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Page 327
Monasticism entered Ethiopia around the end of the fifth century. The Ethiopian church was, like its Coptic cousin, a monophysite church in terms of doctrine. The Ethiopian church struggled for centuries to achieve independence from the Coptic church, which it finally won in A.D. 1959.
The Ethiopian Church retains literature in Ge'ez, the Semitic language officially adopted by the kingdom of Aksum. Several customs, such as circumcision and the observance of the Sabbath, are of Jewish origin.
The calendar adopted is essentially the Alexandrian calendar, which was fixed to the Julian calendar at the date of 29 August by Augustus in 22 B.C. The Ethiopians use the year 8 A.D. as their epoch, which is the first year in which the Julian calendar was operating regularly. It is very similar to the Coptic calendar, differing only in its epoch.
9.7.3.2.2. 9.7.3.2.4
Code on CD-ROM
See the SCDTL text on the CD for the discussion of the code.
9.7.4
Julian Style Calendars
This section discusses the class of calendars specifically identified as Julian in structure.
9.7.4.1
Macedonian Calendar
This section considers the Macedonian calendar, which was created following the death of Alexander the Great of Macedonia.
9.7.4.1.1
Basic Concepts
This section discusses the structural details of the Macedonian calendar and introduces historical material as background.
9.7.4.1.1.1
Structural Details
Structurally, the Macedonian calendar is a kind of Julian calendar, which is to say, it consists of 12 months with a characteristic pattern of month lengths, and an intercalary day inserted at the end of the sixth month in leap years.
The leap year rule is the Julian rule, which inserts an intercalary day every four years in the fourth year.
The month length pattern shared by Julian calendars is a repeating pattern of five months, organized as {30, 31, 30, 31, 31}. In the Macedonian calendar, this pattern starts with months 1 and 8.
The epoch of the calendar is 1 September 312 B.C.

 
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