[Ayyfjicg]

We first have to keep in mind that we are talking about the Church Calendar; ie the Church's way of commemorating Her feasts and sense of time. The Church calendar is not a civil calendar along which we celebrate religious feasts. Quite literally the Church Calendar is meant to be the presence of sacred time within our Orthododx lives.

As relates to this there are two main liturgical cycles; the Paschal which is based on lunar time and begins with Pascha. And the Menaion which begins with September 1st and is based on solar time (ie days, months, years).

We all still follow the same Paschal calendar which is why we all celebrate Pascha on the same day. But the new Calendar revised the Menaion calendar 13 days to put it more in sync with the equinox on March 21st. So that is why we now have two calendars.

In Christ- Fr Raphael