SUMMARY:

The article explores the ambivalent attitudes toward the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Romanian society during the interwar period. First adopted by the Romanian state and, in 1924, by the dominant Romanian Orthodox Church, the Gregorian calendar provoked opposition among the Orthodox believers, especially in the former Russian province of Bessarabia, which was incorporated into Romania in 1918. The mass discontent soon spread to Romanian Moldavia as well. Seen as a heresy, the calendar change led to the rise of a dissident movement that became known as the Old Calendarism. Espousing an apocalyptic worldview, Old Calendarists were branded as politically subversive by the government for rejecting the Romanian national project.