His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrated the Akatistos of Jesus Christ, our Lord, at the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest, at the beginning of the civil New Year 2012, assisted by a group of priests and deacons in the presence of many faithful.

The religious service was followed by the lecture of the thanksgiving prayers for the benefits received from God in 2011 and of the prayers for the beginning of the New Year, as well as by the “Protector Mother of God” chant.

To end with, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a sermon in which he spoke about the history of the civil New Year: “We celebrated, with God’s grace, the prayer for passing from 2011 into the New Year 2012. This is a thanksgiving prayer to God for the benefits received from Him, so that we should fulfil His will in the year we begin and work for our salvation. It is a well known fact that the civil New Year begins on 1 January and the church year on 1 September. The civil New Year comes from the Roman Empire. The New Year was celebrated in the Roman Empire on 1 March when Marte god, the god of war, was worshipped. Emperor Julius Caesar, who lived in the 1st century BC and assassinated in the year 44 BC, changed the New Year and ordered it to begin on 1 January, the name of the month coming from the pagan god Janus, the protector of Rome. This Roman pagan god had two faces. One of his faces looked ahead and the other one back. This is why at the turn of the years, the Romans were thinking of what they had done the previous year and of what they were going to do in the New Year they were beginning. Later on, when Christianity appeared, the Christians did not celebrate these pagan feasts, because for them Christ was their Lord, Light, and Guide of their life on the way of salvation. In the 4th century, 25 December was established as the date of the Nativity of the Lord, because it is 9 months from 25 March till 25 December. When 25 December was established as the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, 8 days were added till the feast of the circumcision of the Lord, which coincides with 1 January, the first day of the civil New Year”.

Further on, His Beatitude showed that on 1 January the Christians celebrate the circumcision of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, as a sign of lowliness: “On 1 January the Christians celebrate, first of all, Jesus Christ, our Saviour, at 8 day old, when He was given the name of Jesus, as the angel had said, namely God saves. According to the Gospel of the feast that has just begun, the Circumcision of Jesus Christ, our Lord, His name is a name for eternity. So, on 1 January we celebrate first of all the Circumcision of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, as a sign of lowliness, of accomplishment of the Old Law, so that this law should be implemented in Christ, because it was only a guide to Christ. Christ is the fulfilment of the law and of the prophecies, He is the consecrator of time, the Emperor of the centuries and Lord of history, the Eternal One and beyond Time, who is born in time, just like us, the humans, in order to make us participators in the eternal life, eternal love, in the eternal happiness and glory of the Most Holy Trinity”.

The Patriarch of Romania has also emphasised the attitude of the true Christian towards the beginning of the New Year: “A Christian attitude towards the celebration of the beginning of the New Year (revelion) was needed, many Christians have forgotten because for quite a time their duty to consecrate the time so that they spend the passage from one year into another as an exclusively materialist party, rather at the senses level than of the spirit. The word comes from the French language and it means that we must wake up, vigil, but it does not refer a prayer vigil. The true Christian attitude says that even when we rejoice we must take into account the fact that whatever work we do we must begin it with God. This is why the true Christian does not wait for the “revelion” only to eat and drink, but first to thank God for the year passed and ask for His help for the year to begin”.

To end with his speech, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel showed the importance of the calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church and of the Book of Hours for the consecration of the time by every Christian: “May God help us consecrate the time and feel the joy of the presence of Christ, the Prince of the Centuries, in every hour of our life, every day and every month, as the calendar of the Orthodox Church shows us. The screen through which we see the Kingdom of Heaven is the calendar. It is in the calendar that we see one or more saints or feasts of the Saviour and of the Mother of God. So, we learn from the saints how to live the time of our life on the earth, thinking of Christ, fulfilling His will, in prayer and good deeds. Thus, the Book of Hours and the Calendar are the two teachers of the consecration of time for us”.