Editing Coptic calendar (section)

== Coptic year ==
{{Liturgical year}}
The Coptic year is the extension of the ancient Egyptian civil year, retaining its subdivision into the three seasons, four months each. The three seasons are commemorated by special prayers in the Coptic Liturgy. This calendar is still in use all over Egypt by farmers to keep track of the various agricultural seasons.<ref name = Naguib>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Survivals of Pharaonic Religious Practices in Contemporary Coptic Christianity |encyclopedia=UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology |year=2008 |last=Naguib |first=Saphinaz-Amal |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/27v9z5m8 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=20 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920234953/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/27v9z5m8 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Coptic calendar has 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and one at the end of the year of five days (six days in leap years). The Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Julian Calendar so that the extra month always has six days in the year before a Julian Leap Year.<ref name = FrTadros>{{cite report |author=Fr Tadros Y Malaty |date=1988 |title=The Coptic Calendar and Church of Alexandria. |url=http://www.coptics.info/NEW_ARTICLES2/Others/Z_done/The_Coptic_Calendar_And_The_Church_Of_Alexandria.docx |publisher=The Monastery of St. Macarius Press, The Desert of Scete |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=13 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913010235/http://www.coptics.info/NEW_ARTICLES2/Others/Z_done/The_Coptic_Calendar_And_The_Church_Of_Alexandria.docx |url-status=usurped}}</ref>

The year starts on the Feast of [[Neyrouz]], the first day of the month of [[Thout]], the first month of the Egyptian year. For 1900 to 2099 it coincides with the Gregorian Calendar's 11 September, or 12 September before a leap year, but for any year, it coincides with the Julian Calendar's 29 August, or 30 August before a leap year. Coptic years are counted from 284&nbsp;AD, the year [[Diocletian]] became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, especially in Egypt.<ref name = FrTadros /> Hence, the Coptic year is identified by the abbreviation A.M. (for ''[[Anno Martyrum]]'' or "in the Year of the Martyrs"). The first day of year I of the Coptic era was 29 August 284 in the Julian calendar. Note that the abbreviation A.M. is also used for unrelated calendar eras (such as the Freemasonic and Jewish calendar epochs) which start at the putative creation of the world; it then stands for ''[[Anno Mundi]]''.

[[Easter]] is reckoned by the Julian Calendar in combination with the uncorrected repetition of the 19-year [[Metonic cycle]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Vidro |first=Nadia |date=2021 |title=Muslim and Christian calendars in Jewish calendar booklets: TS K2. 33. |url=https://aspace.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/335181/Fragment%20of%20the%20Month%20March%202021%20Cambridge%20University%20Library.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y |quote=The Coptic date of Easter is determined by a calculation based on the Alexandrian 19-year cycle, which synchronises the lunar months with the solar years of the Coptic calendar. |access-date=2022-09-13 |archive-date=2022-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913055146/https://aspace.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/335181/Fragment%20of%20the%20Month%20March%202021%20Cambridge%20University%20Library.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y |url-status=live}}</ref>

To obtain the Coptic year number, subtract from the Julian year number either 283 (before the Julian new year) or 284 (after it).