Can the Apostles Fast be ever skipped by those using the New Calendar or Old Calendar ?

The short answer to this question is yes.

The shortest Apostle's Fast for those on the Old Calendar is 8 days.

The shortest Apostle's Fast for those on the New Calendar is -5! days.

The Apostles Fast occurs on the Monday after the Sunday of All Saints (this is the Sunday following Pentecost), and continues until the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which occurs on June 29th according to the church calendar (July 12 civil date).

All Orthodox Christians (except for the unfortunate Church of Finland, which follows the Western Paschalia) follow the Orthodox Paschalia, and therefore have the feasts of Pascha, and all the commemorations which depend of the date of Pascha on the same date in a given year. Since the beginning of the Apostles fast always depends on the date of Pascha in a year, all these Orthodox supposedly start the Apostles fast on the same day, but they end the fast on a different date, depending on whether they follow the church calendar (Julian calendar) or the so called "New" calendar, which is the civil date.

The New Calendarists encounter an inextricable problem during some years. The Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which they celebrate on June 29th according to the Civil calendar, can sometimes occur BEFORE the Apostles fast actually begins!

1. According to the Orthodox Paschalia, Holy Pascha falls between March 22 and April 25 (Old Calendar). This corresponds to April 4 to May 8 New Calendar.
2. The Apostles fast always begins 8 weeks after Pascha.
3. The earliest the Apostle's Fast can begin is May 18 (OC), which is May 31 (NC).
4. The latest that the Apostle's fast can begin is June 21 (OC) which is July 4 (NC).
5. The Feast is ALWAYS on June 29 for the New Calendarists, or July 12 for those following the church calendar. As one can see from #4, above, this can be BEFORE the fast is supposed to begin!

A concrete example is the year 2002.

• Pascha falls on April 22 (OC) which is May 5 (NC).
• Pentecost will be on June 10 (OC) which is June 23 (NC).
• The Apostle's Fast begins on June 18 (OC) which is July 1 (NC).

Unfortunately, that is two days **after** the day of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29 - NC) -- so the Fast **ends** before it begins.

This is TOTAL NONSENSE! Such Alice in Wonderland absurdities are only possible by those who follow the New Calendar!

Father Alexander Lebedev calls the days between the Feast of the Apostles and the time it SHOULD have begun as "minus" fast days. In the year 2001, the New Calendarists will carefully observe -2 fast days before the Apostles Feast. Fr Alexander has asked "What do you eat on a "minus" fast day?" He posits "twice as much?" I wonder, perhaps on those days, one is allowed to eat ONLY meat!

Of course, this distressing example is only one of many which show the utter stupidity of the New Calendar innovation. Some defenders of this calendar trumpet that the calendar is only a tool, and their following the New Calendar matters not a whit. They use a rather strange tool! It causes them to ignore the apostles fast some years.

Thanks to Fr Alexander Lebedev (lebedeff@WESTWORLD.COM, whose typically thorough and witty post to the "Orthodox Christianity" List (ORTHODOX@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU) on June 13th (new style!) provided the main basis for this essay.