The Roman calendar was one of the least accurate. At first, it generally had 304 days and included only 10 months, starting from the first month of spring (March) and ending with the onset of winter (Dekember - the “tenth” month); In winter, time was simply not kept. King Numa Pompilius is credited with introducing two winter months (January and February). An additional month - mercedonia - was inserted by the pontiffs at their own discretion, quite arbitrarily and in accordance with various momentary interests. In 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, according to the development of the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigen, taking the Egyptian solar calendar as a basis.

In order to correct the accumulated errors, by his power of the great pontiff, he inserted in the transitional year, in addition to mercedony, two additional months between November and December; and from January 1, 45, a Julian year of 365 days was established, with leap years every 4 years. At the same time, an extra day was inserted between February 23 and 24, as earlier mercedony; and since, according to the Roman system of reckoning, the day of February 24 was called “the sixth (sextus) from the March calends,” the intercalary day was also called “twice the sixth (bis sextus) from the March calends” and the year, respectively, annus bissextus - hence, through the Greek language, our word "leap". At the same time, the month of quintiles (in Julius) was renamed in honor of Caesar.

In the IV-VI centuries, in most Christian countries, uniform Easter tables were established, made on the basis of the Julian calendar; thus, the Julian calendar spread to the whole of Christendom. In these tables, March 21 was taken as the day of the vernal equinox.

However, as the error accumulated (1 day in 128 years), the discrepancy between the astronomical spring equinox and the calendar became more and more pronounced, and many in Catholic Europe believed that it could no longer be ignored. This was noted by the Castilian king of the 13th century Alphonse X the Wise, in the next century the Byzantine scholar Nicephorus Gregory even proposed a reform of the calendar. In reality, such a reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, based on the project of the mathematician and physician Luigi Lilio. in 1582: the day after October 4th was October 15th. Secondly, a new, more precise rule about a leap year began to operate in it.

Julian calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigenes and introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. uh..

The Julian calendar was based on the culture of ancient Egyptian chronology. In Ancient Russia, the calendar was known as the "Peaceful Circle", "Church Circle" and "Great Indiction".

The year according to the Julian calendar begins on January 1, since it was on this day from 153 BC. e. newly elected consuls took office. In the Julian calendar, a regular year has 365 days and is divided into 12 months. Once every 4 years, a leap year is declared, to which one day is added - February 29 (previously a similar system was adopted in the zodiac calendar according to Dionysius). Thus, the Julian year has an average duration of 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes different from the tropical year.

The Julian calendar is commonly referred to as the old style.

The calendar was based on static monthly holidays. Kalends were the first holiday with which the month began. The next holiday, falling on the 7th (in March, May, July and October) and on the 5th of the remaining months, were nons. The third holiday, falling on the 15th (in March, May, July and October) and the 13th of the remaining months, was the Ides.

Removal by the Gregorian calendar

In Catholic countries, the Julian calendar was replaced by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII with the Gregorian calendar in 1582: the day after October 4, October 15 came. The Protestant countries abandoned the Julian calendar gradually, over the course of the 17th-18th centuries (the last were Great Britain from 1752 and Sweden). In Russia, the Gregorian calendar has been used since 1918 (it is usually called the new style), in Orthodox Greece - since 1923.

In the Julian calendar, a year was a leap year if it ended in 00. 325 AD. The Council of Nicaea decreed this calendar for all Christian countries. 325 g is the day of the spring equinox.

Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII on October 4, 1582 to replace the old Julian: the day after Thursday, October 4 became Friday, October 15 (there are no days from October 5 to October 14, 1582 in the Gregorian calendar).

In the Gregorian calendar, the length of the tropical year is 365.2425 days. The length of a non-leap year is 365 days, a leap year is 366.

Story

The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the shift of the vernal equinox, which determined the date of Easter. Before Gregory XIII, Popes Paul III and Pius IV tried to implement the project, but they did not achieve success. The preparation of the reform at the direction of Gregory XIII was carried out by the astronomers Christopher Clavius ​​and Luigi Lilio (aka Aloysius Lily). The results of their work were recorded in the papal bull, named after the first line of lat. Inter gravissimas ("Among the most important").

Firstly, the new calendar immediately at the time of adoption shifted the current date by 10 days due to accumulated errors.

Secondly, a new, more precise rule about a leap year began to operate in it.

A leap year has 366 days if:

Its number is divisible by 4 without a remainder and is not divisible by 100 or

Its number is evenly divisible by 400.

Thus, over time, the Julian and Gregorian calendars diverge more and more: by 1 day per century, if the number of the previous century is not divisible by 4. The Gregorian calendar reflects the true state of affairs much more accurately than the Julian. It gives a much better approximation to the tropical year.

In 1583, Gregory XIII sent an embassy to Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople with a proposal to switch to a new calendar. At the end of 1583, at a council in Constantinople, the proposal was rejected as not in accordance with the canonical rules for celebrating Easter.

In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, according to which, in 1918, January 31 was followed by February 14.

Since 1923, most of the local Orthodox churches, with the exception of the Russian, Jerusalem, Georgian, Serbian and Athos, have adopted a similar to the Gregorian New Julian calendar, coinciding with it until 2800. It was also formally introduced by Patriarch Tikhon for use in the Russian Orthodox Church on October 15, 1923. However, this innovation, although it was accepted by almost all Moscow parishes, generally caused disagreement in the Church, so already on November 8, 1923, Patriarch Tikhon ordered "the universal and mandatory introduction of the new style into church use be temporarily postponed." Thus, the new style was valid in the Russian Orthodox Church for only 24 days.

In 1948, at the Moscow Conference of Orthodox Churches, it was decided that Easter, like all passing holidays, should be calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschalia (Julian calendar), and non-passing according to the calendar according to which the Local Church lives. The Finnish Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Gregorian calendar.

JULIAN AND GRIGORIAN CALENDARS

Calendar- the table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years familiar to all of us is the oldest invention of mankind. It fixes the periodicity of natural phenomena, based on the patterns of movement of celestial bodies: the Sun, Moon, stars. The earth rushes along its solar orbit, counting the years and centuries. In a day, it makes one revolution around its axis, and in a year - around the Sun. The astronomical or solar year lasts 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Therefore, there is no whole number of days, which is where the difficulty arises in compiling a calendar that should keep a correct count of time. Since the time of Adam and Eve, people have used the "circle" of the Sun and Moon to keep track of time. The lunar calendar used by the Romans and Greeks was simple and convenient. From one revival of the moon to the next, about 30 days pass, or rather, 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. Therefore, according to the changes of the moon, it was possible to count the days, and then the months.

In the lunar calendar, at first there were 10 months, the first of which were dedicated to the Roman gods and supreme rulers. For example, the month of March was named after the god Mars (Martius), the month of May is dedicated to the goddess Maia, July is named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and August is named after the emperor Octavian Augustus. In the ancient world, from the 3rd century BC, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year luni-solar cycle, which gave a discrepancy with the solar year by 4 days in 4 years. In Egypt, a solar calendar was compiled from observations of Sirius and the Sun. The year in this calendar lasted 365 days, it had 12 months of 30 days, and at the end of the year 5 more days were added in honor of the “birth of the gods”.

In 46 BC, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar introduced an exact solar calendar following the Egyptian model - Julian. The solar year was taken as the value of the calendar year, which was slightly more than the astronomical one - 365 days 6 hours. January 1 was legalized as the beginning of the year.

In 26 BC. e. Roman emperor Augustus introduced the Alexandrian calendar, in which 1 more day was added every 4 years: instead of 365 days - 366 days a year, that is, 6 extra hours annually. For 4 years, this amounted to a whole day, which was added every 4 years, and the year in which one day was added in February was called a leap year. In essence, this was a refinement of the same Julian calendar.

For the Orthodox Church, the calendar was the basis of the yearly cycle of worship, and therefore it was very important to establish the simultaneity of holidays throughout the Church. The question of the time of the celebration of Easter was discussed at the First Ecumenical. Cathedral *, as one of the main ones. Paschalia (the rules for calculating the day of Easter) established at the Council, together with its basis - the Julian calendar - cannot be changed under pain of anathema - excommunication and rejection from the Church.

In 1582, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, introduced a new calendar style - Gregorian. The purpose of the reform was allegedly to more accurately determine the day of the celebration of Easter, so that the spring equinox would return by March 21. The Council of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1583 in Constantinople condemned the Gregorian calendar as violating the entire liturgical cycle and the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. It is important to note that the Gregorian calendar in some years violates one of the main church rules on the date of the celebration of Easter - it happens that the Catholic Easter falls earlier than the Jewish one, which is not allowed by the canons of the Church; also sometimes "disappears" Petrov post. At the same time, such a great learned astronomer as Copernicus (being a Catholic monk) did not consider the Gregorian calendar more accurate than the Julian, and did not recognize it. The new style was introduced by the authority of the Pope in place of the Julian calendar, or old style, and was gradually adopted in the Catholic countries. By the way, modern astronomers also use the Julian calendar in their calculations.

In Russia Since the 10th century, the New Year has been celebrated on March 1, when, according to biblical tradition, God created the world. 5 centuries later, in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year in Russia was moved to September 1, and they celebrated this way for more than 200 years. The months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was associated with natural phenomena. Years were counted from the creation of the world.

December 19, 7208 ("from the creation of the world") Peter I signed a decree on the reform of the calendar. The calendar remained Julian, as before the reform, adopted by Russia from Byzantium along with baptism. A new beginning of the year was introduced - January 1 and the Christian chronology "from the Nativity of Christ." The decree of the king prescribed: “The day after December 31, 7208 from the creation of the world (the Orthodox Church considers the date of the creation of the world - September 1, 5508 BC) to be considered January 1, 1700 from the birth of Christ. The decree also ordered to celebrate this event with particular solemnity: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and the new centennial century, in fun, congratulate each other on the New Year ... On the noble and passable streets at the gates and houses, make some decoration from pine trees and branches , spruce and juniper ... repair shooting from small cannons and guns, launch rockets, as many as anyone happens to, and light fires. The account of years from the Nativity of Christ is accepted by most states of the world. With the spread of atheism among the intelligentsia and historians, they began to avoid mentioning the name of Christ and replace the countdown of the centuries from His Nativity to the so-called "our era."

After the great October socialist revolution, the so-called new style (Gregorian) was introduced in our country on February 14, 1918.

The Gregorian calendar excluded three leap years within each 400th anniversary. With the passage of time, the difference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendar increases. The initial value of 10 days in the 16th century subsequently increases: in the 18th century - 11 days, in the 19th century - 12 days, in the 20th and 21st centuries - 13 days, in the XXII - 14 days.
The Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar, unlike the Catholics, who use the Gregorian.

At the same time, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by the civil authorities led to some difficulties for Orthodox Christians. The New Year, which is celebrated by all civil society, has been moved to Advent, when it is inappropriate to have fun. In addition, according to the church calendar, January 1 (December 19, old style) commemorates the holy martyr Boniface, who patronizes people who want to get rid of alcohol abuse - and our entire vast country celebrates this day with glasses in their hands. Orthodox people celebrate the New Year "in the old way", on January 14th.

People have been thinking about the need for chronology for a very long time. It is worth remembering the same Mayan calendar that made a lot of noise all over the world a few years ago. But almost all world states now live according to the calendar, which is called the Gregorian. However, in many films or books you can see or hear references to the Julian calendar. What is the difference between these two calendars?

This calendar got its name from the most famous Roman emperor. Gaius Julius Caesar. The development of the calendar was, of course, not the emperor himself, but it was done by his decree by a whole group of astronomers. The birthday of this method of reckoning is January 1, 45 BC. The word calendar was also born in ancient Rome. Translated from Latin, it means - debt book. The fact is that then interest on debts was paid on kalends (the so-called first days of each month).

In addition to the name of the entire calendar, Julius Caesar also gave a name to one of the months - July, although this month was originally called - quintilis. Other Roman emperors also gave their names to the months. But besides July, only August is used today - the month that was renamed in honor of Octavian Augustus.

The Julian calendar completely ceased to be a state calendar in 1928, when Egypt switched to the Gregorian. This country was the last to switch to the Gregorian calendar. Italy, Spain and the Commonwealth were the first to cross in 1528. Russia made the transition in 1918.

Today, the Julian calendar is used only in some Orthodox churches. In such as: Jerusalem, Georgian, Serbian and Russian, Polish and Ukrainian. Also, according to the Julian calendar, Russian and Ukrainian Greek Catholic churches and ancient Eastern churches in Egypt and Ethiopia celebrate holidays.

This calendar was introduced by the Pope Gregory XIII. The calendar is named after him. The need to replace the Julian calendar was, first of all, in confusion about the celebration of Easter. According to the Julian calendar, the celebration of this day fell on different days of the week, but Christianity insisted that Easter should always be celebrated on Sunday. However, although the Gregorian calendar streamlined the celebration of Easter, the rest of the church holidays went astray with its appearance. Therefore, some Orthodox churches still live according to the Julian calendar. A good example is that Catholics celebrate Christmas on December 25, and Orthodox on January 7.

Not all people took the transition to the new calendar calmly. Riots broke out in many countries. And in the Russian Orthodox Church, the new calendar was valid for only 24 days. Sweden, for example, lived according to its own calendar because of all these transitions.

Common features in both calendars

1. Division. In both the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the year is divided into 12 months and 365 days, and 7 days a week.
2. Months. In the Gregorian calendar, all 12 months are named the same as in the Julian. They have the same sequence and the same number of days. There is an easy way to remember which month and how many days. You need to clench your hands into fists. The knuckle on the little finger of the left hand will be considered January, and the depression that follows it will be February. Thus, all the knuckles will symbolize months with 31 days, and all the hollows will symbolize months with 30 days. Of course, the exception is February, which has 28 or 29 days (depending on whether it is a leap year or not). The hollow after the ring finger of the right hand and the knuckle of the right little finger are not taken into account, since there are only 12 months. This method is suitable for determining the number of days in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
3. Church holidays. All holidays that are celebrated according to the Julian calendar are also celebrated according to the Gregorian. However, the celebration takes place on other days and dates. For example, Christmas.
4. Place of invention. Like the Julian, the Gregorian calendar was invented in Rome, but in 1582 Rome was part of Italy, and in 45 BC, the center of the Roman Empire.

Differences between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian

1. Age. Since some Churches live according to the Julian calendar, it is safe to say that it exists. This means that it is older than the Gregorian by about 1626 years.
2. Usage. The Gregorian calendar is considered the state calendar in almost all countries of the world. The Julian calendar can also be called the church calendar.
3. Leap year. In the Julian calendar, every fourth year is a leap year. In the Gregorian, a leap year is one whose number is a multiple of 400 and 4, but one that is not a multiple of 100. That is, 2016 is a leap year according to the Gregorian calendar, but 1900 is not.
4. Date difference. Initially, the Gregorian calendar, one might say, was in a hurry by 10 days compared to the Julian. That is, according to the Julian calendar, October 5, 1582 - was considered October 15, 1582, according to the Gregorian calendar. However, now the difference between the calendars is already 13 days. In connection with this difference, in the countries of the former Russian Empire, such an expression appeared as in the old style. For example, the holiday called Old New Year is simply New Year, but according to the Julian calendar.

- a number system for long periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies.

The most common solar calendar is based on the solar (tropical) year - the time interval between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox.

A tropical year is approximately 365.2422 mean solar days.

The solar calendar includes the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and some others.

The modern calendar is called the Gregorian (new style) and was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style) that had been in use since the 45th century BC.

The Gregorian calendar is a further refinement of the Julian calendar.

In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, the average length of the year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Over time, the onset of seasonal phenomena according to the Julian calendar fell on ever earlier dates. Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift in the date of Easter, associated with the spring equinox. In 325, the Nicene Council issued a decree on a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.

© Public Domain

© Public Domain

In the following centuries, many proposals were made to improve the calendar. The proposals of the Neapolitan astronomer and physician Aloysius Lilius (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius ​​were approved by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a bull (message) introducing two important additions to the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - after October 4, October 15 immediately followed. This measure made it possible to keep March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four century years were to be considered ordinary and only those divisible by 400 were leap years.

1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar, called the new style.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced at different times in different countries. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg were the first to adopt the new style in 1582. Then in the 1580s it was introduced in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary. In the XVIII century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, in the XIX century - in Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

In Russia, along with the adoption of Christianity (X century), the Julian calendar was established. Since the new religion was borrowed from Byzantium, the years were counted according to the Constantinople era "from the creation of the world" (for 5508 BC). By decree of Peter I in 1700, the European chronology was introduced in Russia - "from the Nativity of Christ."

December 19, 7208 from the creation of the world, when the reformation decree was issued, in Europe corresponded to December 29, 1699 from the birth of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar.

At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after the October Revolution of 1917 - from February 14, 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church, preserving traditions, lives according to the Julian calendar.

The difference between the old and new styles is 11 days for the 18th century, 12 days for the 19th century, 13 days for the 20th and 21st centuries, 14 days for the 22nd century.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than the tropical year and accumulates an error of 0.0003 days per year, which is three days in 10 thousand years. The Gregorian calendar also does not take into account the slowing of the Earth's rotation, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds per 100 years.

The modern structure of the Gregorian calendar also does not fully meet the needs of public life. Chief among its shortcomings is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and half-years.

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

- Theoretically, the civil (calendar) year should have the same duration as the astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is impossible because the tropical year does not contain an integer number of days. Because of the need to add extra days to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - ordinary and leap years. Since a year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of common years and seven types of leap years, for a total of 14 types of years. For their full reproduction, you need to wait 28 years.

— The length of the months is different: they can contain from 28 to 31 days, and this unevenness leads to certain difficulties in economic calculations and statistics.|

Neither regular nor leap years contain an integer number of weeks. Half-years, quarters and months also do not contain a whole and equal number of weeks.

- From week to week, from month to month and from year to year, the correspondence of dates and days of the week changes, so it is difficult to establish the moments of various events.

In 1954 and 1956, the drafts of the new calendar were discussed at the sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), but the final decision on the issue was postponed.

In Russia, the State Duma was proposing to return the Julian calendar to the country from January 1, 2008. Deputies Victor Alksnis, Sergey Baburin, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when the chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars for 13 days. In April 2008, the bill was voted down by a majority vote.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

In the days of Ancient Rome, it was customary that debtors pay interest on the first days of the months. This day had a special name - the day of calends, and the Latin calendarium literally translates as "debt book". But the Greeks did not have such a date, so the Romans ironically said about inveterate debtors that they would return the loan before the Greek calends, that is, never. This expression subsequently became winged around the world. In our time, the Gregorian calendar is almost universally used to calculate large periods of time. What are its features and what is its principle of construction - this is exactly what will be discussed in our article.

How did the Gregorian calendar come about?

As you know, the basis for the modern chronology is the tropical year. So astronomers call the time interval between the spring equinoxes. It is equal to 365.2422196 mean earth solar days. Before the modern Gregorian calendar appeared, the Julian calendar, which was invented in the 45th century BC, was in use all over the world. In the old system, proposed by Julius Caesar, one year in the range of 4 years averaged 365.25 days. This value is 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Therefore, over time, the error of the Julian calendar constantly accumulated. Of particular displeasure was the constant shift in the day of the celebration of Easter, which was tied to the spring equinox. Later, during the Council of Nicaea (325), a special decree was even adopted, which determined a single date for Easter for all Christians. Many suggestions have been made to improve the calendar. But only the recommendations of the astronomer Aloysius Lily (Neapolitan astronomer) and Christopher Clavius ​​(Bavarian Jesuit) were given the green light. It happened on February 24, 1582: the Pope, Gregory XIII, issued a special message, which introduced two significant additions to the Julian calendar. In order for March 21 to remain in the calendar as the date of the vernal equinox, from 1582, starting from October 4, 10 days were withdrawn immediately and followed by the 15th. The second addition concerned the introduction of a leap year - it came every three years and differed from the usual ones in that it was divided by 400. Thus, the new improved chronology system began its countdown from 1582, it received its name in honor of the pope, and among the people it became known as the new style.

Switching to the Gregorian calendar

It should be noted that not all countries immediately adopted such innovations. Spain, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Holland, France and Luxembourg were the first to adopt the new timekeeping system (1582). A little later they were joined by Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. In Denmark, Norway and Germany, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in the 17th century, in Finland, Sweden, Great Britain and the Northern Netherlands in the 18th century, in Japan in the 19th century. And at the beginning of the 20th century, Bulgaria, China, Romania, Serbia, Egypt, Greece and Turkey joined them. The Gregorian calendar came into force in Russia a year later, after the 1917 revolution. However, the Orthodox Russian Church decided to preserve the traditions and still lives according to the old style.

prospects

Despite the fact that the Gregorian calendar is very accurate, it is still not perfect and accumulates an error of 3 days in ten thousand years. In addition, it does not take into account the slowdown in the rotation of our planet, which leads to a lengthening of the day by 0.6 seconds every century. The variability of the number of weeks and days in half-years, quarters and months is another drawback. Today, new projects exist and are being developed. The first discussions regarding the new calendar took place as early as 1954 at the UN level. However, then they could not come to a decision and this issue was postponed.