1. The Calendar.
All the Orthodox still use the Julian Calendar (Old Style). By this time (1907) they are thirteen days behind us; they were keeping the feast of the Circumcision (January 1st) on our January 14th. They calculate Easter, of course, just as we do (the first Sunday after the fourteenth day after the first new moon after March 6th), and, as they see the moon just as we do, this leads to further complications — they count from their March 6th (our March 19th), and the new moon after that is not always the same as ours, so the whole process becomes doubly wrong. This year, for instance, our Easter Day falls on March 31st, theirs falls on their April 22nd, our May 5th. Sometimes, however, these two wrongs make a right, and the Easters coincide; if the new moon, for instance, were on March 23rd (their March loth), we should both count together and keep the feast on the same day, although we should call the date differently. All the Orthodox know quite well that they are wrong in their Calendar, and that we are as right as any one can be. But it is a point of honour with them (as it was in England till 1740) not to accept the correction of a Roman Pope. They feel the inconvenience of disagreeing with the whole civilized world in this matter very strongly (dating a cheque in Greece is a portentous matter), and they are everlastingly discussing whether they cannot put things right. All laymen and all the Governments want to adopt the Gregorian Calendar; but hitherto the Orthodox Church has resolutely set her face against any change. The Church of the Seven Councils cannot degrade herself by accepting a Papic innovation.[1]
The liturgical year, followed by all this Communion, begins on September 1st, the feast of St. Simon Stylites, which they mark
- ↑ For their endless discussions on this subject see e.gr. E. d'Or. iii. pp. 374-377; iv. pp. 306-307; v. p. 244; vii. pp. 91-99, &c. The latest news is that the Russian Government is considering the question, and proposes to introduce an entirely new Calendar, neither Julian nor Gregorian. Of course, it will be simply the Gregorian Calendar (nothing else is possible) with some little peddling change about leap-year, so that they can pretend they have not taken ours and can call it something else — the Nicholas II Calendar or something.
