The Orthodox Christian calendar.
Saints, feasts, and fasts.
Every day of the Orthodox year remembers its saints, and every season has its feast or its fast. Here is how the calendar works, on the Old and the New reckoning.
- Pascha (Orthodox Easter)
- May 2Sunday
- Great Lent begins
- March 15
- Pentecost
- June 20
- Orthodox Christmas
- Jan 7 / Dec 25Old Calendar / New Calendar
Old Calendar,
New Calendar.
Since the 1920s the Orthodox churches have kept the fixed feasts on two reckonings. The Old Calendar is the Julian calendar the Church has always used; today it runs 13 days behind the civil calendar. The New Calendar, or Revised Julian, keeps the fixed feasts on the civil date.
So St Nicholas is December 6 everywhere - but on the Old Calendar December 6 is the civil December 19. The Nativity of Christ, kept on December 25 on both, falls on January 7 for Old Calendar parishes.
Pascha is different. Almost every Orthodox church reckons it by the same Julian tables, so Pascha, Great Lent, Holy Week, the Ascension, and Pentecost fall on the same day for the whole Church, whichever calendar a parish keeps.
The fixed year,
and the moving one.
The fixed cycle runs from September 1 to August 31. Each day has its saints and many have a feast: the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Exaltation of the Cross, Christmas, Theophany, and the rest. These are read from the Menaion, a book for each month.
The moving cycle hangs from Pascha. Ten weeks before it, the Triodion opens the road to Lent with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. After it, the Pentecostarion carries the fifty days to Pentecost and the Sunday of All Saints. Because Pascha moves, so does all of this.
The great feasts of the year,
and the Feast of Feasts.
Eight of the twelve honour Christ, four the Theotokos, and Pascha stands above them all. For every date of the moving cycle, see the 2027 Orthodox calendar.
| Feast | New Calendar | Old Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Theophany - the Baptism of the Lord | January 6Wednesday | January 19Tuesday |
| The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple | February 2Tuesday | February 15Monday |
| The Annunciation of the Theotokos | March 25Thursday | April 7Wednesday |
| Palm Sunday - Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem | April 25Sunday | April 25Sunday |
| Pascha - the Resurrection of the Lord | May 2Sunday | May 2Sunday |
| Ascension of the Lord | June 10Thursday | June 10Thursday |
| Pentecost - Holy Trinity | June 20Sunday | June 20Sunday |
| The Transfiguration of the Lord | August 6Friday | August 19Thursday |
| The Dormition of the Theotokos | August 15Sunday | August 28Saturday |
| The Nativity of the Theotokos | September 8Wednesday | September 21Tuesday |
| The Exaltation of the Holy Cross | September 14Tuesday | September 27Monday |
| The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple | November 21Sunday | December 4Saturday |
| The Nativity of Christ | December 25Saturday | January 7, 2028Friday |
Four fasting seasons,
and every Wednesday and Friday.
In 2027, 176 days are fast days on the New Calendar and 186 on the Old. Outside the seasons below, every Wednesday and Friday is kept, except in the fast-free weeks.
- Great Lent - March 15 to April 25 (Old Calendar: March 15 to April 25)
- Apostles' Fast - June 28 (Old Calendar: June 28 to July 11)
- Dormition Fast - August 1 to August 14 (Old Calendar: August 14 to August 27)
- Nativity Fast - November 15 to December 24 (Old Calendar: November 28 to January 6, 2028)
Every day's rule - strict, wine and oil, or fish - is on the Orthodox fasting calendar.
The Orthodox calendar,
year by year.
A saint
for every day.
The heart of the calendar is the synaxarion: the martyrs, monastics, bishops, and wonderworkers the Church remembers on each day. Read their lives in Orthodox saints, find the saints of each Orthodox land, or keep the day with the daily devotional.
Our family has printed the Lives of the Saints calendar since 1995: a saint's life for each day of the year, with the day's feast and fast.
The Orthodox calendar,
plainly answered.
- What calendar does the Orthodox Church use?
- Two. Some Orthodox churches keep the fixed feasts on the old Julian calendar - among them Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, and Mount Athos. Others, including Constantinople, Antioch, Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria, keep them on the Revised Julian or New Calendar, which matches the civil calendar. Almost all of them reckon Pascha the same way, so the whole Church celebrates Easter together.
- Why is Orthodox Christmas on January 7?
- Churches on the Old Calendar keep Christmas on December 25 of the Julian calendar, which now runs 13 days behind the civil calendar - so it falls on January 7. Churches on the New Calendar celebrate on December 25.
- What is the difference between the Old and New Calendar?
- Only the fixed feasts move. On the Old Calendar each fixed feast and fast falls 13 days later than on the New; Pascha, Lent, Holy Week, the Ascension, and Pentecost fall on the same days on both.
- When does the Orthodox Church year begin?
- On September 1, the Indiction (September 14 on the Old Calendar). The first Great Feast of the Church year is the Nativity of the Theotokos on September 8, and the last is her Dormition on August 15.
- When is Orthodox Easter in 2027?
- Orthodox Pascha is on Sunday, May 2, 2027. Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, March 15.
A saint for every day,
on your wall all year.
The 2027 Lives of the Saints calendar prints a saint's life for each day of the year, with the feast and the fasting rule beside it. Printed by our family since 1995.
More from the tradition.
The 2027 Orthodox calendar
Pascha, the Great Feasts, and every fast, on both calendars.
ExploreOrthodox fasting calendar
Every fast day of 2027, coloured by its rule.
ExploreOrthodox saints
The lives of the saints the Church remembers each day.
ExploreOrthodox calendar app
Today's saints, feast, and fast, on iPhone and Android.
Explore