section_path: Coptic year
section_name: Coptic year
paragraph_text: Coptic 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.
  
  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.
  
  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 AD, the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, especially in Egypt. 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.
  
  To obtain the Coptic year number, subtract from the Julian year number either 283 (before the Julian new year) or 284 (after it).