Few days ago, the Christians celebrated the beginning of the Coptic New Year 1739 A.M which is known as the “Feast of Nayrouz”, praying to God to grant our country Egypt and the entire world good, peace and tranquility.
The Coptic Nayrouz Feast differs from the Persian Nayrouz Feast, which is associated with spring for the Persians, as the Persians celebrate it in March to celebrate its arrival. As for the Egyptian word Nayrouz, it is mentioned that it goes back to the Coptic word “Ni Yaro’o” which means “Rivers”, it then evolved into the word “Nyros” and then “Nayrouz”. So, it is believed that it is related to the Persian feast. However, it is also said that the word “Nayrouz” is an abbreviation of the Coptic phrase: “Nyaruismoro’o”, which denotes blessing the rivers at the time of the completion of the flood season.
The Coptic Nayrouz feast is closely related to the martyrs offered by the Coptic Church throughout the ages, especially during the ages of the Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximianus, as then persecution got more ferocious, driving the Coptic Church to send thousands of martyrs up to heaven. The flames of persecution got ablaze across the Roman provinces along ten years, beginning with Diocletian, and continued during the reign of Galerius, his assistant, and his nephew MaximinosDaza until 313 AD. According to the historians, the persecutions in the east were more violent and severe than they were in the West. For that reason, the Copts appointed the beginning of Diocletian’s era (305-284 AD) to mark the beginning of the Coptic calendar and historical record for the Christian pain, persecutions, and fierce torture;they called it the Calendar of Martyrs due to the abundance of blood of the righteous martyrs shed over the land of Egypt.Historian Al -Maqrizi stated about Diocletian, the Roman tyrant, saying,“He attacked the Christians and shed their blood, shut down their churches, banned the Christian religion, coerced the Christians to follow apostasy and worship idols, and he was very extravagant in killing the Christians, and he was the last idol worshipper among the Roman kings.” Thus, the Coptic Church was distinguished as the Church of the martyrs who have weighted against all the martyrs of the world that it was said: “If the martyrs of the whole world were put on the scales to be weighed against the martyrs of Egypt, the Egyptians would have overweighed!” The number of Coptic Christian martyrs was estimated to be eight hundred thousand!
The Egyptians have clung to their firm belief that stems fromthe roots of their history, preferring death to a fragile life marred by weakness of faith. They do not deny what they believe, even at the price of their lives! It is startling throughout Egyptian history that all the people; men, women, children and elders, were standing firm in the face of tyranny without the slightest trembling, to the extent that the historian Eusebius of Caesarea, who witnessed that era of persecution, said: “Women were not of less valor than men concerning defending the teachings of The divine word, as they participated with the men in the struggle.” The Egyptian Christian martyrdom was a reflection of the authenticity of a people that refused to give up what they believed in.
With every new beginning and every new year, we should always bear in mind that evil, no matter how great and prolonged it might be, must come to an end; Today we read about the Roman emperors who persecuted the innocent and stripped them of the right to life just because of differences in creeds. On the pages of history we find nothing but bad remembrances and ugly ends for them. Here is Diocletian. Some references mention that he suffered from a mental illness, and retired from power because of a disease that did not let him eat or rest! Rather, he was moaning, wailing and crying all the time, then he lost his sight! His statues were destroyed and his images were removed until he died in 316 AD. While the Church that was being persecuted, it has remained steadfast over ages, and the number of its believers has increased. The blood of the martyrs dug a river that watered the seeds of faith, so the Coptic Church grew, bearing in its heart and mind love towards every human being, and courage that does not fear death, but rather makes it just a passage through which it longs to reach eternal life.
Happy feast to all of you, and… stories about beautiful Egypt never end!
The General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
