Happy (Ecclesiastical) New Year: Why Orthodox Christians Celebrate the New Year in September?
The first
day of September is celebrated as the Ecclesiastical or Church New Year by
Orthodox Christians. It is also a day marked by prayers for the environment,
reminding us to be good stewards of the world around us.
So This is the New Year?
The old
Roman term for this day is Indictio, meaning “definition” or “order.” This was a day established as the beginning
of a fifteen year cycle, marking the redefinition of tax obligations for Roman
citizens (especially since Roman soldiers served fifteen-year terms), likely
from the time of Caesar Augustus.
One of
the Emperor St. Justinian’s novellas (AD 537) decreed that all official
documents of the Empire should include the indiction reference. When attempting
to date manuscripts from this era, it can be helpful to know the year of the
indiction (1–15), as exact dates or years are less commonly found. And when a
date is found, it usually corresponds to Anno Mundi (Hebrew: לבריאת העולם) or “the
year of the world” since the date of Creation.
Anno
Mundi (AM) served as the beginning point for calendars until the modern era in
many parts of the world, and is still a liturgical point of reference for both
modern Judaism and Christians. (Jews also mark the New Year in September, but
on a floating date.)
The date
of the creation of the world—as discerned by a literal reading of the
Patriarchal histories of the Greek Septuagint—was determined to be around 5500
BC on our modern calendar, with variations here and there. On the Julian
calendar, the date of creation was said to be September 1, 5509 (BC), with the
birth of Jesus Christ taking place in 5509 AM–that is, 5,509 years from the
foundation of the world.
In 1597,
Patriarch Theophanes I Karykes of Constantinople first utilized a date based on
the Christian Era. Instead of marking dates based on the foundation of the
world, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ became the crux of human history—and
thus the distinction between BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini or “in the
year of our Lord”).
This
became official in Constantinople in 1728 and in Russia (by Peter the Great) in
1700, with the Julian calendar still serving as the underlying reckoning of
days and months.
While the
Anno Mundi calendar is no longer mainstream (or part of the civil calendars of
predominately Orthodox nations), it still serves as the basis of our liturgical
calendar.
Harvest, Thanksgiving, and Sowing
By
marking the start of a new year in September, the Empire—and later, the
Orthodox Church—was associating the new year with harvesting crops. As
preparations for winter were being made, so too were preparations for the
upcoming year.
For
Christians, it was a time of thanksgiving, remembering the good weather and
abundant rain the Lord provided for that year’s harvest—something we pray for
at every Divine Liturgy.
This
draws close parallels with the Feast of Trumpets for the pre-Incarnation people
of God (Lev. 23:23–25):
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak
to the children of Israel, saying, ‘The seventh month, on the first of the
month, rest will be yours, a memorial of trumpets; it will be a holy assembly
to you. You will not perform any servile work, and you will bring a whole burnt
offering to the Lord.’”
As the
Synaxarion notes, this was also the day Christ entered a synagogue and read
from the scroll of Isaiah (cf. Luke 4:16–30).
By
marking the new year at harvest time, we remind ourselves annually of our dependence
on both hard work and the blessings of God. Going beyond material blessings and
healthy crops, this applied (as do many of our hymns) to Imperial concerns,
including prayers for protection from our enemies:
Creator of the universe, setting times and
seasons by Your sole authority, bless the cycle of the year of Your grace, O
Lord, guarding our rulers and Your nation in peace, at the intercession of the
Theotokos, and save us.
— Apolytikion
(Second Tone)
You who created all things in Your infinite wisdom,
and set the times by Your own authority, grant Your Christian people victories.
Blessing our comings and goings throughout this year, guide our works according
to Your divine will.
— Kontakion
(Fourth Tone)
And if
one considers the increasing natural disasters, droughts, floods, wildfires
(especially here in the Pacific Northwest), hurricanes, and famines, we should
be all the more mindful in this modern era of technology and abundance to pray
for such things—not less so.
We have
not engineered our way out of dependence on God. If anything, the more our
abilities increase, the more we have shown need for God’s favor and mercy.
Ecological Stewardship
And that
leads to my final point: the Ecclesiastical New Year is now a day marked by
prayers for the care of the environment.
Patriarch
Demetrios of Constantinople issued an encyclical on the environment in 1989,
calling all Orthodox Christians to both pray for and protect the world around
us. His encyclical also established September 1—the beginning of the new Church
year—as “a day of prayer for the protection of the environment” for the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, something adopted soon after by the rest of the
canonical Orthodox churches. (The Vatican has recently followed suit.)
Since his
elevation to Ecumenical Patriarch, an encyclical has been issued each year on
September 1 by Patriarch Bartholomew on the environment. Bartholomew is
affectionately known as “the Green Patriarch,” and he often speaks on an
international stage regarding the protection of Creation.
And this
all makes perfect sense.
The
beginning of the New Year was for centuries a commemoration of the foundation
of the world (Anno Mundi). It is a day for giving thanks to God for plentiful
harvest. It is a day that recognizes God’s protection over and providence for
the world, along with our responsibility and stewardship towards the same.
Conclusion
As I’ve
mentioned in other articles, our Church Year begins and ends with the life of
Mary. The Nativity of Mary is the first Great Feast of the year, while her
Dormition or “falling asleep” is the last.
In this
cycle we see the Incarnation of the God-Man Jesus Christ at the heart of our
story as God’s people. And in between those two reference points we have this
feast that could, at first glance, seem a peculiar or even irrelevant holdover
from the Roman Empire.
Rather,
the Ecclesiastical New Year serves as the crux for our entire liturgical life
each and every year.
We say
goodbye to the old and welcome the new. We give thanks for what the Lord has
done, and petition his lovingkindness and protection for the days yet to come.
We take a moment to consider our impact on the world around us, and whether our
actions proceed from hearts of selfishness or hearts of compassion.
This is a
feast day that points to the very core of Christ’s message of true, Christian
spirituality: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Prayers for blessings seen and
unseen, fasting for the sake of the world and our own mortification, and
almsgiving for the care of others. Self-sacrifice and promise, beauty and
self-restraint.
So pop
open a bottle of champagne and bring your petitions to the Lord. It’s the start
of a new year.
Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/onbehalfofall/why-orthodox-christians-celebrate-the-new-year-on-the-first-of-september/
