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Q&A Home > L > Leap Year Why did we celebrate the Nativity Feast this year [2020] for 2 days, January 7th & 8th? According to the Gregorian Calendar, a leap year occurs every four years. Three years follow the regular calendar, but the fourth year is a leap year. The Coptic Calendar adjusts to this leap year. Thus, the Advent Fast is shortened by one day, and the Nativity Feast is celebrated on two days, January 7th and January 8th. This adjustment begins in the year prior to the leap year. In this case, the Nativity Feast 2020. Thus, all the feasts from the Coptic New Year 2019 (Nayrouz Feast, 1736 A.M.) shifted forward by one day. For example, the Coptic New Year in 2019 was celebrated on September 12th, not on the 11th. The Feast of the Cross was celebrated on September 28th. The Circumcision Feast will be on January 15th, and the Theophany Feast will be celebrated on January 20, 2020, not on the 19th. The calendar will stabilize back after February 29, 2020. Therefore, the Advent Fast began on November 26th and was only forty-two days, not forty-three days as in the other three years. Thus, the Nativity Feast will be January 8, 2020. The Church decided that we will celebrate both two days, the 7th and the 8th of January, but the other feasts will only be the one day that shifted. The reason is not merely for the sake of keeping January 7th as the official day; otherwise, the Church would have celebrated all the other feasts in two days. The Advent Fast is unique because it coincides with the nine-month gestational period of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, from the Annunciation Feast to the Nativity Feast, there must be a period of nine months, which is 275 days. If we celebrate the Nativity Feast on January 8th, this gestational period would be 276 days, exceeding the normal time by one day. Thus, the Church concluded that the Nativity Feast will be celebrated on both days: Koiahk 28th (January 7th) which coincides with the 275 gestational days; and Koiahk 29 (January 8th), which coincides with the calendar and the Nativity Feast. Thus, we celebrate on both days, but the Church views this day as one elongated day. If the Nativity Feast comes on Tuesday or Thursday (Koiahk 28th), we do not fast on the following day, be it Wednesday or Friday. Since this year 2020, the Nativity Feast is on Tuesday, there is no fasting on Wednesday. Usually, the day following the Nativity Feast, if Wednesday or Friday, would be fasted as usual.
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