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Today is New Year's Day for Russian Orthodox

PRIEST EXPLAINS WHY ORTHODOX HAVE ANOTHER NEW YEAR'S

RIA Novosti, 14 September 2021

 

New Year's, which begins on Tuesday, inspires believers to comprehend deeply and relive the experiences of evangelical history, explained Archpriest Maksim Kozlov, the chairman of the Academic Committee of the RPTs, for RIA Novosti.

 

Indiction—the ecclesiastical New Year—falls on 1 September, old style (14 September, new style), for Orthodox Christians living by the Julian calendar.

 

"New Year's or Indiction begins the liturgical year, that is, the cycle of twelve feasts (12 chief ecclesiastical holidays—ed.) during which the chief events of human history, from the point of view of Christian belief, are recalled. These are events immediately preceding the incarnation (Nativity of Jesus Christ—ed.), which are described in the Gospel, and those that followed it. Thus, a week after New Year's the Nativity of the Mother of God is celebrated; this is a kind of prehistory of the New Testament, and it concludes the ecclesiastical year with the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God," Maksim Kozlov explained.

 

He noted that New Year's is not celebrated in churches festively "but for that event a special liturgy will be performed."

 

"This date prompts us to enter into the new year consciously and to experience it step by step, corresponding to the chief milestones of evangelical history during the twelve feasts and the days of Passion Week. If these events have passed for a person superficially, tangentially, then it is important at New Year's to experience them consciously and profoundly," the news agency's interlocutor urged.

 

The Julian calendar was introduced 45 years before the Nativity of Christ by Emperor Julius Caesar, based on the Egyptian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 September 2021)

 

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