Holidays

Each Oriental Orthodox church maintains its own distinctive liturgical calendar with a rich set of feasts, fasts, and commemorations. All celebrate the major events of Christ's life—Nativity, Theophany/Epiphany, Transfiguration, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Pascha (Easter), Ascension, Pentecost—though the dating varies. The Coptic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean churches use the ancient Alexandrian calendar (Coptic/Ethiopian calendar), while the Armenian and Syriac Orthodox churches use their own variants of the Julian or Gregorian calendar.

A distinctive feature of the Armenian Apostolic Church is the celebration of Christmas and Theophany together on January 6, following the ancient practice before the Western Church separated the Nativity feast to December 25. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church observes the most feast days of any Christian body, including a remarkable number of Marian feasts (approximately 33 per year) and commemorations drawn from its own canon of scripture. All Oriental Orthodox churches have rich traditions of liturgical fasting, including extended fasts (such as the Ethiopian 'Tsome Filseta' Lent of 55 days).