When does the liturgical year begin in the Orthodox Church? The beginning of the Indict is the Church New Year. Orthodox New Year: traditions and rituals

The last holiday of the ending year is the Assumption, and the first holiday of the new year is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Even in the Old Testament, the Lord our God commanded that every year we especially celebrate the onset of the seventh month, so that people on this day, freed from the vanity of life, would serve To the One God. In this particular month, when the waters of the flood began to subside, Noah’s ark stopped on the mountains of Ararat. In the same month, the holy prophet Moses came down from the mountain with his face illuminated by the glory of the Divine, and brought new tablets on which the Law given by the Lord Himself was inscribed. And in the same month, the consecration of the Temple of the Lord, created by King Solomon, took place, and the Ark of the Covenant was brought there. In the Old Testament there are many other indications about the great significance of the seventh month (current September), considering the creation of the world in the month of March according to Biblical chronology.

In the 6th century, during the reign of Justinian I (527–565), the Christian Church introduced calendar reckoning based on indictions or indictions (from Latin indictio - announcement), 15-year periods of tribute. In the Roman Empire, indictio was understood as the designation of the number of taxes that should be collected in a given year. Thus, the financial year in the empire began with the emperor’s “indication” (indictio) of how much taxes needed to be collected, while every 15 years the estates were revalued (according to V.V. Bolotov, indictions were of Egyptian origin). The official Byzantine reckoning, the so-called indictions of Constantine the Great or the Constantinople reckoning, began on September 1, 312.

In Byzantium, the church year did not always begin on September 1 - both in the Latin West and in the East the March calendar was well known (when the beginning of the year is considered to be March 1 or March 25 (the date of the Feast of the Annunciation)). In general, the solemn celebration of the New Year on September 1 can be considered a late Byzantine phenomenon.

In Rus', everyone was called an indict New Year a fifteen-year period, and the fifteenth anniversary itself. In addition, after 532 years, the circles of the Sun and Moon begin together again, that is, the natural situation of the day of the exploit of Jesus Christ is repeated, when the full moon occurs on Friday. The time interval of 532 years is called an indiction. September 1, 2007 (September 14, new style) marks the year 7516 from the creation of the world.

Since 1492, Rus' has celebrated the New Year as a church and state holiday. The meaning of the New Year's service was the remembrance of the Savior's sermon in the Nazareth synagogue, when Jesus Christ said that He came “to heal the brokenhearted... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

In Rus' in the 17th century, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and after him the boyars and all the people of Moscow, dedicated New Year's Day to works of mercy. Not a single beggar left their homes without consolation - they were all richly provided with alms, clothes and shoes, and fed a hearty holiday dinner. The common people were given gifts and gifts, and visited prisoners in prison.

The cessation of the rank of summerkeeping is associated with the publication by Peter I of a decree on postponing the start of the civil new year to January 1. IN last time The rite was performed on September 1, 1699 in the presence of Peter, who, sitting on the throne installed on the Kremlin Cathedral Square in royal clothes, received the blessing from the Patriarch and congratulated the people on the New Year. On January 1, 1700, the church celebration was limited to a prayer service after the liturgy, but the rite of summer service was not performed.

Since those times, the celebration of the church new year on September 1 is not celebrated with the former solemnity, although the Typikon still considers this day to be a small Lord's holiday “The Beginning of the Indictment, that is, the New Summer,” combined with a festive service in honor of St. Simeon the Stylite, whose memory falls on the same date.

Troparion, tone 2

To the Creator of all creation, having set times and seasons in Your power, bless the crown of the summer of Your goodness, Lord, preserving Your people and your city in peace, through the prayers of the Mother of God, and save us.

Kontakion, voice of the same

In the highest, living Christ the King, Creator and Creator of all visible and invisible, Who created days and nights, times and summers, now bless the crown of summer, observe and preserve in peace Your city and people, O Many-merciful One.

Orthodox Christians can celebrate the New Year not once a year, but four times... But if congratulations on the Old New Year do not raise any questions, then the date of the New Year, September 1, according to the old style, leads to some confusion: how to celebrate without a Christmas tree and snow, what dishes to cook and Is it appropriate to congratulate “on the beginning of the indictment”? But there is also the March New Year...

We apologize to the readers of the site for the humorous beginning. In fact, the question “What do we celebrate on September 1?” not at all idle. Every year on September 14, according to the new style, we see a red line in the church calendar: “September 1st. The beginning of the indictment - the Church New Year". The unusual word “indict” draws our attention back centuries, to the time of persecution of Christians on the eve of the 4th century, the “golden” century for the Church. At this time it was taking shape church calendar. The historical era was called the “era of Diocletian”, or the “era of martyrs”. The Julian calendar, which begins counting years from 284, is still called the “calendar of martyrs” in Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. It is especially dear for a church person to see in our calendar and in relation to it this kind of evidence of the faith and hope of the Church. Let's talk about this in a little more detail.

The word “indiction”, or “indiction” (Latin indiction - “announcement”), originally meant the annual food tax introduced by Diocletian. The amount of tax was determined on the basis of a population census conducted every 15 years. The indict was called both the 15-year period of time itself and each year within it. The year began on September 1, when the harvest was harvested and taxes were paid.

Under Emperor Constantine the Great († 337), the 15-year cycle of indiction began to be used in chronology. In the 6th century, it became one of the cycles of the Byzantine calendar created by that time, introducing into the church calendar traces of the economic way of life of the historical era of the “Golden Age of Christianity”. In the church calendar, September 1 opens the annual cycle of fixed holidays - from the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on September 8, old style, to Her Dormition on August 15.

In Byzantium and Rus', the year did not always begin on September 1; The March calendar was also widespread, when the beginning of the year is considered to be March 1 or March 25 (the date of the Feast of the Annunciation). To be precise, the church calendar followed by Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serbian Local Churches and the monasteries of Athos, there is not a Julian calendar, but a Byzantine calendar based on the Julian calendar, which developed by the 6th century. What is special about this calendar? To answer this question, we need to turn to the very center of the Orthodox church year - the holiday of Easter. “The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Orthodox faith. The Resurrection of Christ is that first, most important, great truth, with the proclamation of which the apostles began their gospel after the descent of the Holy Spirit. Just as our redemption was accomplished by Christ’s death on the Cross, so by His Resurrection we were given eternal life. Therefore, the Resurrection of Christ is the subject of constant celebration of the Church, unceasing rejoicing, reaching its peak on the holiday of Holy Christian Easter.” Therefore, the first distinctive feature of the liturgical Byzantine calendar of the Church is that it is inseparable from Paschal. This calendar begins the year on March 1 and keeps a continuous count of days from Friday March 1, 5508 BC. To answer the question, what year is it now according to the Byzantine “perpetual” calendar “from the creation of the world”, for all days starting from March 1, you need to add to the number of the year from A.D. number 5508: 2011+5508=7519. We can say that the March New Year on March 1 of the old style reminds us of the Easter annual cycle of fasts and holidays of the Church, because it is on March 1 that the new year begins in the Byzantine calendar, on which our Paschal is based.

It is noteworthy that the first day of the Byzantine calendar - Friday - is at the same time the day of the Fall of Adam. This day will always remind us of the Cross, which the Lord voluntarily accepted on Great Friday for the sake of restoring the fallen Adam. The day of the Fall is the sixth day from the creation of the world. This means that the first day of creation is Sunday. We see that Byzantine chronologists assigned names to the days of the week earlier than the first day of the calendar. This expressed the church's idea of ​​the primacy of the biblical seven-day circle of days in relation to other calendar rhythms. There is also an indication here that, regardless of the date on the calendar, one should remember Sunday, Wednesday and Friday - always special days for every Orthodox person. We emphasize that the Byzantine calendar maintains a continuous count of weeks from the very first day.

The period from the beginning of the calendar to the Nativity of Christ - 5.5 thousand years - indicates the period from the creation of the world to the fall of Adam - 5.5 biblical days. This symmetry, incorporated into the calendar by its creators, also has the most important semantic meaning.

The Byzantine calendar has another important feature. It covers the entire historical time of European culture with a continuous scale of days. Thanks to the arithmetic harmony of solar and lunar rhythms, the continuous counting of days in weeks and fours of years and its rootedness in the culture of European peoples, it is an unsurpassed tool for calculating dates and chronology.

It is well known that the convenience of the calendar for chronology and its astronomical accuracy are in a certain contradiction. If you adjust the calendar to the movement of the stars - and you will have to do this less often or more often, since an absolutely accurate astronomical calendar is impossible - then you will have to, in principle, abandon the idea of ​​a perpetual calendar. A truly perpetual calendar can only be a model of reality, which reflects the features of the movement of the luminaries, but there is no literal correspondence, which is not established prerequisite(the desire for literalism is incompatible with perfection and beauty).

An example of a calendar in which astronomical correspondence was neglected for the sake of arithmetic simplicity and ease of calculating dates is the calendar of Ancient Egypt. Its year consisted of exactly 365 days. The Egyptian calendar lasted in history for more than four thousand years, far exceeding its period of revolution of the astronomical equinox date according to calendar numbers. It is known that N. Copernicus used the Egyptian calendar when compiling planetary tables. We can also mention the famous science fiction writer and popularizer of science A. Azimov, who in the novel “The Second Academy” presented the calendar of Ancient Egypt as an eternal pan-galactic one (the year in his calendar consists of an integer of 365 days). To quote: “For a reason or for a number of reasons unknown to mere mortals in the Galaxy, in time immemorial the Intergalactic Time Standard allocated a basic unit - the second, that is, the period of time during which light travels 299,776 kilometers. 86,400 seconds are arbitrarily equated to the Intergalactic Standard Day. And 365 such days constitute one Standard Intergalactic Year. Why exactly 299,776, why 86,400, why 365? Tradition, historians say, answering this question. No, the mystics say, this is a mysterious, enigmatic combination of numbers. They are echoed by occultists, numerologists, and metaphysicians. Some, however, believe that all these figures are associated with data on the periods of rotation around its axis and around the Sun of the only planet that was the original birthplace of humanity. But in fact, no one knew this for sure.”

Let us touch a little on the structure of the Byzantine calendar in connection with Paschal. Unified rules for calculating the day of Easter developed during the 2nd–5th centuries of the new Christian era. The Alexandrian method, adopted by the entire Church, was based on the ancient Greek tables of the course of the Moon in conjunction with the Julian calendar. In the Alexandrian Easter, March 21 of the Julian calendar is called the vernal equinox. The conventional calendar full moon falling on March 21 or subsequent days is called the spring Easter full moon. The Sunday after the spring full moon is the bright holiday of Easter. These simple rules and the names of the days in the Byzantine calendar forever enshrine the memory of the events of Easter, the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ in connection with the Old Testament Passover on the 14th of Nisan according to the Jewish calendar, which was in the spring in Jerusalem. The Julian calendar, in conjunction with the Alexandrian Paschal, combined the continuous counting of days, the solar and sidereal years and the movement of the Moon. In this form, filled and consecrated with a new (Christian) meaning of measuring time, starting from the creation of the world, it became the calendar of the Roman Empire (Byzantium) and was an outstanding event in the history of culture, influencing the most diverse aspects of the life of the peoples of Europe. In Rus', the Byzantine calendar is known as the Peaceful Circle.

The Alexandrian Easter, as part of the Byzantine calendar, is based on a circle of 532 years. This circle is called the great indiction, in contrast to the small indiction, which is 15 years long. Every 532 years, the Byzantine calendar repeats all possible combinations of the phases of the moon, the serial numbers of the days of the year and the names of the days of the week. Thanks to this property of the calendar, the liturgical Typikon of the Orthodox Church is completed. The presence of a circle of 532 years shows that the authors of Paschal extended it much beyond one cycle, that is, for several thousand years. From this we can conclude that the movement of Easter boundaries according to the seasons of the solar year - 1 day in 128 years - was incorporated into Easter already at its creation. We see the same principle in relation to the calendar. The beginning of the Byzantine calendar is 5508 BC. This means that the calendar, even when it was created in the 5th century, covered periods of time lasting at least six thousand years. At the beginning of the Byzantine calendar, the astronomical vernal equinox occurs at the beginning of May. In another six thousand years, this event will shift to the beginning of February. The creators of the calendar could not help but see this feature and, obviously, did not consider it a mistake.

What does the movement of the date of the astronomical vernal equinox in the Byzantine calendar lead to? The entire cycle of Church holidays, including Easter, is gradually shifting towards summer. For 46 thousand years, church holidays have taken place throughout all seasons, illuminating the entire annual circle with the light of Easter. This is the movement holidays gives Orthodox holidays a truly universal character, since Christians of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (not to mention the inhabitants of space orbital stations) find themselves in an equal position. Easter begins in the spring in Jerusalem and goes around the whole solar year, returning again to the Jerusalem spring after 46 thousand years. This is similar to how the Easter gospel, having shone in Jerusalem, went around the entire universe. “The Law departed, and Grace and Truth filled the whole earth... The Jewish justification was stingy, because of jealousy, and did not extend to other nations, but only in Judea alone. Christian salvation is good and generously extends to all the edges of the earth.” “There was the true Light, which enlightens every man who comes into the world” (John 1:9). Isn’t this the rationale for the possibility of the movement of holiday days according to the seasons that the creators of the Alexandrian Paschal had in mind?

We see that the movement of the conventional date of the vernal equinox according to the seasons of the year, incorporated into the Byzantine calendar by its creators, cannot be considered a “mistake” of the calendar. Moreover, this movement contains an amazing concrete historical indication of the century in which the Easter of Christ was revealed to us - namely: for more than 40 thousand years to come, from the difference between the astronomical spring full moon and the full moon of the Alexandrian Paschal, it will be possible to unambiguously establish the historical the time of the Passion of the Cross and the Resurrection of the Savior. We read a similar instruction in the Creed: “Under Pontius Pilate.”

The Byzantine calendar, upon careful and unbiased examination, reveals itself as built to last forever. It is like a beautiful book, reflecting the course of the luminaries and filling it with meaning without striving for a literal correspondence to astronomical reality. From a scientific point of view, this is one of the models of the passage of time. From the point of view of the Church, he is an icon of the times.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning the features of the Gregorian Paschal, introduced in the West in the 16th century. Not everyone knows that this Easter is based on the Byzantine calendar. In order to achieve greater astronomical accuracy, the lunar cycles of Meton and Kalippos from the Byzantine calendar are supplemented by the Hipparchus correction (one day in 304 years). This amendment was not included in the calendar by the astronomers of Alexandria, and Luigi Lillio, the creator of the Gregorian calendar and Paschal, decided to correct their “mistake.” After introducing the amendment, the resulting Julian date of the Easter spring full moon is transferred to the Gregorian calendar.

The solar cycle of the Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian calendar by three days every 400 years. As a result, the smallest segment of this calendar containing same number days is a period of 400 years. Therefore, the Gregorian calendar is inconvenient for chronology. Its starting point is uncertain: from the point of view of arithmetic, it is 1 year AD; from the point of view of the design of the Gregorian calendar, this is the time of the First Ecumenical Council in 325, to which the equinox date of March 21 is attached; from the point of view of the continuity of the calendar, this is 1584 - the year of the introduction of the calendar, when 10 days were removed from the continuous Byzantine count of days. It is clear that the Church, which has switched to the Western calendar and Paschal, loses the Typikon as a complete set of rules for worship, since the number of possible combinations of days and phases of the moon in the Gregorian Paschal is practically unlimited.

The goal of the Gregorian reform - bringing the calendar and Paschal closer to the movement of the luminaries - is achieved with good practical accuracy, but only within the next three thousand years. The Byzantine Peaceful Circle is designed for revolutions of 26 thousand, and 46 thousand years, and for many such revolutions... Having prioritized compliance with the flow of the luminaries, the reformers made their calendar “mortal”. What will happen to the “new style” in three thousand years? Its entire complex system of amendments and complex tables will “float” and lose its outline, like a snowdrift in the spring sun... And then? Reforms again. Therefore, the Gregorian style is not a calendar in the strict sense. It is not aimed at eternity. These are nothing more than empirical tables of the flow of luminaries, calculated and adjusted only for the next three thousand years - and nothing more.

It seems that the most favorable outcome of discussions between supporters of the old and new styles will be the preservation of the coexistence of two calendars - the Gregorian in everyday life and office work and the Julian (Byzantine) in church life and scientific chronology. At first glance, calendar bistyle may seem like an incorrect position and even unacceptable, like the presence of two different systems of spelling rules in a language. But it is better to look at the problem not from the point of view of mutually exclusive rules, but from the point of view of stylistic diversity, which will be more of an advantage than a disadvantage. Let us pay attention to the coexistence and complementarity of two styles in language - high and everyday. In history, there are known cases of the joint use of two or more calendars: in the culture of the Mayan Indians, one calendar served for chronological calculations, the second was religious, and the third (the simplest) was used for everyday purposes.

While remaining faithful to the traditional calendar in chronology and worship, we do not pursue the chimera of “astronomical accuracy.” There are other calendars for this - and the Gregorian, as you know, is far from the best of them. Our church Julian (Byzantine) calendar has a completely different purpose. According to it, we celebrate the world-saving holiday of Easter, preserve the memory of sacred events worthy of eternal memory; it is the outline with which the entire structure of Orthodox worship, created over a millennium by Byzantine liturgists, is inextricably linked.

Therefore, on September 14, let us congratulate each other on the Byzantine New Year, remaining faithful to the traditional calendar and the Typikon, realizing that we have been given a great cultural treasure - the Byzantine church calendar. We received it from Saints Cyril and Methodius along with the liturgical heritage in Church Slavonic. And, like the once Orthodox Romans in Constantinople, let us also pray in church and at home: “To the Creator of all creation, / who has established times and seasons in His power, / bless the crown of the summer of Thy goodness, O Lord, / preserving Thy people and city in peace / through prayers Mother of God and Savior."

This is I. Scaliger’s scale, well known to all historians. “We can rightfully say that only with the introduction of the Julian period did light and order come to chronology” (H.-L. Ideler). Quote By: Klimishin I.A.. Calendar and chronology. P. 252.

“A calendar that remains in constant contact with astronomy becomes cumbersome and inconvenient” ( Idelson N.I.. Sketches on the history of celestial mechanics. M.: Nauka, 1975. P. 312).

The Egyptians were well aware of the possibility of leap calendars, but twice in history they rejected modified calendars - in the 17th and 3rd centuries BC. Cm.: Zavelsky F.S.. Time and its measurement. 5th ed. M., 1987. P. 10.

For 1461 Egyptian years, the date of the astronomical vernal equinox passes through all the numbers of the Egyptian calendar.

Cherkasov Yu. Calendar-chronological secrets of the Mayan Indians // http://www.hrono.ru/sobyt/kalendar/tainy.html

Cm.: Idelson N.I.. Sketches on the history of celestial mechanics. Sections: “Arithmetic theory of the solar calendar”, “Omar Khayyam’s calendar”, “Mödler’s project”. pp. 342-352.

September 14 is the beginning of the New Year's count, which in the church calendar is called the beginning of the indict. The holiday was established at the first Ecumenical Council in 325 in the city of Nicaea, a suburb of Constantinople.

History of the holiday

Emperor Constantine. Mosaic above the entrance to Hagia Sophia. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

In Rus', until the 14th century, the year began in the spring. All ancient Russian chroniclers began the year on March 1. This tradition was established by Alexandrian scientists, according to whose calculations, God completed the creation of the world on Friday, the first of March, preceding Saturday, better known as the “day of rest.”

September 1 replaced the usual March 1 in Russia in 1363, and in the Roman Empire during the reign Emperor Constantine the Great in 325 after the first Ecumenical Council was held in 325. The beginning of the year began to be considered the beginning of the indict (tax collection).

Calendar reckoning (numbering) according to indictions or indictions was adopted in the Roman Empire back in the 6th century during the reign of Justinian I (527-565).

The New Year in Russia was celebrated on September 1 until the reign of Peter I, who in 1700 moved the beginning of the year to January 1. At the same time, the Church continues to consider September 1, according to the old style, as the beginning of the indict, that is, the church New Year - the first day of the seventh month from the creation of the world. After 1918, when Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar, the New Year falls on September 14.

Justinian I. Mosaic of the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

What is the Great Indiction?

The concept of indiction is associated with such a concept as the Great Indiction or the Peaceful Circle. The Great Indiction is a long period of 532 years that defines the Easter cycle and is the basis of the church calendar.

The church calendar followed by the Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serbian Local Churches and monasteries of Athos is based on the Byzantine calendar, which developed by the 6th century.

Monasteries of Athos. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

A special feature of the Byzantine calendar is that it is inseparable from Paschal. This calendar begins the year on March 1 and keeps a continuous count of days from Friday, March 1, 5508 until the birth of Christ.

The rules for calculating the day of Easter developed during the 2nd-5th centuries AD. In the Alexandrian Easter, March 21 of the Julian calendar is called the vernal equinox. The conventional calendar full moon falling on March 21 or subsequent days is called the spring Easter full moon. The Sunday after the spring full moon is the bright holiday of the Resurrection of Christ. The date of Easter can range from April 4 (March 22) to May 8 (April 25).

How is the service conducted on the day of the Church New Year?

The service is festive in nature; after the festive liturgy, the Gospel is read, which tells about the beginning of the sermon Jesus Christ after His Baptism. According to legend, this happened on the first day of the Jewish harvest festival, which was celebrated from September 1-8. On this day, Jesus Christ for the first time witnessed the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah.

Celebration traditions

Boris Godunov Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

On this day, the main celebration took place on the Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin, where a platform was built from which the Metropolitan and Grand Duke announced the end of the year and congratulated the people. The Metropolitan blessed the water and sprinkled it on the prince and the townspeople standing around, and everyone congratulated each other. In the New Year, it was customary to present the heir to the throne to the people for the first time when he reached adulthood (14 years old). The future prince gave a public speech from the platform.

It was on the New Year of 1598 that he was crowned king Boris Godunov.

Indict (from the Latin word “indictio” - assignment, tax, tax) is a unit of historical time. During the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, the indict was established as the official measure of the year, due to the practicality of such calculation.

Indiction - a 15-year period of time, after which the Roman emperors made a new order on the distribution of taxes.

We continue to inform our readers about important calendar dates. Previously, we published where September 14, the Church New Year, is a separate item. You will find interesting points that you need to know about the Church New Year in our material.

Grade

While our readers were discussing the holiday, we noticed interest in the topic of the church new year, which is why we are paying attention to this moment.

So, in modern tradition, everyone is used to celebrating the New Year from December 31 to January 1, but in the church calendar this is a completely different date. By the way, among other nations, the start date of the new year also varies and depends on many factors: religious, state, social, climatic.

Previously, our ancestors celebrated the New Year on March 1. Tsar Peter the Great moved the New Year celebration to January 1st. Later, already during Soviet times in 1919, the celebrations were moved in accordance with the Gregorian calendar thirteen days earlier.

Since about the 13th century, the public celebration of the New Year comes in accordance with the church new year, which begins September 1 according to the old Julian calendar and September 14 according to the new Gregorian calendar, respectively.

The reasons for such a date for the church new year were most likely the following: the tax year began on September 1 Byzantine Empire. It was called indict (from Latin indictio - set a price, evaluate). Therefore, the church year began from this date. Later, "indict" became synonymous with the word "year"; Another version says that on September 1, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great defeated the Roman ruler Maxentius in 312. This battle paved the way for the signing of the Edict of Milan in 313, a document that equalized the rights of Christians and pagans, legitimizing the Orthodox Church. This document stopped the persecution of Christians and allowed them to develop freely.

The Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in 325, in memory of this great event, decided to begin the New Year on September 1, which became the beginning of “Christian freedom.”

Traditions of the Church New Year

The traditions of the Church New Year in Rus' were traditionally marked by the Divine Liturgy and a special prayer service. During services in churches, our ancestors thanked God for the year they had lived, called on the grace of the Lord for the next year in prayers, confessed, and received communion. It was customary on New Year's Day itself to do works of mercy, take care of the poor, the sick, and visit prisons and hospitals.

In general, the meaning of the Church New Year was that people took stock and prayed for the fulfillment of hopes for their future.

We hope you found this information useful.

Photo: open sources on the Internet, cover -

Christian New Year 2019 (7528 from the creation of the world)

« The beginning of the indicta, that is, the new summer». September 14(September 1, old style) begins New Year according to Orthodox church calendar- 7528 year from the creation of the world. According to church tradition, this day is called the beginning of the indicia or the new year. Perhaps the new year is the most invisible. Ready to celebrate the civil New Year on both the first and fourteenth of January, without refusing to share the festive New Year's meal with the worldly, we have little idea when our Orthodox church year. But even the tradition of starting the school year on September 1 also comes from ancient church customs!

In 325, the basic rules of the church calendar were established - the calculation of Paschal (dates and moving holidays) and the beginning of the year on September 1. The Holy Fathers decided to celebrate this day on memory of the final establishment of Christian freedom: in September 323, emperor Konstantin defeated co-ruler Licinius, who, despite the Edict of Milan in 313, continued to persecute Christians in the East of the empire.

What is an indic?

Indicome(from indico - I announce, I appoint) in the Roman Empire was called the serial number of the year. Initially, this was the designation for the financial year, the tax collection period. Counting in 15-year cycles is believed to have originated in the Roman Empire; Tax lists were revised at such intervals.

Church calendar and liturgical circle

September 14(September 1, old style), per day new years, the annual cycle begins church holidays. The Orthodox Church instructs everyone who wants to follow the path of spiritual perfection with a centuries-old system of holidays and. Three circles of worship - daily, weekly and annual - constitute the essence church calendar. Inside each circle, the entire history of the universe is remembered, from the creation of the world to the Second Coming of the Savior.

In addition to the Lord's and Theotokos feasts, every day of the year a prayerful memorial is held for one of God's saints: prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, saints and righteous people. Their life is an example for us of serving God and fulfilling His commandments.

Since church year begins not on January 1 (or even on the 14th), but September 1st Julian calendar, or September 14 according to the now accepted Gregorian (“new style”), it ends accordingly on August 31 (September 13 according to the new style). Therefore, the first big holiday church year- (September 8/21), and the last one - (August 15/28), the transition from temporary life to eternal life. So the year is for Orthodox Christian is understood not just as a period of time, but is filled with deep spiritual content and meaning, and is likened to the whole of human life.

Traditions of celebrating the New Year in Rus'

After Epiphany in 988, Rus' also adopted the Byzantine calendar - from the creation of the world. But until the 15th century, the civil year in Rus' began on March 1. Only in 1492 did the merger of the civil and church new years take place - September 1 officially became the beginning of the year. For two centuries it was a church and state holiday. On this day, a special festive service was performed - the “rite of summer service”, during which the bishop with a procession went out to the city square, where festive chants were sung, the Apostle and the Gospel were read, and then, while the troparion of the holiday was sung, everyone went to the temple, where the Divine Liturgy was celebrated. The main celebration took place in Moscow on the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square. This is how he describes it Giovanni Company, Italian traveler of the 16th century:

A platform is erected on the square, onto which the Metropolitan and the Grand Duke rise and from there announce the end of the year. The Metropolitan, according to custom, sanctifies the water and sprinkles this water on the prince and the people standing around, making the sign of the cross over both the prince himself and his sons, praying for their long and happy life, and at this time the people shout loudly: “ Many years to come to our Great Sovereign and his children! At the same time, everyone joyfully congratulates each other, wishing everyone a long life.

In 1699, Peter I introduced the European calendar in Russia (from the Birth of Christ) and moved the civil new year to January 1. Since then, only a church holiday has been celebrated on September 1, which has retained its ancient name “ beginning of the indicator" Since the first schools were parochial, education in them began with the church new year - on September 1. The Civil New Year is now celebrated on January 1, and the school year, as in the old days, begins in September.

Other useful reading:
Library of Russian Faith
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Folk traditions and superstitions

The service to the “new summer” is connected with the prayerful memory of the saints falling on this day: Simeon the Stylite and 40 martyrs, suffered together with his teacher, deacon Ammon, in the city of Andrianople under the emperor Licinia.

With honor on September 14 (September 1, old style) to the memory of the Reverend Father Simeon Stylite In Rus', everyday traditions were connected. In the language of the people, this day is called “ Summer Seeds" or simply " Seminar of the day" Name " flight attendant"was assigned to the day of the Venerable Father Simeon because around this time the end of summer comes, which can be concluded from folk agricultural sayings: " Semin day - sowing from the shoulders", or " Semin's day - away with the seeds"(i.e. the end of sowing), " On Semin's day, the pasha will do it before lunch, and after lunch, drive the plowman out of the field."(a hint that with the onset of September days, clear morning weather often gives way to cold and bad weather by midday). The time from Semin Day to September 8th was called “ Indian summer" - this is the beginning of women's and girls' rural work, since from this day women begin " sit up» evening. “Semin Day” was an urgent day for the payment of quitrents, duties and taxes, and from this same day all conditions and agreements concluded by peasants among themselves and with merchants usually began and ended.

How Old Believers celebrate the New Year

As you can see, at different times the beginning of the new year was considered either March 1, then September 1, and now January 1. But church calendar does not change, and Orthodox people celebrate the New Year every year on September 1. This happens unnoticed by an outside observer - no firecrackers, no fireworks, no lavish feasts. But a believer, accustomed from childhood to starting any task with prayer, understands: first of all, it is necessary not to set the tables, but to ask for God’s blessing so that the coming year becomes “ favorable summer" This is how it is said in Troparion for the New Year's Day:

In these days, the creator, and the 14th time of 2 and 3 years, put your 31 positive blessings, bless the ven1ts flight of your bl\guests, save your city and your 3 people, according to your great mercy.

Russian text:

To the Creator of all creation, who set times and years for Your region, bless the crown of the summer of Your goodness, O Lord, preserving Your city and Your people in peace, through the prayers of the Mother of God, according to Your great mercy.

Translation:

Lord, who created the whole world and determined the course of time, bless the completion of Your good year, preserving this city and people in peace, through the prayers of the Mother of God and Your great mercy.

Kontakion, tone 3.

In the highest living Christ the King, to all visible and invisible, Creator and Creator, who created days and nights, times and years, bless now the crown of summer, observe and preserve our country in peace, and Thy city and people are Most merciful.

The Gospel read during the service tells about the beginning of the preaching of Jesus Christ. The Lord entered the synagogue of Nazareth and read the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 61: 1–2):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; For He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor, and He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are afflicted, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord..

Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:16-21).

According to legend, this happened on the first day of the Jewish harvest festival, which was celebrated on 1 – September 8. Unfortunately, at present, the holiday of the Church New Year goes unnoticed even for the majority of Old Believers, and not every parish holds a service on this day. It is no secret that many Old Believers solemnly celebrate the civil New Year established by Peter I - during the days of strict fasting before Christmas! Let's hope that the situation will change for the better, the centuries-old tradition of celebrating the New Year on September 14 will be restored and a service will be held in every church so that everyone can hear what words the Church prays on this day:

grant Thy land fruitfulness... bless the crown of summer, preserving multitudes of Orthodox Christians in the world.

We also wish all readers of our site to celebrate the New Year in church.