The Masonic Calendar

 All Freemasons will have noticed that Freemasonry follows a specific calendar, known as Masonic. This practice is primarily ritualistic and serves mainly to date the minutes of the various Masonic assemblies. Where might the Masonic calendar come from? Is it an immemorial practice, going back to the customs of the ancient operative masons? What is the meaning of the Masonic calendar? And did you know that there are several Masonic calendars? Let us then explore the Masonic calendar, its origin, its history, its usefulness, and the different forms it has taken depending on the country, the Rites, and the obediences.

The most common Masonic calendar

The most common form of Masonic calendar encountered consists of adding 4000 to the civil year. The year 2025 thus becomes the year 6025 in the Masonic calendar. But when does this Masonic year begin?

Differences exist here, which often tend to disappear today. English and more generally Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry, followed by Germanic Freemasonry, aligns the Masonic year with the civil year starting on 1st January. This is indeed the most logical approach. However, French Masonic tradition long started the Masonic year on 1st March, to align more closely with Hebrew custom. But this meant that dates in January and February retained the year number of the previous year. Under this system, 28th February 2025 becomes the 28th day of the twelfth month of the year 6024, since the year 6025 only begins on 1st March. This is rather impractical and can become a source of confusion. Not to mention the financial year, which runs from 1st January to 31st December of the civil year… That is why the practice now seems to be becoming widespread across most craft obediences to align the Masonic year with the civil year.

Masonic calendar

But which month names are mentioned in the Masonic calendar? For a long time, the Hebrew month names were used. However, the system is not consistent, as Hebrew months follow a lunar logic and count 29 days. As a result, the 12th month (Adar) is periodically doubled to create the month of Adar II (VeAdar). If one simply assigns Hebrew month names to the months of our year, the principle offers no symbolic value. This is why it was gradually abandoned. The Grand Orient of France, for example, did so in 1826.

The most common practice today consists of giving the ordinal numeral for the day and the month, followed by the Masonic year, and then giving the secular date according to the civil year. For example, one might write "the 27th day of the 1st month of the Year of True Light 6025, being 27th January 2025, vulgar era".

The Year of True Light is the most common formulation in French, whereas in English, one willingly says "in the year of masonry". One also finds the Latin forms A.L. (Anno Lucis, year of light) or A.M. (Anno Mundi, year of the world).

The origin of the Masonic calendar

Is the use of a Masonic calendar adding 4000 to the civil year a legacy from the ancient operative masons or the first English speculative Freemasons of the 17th century? Not at all. This practice appeared with the birth of modern Freemasonry, which is generally dated to the founding of the first Grand Lodge of London in 1717. It was indeed Anderson who used this practice for the first time to date his Constitutions of 1723.

But what could be the significance of such dating? Some may have seen it as a sign of tolerance aiming to provide a framework no longer determined solely by Christian tradition. This is certainly somewhat anachronistic, as there is no fundamental questioning of Christian tradition in Anderson's work. The tolerance proposed here concerns the Christian world, which had been divided into several denominations since the Reformation, and there was not yet any question of admitting members of other religions. The choice of the Masonic year was intended much more to affirm the ancestral and primordial nature of Freemasonry, whose origin is intertwined with the creation of the world.

 James Ussher

For it is indeed the origin of the world that is at issue here. Freemasonry drew inspiration here from the dating established by James Ussher (1580-1656), Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland within the Anglican community. This Protestant prelate published three works on biblical chronology between 1648 and 1654 and arrived at the conclusion that the world had been created 4004 BC, more precisely at nightfall preceding 23 October! This dating was held to be true for a very long time in Anglo-Saxon Protestant circles and is now hardly accepted except in a few fundamentalist and creationist circles. It is amusing to note that right up until the 1990s, editions of the French translation of the Bible by John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) still included a footnote indicating "4004 BC" for the first verse of Genesis. This note disappeared from the 1996 edition.

It was indeed Ussher's theory that was adopted by 18th-century Freemasonry, rounding 4004 to 4000 to simplify the calculation. In doing so, Freemasons were not endorsing any form of biblical fundamentalism, but merely following the generally accepted consensus. Indeed, it was only from the 18th century that geologists began to realise that the world was far older than previously believed. Freemasons did not wish to establish a pseudo-scientific dogma, but intended rather to affirm that Freemasonry is in principle as old as the world, whatever the age of the latter.

Other Masonic calendars

The Masonic calendar inspired by James Ussher's theories, although the most widespread, is by no means the only one. Other chronological calculations or other historical references have inspired other Masonic calendars. Here are a few examples:

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite had chosen to follow the dating of the world according to Hebrew tradition, which dates it back to 3760 BC, and not 4004. Thus, 3760 had to be added to the civil year. This system is hardly used any longer.

Other dates not concerning the creation of the world have also inspired Masonic calendars.

The calendar of the Royal Arch begins in 530 BC, the date usually accepted for the rebuilding of the Temple by Zerubbabel. The era is expressed as A.I., Anno Inventionis, meaning year of the discovery, in reference to the discovery of the secret vault.

Dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Andrea Michieli (1542-1617)

The Royal and Select Master begins its chronology in 1000 BC, that is, at the dedication of Solomon's Temple. It is then referred to as Anno Depositionis (A.D.), to recall the deposit of the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple.

As for the Templar degrees (Strict Templar Observance, Knights Templar), their dating begins with the founding of the Order of the Temple in 1118. In this case, 1118 must of course be subtracted from, and not added to, the current year. It is then a matter of Anno Ordinis (A.O.), year of the Order.

The usefulness of Masonic calendars

Do Masonic calendars really have a purpose? On a practical level, certainly not—quite the contrary. Their significance is essentially symbolic and tells us about how Freemasonry situates itself in the course of history. By this, it intends to connect itself to some founding event that legitimises it.

A superficial look might consider the Masonic calendar as a mere folkloric custom. But it is no more folkloric or ridiculous than wearing a Masonic apron and wielding a Masonic gavel and chisel in a Lodge!