On the doorstep new years When one year follows another, we don’t even think about what style we live in. Surely, from the lessons of history, many of us remember that there was once a different calendar, later, people switched to a new one and began to live in a new way style.

Let's talk about how these two calendars differ: Julian and Gregorian .

History of the creation of the Julian and Gregorian calendars

To make calculations of time, people came up with a system of chronology, which was based on the frequency of movement celestial bodies, so it was created calendar.

Word "calendar" derived from the Latin word calendarium, which means "debt book". This is due to the fact that the debtors paid their debt on the day calendar, so called the first days of each month, they coincided with new moon.

Yes, at ancient romans had every month 30 days, or rather, 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes. At first this calendar had ten months, hence, by the way, the name of our last month of the year - December(from Latin decem- tenth). All months were named after Roman gods.

But, starting from the 3rd century BC, in ancient world used a different calendar based on a four-year lunisolar cycle, it gave an error in the value solar year one day. In Egypt they used solar calendar compiled on the basis of observations of the Sun and Sirius. The year for it was three hundred sixty five days. It consisted of twelve months thirty days each.

It was this calendar that became the basis julian calendar. It is named after the emperor Gaius Julius Caesar and was introduced into 45 BC. The beginning of the year according to this calendar began 1st of January.

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC)

Existed Julian calendar over sixteen centuries, until 1582 G. Pope Gregory XIII did not propose a new system of reckoning. The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was a gradual shift in relation to julian calendar the day of the vernal equinox, according to which the date of Easter was determined, as well as the discrepancy between the Easter full moons and astronomical ones. The head of the Catholic Church believed that it was necessary to determine the exact calculation of the celebration of Easter so that it fell on Sunday, and also return the day of the spring equinox to the date of March 21.

Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585)

However, in 1583 year Cathedral of the Eastern Patriarchs in Constantinople did not accept the new calendar, since it contradicted the basic rule by which the day of the celebration of Christian Easter is determined: in some years, Christian Easter would come earlier than the Jewish one, which was not allowed by the canons of the church.

However, most of European countries followed the call of Pope Gregory XIII and switched to new style chronology.

Go to Gregorian calendar caused the following changes :

1. to correct accumulated errors, the new calendar at the time of adoption immediately shifted the current date by 10 days;

2. a new, more precise rule about a leap year began to operate - a leap year, that is, it contains 366 days, if:

The year number is a multiple of 400 (1600, 2000, 2400);

The year number is a multiple of 4 and not a multiple of 100 (… 1892, 1896, 1904, 1908…);

3. The rules for calculating the Christian (namely Catholic) Easter were changed.

The difference between the dates of the Julian and Gregorian calendars increases by three days for every 400 years.

History of chronology in Russia

In Russia before Baptism New Year began in March, but from the 10th century, they began to celebrate the New Year in September, according to the Byzantine church calendar. However, people accustomed to the centuries-old tradition continued to celebrate the New Year with the awakening of nature - in the spring. Until the king Ivan III in 1492 year did not issue a decree, which reported that the New Year was officially postponed to beginning of autumn. But this did not help either, and the Russian people celebrated two New Years: in spring and autumn.

Tsar Peter the Great, striving for everything European, December 19, 1699 issued a decree that the Russian people, together with the Europeans, celebrate the New Year 1st of January.

But, at the same time, in Russia it still remained valid Julian calendar adopted from Byzantium with baptism.

February 14, 1918, after the coup, all of Russia switched to new style, now the secular state began to live according to Gregorian calendar. Later, in 1923 year, the new authorities tried to transfer to a new calendar and the church, however His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon succeeded in preserving the traditions.

Today Julian and Gregorian calendars continue to exist together. Julian calendar enjoy Georgian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Russian churches, whereas Catholics and Protestants guided Gregorian.

07.12.2015

Gregorian calendar - modern system calculus, based on astronomical phenomena, namely, on the cyclic revolution of our planet around the Sun. The length of the year in this system is 365 days, while every fourth year becomes a leap year and is equal to 364 days.

History of occurrence

The date of approval of the Gregorian calendar is 10/4/1582. This calendar replaced the current Julian calendar. Most modern countries live exactly according to the new calendar: look at any calendar and you will get a visual representation of the Gregorian system. According to the Gregorian calculus, the year is divided into 12 months, the duration of which is 28, 29, 30 and 31 days. The calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.

The transition to a new calculus led to the following changes:

• At the time of adoption, the Gregorian calendar immediately shifted the current date by 10 days and corrected the errors accumulated by the previous system;
• In the new calculus, a more correct rule for determining the leap year began to operate;
• The rules for calculating the day of Christian Easter have been modified.

In the year of the adoption of the new system, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal joined the calendar, a couple of years later other European countries joined them. In Russia, the transition to the Gregorian calendar took place only in the 20th century - in 1918. In the territory that was under the control of Soviet power, it was announced that after 01/31/1918, February 14 will immediately follow. For a long time, the citizens of the new country could not get used to the new system: the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia caused confusion in documents and minds. In official papers, dates of birth and other significant events were indicated for a long time in a stromal and new style.

By the way, the Orthodox Church still lives according to the Julian calendar (unlike the Catholic one), so the days of church holidays (Easter, Christmas) in Catholic countries do not coincide with Russian ones. According to the highest clergy of the Orthodox Church, the transition to the Gregorian system will lead to canonical violations: the rules of the Apostles do not allow the celebration of Holy Pascha to begin on the same day as the Jewish pagan holiday.

China was the last to adopt the new time reference system. This happened in 1949 after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. In the same year, the world-wide calculus of years was established in China - from the Nativity of Christ.

At the time of the approval of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between the two systems of calculation was 10 days. By now, due to different quantity leap years discrepancies increased to 13 days. By March 1, 2100, the difference will already be 14 days.

Compared to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar is more accurate from an astronomical point of view: it is as close as possible to the tropical year. The reason for the change of systems was the gradual shift of the equinox in the Julian calendar: this caused the divergence of the Easter full moons from the astronomical ones.

All modern calendars have a form familiar to us precisely due to the transition of the leadership of the Catholic Church to a new temporal calculus. If the Julian calendar continued to function, the discrepancies between the real (astronomical) equinoxes and Easter holidays would increase even more, which would confuse the very principle of determining church holidays.

By the way, the Gregorian calendar itself is not 100% accurate from an astronomical point of view, but the error in it, according to astronomers, will accumulate only after 10,000 years of use.

People continue to successfully use new system time for more than 400 years. The calendar is still a useful and functional thing that everyone needs to coordinate dates, plan business and personal life.

Modern printing production has reached an unprecedented technological development. Any commercial or social organization can order calendars with their own symbols in the printing house: they will be produced quickly, efficiently, at an adequate price.

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, holidays are celebrated by the Russian and Ukrainian Greek Catholic churches and the ancient Eastern churches in Egypt and Ethiopia.

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). Hollow after ring finger 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 there was such an expression as in the old style. For example, the holiday called Old New Year is simply New Year, but according to the Julian calendar.

The Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar in its liturgical life (the so-called old style), developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by the famous scientist Sosigenes and introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. e.

After the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia on January 24, 1918, the All-Russian Local Council decided that "during 1918, the Church will be guided by the old style in her everyday life."

On March 15, 1918, at a meeting of the Department on worship, preaching and the temple, it was adopted next solution: "In view of the importance of the question of the reform of the calendar and the impossibility, from the church-canonical point of view, of an early independent decision by the Russian Church, without prior communication on this issue with representatives of all autocephalous Churches, to leave the Julian calendar in the Russian Orthodox Church in its entirety." In 1948, at the Moscow Conference of Orthodox Churches, it was established that Easter, like all movable church holidays, should be calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschalia (Julian calendar), and non-transitory ones - according to the calendar adopted in the local church. According to the Gregorian calendar, only Finland celebrates Easter. Orthodox Church.

Currently, the Julian calendar is used only by some local Orthodox churches: Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian and Serbian. It is also followed by some monasteries and parishes in Europe and the USA, the monasteries of Athos and a number of monophysist churches. However, all Orthodox churches that have adopted the Gregorian calendar, except for the Finnish one, still calculate the day of the celebration of Easter and holidays, the dates of which depend on the date of Easter, according to the Alexandrian Paschalia and the Julian calendar.

To calculate the dates of passing church holidays, the calculus is used according to the date of Easter, determined by the lunar calendar.

The accuracy of the Julian calendar is not high: every 128 years an extra day accumulates in it. Because of this, for example, the Nativity of Christ, which initially almost coincided with the winter solstice, is gradually shifting towards spring. For this reason, in 1582, in Catholic countries, the Julian calendar was replaced by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII with a more accurate one. Protestant countries abandoned the Julian calendar gradually.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is constantly increasing due to the different rules for determining leap years: in the XIV century it was 8 days, in the XX and XXI centuries- 13, and in the XXII century the gap will be equal to 14 days already. In connection with the growing change in the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, Orthodox churches using the Julian calendar, starting from 2101, will celebrate Christmas not on January 7 according to the civil (Gregorian) calendar, as in the XX-XXI centuries, but already on January 8, but , for example, since 9001 - already March 1 (according to the new style), although in their liturgical calendar this day will still be marked as December 25 (according to the old style).

For the above reason, one should not mix the recalculation of real historical dates from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar style with recalculation to the new style of the dates of the Julian church calendar, in which all the days of celebrations are fixed as Julian (that is, without taking into account which Gregorian date a particular holiday or memorial day corresponded to). Therefore, to determine the date, for example, of the Nativity of the Virgin according to the new style in the 21st century, it is necessary to add 13 days to 8 (the Nativity of the Virgin is celebrated according to the Julian calendar on September 8), and in the 22nd century already 14 days. The translation to the new style of civil dates is carried out taking into account the century of a particular date. So, for example, the events of the Battle of Poltava took place on June 27, 1709, which, according to the new (Gregorian) style, corresponds to July 8 (the difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles in the 18th century was 11 days), and, for example, the date of the Battle of Borodino is August 26, 1812 year, and according to the new style it is September 7, since the difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles in the 19th century is already 12 days. Therefore, civil historical events will always be celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar at the time of the year in which they occurred according to the Julian calendar (the Battle of Poltava - in June, battle of Borodino- in August, the birthday of M.V. Lomonosov - in November, etc.), and the dates of church holidays are shifted forward due to their rigid binding to the Julian calendar, which quite intensively (on a historical scale) accumulates calculus errors (after several millennia The Nativity of Christ will no longer be a winter, but a summer holiday).

For quick and convenient translation of dates between different calendars, it is advisable to use

Different peoples, religious cults, astronomers tried to make the calculation of the inexorably current time both the most accurate and simple for any person. The starting point was the movement of the Sun, Moon, Earth, the location of the stars. There are dozens of calendars developed and used so far. For the Christian world, there were only two significant calendars used for centuries - Julian and Gregorian. The latter is still the basis of the chronology, which is considered the most accurate, not subject to the accumulation of errors. The transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia occurred in 1918. With what it was connected, this article will tell.

From Caesar to the present day

The Julian calendar was named after this multifaceted personality. The date of its appearance is considered to be January 1, 45. BC e. by decree of the emperor. It's funny that the starting point has little to do with astronomy - this is the day the consuls of Rome take office. This calendar, however, was not born from scratch:

• It was based on the calendar ancient egypt, which has existed for centuries, in which there were exactly 365 days, the change of seasons.
• The second source for compiling the Julian calendar was the existing Roman one, where there was a division into months.

It turned out to be a fairly balanced, thoughtful way of visualizing the passage of time. It harmoniously combined ease of use, clear periods with astronomical correlation between the Sun, Moon and stars, known for a long time and influencing the movement of the Earth.

The appearance of the Gregorian calendar, completely tied to the solar or tropical year, is due to grateful humanity to Pope Gregory XIII, who indicated that all Catholic countries should switch to a new time on October 4, 1582. It must be said that even in Europe this process was neither shaky nor rough. So, Prussia switched to it in 1610, Denmark, Norway, Iceland - in 1700, Great Britain with all overseas colonies - only in 1752.

When did Russia switch to the Gregorian calendar?

Thirsty for everything new after they destroyed everything, the fiery Bolsheviks gladly gave the command to switch to a new progressive calendar. The transition to it in Russia took place on January 31 (February 14), 1918. The Soviet government had quite revolutionary reasons for this event:

• Almost all European countries have long switched to this method of reckoning, and only the reactionary tsarist government clamped down on the initiative of those very inclined to astronomy, other exact sciences peasants and workers.
• The Russian Orthodox Church was against such violent intervention, which violated the sequence of biblical events. And how can "sellers of dope for the people" be smarter than the proletariat armed with the most advanced ideas.

Moreover, the differences between the two calendars cannot be called fundamentally different. By and large, the Gregorian calendar is a modified version of the Julian. The changes are mainly aimed at eliminating, less accumulation of temporary errors. But as a result of the date long gone historical events, the births of famous personalities have a double, confusing calculus.

For example, October Revolution in Russia it happened on October 25, 1917 - according to the Julian calendar or according to the so-called old style, which is a historical fact, or on November 7 of the same year in a new way - Gregorian. It feels like the Bolsheviks carried out the October uprising twice - the second time for an encore.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which the Bolsheviks were not able to force to recognize the new calendar either by executions of clergy or by organized robbery of artistic values, did not deviate from the biblical canons, counting the passage of time, the onset of church holidays according to the Julian calendar.

Therefore, the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia is not so much a scientific, organizational event as a political one, which at one time affected the fate of many people, and its echoes are still heard today. However, against the backdrop of a fun game of "turn the time forward / backward by an hour", which is still not completely over, judging by the initiatives of the most active deputies, this is already just a historical event.