Difference between revisions of "Language/Coptic/Vocabulary/Calendar"

The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is the liturgical calendar of the Coptic Orthodox Church whose faithful live mainly in Egypt, in the diaspora and in Ethiopia (for which it is the calendar used on a daily basis, see Ethiopian calendar). It derives from the calendar of ancient Egypt but is no longer based on lunar cycles and includes adjustments for leap years. It is also still used by the farming populace of Egypt.

The Coptic calendar finds its starting point in the year of access to power of the Roman tyrant Diocletian. This corresponds to September 11, 284 of the Gregorian calendar. The abbreviation rather than AD (Anno Domini) is AM (Anno Martyrum), "Year of the Martyrs".

The Coptic year is made up of 12 months of 30 days, and a month of 5 days (or 6 in leap years). Below the months are given in their traditional English forms (from Ancient Egyptian through Ancient Greek) and with their Arabic names (from Coptic), with the corresponding month in the Gregorian calendar.

# Thoth / توت‎ Tūt (September–October)

# Phaophi / بابه Bāba (October–November)

# Hathyr / هتور Hatūr (November–December)

# Choiak / كياك Kiyāk (December–January)

# Tybi / طوبه Ṭūba (January–February)

# Mecheir / مسرى Misra (February–March)

# Phamenoth / برمهات Baramhāt (March–April)

# Pharmouthi / برموده Baramūda (April–May)

# Pachon / بشنس Bašans (May–June)

# Pauni / بؤنه Baʔūna (June–July)

# Epeiph / أبيب ʔabīb (July–August)

# Mesore / أمشير‎ ʔamšīr (August–September)

# The little month / النسي In-nasī (from September 6 to September 10 or 11)

Leap years are synchronized with the Julian calendar and are once every four years, with a sixth leap day being added to the Little Month. Due to the Coptic calendar's alignment with the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar, holidays such as Christmas are celebrated on different dates than in the Gregorian calendar: for example Christmas is Koiak 29 or December 25 in the Julian calendar, which lands on January 7 in the Gregorian calendar.  

! rowspan="2" |'''Etymology'''

|Thōout / Thoout

|''ḏḥwty'': "Thoth", god of wisdom and science

|Paopi / Paōpe

|''pꜣ-n-jpt'': "Opet festival"

|Athōr / Hathōr

|''Ḥwt-ḥr'': "Hathor", goddess of beauty and love (the land is lush and green)

|Khoiak / Koiahk

|''kꜣ-ḥr-kꜣ'': "Spirit upon spirit," the name of a festival

|Tōbi / Tōbe

|Meshir / Mshir

|Paremhat / Parmhotp

|Pharmouthi / Parmoute

|Paōni / Paōne

|''pꜣ-n-jnt'': "Valley festival"

|Epip / Epēp

|''jpjp'': from earlier ''jpt-ḥmt'', meaning "(She who is) Select of Incarnation"

|Mesōri / Mesōrē

|''mswt rꜥ'': "Birth of Ra"

| Pikouči enabot / Epagomenai

|Bohairic: "The little month"

Sahidic: From Ancient Greek ''αἱ ἐπαγόμεναι ἡμέραι'', “the five intercalated days of the calendar of the Egyptians”, from ''ἐπάγω'' “I bring in”