honor of the martyrs of the Great Persecution. Thus the Copts started the “Years of the Martyrs” calendar with year one as 284 AD the first year of the reign of Diocletian.

The civil ancient Egyptian calendar was a solar one, which considering the stage of advancement of mathematics and science in their time was reasonably accurate. It originally included 12 months; the duration of each was 30 days, followed by 5 intercalary days to bring the total to 365 days. Later on the year was calculated as 365 ¼ days, and another intercalary day were added once every four years as a correction. The ancient Egyptian solar year was the model used to correct the Roman calendar during the reign of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar and hence it was called the “Julian” calendar. The Roman “Julian” calendar was corrected during the papacy of Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585 AD) and hence called the Gregorian calendar, which is used almost universally now. The Coptic Calendar, thus far, has not applied the corrections instituted by Pope Gregory XIII and subsequent corrections for the calendar. The 1st day of the Coptic calendar used to coincide with August 29th on a regular year and with August 30th on a leap year on the Julian calendar. The difference between the length of the Julian year and the actual solar year is estimated to be about 0.0078 days, which over the years has accumulated to about 13.45 days. This progressive difference leads Tut 1st to coincide with September 11th at present. However, unless corrected, sometime in the future, the first day of the New Coptic Year is expected to coincide with September 12th, as well as the date for celebrating Christmas is expected to coincide with January 8th instead of the present January 7th. It is perhaps worth noting that corrections to the western calendar continue to be applied as needed. Most recently, such a correction was applied to the year 2008, in which a “leap second” was added. It behooves the Copts to consider whatever necessary corrections are needed for the Coptic calendar and bring it up to date.

As a new year approaches, let us thank the Lord for his past tender mercies, and beseech Him to grant us faithfulness to His holy name unto the end. You all have a blessed new Coptic New Year. The peace of the Lord be with you all.

Irene Passe.

(*) The title of this article “is borrowed from a book titled “Stromata” by the famous Christian philosopher and writer Clement of Alexandria (c150-215 AD). It simply means miscellanies.

Ed Riakalla is a management consultant and freelance writer. He is the founder of Pharos on the Potomac Group (POPG), a non-profit organization at Annandale, VA.

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