Thursday, September 01, 2005

Happy New Year!

September First is the Ecclesiastical New Year:

It should be noted that to the present day, the Church has always celebrated the beginning of the New Year on September 1. This was the custom in Constantinople until its fall in 1453 and in Russia until the reign of Peter I. September 1 is still festively celebrated as the New Year at the Patriarchate of Constantinople; among the Jews also the New Year, although reckoned according to a moveable calendar, usually falls in September. The service of the Menaion for January 1 is for our Lord's Circumcision and for the memorial of Saint Basil the Great, without any mention of its being the beginning of a new year.


Your trusty correspondent is on his way to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Manhattan's Upper East Side to see if there is a divine liturgy officiated on this most auspicious ecclesiastical occasion, for New Calendarists. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't....

Stay tuned. And...

God Bless.

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