✦ zenith calendar · the orthodox almanac
the orthodox year by the julian reckoning in one quiet layer of your sky, each feast explained in its own tradition's words.
orthodox is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds the julian reckoning, kept by the churches of jerusalem, russia, serbia, georgia and mount athos: pascha by the julian paschalion, and the great feasts on their julian dates, given as the civil day.
the churches on the revised calendar keep the fixed feasts on the western dates and pascha on these same days; they have their own almanac, orthodox (new calendar). every pascha here agrees with a published easter table, so nothing is worked out on your phone. tap a feast and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
julian · pascha by the julian paschalion, the feasts on their julian dates as the civil day
25 december in the julian calendar, the civil 7 january
the birth of the son of god in the flesh, born of the virgin mary in bethlehem. it comes after a forty-day fast and opens twelve days of feasting.
on the eve many eat nothing until evening, and the all-night vigil or the night liturgy greets the birth. the greeting is christ is born, answered glorify him.
6 january in the julian calendar, the civil 19 january
the baptism of christ in the jordan, called theophany, the showing of god, because on it the holy trinity was revealed. it closes the twelve days of the nativity.
the great blessing of water is served, sometimes out of doors at a river or lake, and the priest plunges the cross into the water three times. people drink the holy water, take it home, and the priest blesses their houses with it.
a sunday, by the julian paschalion
the resurrection of christ, the feast of feasts and the centre of the whole orthodox year. pascha means passover: the passing from death to life.
near midnight the church goes dark, the light is passed candle to candle, and the resurrection is proclaimed: christ is risen, answered indeed he is risen. after the liturgy the long fast is broken and red eggs are shared, and the greeting is used for forty days.
trinity day
the fiftieth day after pascha
the day the holy spirit comes down on the apostles: the birthday of the church. in the slavic churches it is called trinity day.
churches and homes are decked with green branches and flowers, and straight after the liturgy vespers is served with long kneeling prayers, the first time the faithful kneel since pascha.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, orthodox puts its feasts on their days on that ring, in ice blue. its mark is ☦, the orthodox cross.
each of its feasts 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.
orthodox 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.
orthodox 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
orthodox 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.
orthodox is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
orthodox · the julian reckoning ·
Pascha falls on 2 May 2027, by the Julian paschalion. In Zenith Calendar it sits on the ring of your year in the orthodox almanac.
In the churches on the Julian calendar, the Nativity of Christ, 25 December in that calendar, falls on 7 January 2027 on the civil calendar.
On the Julian calendar, Theophany falls on 19 January 2027 on the civil calendar, the Julian 6 January.
Both keep the same Pascha. Orthodox gives the fixed feasts on their Julian dates, so Christmas falls on 7 January; orthodox (new calendar) keeps them on the civil calendar's dates, so Christmas falls on 25 December. Light the one your church keeps.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called orthodox: Pascha and the great feasts by the Julian reckoning, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Pascha follows the Julian paschalion, and every Pascha agrees with a published Easter table. The fixed feasts are given on the civil day each Julian date falls on. Nothing is worked out on your phone.