The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used chronological system today, named after the XII who insisted on its introduction in the Catholic world. Many mistakenly believe that it was Gregory who came up with this system, however, this is far from the case. According to one version, the main inspirer of this idea was the Italian doctor Aloysius, who theoretically substantiated the need to change the chronology that existed before that.

The problem of chronology has been quite acute at all times, because the development of historical science in the country, and even the worldview of ordinary citizens, largely depends on what is taken as a starting point and what a day, month and year are equal to.

There have been and still are many chronological systems: some take as a basis the movement of the moon around the Earth, others consider the creation of the world as a starting point, and still others consider the departure of Muhammad from Mecca. In many civilizations, each change of ruler led to a change in the calendar. At the same time, one of the main difficulties is that neither the Earth day nor the Earth year lasts for a round number of hours and days, the whole question is - what to do with the remaining balance?

One of the first most successful systems was the so-called so named after the reign of which it appeared. The main innovation was that one day was added to every fourth year. This year has become known as a leap year.

However, the introduction only temporarily smoothed the problem. On the one hand, the discrepancy between the calendar year and the tropical year continued to accumulate, although not as fast as before, and on the other hand, Easter day fell on different days of the week, although, according to most Catholics, Easter should always fall on Sunday .

In 1582, after numerous calculations and based on clear astronomical calculations, in Western Europe transition to the Gregorian calendar. This year in many European countries ah, just after October 4, the fifteenth came.

The Gregorian calendar largely repeats the main provisions of its predecessor: an ordinary year also consists of 365 days, and a leap year of 366, and the number of days only changes in February - 28 or 29. The main difference is that the Gregorian calendar excludes all years divisible by one hundred, except for those divisible by 400. In addition, if according to the Julian calendar the New Year came on the first of September or the first of March, then in the new chronological system it was originally declared on December 1, and then shifted by another month.

In Russia, under the influence of the church, the new calendar was not recognized for a long time, believing that according to it the entire sequence of evangelical events was violated. The Gregorian calendar in Russia was introduced only at the beginning of 1918, after the fourteenth came immediately after the first of February.

Despite much greater accuracy, the Gregorian system is still imperfect. However, if in the Julian calendar an extra day was formed in 128 years, then in the Gregorian this would require 3200.

Before switching to Gregorian calendar, which in different countries happened in different time, the Julian calendar was widely used. It is named after the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, who is believed to have carried out a calendar reform in 46 BC.

The Julian calendar appears to be based on the Egyptian solar calendar. A Julian year was 365.25 days. But there can only be an integer number of days in a year. Therefore, it was supposed: to consider three years equal to 365 days, and the fourth year following them equal to 366 days. This year with an extra day.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a bull prescribing "to return the vernal equinox to March 21." By that time, it had gone ten days from the designated date, which were removed from that 1582 year. And so that the error does not accumulate in the future, it was prescribed to throw out three days out of every 400 years. Years that are a multiple of 100 but not a multiple of 400 became non-leap years.

The Pope threatened with excommunication anyone who did not switch to the "Gregorian calendar". Almost immediately, Catholic countries switched to it. After some time, their example was followed by Protestant states. In Orthodox Russia and Greece, the Julian calendar was followed until the first half of the 20th century.

Which calendar is more accurate

Disputes, which of the calendars - Gregorian or Julian, more precisely, do not subside to this day. On the one hand, the year of the Gregorian calendar is closer to the so-called tropical year - the interval during which the Earth makes a complete revolution around the Sun. According to modern data, the tropical year is 365.2422 days. On the other hand, scientists in astronomical calculations still use the Julian calendar.

The purpose of the calendar reform of Gregory XIII was not to bring the length of the calendar year closer to the length of the tropical year. In his time, there was no such thing as a tropical year. The purpose of the reform was to comply with the decisions of the ancient Christian councils on the timing of the celebration of Easter. However, the task was not completely solved.

The widespread opinion that the Gregorian calendar is "more correct" and "more advanced" than the Julian calendar is just a propaganda cliché. The Gregorian calendar, according to some scientists, is astronomically unjustified and is a distortion of the Julian calendar.

We use the calendar all our lives. This seemingly simple table of numbers with the days of the week is very ancient and rich history. Civilizations known to us already then knew how to divide the year into months and days. For example, in ancient egypt, based on the laws of the movement of the moon and Sirius, a calendar was created. The year was approximately 365 days and was divided into twelve months, which, in turn, were divided into thirty days.

Innovator Julius Caesar

Around 46 BC. e. there was a transformation of the chronology. The Roman emperor Julius Caesar created Julian calendar. It was slightly different from the Egyptian one: the fact is that instead of the Moon and Sirius, the sun was taken as the basis. Now the year was 365 days and six hours. The beginning of the new time was considered the first of January, but Christmas began to be celebrated on January 7th.

In connection with this reform, the senate decided to thank the emperor by naming one month after him, which we know as "July". After the death of Julius Caesar, the priests began to confuse months, the number of days - in a word, the old calendar no longer looked like a new one. Every third year was considered a leap year. From 44 to 9 BC there were 12 leap years, which was not true.

After Emperor Octavian Augustus came to power, there were no leap years for sixteen years, so everything fell into place, and the situation with the chronology improved. In honor of Emperor Octavian, the eighth month was renamed from Sextilis to August.

When the question arose about the appointment of the celebration of Easter day, disagreements began. It was this question that was decided at the Ecumenical Council. The rules that were established at this Council, no one has the right to change to this day.

Innovator Gregory XIII

In 1582, Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one.. The shifting of the vernal equinox was the main reason for the change. It was according to him that the day of Easter was calculated. At the time when the Julian calendar was introduced, March 21 was considered this day, but around the 16th century the difference between the tropical and Julian calendar was about 10 days, therefore, March 21 was replaced by 11.

In 1853, in Constantinople, the Council of the Patriarchs criticized and condemned the Gregorian calendar, according to which the Catholic Bright Sunday was celebrated before Jewish Easter, which was contrary to the established rules of the Ecumenical Councils.

Differences between old and new style

So, how is the Julian calendar different from the Gregorian?

• Unlike the Gregorian, the Julian was adopted much earlier and is 1,000 years older.
• At the moment old style(Julian) is used to calculate the celebration of Easter among Orthodox Christians.
• The chronology created by Gregory is much more accurate than the previous one and will not be subject to change in the future.
• A leap year in the old style is every fourth year.
• In Gregorian, leap years are not those years that are divisible by four and end in two zeros.
• According to the new style, all church holidays are celebrated.

As we can see, the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian is obvious not only in terms of calculations, but also in terms of popularity.

An interesting question arises. What calendar are we living on now?

The Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian, which was adopted during the Ecumenical Council, while the Catholics use the Gregorian. Hence the difference in the dates of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ and Easter. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, following the decision of the Ecumenical Council, and Catholics on December 25.

These two chronologies have received names - the old and the new style of the calendar.

The area where the old style is used is not very large: the Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem Orthodox Churches.

As we can see, after the introduction of the new style, the life of Christians around the world has changed. Many gladly accepted the changes and began to live according to it. But there are also those Christians who are faithful to the old style and live according to it even now, albeit in very small numbers.

There will always be disagreements between Orthodox and Catholics, and this is not connected with the old or new style of reckoning. Julian and Gregorian calendars - the difference is not in faith, but in the desire to use one or another calendar.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced Pope Gregory XIII in Catholic countries October 4, 1582 instead of the old Julian: the next day after Thursday, October 4, was Friday, October 15.

Reasons for switching to the Gregorian calendar

The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the gradual shift in the Julian calendar of the day of the vernal equinox, according to which the date of Easter was determined, and the mismatch of the Easter full moons with astronomical ones. Julian calendar error at 11 min. 14 sec. in the year neglected by Sosigen, to XVI century led to the fact that the spring equinox fell not on March 21, but on the 11th. The shift led to the correspondence of the same days of the year to other natural phenomena. Julian year in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds, as later scientists found out, was 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the present solar year. "Extra" days ran for 128 years. So, for a millennium and a half, humanity lagged behind the real astronomical time by as much as ten days! Reform of Pope Gregory XII I was intended to eliminate this error.

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 Aloysius Lily.

The Gregorian calendar is much more accurate than the Julian calendar: it gives a much better approximation to the tropical year.

The new calendar immediately at the time of adoption shifted the current date by 10 days and corrected the accumulated errors.

In the new calendar, a new, more precise rule about a leap year began to operate. A leap year has 366 days if:

• year number is a multiple of 400 (1600, 2000, 2400);
• other years - the number of the year is a multiple of 4 and not a multiple of 100 (… 1892, 1896, 1904, 1908…).

The rules for calculating Christian Easter have been modified. Currently, the date of Christian Easter in each specific year is calculated according to the lunisolar calendar, which makes Easter a moving holiday.

Switching to the Gregorian calendar

The transition to the new calendar was carried out gradually, in most European countries this happened during the 16th-17th centuries. And not everywhere this transition went smoothly. Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Commonwealth (Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland), France, Lorraine were the first to switch to the Gregorian calendar. In 1583, Gregory XIII sent an embassy to Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople with a proposal to switch to a new calendar, the proposal was rejected as not in accordance with the canonical rules for celebrating Easter. In some countries that switched to the Gregorian calendar, the Julian chronology was subsequently resumed as a result of their accession to other states. In connection with the transition of countries to the Gregorian calendar at different times, factual errors of perception may occur: for example, it is known that Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. In fact, these events took place with a difference of 10 days, since in Catholic Spain the new style was in effect from the very introduction of it by the pope, and Great Britain switched to the new calendar only in 1752. There were cases when the transition to the Gregorian calendar was accompanied by serious unrest.

In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918: in 1918, January 31 was followed by February 14. That is, in a number of countries, as in Russia, in 1900 there was a day on February 29, while in most countries it was not. In 1948, at the Moscow Conference of Orthodox Churches, it was decided that Easter, like all movable holidays, should be calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschalia (Julian calendar), and non-transitional ones according to the calendar according to which the Local Church lives. The Finnish Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Gregorian calendar.

For all of us, the calendar is a familiar and even ordinary thing. it ancient invention of a person fixes days, numbers, months, seasons, periodicity natural phenomena which are based on the movement system heavenly bodies: Moon, Sun, stars. The earth is sweeping across solar orbit leaving years and centuries behind.

Moon calendar

In one day, the Earth makes one complete rotation around its own axis. It goes around the sun once a year. Solar or lasts three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-six seconds. Therefore, there is no integer number of days. Hence the difficulty in drawing up an accurate calendar for the correct timing.

The ancient Romans and Greeks used a convenient and simple calendar. The rebirth of the moon occurs at intervals of 30 days, and to be precise, in twenty-nine days, twelve hours and 44 minutes. That is why the days, and then the months, could be counted according to the changes of the moon.

In the beginning, this calendar had ten months, which were named after the Roman gods. From the third century to ancient world an analog based on a four-year lunisolar cycle was used, which gave an error in the value of the solar year in one day.

In Egypt they used solar calendar compiled on the basis of observations of the Sun and Sirius. The year according to it was three hundred and sixty-five days. It consisted of twelve months of thirty days. After its expiration, five more days were added. This was formulated as "in honor of the birth of the gods."

History of the Julian calendar

Further changes took place in 46 BC. e. Emperor ancient rome Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar following the Egyptian model. In it, the value of the year was taken solar year, which was a little more than astronomical and amounted to three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours. The first of January was the beginning of the year. Christmas according to the Julian calendar began to be celebrated on the seventh of January. So there was a transition to a new chronology.

In gratitude for the reform, the Senate of Rome renamed the month Quintilis, when Caesar was born, into Julius (now it is July). A year later, the emperor was killed, and the Roman priests, either out of ignorance or deliberately, again began to confuse the calendar and began to declare every third year a leap year. As a result, from the forty-fourth to the ninth year BC. e. instead of nine, twelve leap years were declared.

The Emperor Octivian August saved the situation. By his order, there were no leap years for the next sixteen years, and the rhythm of the calendar was restored. In his honor, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August).

For the Orthodox Church, the simultaneity of church holidays was very important. The date of the celebration of Easter was discussed at the First and this issue became one of the main ones. The rules established at this Council for the exact calculation of this celebration cannot be changed under pain of anathema.

Gregorian calendar

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, approved and introduced a new calendar in 1582. It was called "Gregorian". It would seem that the Julian calendar was good for everyone, according to which Europe lived for more than sixteen centuries. However, Gregory the Thirteenth considered that the reform was necessary to determine a more accurate date for the celebration of Easter, as well as to ensure that the day returned to the twenty-first of March.

In 1583, the Council of the Eastern Patriarchs in Constantinople condemned the adoption of the Gregorian calendar as violating the liturgical cycle and calling into question the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. Indeed, in some years it violates the basic rule of celebrating Easter. It happens that Catholic Bright Sunday falls in time before Jewish Easter, and this is not allowed by the canons of the church.

The chronology in Russia

On the territory of our country, starting from the tenth century, the New Year was celebrated on the first of March. Five centuries later, in 1492, in Russia, the beginning of the year was moved, according to church traditions, to the first of September. This went on for over two hundred years.

On December 19, seven thousand two hundred and eight, Tsar Peter the Great issued a decree that the Julian calendar in Russia, adopted from Byzantium along with baptism, was still valid. The start date has changed. It has been officially approved in the country. New Year according to the Julian calendar was to be celebrated on the first of January "from the Nativity of Christ".

After the revolution of the fourteenth of February, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, new rules were introduced in our country. The Gregorian calendar ruled out three within each four hundred years. It was this that was adopted.

What is the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars? The difference between in the calculation of leap years. It increases over time. If in the sixteenth century it was ten days, then in the seventeenth it increased to eleven, in the eighteenth century it was already equal to twelve days, thirteen in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and by the twenty-second century this figure will reach fourteen days.

The Orthodox Church of Russia uses the Julian calendar, following the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, and the Catholics use the Gregorian.

You can often hear the question of why the whole world celebrates Christmas on the twenty-fifth of December, and we - on the seventh of January. The answer is quite obvious. The Orthodox Russian Church celebrates Christmas according to the Julian calendar. This also applies to other major church holidays.

Today, the Julian calendar in Russia is called the "old style". At present, its scope is very limited. It is used by some Orthodox Churches - Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Russian. In addition, the Julian calendar is used in some Orthodox monasteries in Europe and the United States.

in Russia

In our country, the issue of calendar reform has been raised repeatedly. In 1830 it was set Russian Academy Sciences. Prince K.A. Lieven, who at that time was the Minister of Education, considered this proposal untimely. Only after the revolution, the issue was submitted to a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars Russian Federation. Already on January 24, Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar.

Features of the transition to the Gregorian calendar

For Orthodox Christians, the introduction of a new style by the authorities caused certain difficulties. The new year turned out to be shifted into when any fun is not welcome. Moreover, January 1 is the day of memory of St. Boniface, who patronizes everyone who wants to give up drunkenness, and our country celebrates this day with a glass in hand.

Gregorian and Julian calendar: differences and similarities

Both of them consist of three hundred and sixty-five days in a normal year and three hundred and sixty-six in a leap year, have 12 months, 4 of which are 30 days and 7 are 31 days, February is either 28 or 29. The difference lies only in the frequency of leap years. years.

According to the Julian calendar, a leap year occurs every three years. In this case, it turns out that calendar year longer than astronomical by 11 minutes. In other words, after 128 years there is an extra day. The Gregorian calendar also recognizes that the fourth year is a leap year. The exceptions are those years that are a multiple of 100, as well as those that can be divided by 400. Based on this, an extra day appears only after 3200 years.

What awaits us in the future

Unlike the Gregorian, the Julian calendar is simpler for chronology, but it is ahead of the astronomical year. The basis of the first became the second. According to the Orthodox Church, the Gregorian calendar violates the sequence of many biblical events.

Due to the fact that the Julian and Gregorian calendars increase the difference in dates over time, Orthodox churches those who use the first of them will celebrate Christmas from the year 2101 not on January 7, as it happens now, but on January 8, and from nine thousand nine hundred and first, the celebration will take place on March 8. In the liturgical calendar, the date will still correspond to the twenty-fifth of December.

In countries where the Julian calendar was used by the beginning of the twentieth century, such as Greece, the dates of all historical events that occurred after October fifteenth, one thousand five hundred and eighty-two, are nominally celebrated on the same dates that they occurred.

Consequences of calendar reforms

Currently, the Gregorian calendar is fairly accurate. According to many experts, it does not need to be changed, but the question of its reform has been discussed for several decades. In this case, we are not talking about the introduction of a new calendar or any new methods of accounting for leap years. It is about rearranging the days of the year so that the beginning of each year falls on one day, such as Sunday.

Today, calendar months range from 28 to 31 days, the length of a quarter ranges from ninety to ninety-two days, with the first half of the year shorter than the second by 3-4 days. This complicates the work of financial and planning authorities.

What are the new calendar projects

Over the past one hundred and sixty years, various projects have been proposed. In 1923, a calendar reform committee was created under the League of Nations. After the end of World War II this question was submitted to the UN Economic and Social Committee.

Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of them, preference is given to two options - the 13-month calendar of the French philosopher Auguste Comte and the proposal of the French astronomer G. Armelin.

In the first variant, the month always starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. In a year, one day has no name at all and is inserted at the end of the last thirteenth month. In a leap year, such a day occurs in the sixth month. According to experts, this calendar has many significant shortcomings, so more attention is paid to the project of Gustave Armelin, according to which the year consists of twelve months and four quarters of ninety-one days each.

In the first month of the quarter there are thirty-one days, in the next two - thirty. The first day of each year and quarter begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. In a normal year, one extra day is added after December 30th, and in a leap year after June 30th. This project has been approved by France, India, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and some other countries. For a long time, the General Assembly delayed the approval of the project, and in recent times this work at the UN has ceased.

Will Russia return to the "old style"

It is rather difficult for foreigners to explain what the concept of "Old New Year"Why do we celebrate Christmas later than Europeans. Today there are people who want to make the transition to the Julian calendar in Russia. Moreover, the initiative comes from well-deserved and respected people. In their opinion, 70% of Russian Orthodox Russians have the right to live according to the calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church.