Melkite Typikon

How to Read This Calendar

Seven concentric rings, each a liturgical cycle. Read from the center outward.

  1. Menaion — Fixed feasts & saints

    The innermost ring follows the calendar date, commemorating a saint or fixed feast each day. The Byzantine liturgical year begins on September 1, at the top of the wheel.

  2. Orthros Gospel Cycle — The 11 Resurrection Gospels

    Numbered 1–11 and proclaimed at Sunday Orthros, each recounts an appearance of the risen Christ. The cycle begins on the Sunday of All Saints and repeats through the year.

  3. Lectionary — The Sunday Epistle and Gospel cycle

    The yearly readings by season: Pentecost (green) begins the Sunday after Pentecost with Matthew; Cross / Lukan (red) — the Lukan Jump — switches to Luke so the Nativity and Theophany cycles align with their feasts; Mark fills the final weeks before Lent; Triodion and Lent follow; then Easter / Paschaltide (gold) carries readings from John, Pascha to Pentecost.

  4. Tone (Octoechos) — The 8-tone weekly cycle

    The eight tones (1–8) governing each week's hymnody. The cycle begins on Thomas Sunday with Tone 1 and rotates weekly through the year.

  5. Season — The movable cycle around Pascha

    Pre-Lenten (blue, the Triodion's preparatory weeks), Great Lent (purple), Holy Week (black w/ red border), Pascha (white w/ gold border), Paschaltide (gold, the fifty days to Pentecost), and After Pentecost (green, the long stretch back to Pre-Lent).

  6. Fasting — Fixed and movable fasts

    The four major fasts. Fixed: the Nativity Fast (Nov 15–Dec 24, 40 days) and the Dormition Fast (Aug 1–14). Movable: the Great Fast of Lent (40 days) and the Apostles' Fast, running from after the Sunday of All Saints to the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29), so its length varies with Pascha.

  7. The Twelve Great Feasts and Pascha — Outermost markers

    The principal feasts of the year, marked around the perimeter — feasts of the Lord, of the Theotokos, and of the Holy Cross.

    Fixed: Nativity of the Theotokos (Sept 8), Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept 14), Presentation of the Theotokos (Nov 21), Nativity of Christ (Dec 25), Theophany (Jan 6), Meeting of the Lord (Feb 2), Annunciation (Mar 25), Transfiguration (Aug 6), Dormition of the Theotokos (Aug 15).

    Movable: Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), Ascension (40 days after Pascha), Pentecost (50 days after Pascha) — and Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.