The Beginning of the Indiction—A Church Feast

Later, when the first day of September was designated as the beginning of the Church Year, or as it was called in the Church Calendar, the beginning of the “New Year”, it assumed a religious character and became a feast of the Church, i.e., a day which had its own special liturgical service. On this day our Church commemorates the day on which Christ entered the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scrolls the words of the prophet Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord has been given me, for He anointed me. . . to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor.” (Luke 4, 18-19) No reliable evidence exists to indicate when the beginning of the Indiction became a feast of the Church; we do know, however, that is already existed in the eighth century.

(from various sources, including A Byzantine Rite Liturgical Year by Julian J. Katrij, OSBM, translated by Father Demetrius E. Wysochansky, OSBM)