✦ zenith calendar · the coptic almanac
the feasts and fasts of the coptic orthodox church in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in the church's own words.
coptic is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds the church year of the coptic orthodox church of alexandria: the coptic calendar, its years counted anno martyrum, the year of the martyrs, with the resurrection and the days that hang on it set by the church.
every date is the one a diocese of the church prints, not worked out on your phone. tap a day and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
coptic · the year of the martyrs, with the resurrection set by the church
29 kiahk in the coptic calendar
the birth of our lord jesus christ in the flesh, born of the virgin st. mary in bethlehem.
the feast closes the nativity fast. copts gather on the eve for a long liturgy that runs late into the night, sung in coptic and arabic, then break the fast at home; the day is for visiting family and friends, often with kahk, the sweet holiday biscuits.
el-ghitas
11 tobi in the coptic calendar
the holy epiphany, the baptism of our lord in the jordan, when the holy trinity was made known and the waters were made holy for our baptism.
on the eve the church prays the lakkan, the liturgy of blessing the water. at home copts set out the feast's foods: colocasia, sugarcane, and oranges carved into small lanterns with a candle inside, for the light of the baptized.
a sunday, set by the church
the glorious feast of the resurrection, when our lord rose from the dead on the third day: the feast of feasts, whose joy runs fifty days to pentecost.
the liturgy is prayed on the night before: the church lights are put out and the sanctuary doors closed, the priest knocks with the cross, and the doors open on the lit church. the people greet one another christos anesti, alithos anesti, and break the long fast at home with family.
coptic new year
1 tout, the first day of the coptic year
the first day of the coptic year, counted anno martyrum: a feast of the martyrs as much as of the new year.
the church keeps the day with joy and the feast's own hymns. at home copts eat red dates: the red outside for the martyrs' blood, the white inside for their pure hearts, the hard seed for their faith.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, coptic puts its feasts and fasts on their days on that ring, in ice blue. its mark is ✥.
each of its feasts and fasts carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from as its own tradition tells it, and how it is kept.
coptic arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
tap its chip in the legend to eclipse it (kept, but not drawn) and tap again to bring it back. nothing is deleted either way.
coptic shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
coptic is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
coptic is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
coptic · the coptic orthodox church of alexandria ·
The Coptic Feast of the Nativity, 29 Kiahk, falls on 7 January 2027. In Zenith Calendar it sits on the ring of your year in the coptic almanac.
The Coptic Feast of the Resurrection falls on 2 May 2027, as the church sets it.
Nayrouz, 1 Tout, falls on 12 September 2027. It is a feast of the martyrs as much as of the new year.
It means the year of the martyrs. The Coptic church counts its years from A.D. 284, the start of the reign of the emperor Diocletian, to remember the martyrs of Egypt.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called coptic: the church year of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Every date is the one a diocese of the church prints, copied year by year, not worked out on your phone.