Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church switches to the Gregorian calendar

From September 2023, in accordance with the decision of the Synod of Bishops, the UGCC switches to the Gregorian calendar, and the dates of the holidays will change.

The changes will affect the so-called “fixed holidays”, the date of which does not change every year in relation to the calendar, explains vaticannews.va. Now the UGCC will celebrate Christmas on December 25, Easter remains unchanged. This was announced by His Beatitude Svyatoslav on the air of the Ukrainian “Live TV”. According to him, taking into account the requests of believers and having held preliminary consultations with the clergy and monastics, the UGCC decided to reform the liturgical calendar, that is, change the dates of some holidays.

For those parishes or individual communities that do not yet feel ready for such a step, they may leave the possibility of liturgical life according to the Julian calendar for the period until 2025.

It should be noted that the liturgical calendar, as His Beatitude Svyatoslav says, has two cycles. Some holidays are celebrated according to the solar calendar – these are the so-called fixed holidays, which fall on the same calendar date every year. Another group of holidays is celebrated according to the lunar calendar, the so-called Paschalia. That is, the holidays associated with Easter are movable holidays. Easter always falls on a Sunday, the date of the celebration varies. This holiday is moving.

By decision of the Synod of Bishops, the UGCC switches to the Gregorian calendar for immovable holidays from September 1. His Beatitude Svyatoslav explains:

“According to the Byzantine tradition, the liturgical year begins not on January 1, but on September 1. This is according to the tradition of the first millennium, the so-called beginning of the indiction. This is the beginning of the church year.”

He added that when the UGCC lived according to the Julian calendar, the church year began on September 14, and according to the calendar that the church now uses in civil chronology, two weeks earlier. Therefore, the beginning of this new calendar life is planned to begin on September 1.

The UGCC has published a list of holidays in the new style for September-December 2023:

• September 8 – Nativity of the Virgin;
• September 14 – Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord;
• November 21 – Entrance to the Temple of the Virgin;
• December 6 – St. Nicholas Day;
• December 25 – Christmas.

Source link