This story is a little bit about a lot - about the history of the calendar, about the ides and kalends, about the names of the months and days of the week in different languages.

Calendar history

Now all the peoples of the world use the calendar inherited from the ancient Romans.
But the calendar and the count of days among the ancient Romans were at first rather confusing and strange ...

Voltaire said about this:
Roman commanders always won, but they never knew what day it happened ...)))

The rest of the days were indicated by indicating the number of days, remaining until the next main day; wherein the bill included both the day that was indicated and the next main day: ante diem nonum Kalendas Septembres - nine days before the September kalends, i.e. August 24, usually abbreviated a. d. IX Kal. Sept.
……………
Roman calendar.

At first, the Roman year consisted of 10 months, which were designated serial numbers: first, second, third, etc.
The year started in spring- a period close to the spring equinox.
Later, the first four months were renamed:

First(spring!) month of the year was named after god of spring shoots, agriculture and cattle breeding, and this god among the Romans was ... Mars! It was only later that he became, like Ares, the god of war.
And the month was named martius(martius) - in honor Mars.

Second the month is named Aprilis ( aprilis), which comes from the Latin aperire - "to open", as in this month the buds on the trees open, or from the word apricus - "warmed by the Sun". It was dedicated to the goddess of beauty Venus.

The third month in honor of the goddess of the earth May and began to be called maius(majus).
Fourth month has been renamed to junius(junius) and dedicated to the sky goddess Juno, patroness of women, wife of Jupiter.

The remaining six months of the year continued to retain their numerical names:

Quintilis (quintilis) - the fifth; sextilis (sextilis) - the sixth;

September (september) - the seventh; october (october) - the eighth;

November (november) - ninth; december (december) - tenth.

Four month of the year ( martius, maius, quintilis and oktober) each had 31 days, and the remaining months consisted of 30 days.

Therefore, the original Roman calendar a year had 304 days.

In the 7th century BC. the Romans reformed of your calendar and added to the year 2 more months - the eleventh and twelfth.

The first of these months is Januarius- was named after the two-faced the god Janus, which was considered god of heaven, which opened the gates to the Sun at the beginning of the day and closed them at the end of it. He was the god of entry and exit, of every undertaking. The Romans portrayed him with two faces: one, facing forward, God sees the future, the second, facing back, contemplates the past.

Second added month - febrarius- was dedicated god of the underworld Februus. Its very name comes from the word februare - "clear" and associated with the rite of purification.

Year in the calendar of the Romans after the reform began to consist out of 355 days, and in connection with the addition 51 days (why not 61?) had to change the length of the months.

But still the Roman year was more than 10 days shorter than the tropical year.

To keep the beginning of the year close to one season, they did insertion of extra days. At the same time, the Romans in every second year between February 24 and 25 "wedged" alternately 22 or 23 days.

As a result, the number of days in the Roman calendar alternated in this order: 355 days; 377 (355+22) days; 355 days; 378 (355+23) days. Plug-in days got a name month of Mercedonia, sometimes called simply an intercalary month - intercalary(intercalis).
Word " mercedonium" comes from "merces edis" - "payment for labor": then the tenants made settlements with the owners of the property.

The average length of a year in such a four-year period was 366,25 days, that is, a day more than in reality.

Drawing engraved on an ancient Roman stone calendar. The upper row depicts the gods to whom the days of the week are dedicated: Saturn - Saturday, Sun - Sunday, Moon - Monday, Mars - Tuesday, Mercury - Wednesday, Jupiter - Thursday, Venus - Friday. In the center of the calendar is the Roman zodiac, to the right and left of it are the Latin symbols for the numbers of the month.

Reform of Julius Caesar.

The chaotic nature of the Roman calendar had become significant, and urgent reform was needed. And the reform was made in 46 BC Julius Caesar(100 - 44 BC). A new calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigene.

The basis of the calendarnamedJulian, the solar cycle is set, the duration of which was taken equal to 365.25 days.

Counted in three out of every four years 365 days, in the fourth - 366 days.

As before the month of Mercedon, so now this extra day was "hidden" between 24 and 25 February. Caesar decided to add by February second sixth ( bis sextus) the day before the March calendars, that is second day February 24. February was chosen as the last month of the Roman year. The augmented year became known as annusbissextus, where did our word come from leap year. The first leap year was 45 BC. e.

Caesar streamlined number of days in months according to the principle: an odd month has 31 days, an even month has 30. February in a simple year should have 29 days, and in a leap year - 30 days.

In addition, Caesar decided to start counting the days in the new year from the new moon, which just fell on the first of January.

In the new calendar, for each day of the year, it was indicated which star or constellation has its first morning sunrise or sunset after a period of invisibility. For example, in November it was noted: on the 2nd - the setting of Arcturus, on the 7th - the setting of the Pleiades and Orion, etc. The calendar was closely associated with the annual movement of the Sun along the ecliptic and with the cycle of agricultural work.

The Julian calendar was started on January 1, 45 BC. On this day, from which, already from 153 BC, newly elected Roman consuls took office, and the beginning of the year has been postponed.
Julius Caesar is the author of the tradition start counting the new year from the first of January.

Thanks for the reform and given the military merit of Julius Caesar, the Roman the senate renamed the month quinitylis(this month Caesar was born) in julius.

And a year later, in the same Senate, Caesar was killed ...

Calendar changes were later.

Roman priests again confused the calendar, declaring every third (and not fourth) year of the calendar as a leap year. As a result, from 44 to 9 years. BC. 12 leap years were introduced instead of 9.

This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus(63 BC - 14 AD): for 16 years - from 9 BC to 8 AD There were no leap years. Along the way, he contributed to the spread in the Roman Empire seven day week, which replaced the previously used nine-day cycles - nundids.

In this regard, the Senate renamed the month sextilis in the month of august. But the duration of this month was 30 days. The Romans considered it inconvenient that the month dedicated to Augustus should have fewer days than the month dedicated to Caesar. Then took one more day from February and added it to August. So February left with 28 or 29 days.

Now it turned out that Julius, Augustus and Septeber contain 31 days. So that there would not be three consecutive months of 31 days, one day of September was passed oktober. At the same time, one day of November was moved to december. Thus, the correct alternation of long and short months introduced by Caesar was violated, and the first half of the year in a simple year turned out to be four days shorter than the second.

The Roman calendar system spread widely in Western Europe and used up to the 16th century. With the adoption of Christianity in Russia also began to use the Julian calendar, which gradually replaced the Old Russian.

In the 6th century, the Roman monk Dionysius Small suggested introducing new christian era, which starts from Christmas, and not from the creation of the world, and not from the foundation of Rome.

Dionysius substantiated the date from the Nativity of Christ. According to his calculations, it fell in the year 754 from the founding of Rome, or in the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Augustus.
Era from the Nativity of Christ firmly established in Western Europe only in VIII century. And in Russia for several centuries they continued to count the years from the creation of the world.

Reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

At the end of the III century. AD the spring equinox was on March 21. Nicaea Cathedral, which took place in 325 in the city of Nicaea (now it is the city of Izvik in Turkey) fixed this date, deciding that the vernal equinox will always fall on that date.

However, the average length of a year in the Julian calendar is 0.0078 days or 11 min 14 s longer than a tropical year. As a result every 128 years, an error accumulated for a whole day: the moment of the passage of the Sun through the vernal equinox moved during this time one day ago - from March to February. By the end of the XVI century vernal equinox moved back 10 days and had to 11th of March.

Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar based on the project of an Italian doctor and mathematician Luigi Lilio.

Gregory XIII in his bull prescribed that after October 4, 1582 follows October 15, not October 5. So the spring equinox was moved to March 21, to its original place. And so that the error does not accumulate, it was decided throw away three days out of every 400 years.
It is customary to consider those centuries as simple, the number of hundreds of which is not divisible by 4 without a remainder. Because of this, there were not leap years 1700, 1800 and 1900, and 2000 was a leap year. The discrepancy of one day of the Gregorian calendar with astronomical time accumulates not for 128 years, but for 3323.

This calendar system received the name Gregorian or "New Style"". In contrast to it, the name "old style" was strengthened behind the Julian calendar.

Countries in which the positions of the Catholic Church were strong almost immediately switched to a new style, and in Protestant countries the reform was carried out with a delay of 50-100 years.

England waited before 1751 and then “killed two birds with one stone”: corrected the calendar and rescheduled beginning of 1752 from March 25 to January 1. Some of the British took the reform as a robbery: it's no joke, three whole months of life disappeared!)))

Using different calendars caused a lot of inconvenience, and sometimes just curious cases. When we read that in Spain in 1616 on April 23 he died Cervantes, and in England on April 23, 1616 he died Shakespeare, one might think that two great writers died on the same day.
Actually the difference was 10 days! Shakespeare died in Protestant England, which still lived according to the Julian calendar, and Cervantes died in Catholic Spain, where the Gregorian calendar (new style) had already been introduced.

One of the last countries to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1928, became Egypt.

In the tenth century, with the adoption of Christianity, chronology came to Russia used by the Romans and Byzantines: julian calendar, roman names of months, seven-day week. But the years were counted from the creation of the world which happened for 5508 years before Christmas. The year began on March 1, and at the end of the 15th century the beginning of the year was moved to September 1.

The calendar in force in Russia from the "creation of the world" was replaced by Julian Peter I from January 1, 1700 (the difference between the two systems of reckoning is 5508 years).

Reforming the calendar system Russia was heavily delayed. The Orthodox Church refused to accept it, although back in 1583, at the Council of Constantinople, it recognized the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar.

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR No. January 25, 1918 was introduced in Russia Gregorian calendar. By this time, the difference between the old and new styles was 13 days. It was prescribed in 1918, after January 31, count not February 1, but the 14th.

Now the Gregorian calendar has become international.
…………
Now about the Slavic names of the months.
12 months - favorite fairy tale

Month- a period of time close to the period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth, although the modern Gregorian calendar is not consistent with the change in the phases of the Moon.

Since ancient times, segments of the year have been associated with certain natural phenomena or with economic activity.

Not quite on topic. From the legend: among the Slavs, the Month was the king of the night, the husband of the Sun. He fell in love with the Morning Star, and as punishment, the other gods split him in half...

Month names

January. The Slavic name "Prosinets" - from the emerging blue of the sky in January.

February- "Sechen", "Lute". Sechen - because it was time to cut trees to clear the land for arable land.

March
"Dry" from the spring warmth, draining moisture, in the south - "Berezozol", from the action of the spring sun on the birch, which at this time begins to fill with juice and buds. "Protalnik" - it is clear why.
April
Old Russian names for April: "Berezen", "Snegogon". In Ukrainian, the month is called "kviten" (blossoming).

May- the names "Traven", "Herbal" - nature turns green and blooms.
June.
"Izok". Izok is a grasshopper, there were especially many of them in June. Another name is "Cherven".

July.

"Cherven" - the name - from the fruits and berries, which in July, are reddish (scarlet, red). Also called "Lipets" - linden blossoms in July. "Groznik" - from strong thunderstorms. And simply - "The top of the summer." "Stradnik" - from the suffering summer work.
August
And the Slavs still suffer - "Serpen", "Zhniven", - it's time to mow the wheat. In the north, August was also called "Dawn", "Zornichnik" - from the radiance of lightning.
September
The Russian name for the month was Ruyin, Howler - from the roar of autumn winds and animals, especially deer. "Frowning" - the weather began to deteriorate. In the Ukrainian language, the month is "Veresen" (from the flowering honey plant - heather).

October
Wonderful Slavic name - "Leaf fall". Otherwise - "Gryaznik", from autumn rains and abyss. And also "Svadebnik" - at that time the main agricultural work was ending, it's not a sin to celebrate a wedding, especially after the Feast of the Intercession.

November- "Breast", from piles of frozen earth with snow.

December- "Studen" - it's cold!

Plate of Slavic names of the months

Week and days of the week.

A week is a period of 7 days, which exists in most calendar systems of the world. The custom of measuring time with a seven-day week came to us from Ancient Babylon and is associated with a change in the phases of the moon.
Where did the names of the days of the week come from?

Ancient Babylonian astronomers discovered that, in addition to fixed stars, there are also visible in the sky seven moving lights, which were later named planets(from the Greek "wandering"). It was believed that these luminaries revolve around the Earth and that their distances from it increase in this order: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Babylonian astrologers believed that every hour of the day is under the auspices of a certain planet, which "rules" them.
The counting of hours was started from Saturday: the first hour was "ruled" by Saturn, the second - by Jupiter, the third - by Mars, etc., the seventh - by the Moon. Then the whole cycle was repeated again.

Eventually it turned out that the first hour of the next day, Sundays, "ruled" The sun, the first hour of the third day got moon, the fourth day - to Mars, the fifth - to Mercury, the sixth - to Jupiter and the seventh - to Venus.

The planet ruling the first hour of the day patronized the whole day, and the day was given its name.

This system was adopted by the Romans - the names of the planets were identified with the names of the gods. They ruled the days of the week that got their names. Roman names migrated to the calendars of many peoples of Western Europe.

"Planetary" names of the days of the week in both English and Scandinavian languages, but the names in them are produced on behalf of the pagan gods of Norse mythology.

The day of Saturn was considered unlucky by the Babylonians.; on this day it was prescribed not to do business, and he himself received the name " Shabbat - peace. However, it was moved to the end of the week. The name passed into Jewish, Arabic, Slavic (Saturday), some Western European languages.

The Slavs called Sunday "a week", "a day in which nothing do not do"(do not do business). And Monday is "the day after the week", Tuesday is "the second day after the week", etc.
That's what is not dividing ...)))

Days of the week

We see the personification of the days of the week in the names preserved in English, German, French.

Monday- Monday (English) echoes moon- Moon, even clearer than Lundi (fr.),

Tuesday- in the name of Tuesday Mardi (French), el Martes (Spanish), Martedi (Italian) we recognize the planet Mars. Tuesday (English), Dienstag (German) hides the name of the militant ancient German god Tiu, analogue of Mars.

Wednesday- guessed Mercury in le Mercredi (French), Mercoledi (Italian), el Miercoles (Spanish).

Wednesday(English) comes from Wodensday meaning Woden day(Wotan, Odin). The same god is hidden in Onstag (Sw.), Woenstag (Vol.), Onsdag (Dan.).

Woden- an unusual god, he is depicted as a tall old man in a black cloak. This character became famous for the invention of the runic alphabet, which draws a parallel with the patron god of written and oral speech - Mercury. According to legend, Woden sacrificed one eye for the sake of knowledge.

In Slavic "Wednesday", "Wednesday"", as well as in Mittwoch (German), Keskeviikko (Finnish) the idea of ​​the middle of the week

Thursday- Latin Dies Jovis, Day Jupiter, gave rise to Jeudi (Fr.), Jueves (Spanish), Giovedi (Italian).

And here Thursday(English), Torstai (Finnish), Torsdag (Swedish), Donnerstag (German), and others have a direct connection with the ancient thunder god Thor, analogue of Jupiter. In Hindi, Thursday is Jupiter Day.

Friday- Venus is clearly visible in Vendredi (Fr.), Venerdi (Italian).
English Friday, Fredag ​​(Sw.), Freitag (German) on behalf of the Scandinavian goddess of fertility and love Freya (Frigge), analogue of Aphrodite and Venus. In Hindi, Friday is Venus Day.

Saturday- face Saturn visible in Saturday (English) and Saturni (lat.).
Russian name " Saturday”, el Sabado (Spanish), Sabato (Italian) and Samedi (French) are derived from the Hebrew “Shabbat”, meaning “rest, rest”.
Lauantai (Fin.), Lördag (Sw.), Loverdag (Dan.) are similar to the Old German Laugardagr and mean "day of washing". In Hindi, Saturday is Saturn Day.

Sunday - Sun Day in Latin, English and German, in many languages ​​this day is indicated by various variations of the word "Sun / Son" (Sun).
Domingo(Spanish), Dimanche (French), Domenica (Italian) in translation mean " Lord's day"and are an overlay brought to Europe along with Christianity.

Russian " Sunday" appeared in the same way, replacing the old name of this day "Week", preserved in other Slavic languages ​​\u200b\u200b- Nedelya (Bol.), Nedilya (Ukrainian), Nedele (Czech.). In Hindi, Sunday is the Day of the Sun.
……………

And finally about days and hours.

Day- a unit of any calendar, the allocation of which is based on the alternation of day and night. This division of the day originated in ancient Babylon, whose priests believed that day and night consisted of twelve hours. Officially dividing a day into 24 hours Introduced by the Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the II century. AD

The first hour began at dawn, noon was always the sixth hour, and sunset was always the twelfth. And the length of the hour was a variable, depended on the length of daylight hours.

• What is a "calendar" and its necessity, tasks and basis?
• Calendar systems
• Sumerian calendar
• Babylonian calendar
• Ancient Persian calendar
• ancient roman calendar
• Used sources

New Year's Eve

he came to the house Such a ruddy fat man, But every day he lost weight, And, finally, completely disappeared.

Calendar

What is a "calendar"?

Calendar - this is a printed edition in the form of a table(sheet calendar) or books, which contains list of numbers, days of the week, months(less than years). Holidays and astronomical information (lunar phase, eclipses, etc.) are also indicated.

Meaning of the word

Word " calendar"had in its history different meanings

Then came the word calendarium.

So called debt book, in which creditors recorded the interest paid on debts on the first day of each month.

From lat. calendae, is the name the first day of every month in ancient Rome .

Printed edition in the form of a table

Year

List of months

List of days of the week

List of numbers

Need for a calendar

The need for calendars arose in such extreme antiquity, when people could not yet read and write. .

Need for a calendar

The calendars determined the onset of spring, summer, autumn and winter, the periods of flowering plants, fruit ripening, the collection of medicinal herbs, changes in the behavior and life of animals, weather changes, the time of agricultural work, and much more.

Calendar tasks

Measurement of time intervals

Fixing dates

Calendar basis

Change of lunar phases and the change of seasons

Day

Night

Calendar systems

Different peoples at different times created and used three types of calendars:

solar

They tried to harmonize the length of the year with the frequency of processes occurring in nature.

Lunar

Wanted to coordinate the calendar month with the phases of the moon

lunisolar Wanted to agree on both

Sumerian calendar

One of the first creators of calendars were inhabitants of ancient Sumer . They enjoyed lunar calendar, based on the observation of the movement of the moon. In the ancient Sumerian year there were 354 days, and it consisted of 12 months of 29 and 30 days.

Babylonian calendar

Later, when the Babylonian priest-astronomers determined that a year consists of 365.6 days , the old calendar was reworked, it became lunisolar.

Ancient Persian calendar

ancient farmers had their own calendar and knew: there is a day in the year the day of the longest night and the shortest day , which is called winter solstice day . On this day, the ancient farmers celebrated the birth of the sun god Mitra.

ancient roman calendar

In the Roman Empire the months were of different lengths, but New Year invariably belonged to 1st of January - date of change of consuls. December 25 - celebrations winter solstice was a convenient time for New Year's festivities.

• Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 46 BC. . This calendar was based on the annual movement of the Sun in the 12 zodiac constellations . According to the imperial reform The year starts on January 1st. The first month of the year was named after the god Janus. The average length of the year in the interval of four years was equal to 365.25 days.

• In Ancient Greece early summer had the longest day of the year June, 22.
• BUT chronology the Greeks led from the famous Olympic Games.

• Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582. (new style). The need for changes was determined by the fact that the Julian calendar lagged behind the natural one.
• The date of the vernal equinox is March 21 , from the calendar leap years removed falling on the last years of centuries: 1600, 1700, 1800, etc.

• Acted in Russia Julian calendar. Until the decree of Peter I (1700), Russians led their calendar "from the creation of the world", which took place 5506 BC.
• Beginning of the New Year celebrated where in September, after harvesting, and where - in March, on the day of the spring solstice.

• brought our reckoning in line with European and commanded celebrate the New Year in winter - January 1.

• Until October 1917, Russia lived according to the Julian calendar, "lagging behind" European countries by 13 days.
• On February 1, 1918, a decree was issued , who declared this day the 14th. This year was the shortest, consisting of 352 days

• In a number Muslim countries are still using lunar calendar , in which the beginning of the calendar months corresponds to the moments of the new moons.

• In a number of countries Southeast Asia, Iran, Israel, there are varieties of the lunisolar calendar , in which the change in the phases of the moon is consistent with the beginning of the astronomical year. The lunisolar calendar is used by Jews professing Judaism, to calculate the timing of religious holidays.

Riddles about time, about the calendar

There is an oak, there are twelve nests on the oak,

And in each nest there are four tits.

Where is all this stored?

Without legs, but running -

Doesn't end

Never back

Not returned.

(Time)

( Calendar)

The bar fell in all Russia,

On that beam

twelve trees,

Each has four branches.

The fat man is losing weight every day

And it won't get better.

(Year, months, weeks)

(Tear-off calendar)

Used sources

http://www.alkor-4.ru/kalendari_2011/uvartalnye_kalendari/kvartalnye_kalendari_na_2011_god/prn_prd2581.php

http://www.xrest.ru/original/160395/

http://arthic.ru/eg/2.htm

http://elitklub.info/forum/23-238-1

http://pritchi.diary.ru/?from=80

Thanks

for your attention!

Before the discovery of America and the beginning of its conquest by Europeans, the territory of present-day Mexico, Guatemala and some other countries was occupied by the Aztec Empire, which created a very original calendar. The year consisted of 18 months, 20 days each, and the "remaining" 5 days were considered "unlucky". This calendar was carved on a huge stone. It had the shape of a circle, with a diameter of about 4 meters. Each day was marked with its own symbol.


Creation of a modern common calendar
Now there are many different calendar systems created by different peoples and priests of different religions. Some of them are still in limited use. Most of the calendars were calculated on the basis of the revealed astronomical regularities, first of all, the movement of heavenly bodies. These systems could differ significantly from each other. Additional confusion was introduced by the difference between the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, as well as the fact that the duration of the period of the Earth's revolution around the Sun (years) is not a multiple of the period of the Earth's revolution around its own axis (days). As a result, with a sufficiently long use of each specific calendar, errors necessarily accumulated, gradually becoming more and more noticeable. This necessitated calendar reforms.
Such reforms have been carried out repeatedly. For example, the calendar was reformed by the Roman emperors: Caesar, Octavian (August) and others. The most famous reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII, when the "Gregorian" calendar was created, which is now accepted as the main one in most countries and the UN.

Gregorian calendar
In our country, this current calendar is also called the “new style”. The fact is that until October 1917, the obsolete "Julian" calendar continued to operate in Russia. The transition to the "new style" took place only after the RCP(b) came to power.

In Catholic countries, the "Gregorian" calendar came into effect on October 15, 1582. Its introduction was due to errors accumulated since the previous calendar reform (I Ecumenical Council in 325 AD). The reform consisted of two main parts:
- The error was eliminated, which reached 10 days from 325. Thus, the date of "Easter Friday" was returned and strictly tied to the day of the spring equinox (21.03). The rules of Easter, established by the Council of Nicaea, began to be fulfilled again.
- To prevent the accumulation of errors in the future, an innovation has been adopted that provides a more accurate binding of the calendar to astronomical patterns. It consists in the fact that for every 4 centuries, three leap years are converted into ordinary ones. To do this, a rule was established according to which a year with a number ending in two zeros is considered a leap year only if the number made up by its first two digits is also a multiple of 4. For example, 2000 was a leap year. But in the year 2100 there will be no February 29th. For years whose serial numbers do not end with two zeros, the leap year rule has been preserved. If the year number is a multiple of 4, the year is considered a leap year.

The introduction of this correction significantly slowed down the accumulation of the error of the discrepancy between the calendar year and the astronomical standard. Now an error of one day will accumulate over 3333 years. The amendment described was the main difference between the "Gregorian" calendar and the Julian style adopted before its introduction.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles gradually but steadily increases: in the XVI-XVII centuries. it was 10 days, in the XVIII century. - 11, in the XIX century. - 12, and in the XX-XXI centuries. reached 13 days. From March 15, 2100, the difference between the styles will already be 14 days. Although the Gregorian calendar provides for the duration of February at 28 or 29 (in a leap year) days, it happened that in some years in some countries (for example, Sweden, 1712) February lasted 30 days.

Timekeeping in Russia
In Russia, there were also reforms of the chronology. One of the most famous is the calendar reform carried out by Peter I, but there were others.
For a long time, the date of the new "secular" year was March 1st, while the religious year began on September 1st. And the date of "creation of the world" was considered the starting point of the chronology. Later, the “secular” New Year was also moved to September 1st. Approximately 200 years later, Peter I carried out his famous reform. Its main goal was to harmonize the Russian calendar and chronology with those adopted in Europe. The date of the new year was set on January 1, and the starting point of the chronology was the Nativity of Christ. As a result, 01.01.7208 was transformed into 01.01.1700, and the calendar year preceding the reform (1699) was reduced to 4 months: from September to December. It was the shortest calendar year in the history of our country.

The creation of the first printed calendar in Russia was led by the famous alchemist and scientist J. Bruce. This calendar was a scientific work, consisting of a set of complex astronomical drawings and graphs. Even specialists cannot understand the calendar (named after the name of the creator, "Bryusovy").

The transition to the modern Gregorian calendar took place on February 14, 1918, shortly after the RCP(b) came to power. However, from 1930 to 1940 the USSR had its own "revolutionary" calendar. But from the 1940s, the country again began to adhere to the "Gregorian" style.

Failed Global Reform
At the beginning of the twentieth century. there was an initiative for a global calendar reform. The draft of the new calendar developed at that time provided for the division of the year into 13 months of the same duration, 28 days each. The “extra” day, as well as the “additional” day in leap years, was planned to be isolated and declared holidays. Among the advantages of this system, they called the strict binding of calendar numbers to certain days of the week (all months consisted of exactly 4 weeks) and the possibility of accurate comparison of numerous economic and statistical indicators by months. However, the strict binding of the number to the day of the week was perceived by many (especially superstitious) people as a disadvantage, since Friday would always coincide with the 13th of the month. True, this problem could be solved if the beginning of the week was taken not Sunday (as, for example, in the USA), but Monday (usually for us).

This project was considered by the League of Nations, but was rejected by it in 1937. Interestingly, one of his ardent supporters, the founder and head of Kodak, D. Eastman, introduced this system for internal use in his company back in 1928, where it was used up to 1989

So, I informed you about how the calendar arose, what interesting moments were when creating this or that calendar, and, probably, each of you understood that this article is dedicated to the fact that in some 14 days a new one will come 2017 is the year of the fiery rooster and, of course, I cannot but tell you about the nuances of the new calendar for 2017, in general, the Calendar555 service (https://calendar555.ru/) will do it best, and that's just a small part of what you can find out on this site: The 2017 calendar on this service will tell you about holidays and weekends, about all official holidays, and about the variety of other holidays celebrated both here and abroad. In 2017, there are fourteen official holidays in the Russian Federation. 3 days have been moved to weekdays, which will give us the opportunity to relax at home longer. And a huge number of professional, folk and religious holidays.

The calendar is a system of counting large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies. Calendars have existed for 6,000 years. The very word "calendar" came from ancient Rome. This was the name of the debt books, where the usurers entered monthly interest. This happened on the first day of the month, which used to be called "kalend".

Different peoples at different times created and used three types of calendars: solar, lunar and solar-lunar. The most common solar calendar, which is based on the movement of the Sun, which allows you to coordinate the day and year. Currently, residents of most countries use this type of calendar.

One of the first creators of calendars were the inhabitants of Ancient Sumer (located in Iraq). They used a lunar calendar based on observing the movement of the moon. With it, you can coordinate the day and the lunar month. The ancient Sumerian year had 354 days, and it consisted of 12 months of 29 and 30 days. Later, when the Babylonian priests-astronomers determined that the year consists of 365.6 days, the old calendar was revised, it became lunisolar.

Back in those days, when the first Persian states were just beginning to form, the ancient farmers already had their own calendar and knew: there is a day in the year when the shortest day is replaced by the longest night. This day of the longest night and the shortest day is called the day of the winter solstice and falls on December 22 according to the modern calendar. Many centuries ago, on this day, ancient farmers celebrated the birth of the sun god Mithras. The festive action included many obligatory rites, with the help of which people helped Mithra to be born and defeat the villainess Winter, ensuring the arrival of Spring and the beginning of agricultural work. All this was a very serious occupation for our ancestors, because their very life depended on the timely arrival of spring.

Later, from Persia, the god Mithra came to the Romans and became one of the gods revered by them. In the Roman Empire, the months had different lengths (sometimes the length of the month could be changed for a bribe), but the New Year invariably fell on January 1, the date of the change of consuls. When the Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity and it turned out that the new, single God Jesus Christ was born on December 25, this further strengthened the traditions of celebrating the winter solstice and became a convenient time for New Year's festivities.

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, who was not only a commander, but also a high priest, using the calculations of the scientist Sosigen, switched to simple forms of the Egyptian solar year and introduced a calendar called the Julian. This reform was necessary, since the existing calendar was very different from the natural one, and by the time the reform was carried out, this lag from the natural change of the seasons was already 90 days. This calendar was based on the annual movement of the Sun in 12 zodiac constellations. According to the imperial reform, the year began on January 1. The first month of the year was named after the god Janus, who personifies the beginning of everything. The average duration of the year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year, and this time inaccuracy again began to accumulate.

In ancient Greece, the beginning of summer fell on the longest day of the year - June 22. And the chronology of the Greeks was from the famous Olympic Games, which were held in honor of the legendary Hercules.

The second significant reform of the calendar was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. This calendar was called the Gregorian (new style) and replaced the Julian calendar (old style). The need for changes was determined by the fact that the Julian calendar lagged behind the natural one. The day of the vernal equinox, which is very important for determining the dates of religious holidays, shifted and became earlier every year. The introduced Gregorian calendar became more accurate. The date of the vernal equinox was fixed on March 21, leap years were removed from the calendar, falling on the last years of centuries: 1600, 1700, 1800, etc. - therefore, it has fewer leap years introduced to eliminate the discrepancy between the calendar and the count of tropical years.

The Gregorian calendar was immediately adopted by many European countries, and at the beginning of the 20th century it was established in China, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt.

In Russia, the chronology invented by the Romans was used, and the Julian calendar with the Roman names of the months and the seven-day week was in effect. Before the decree of Peter I (1700), the Russians kept their calendar “from the creation of the world”, which, according to Christian teaching, took place 5506 BC, and the beginning of the New Year was celebrated somewhere in September, after the harvest, and where - in March, on the day of the spring solstice. The royal decree brought our chronology in line with the European one and ordered us to celebrate the New Year in winter - on January 1.

Until October 1917, Russia lived according to the Julian calendar, "lagging behind" European countries by 13 days. The Bolsheviks, when they came to power, reformed the calendar. On February 1, 1918, a decree was issued declaring this day the 14th. This year turned out to be the shortest, consisting of 352 days, since according to the calendar reform, January 31 of the previous year was immediately followed by ... February 14.

There was a danger of continuing the reform of the Russian calendar in the spirit of revolutionary ideology. So, in the 1930s, it was proposed to introduce “five-day periods” instead of weeks. And in 1939, the "Union of Militant Atheists" took the initiative to assign other names to the generally accepted names of the months. It was proposed to call them like this (we give, respectively, from January to December): Lenin, Marx, Revolution, Sverdlov, May (agreed to leave), the Soviet Constitution, Harvest, Peace, Comintern, Engels, the Great Revolution, Stalin. However, there were sensible heads, and the reform was rejected.

Proposals with amendments to the current system of chronology continue to appear. The last attempt to reform the calendar was made in 1954. A draft approved by many countries, including the Soviet Union, was proposed for consideration by the UN. The essence of the proposed changes was that all the first days of the quarters began on Sunday, with the first month of the quarter containing 31 days, and the remaining two months - 30 each. This option for changing the calendar was considered and tentatively approved by the UN Council as convenient in ” and was recommended for approval by the UN General Assembly, but was rejected under pressure from the United States and other countries. There is no information about new calendar change projects yet.

In a number of Muslim countries, the lunar calendar is still used, in which the beginning of the calendar months corresponds to the moments of the new moon. The lunar month (synodic) is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds. 12 such months make up a lunar year of 354 days, which is 11 days shorter than the tropical year. In a number of countries in Southeast Asia, Iran, Israel, there are varieties of the luni-solar calendar, in which the change in the phases of the moon is consistent with the beginning of the astronomical year. In such calendars, an important role is played by a period of 19 solar years, equal to 235 lunar months (the so-called Metonic cycle). The lunisolar calendar is used by Jews who profess Judaism to calculate the timing of religious holidays.

The first watch appeared quite a long time ago, because humanity needs to somehow regulate its affairs, distribute and schedule tasks, and generally control itself and its time. Of course, a few centuries ago there were no mechanical or electric clocks, so people tried to measure time by the sun, moon, stars, and indeed with the help of nature! For example, in ancient Greece time was measured with the help of heavenly bodies. People made notes and misfires on sticks or bones. And then with the help of these marks, they calculated the distance between the phases of the moon. All this helped them calculate the date and time.

Many peoples created their own calendar, but somewhere around five million years ago, such a people, called the Sumerians, created their own calendar, according to which all of humanity lives. In total, there are 12 months in a year, each of them had from 29 to 31 days. A year must be 354 days long. Sometimes some natural phenomena appeared, this contributed to the fact that this people periodically introduced a new month. What is this new month? In this month, every day was divided into 12 intervals, each interval contained 2 hours. And the interval consisted of its own thirty parts. Each part was 4 minutes long. This was the Muslim calendar, and many Muslim countries still use it in daily life.

Further discovery in the world of watches was made by the Egyptians. At first, they created calendars and calculated time using monthly cycles. But evolution and progress did not stop there, and the Egyptians came to a new conclusion that it was necessary to revise their system for calculating calendars, and, of course, time. Then even the gods were sacrificed and the priests noticed that when they sacrifice to the gods in the evening, a new star appears next to the sun, it acquired the name "Constellation Canis Major - Sirius." They forgot to say that this constellation appeared at the beginning of the largest and largest flood of the Nile River. Then they calculated how long it would take from the first appearance of the constellation Sirius to its next appearance. The result is 365 days. Since then, the Egyptians have created a new calendar, it no longer depended on the vases of the moon, but was divided into phases. The year contained three seasons in each season for four months. Each month he kept 30 days in himself, and when there were not enough days for a month, they were simply added at the end for 5 days. This calendar gained extraordinary popularity, and it was this calendar that was used by the people of the Middle Ages.

The development of the solar calendar did not stop there, for example, if earlier the solar calendar was only according to the version of the Egyptians, then a little later a version of the calendar from the Mayan tribe appeared. This tribe followed all the constellations, but the main object of observation was the planet Venus. In total there was a year, it consisted of 18 months. Each month had 20 days. Since the rest of the days did not fit, after the end of the 18th month there were 5 days. The Maya thought that these were the most unlucky days of the year. This tribe was very precise, and they calculated the length of the solar day very accurately, they came up with: 365.2420 days. To date, no one uses the Mayan calendar, but they use four days: two days of the solstice and two more days of the equinox.

But the evolution and development of calendars did not stop there either. This marathon was continued, so to speak, by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. It was this person who introduced the term leap year. After three ordinary years, there was a leap year. It was noticeably different from non-leap years, namely: in a normal year there were twenty-nine in one month, and in a leap year there were thirty days. He also correctly calculated everything and created the correct sequence of days in a year. February has either 28 or 29 days. September and November received thirty days each. October and November have 31 days. But this calendar was not accurate either, it differed from the solar calendar by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Over time, of course, it was altered.

Already in 1582, the Gregorian calendar was introduced. In Russia, the Gregorian calendar appeared only in 1918 and it is valid to this day. All that has changed in it is that it took 10 days, which appeared due to the Julian calendar, and the order of leap years has changed.

Now leap years are considered exclusively the fourth and without a trace. There are exceptions, years that end in zero and years that cannot be done at 400. This calendar is also not accurate, and perhaps in the near future we will have another calendar, but we just have to wait and use what we have.