What is the Coptic Calendar? Where Did It Come From?

The Coptic Calendar is the liturgical calendar used by the Coptic Orthodox Church. This video explores the origins of this calendar, its relationship to the Julian Calendar, and other aspects of its history and development over a period of almost six thousand years.

Sources:
- Budge, Wallis E A. The Nile Notes for Travellers in Egypt. Thos. Cook & Son (Egypt), Ltd, Ludgate Circus, London, 1895.
- Clagett, Marshall, Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book, Vol. II: Calendars, Clocks, and Astronomy, Memoirs of the APS, No. 214, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1995.
- Malaty, T. Y. The Coptic Calendar and the Church of Alexandria. Saint George Coptic Orthodox Church Sporting, Alexandria, Egypt.
- Matthew the Poor. The Coptic Calendar: The Origin of the Calendar of the Coptic Church. The Monastery of St. Macarius, 1988.
- Parkinson, Richard. Cracking Codes: the Rosetta Stone and Decipherment. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
- The Divine Liturgies of Saints Basil, Gregory, and Cyril. Tallahassee, Florida: St. Mary & St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States, 2001.
- Winlock, H. E. “The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 83, no. 3, 1940: 447–64.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:31 - What is the Coptic Calendar?
1:44 - Egyptian Lunar Calendar
2:20 - Egyptian Civil Calendar
3:07 - The Nile Flood
6:32 - Origins of the Egyptian Civil Calendar
8:53 - Wandering Calendar
10:07 - Spread of the Calendar
10:51 - Ptolemaic Reform
11:21 - Alexandrian Reform
12:01 - Regnal Year Dating Convention
12:47 - Anno Martyrum Convention
13:22 - Anno Diocletiani Convention
14:33 - Coptic Calendar
16:50 - Modern Usage
17:33 - Conclusion