Why was the Gregorian calendar adopted? What does old and new calendar style mean? What awaits us in the future

Since 46 BC, the Julian calendar has been used in most countries of the world. However, in 1582, by decision of Pope Gregory XIII, it was replaced by the Gregorian. In that year, the day after the fourth of October was not the fifth, but the fifteenth of October. Now the Gregorian calendar is officially adopted in all countries except Thailand and Ethiopia.

Reasons for adopting the Gregorian calendar

The main reason for introducing new system chronology was the movement of the day of the vernal equinox, depending on which the date of the celebration of Christian Easter was determined. Due to discrepancies between the Julian and the tropical calendar (the tropical year is the length of time during which the sun completes one cycle of the seasons), the day of the vernal equinox gradually shifted to ever earlier dates. At the time of the introduction of the Julian calendar, it fell on March 21, both according to the accepted calendar system and in fact. But to XVI century, the difference between the tropical and Julian calendars was already about ten days. As a result, the day of the spring equinox was no longer on March 21, but on March 11.

Scientists drew attention to the above problem long before the adoption of the Gregorian system of chronology. Back in the 14th century, Nikephoros Gregoras, a Byzantine scholar, reported this to Emperor Andronicus II. According to Grigora, it was necessary to revise the calendar system that existed at that time, because otherwise the date of the celebration of Easter would continue to shift to an ever later time. However, the emperor did not take any action to eliminate this problem, fearing a protest from the church.

In the future, other scientists from Byzantium spoke about the need to switch to a new calendar system. But the calendar continued to remain unchanged. And not only because of the fear of the rulers to cause indignation among the clergy, but also because the further the Christian Easter was pushed back, the less chance it had to coincide with the Jewish Easter. This was unacceptable according to church canons.

By the 16th century, the problem had become so urgent that the need to solve it was no longer in doubt. As a result, Pope Gregory XIII assembled a commission, which was instructed to carry out all the necessary research and create a new calendar system. The results obtained were displayed in the bull "Among the most important". It was she who became the document with which the adoption of the new calendar system began.

The main disadvantage of the Julian calendar is its lack of accuracy in relation to the tropical calendar. In the Julian calendar, leap years are all years that are divisible by 100 without a remainder. As a result, every year the difference with the tropical calendar increases. Approximately every one and a half centuries, it increases by 1 day.

Gregorian calendar much more accurate. It has fewer leap years. Leap years in this system of chronology are years that:

  1. divisible by 400 without a remainder;
  2. divisible by 4 without a remainder, but not divisible by 100 without a remainder.

Thus, 1100 or 1700 in the Julian calendar are considered leap years because they are divisible by 4 without a remainder. In the Gregorian calendar, of the past, after its adoption, 1600 and 2000 are considered leap years.

Immediately after the introduction of the new system, it was possible to eliminate the difference between the tropical and calendar years, which at that time was already 10 days. Otherwise, due to errors in the calculations, an extra year would run every 128 years. In the Gregorian calendar, an extra day only occurs every 10,000 years.

Far from all modern states, the new chronology system was adopted immediately. The Catholic states were the first to switch to it. In these countries, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted either in 1582 or shortly after the decree of Pope Gregory XIII.

In a number of states, the transition to a new calendar system was associated with popular unrest. The most serious of them took place in Riga. They lasted for five whole years - from 1584 to 1589.

There were also some funny situations. So, for example, in Holland and Belgium, due to the official adoption of the new calendar, after December 21, 1582, January 1, 1583 came. As a result, the inhabitants of these countries were left without Christmas in 1582.

Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar one of the last. The new system was officially introduced on the territory of the RSFSR on January 26, 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars. In accordance with this document, immediately after January 31 of that year, February 14 came on the territory of the state.

Later than in Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced only in a few countries, including Greece, Turkey and China.

After the official adoption of the new chronology system, Pope Gregory XIII sent a proposal to Constantinople to switch to a new calendar. However, she was met with a refusal. Its main reason was the inconsistency of the calendar with the canons of the celebration of Easter. However, in the future, most Orthodox churches still switched to the Gregorian calendar.

To date, only four Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar: Russian, Serbian, Georgian and Jerusalem.

Date rules

In accordance with the generally accepted rule, dates that fell between 1582 and the moment the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the country are indicated both in the old and in the new style. In this case, the new style is indicated in quotation marks. Earlier dates are given in accordance with the proleptic calendar (i.e., the calendar used to indicate dates earlier than the date the calendar appeared). In countries where the Julian calendar was adopted, dates prior to 46 B.C. e. are indicated according to the proleptic Julian calendar, and where it was not - according to the proleptic Gregorian.

Since by this time the difference between the old and new styles was 13 days, the decree ordered that after January 31, 1918, not February 1, but February 14 be counted. By the same decree, until July 1, 1918, after the number of each day according to the new style, in brackets, write the number according to the old style: February 14 (1), February 15 (2), etc.

From the history of chronology in Russia.

The ancient Slavs, like many other peoples, initially based their calendar on the period of change in the lunar phases. But already by the time of the adoption of Christianity, that is, by the end of the tenth century. n. e., Ancient Russia used the lunisolar calendar.

Calendar of the ancient Slavs. It was not finally possible to establish what the calendar of the ancient Slavs was. It is only known that initially time was counted according to the seasons. Probably, at the same time, a 12-month moon calendar. In later times, the Slavs switched to the lunisolar calendar, in which an additional 13th month was inserted seven times every 19 years.

The oldest monuments of Russian writing show that the months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was closely connected with natural phenomena. At the same time, the same months, depending on the climate of those places in which different tribes lived, received different names. So, January was called where the cross section (the time of deforestation), where it was blue (after the winter cloudiness, a blue sky appeared), where it was jelly (because it became cold, cold), etc .; February - cut, snow or fierce (severe frosts); March - berezosol (there are several interpretations here: birch begins to bloom; they took birch sap; burned birch for coal), dry (the poorest in precipitation in ancient Kievan Rus, in some places the earth was already drying up, sap (a reminder of birch sap); April - pollen (flowering gardens), birch (beginning of birch flowering), oak, plum tree, etc .; May - grass (grass turns green), summer, pollen; June - worm (cherries turn red), isok (grasshoppers are chirping - “isoki”), milky; July - Lipets (linden blossom), worm (in the north, where phenological phenomena are late), sickle (from the word "sickle", indicating harvest time); august - sickle, stubble, glow (from the verb "roar" - the roar of deer, or from the word "glow" - cold dawns, and possibly from "pazors" - polar lights); september - veresen (heather bloom); ruen (from the Slavic root of the word meaning tree, giving yellow paint); october - leaf fall, "pazdernik" or "kastrychnik" (pazders - hemp bonfires, the name for the south of Russia); November - breast (from the word "pile" - a frozen rut on the road), leaf fall (in the south of Russia); December - jelly, breast, blueberry.

The year began on March 1, and from about that time they started agricultural work.

Many of the ancient names of the months later moved to the series Slavic languages and largely held out in some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

At the end of the tenth century Ancient Russia adopted Christianity. At the same time, the chronology used by the Romans passed to us - the Julian calendar (based on the solar year), with the Roman names of the months and the seven-day week. The account of years in it was conducted from the "creation of the world", which allegedly occurred 5508 years before our reckoning. This date - one of the many options for eras from the "creation of the world" - was adopted in the 7th century. in Greece and has long been used by the Orthodox Church.

For many centuries, March 1 was considered the beginning of the year, but in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year was officially moved to September 1 and was celebrated this way for more than two hundred years. However, a few months after September 1, 7208, Muscovites celebrated their next New Year, they had to repeat the celebration. This happened because on December 19, 7208, a personal decree of Peter I was signed and promulgated on the reform of the calendar in Russia, according to which a new beginning of the year was introduced - from January 1 and a new era - the Christian chronology (from the "Christmas").

Petrovsky's decree was called: "On writing henceforth Genvar from the 1st of 1700 in all papers of the summer from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world." Therefore, the decree ordered the day after December 31, 7208 from the "creation of the world" to be considered January 1, 1700 from the "Christmas". In order for the reform to be adopted without complications, the decree ended with a prudent clause: “And if anyone wants to write both those years, from the creation of the world and from the Nativity of Christ, in a row freely.”

Meeting of the first civil New Year in Moscow. The day after the announcement on Red Square in Moscow of the decree of Peter I on the reform of the calendar, that is, on December 20, 7208, a new decree of the tsar was announced - "On the celebration of the New Year." Considering that January 1, 1700 is not only the beginning of a new year, but also the beginning of a new century (Here a significant mistake was made in the decree: 1700 is last year XVII century, and not the first year of the XVIII century. New Age came on January 1, 1701. A mistake that is sometimes repeated even today.), the decree prescribed to celebrate this event with particular solemnity. It gave detailed instructions on how to organize a holiday in Moscow. On New Year's Eve, Peter I himself lit the first rocket on Red Square, thus signaling the opening of the holiday. The streets were illuminated with illumination. The ringing of bells and cannon fire began, the sounds of trumpets and timpani were heard. The king congratulated the population of the capital on the New Year, the festivities continued all night. Multi-colored rockets flew up from the courtyards into the dark winter sky, and “along the large streets, where there is space,” fires burned - bonfires and tar barrels attached to poles.

The houses of the inhabitants of the wooden capital were dressed up in needles “from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper”. For a whole week the houses stood decorated, and at nightfall the lights were lit. Shooting "from small cannons and from muskets or other small weapons", as well as launching "rockets" were entrusted to people "who do not count gold." And the “meager people” were offered “everyone, at least a tree or a branch on the gate or over his temple.” Since that time, the custom has been established in our country every year on January 1 to celebrate New Year's Day.

After 1918, there were more calendar reforms in the USSR. In the period from 1929 to 1940, calendar reforms were carried out in our country three times, caused by production needs. So, on August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR", in which it was recognized as necessary from the 1929-1930 financial year to begin a systematic and consistent transfer of enterprises and institutions to continuous production. In the autumn of 1929, a gradual transition to "continuous" began, which ended in the spring of 1930 after the publication of a resolution of a special government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense. This resolution introduced a single production time sheet-calendar. AT calendar year 360 days were envisaged, that is, 72 five-day periods. It was decided to consider the remaining 5 days as holidays. Unlike the ancient Egyptian calendar, they were not located all together at the end of the year, but were timed to coincide with Soviet memorable days and revolutionary holidays: January 22, May 1 and 2, and November 7 and 8.

The employees of each enterprise and institution were divided into 5 groups, and each group was given a day of rest every five days for the whole year. This meant that after four days of work there was a day of rest. After the introduction of the "continuity" there was no need for a seven-day week, since days off could fall not only on different days of the month, but also on different days of the week.

However, this calendar did not last long. Already on November 21, 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the Intermittent Production Week in Institutions", which allowed the people's commissariats and other institutions to switch to a six-day interrupted production week. For them, regular days off were set on the following dates of the month: 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30. At the end of February, the day off fell on the last day of the month or was postponed to March 1. In those months that contained but 31 days, the last day of the month was considered a full month and paid separately. The decree on the transition to a discontinuous six-day week came into force on December 1, 1931.

Both the five-day and six-day days completely broke the traditional seven-day week with a common day off on Sunday. The six-day week was used for about nine years. Only on June 26, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree “On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week and on the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions”, In the development of this decree, on June 27, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution in which it established that “beyond Sundays non-working days are also:

January 22, May 1 and 2, November 7 and 8, December 5. The same decree abolished the six special days of rest and non-working days that existed in rural areas on March 12 (Day of the overthrow of the autocracy) and March 18 (Day of the Paris Commune).

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions adopted a resolution "On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day work week with two days off", but this reform did not in any way affect the structure of the modern calendar.

But the most interesting thing is that the passions do not subside. The next round happens already in our new time. Sergey Baburin, Viktor Alksnis, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko submitted a bill to the State Duma in 2007 - on the transition of Russia from January 1, 2008 to the Julian calendar. In the explanatory note, the deputies noted that "the world calendar does not exist" and proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when within 13 days the chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to two calendars at once. Only four deputies took part in the voting. Three are against, one is for. There were no abstentions. The rest of the elect ignored the vote.

Julian calendar

Julian calendar- a calendar developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigen and introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC.

The Julian calendar reformed the obsolete Roman calendar and was based on the culture of chronology ancient egypt. AT Ancient Russia the calendar was known as the Peaceful Circle, the Church Circle, and the Great Indiction.

The year according to the Julian calendar begins on January 1, since it was on this day from 153 BC. e. consuls elected by the comitia 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 longer than the tropical year.

365,24 = 365 + 0,25 = 365 + 1 / 4

The Julian calendar in Russia is usually called old style.

Monthly holidays in the Roman calendar

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.

Months

There is a mnemonic rule for remembering the number of days in a month: hands are folded into fists and, going from left to right from the bone of the little finger of the left hand to the index finger, touching the bones and pits in turn, they list: "January, February, March ...". February will have to be remembered separately. After July (the bone of the index finger of the left hand), you need to switch to the bone of the index finger right hand and continue counting to the little finger, starting in August. On the bones - 31, between - 30 (in the case of February - 28 or 29).

crowding out Gregorian calendar

The accuracy of the Julian calendar is not high: every 128 years an extra day accumulates. Because of this, for example, Christmas, which initially almost coincided with the winter solstice, gradually shifted towards spring. The difference is most noticeable in spring and autumn near the equinoxes, when the rate of change in the length of the day and the position of the sun is maximum. In many temples, according to the plan of the creators, on the day of the vernal equinox, the sun should fall into a certain place, for example, in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, this is a mosaic. Not only astronomers, but also the higher clergy, led by the Pope, could make sure that Easter no longer falls into its original place. After a long discussion of this problem in 1582, the Julian calendar in Catholic countries was replaced by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII with a more accurate calendar. At the same time, the next day after October 4 was announced as October 15. Protestant countries abandoned the Julian calendar gradually, during the XVII-XVIII centuries; the last were Great Britain (1752) and Sweden.

In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars adopted on January 24, 1918; in Orthodox Greece - in 1923. The Gregorian calendar is often called new style.

Julian calendar in Orthodoxy

The Julian calendar is currently used only by some local governments. Orthodox churches: Jerusalem, Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Ukrainian.

In addition, some monasteries and parishes in other European countries, as well as in the USA, monasteries and other institutions of Athos (Patriarchate of Constantinople), Greek Old Calendarists (in schism) and other Old Calendarists-schismatics who did not accept the transition to the New Julian calendar in Hellas churches and other churches in the 1920s; as well as a number of Monophysite churches, including in Ethiopia.

However, all Orthodox churches that have adopted the new calendar, except for the Church of Finland, still calculate the day of Easter celebration and holidays, the dates of which depend on the date of Easter, according to the Alexandrian Paschalia and the Julian calendar.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is constantly increasing due to different rules for determining leap years: in the Julian calendar, all years that are a multiple of 4 are leap years, while in the Gregorian calendar, a year is a leap year if it is a multiple of 400, or if it is a multiple of 4 and is not a multiple of 4 100. The jump occurs in the final year of the century (see Leap year).

The difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars (dates are given according to the Gregorian calendar; October 15, 1582 corresponds to October 5 according to the Julian calendar; other start dates of periods correspond to Julian February 29, end dates - February 28).

Date difference Julian and Gregorian calendars:

Century Difference, days Period (Julian calendar) Period (Gregorian calendar)
XVI and XVII 10 29.02.1500-28.02.1700 10.03.1500-10.03.1700
XVIII 11 29.02.1700-28.02.1800 11.03.1700-11.03.1800
XIX 12 29.02.1800-28.02.1900 12.03.1800-12.03.1900
XX and XXI 13 29.02.1900-28.02.2100 13.03.1900-13.03.2100
XXII 14 29.02.2100-28.02.2200 14.03.2100-14.03.2200
XXIII 15 29.02.2200-28.02.2300 15.03.2200-15.03.2300

Do not confuse the translation (recalculation) of real historical dates(events in history) to a different calendar style with recalculation (for ease of use) to a different style of the Julian church calendar, in which all the days of celebrations (memory of saints and others) are fixed as Julian - regardless of which Gregorian date corresponded to a particular holiday or commemorative day. Due to the increasing change in the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, Orthodox churches using the Julian calendar, starting from 2101, will not celebrate Christmas on January 7, as in XX- XXI centuries, and on January 8 (translated to the new style), and, for example, from 9997, Christmas will be celebrated on March 8 (according to the new style), although in their liturgical calendar this day will still be marked as December 25 (according to the old style). ). In addition, it should be borne in mind that in a number of countries where the Julian calendar was in use until the beginning of the 20th century (for example, in Greece), the dates of historical events that occurred before the transition to the new style continue to be celebrated on the same dates (nominally), in that they occurred according to the Julian calendar (which, among other things, is reflected in the practice of the Greek section of Wikipedia).

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As in other Christian countries, since the end of the 10th century, the Julian calendar was used in Russia, based on observations of visible movement Sun across the sky. He was brought into Ancient Rome Gaius Julius Caesar in 46 BC e.

The calendar was developed by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigen based on the calendar of ancient Egypt. When Russia adopted Christianity in the 10th century, the Julian calendar came along with it. However, the average length of a year in the Julian calendar is 365 days and 6 hours (that is, there are 365 days in a year, and an extra day is added every fourth year). While the duration of the astronomical solar year equals 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds. That is, the Julian year was longer than the astronomical one by 11 minutes 14 seconds and, therefore, lagged behind the real change of years.

By 1582, the difference between the Julian calendar and the real change of years was already 10 days.

This led to a reform of the calendar, which was carried out in 1582 by a special commission created by Pope Gregory XIII. The difference was eliminated when, after October 4, 1582, it was ordered to count not 5, but immediately October 15. After the name of the pope, the new, reformed calendar became known as the Gregorian.

In this calendar, unlike the Julian, the final year of the century, if it is not divisible by 400, is not a leap year. Thus, the Gregorian calendar has 3 leap years less every four hundred years than the Julian. The Gregorian calendar retained the names of the months of the Julian calendar, the extra day in a leap year is February 29, and the beginning of the year is January 1.

The transition of the countries of the world to the Gregorian calendar was a long one. First, the reform took place in Catholic countries (Spain, the Italian states, the Commonwealth, a little later in France, etc.), then in Protestant ones (in Prussia in 1610, in all German states by 1700, in Denmark in 1700, in Great Britain in 1752, in Sweden in 1753). And only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Gregorian calendar was adopted in some Asian (in Japan in 1873, China in 1911, Turkey in 1925) and Orthodox (in Bulgaria in 1916, in Serbia in 1919, in Greece in 1924 year) states.

In the RSFSR, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was carried out according to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the introduction of Russian Republic Western European calendar" dated February 6, 1918 (January 26, old style).

The calendar problem in Russia has been discussed more than once. In 1899, a Commission on the reform of the calendar in Russia worked at the Astronomical Society, which included Dmitry Mendeleev and the historian Vasily Bolotov. The Commission proposed to modernize the Julian calendar.

“Taking into account: 1) that in 1830 the request of the Imperial Academy of Sciences to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia was rejected by Emperor Nicholas I and 2) that the Orthodox states and the entire Orthodox population of East and West rejected the attempts of representatives of Catholicism to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, the Commission unanimously decided to reject all proposals for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia and, not embarrassed by the choice of reform, to settle on one that would combine the idea of ​​truth and possible accuracy, both scientific and historical, in relation to the Christian chronology in Russia, ”read resolution of the Commission on the reform of the calendar in Russia of 1900.

Such a long use of the Julian calendar in Russia was due to the position of the Orthodox Church, which had a negative attitude towards the Gregorian calendar.

After the church was separated from the state in the RSFSR, the binding of the civil calendar to the church lost its relevance.

The difference in calendars created inconvenience in relations with Europe, which was the reason for the adoption of the decree "in order to establish in Russia the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples."

The question of reform was raised in the autumn of 1917. One of the projects under consideration proposed a gradual transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, discarding every year by day. But, since the difference between the calendars by that time was 13 days, the transition would take 13 years. Therefore, Lenin supported the option of a one-time transition to a new style. The church refused to switch to the new style.

“The first day after January 31 of this year is not considered February 1, but February 14, the second day is considered the 15th, etc.,” the first paragraph of the decree read. The remaining paragraphs indicated how new deadlines for the fulfillment of any obligations should be calculated and on what dates citizens would be able to receive their salaries.

The date change has created confusion over the celebration of Christmas. Before the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia, Christmas was celebrated on December 25, but now it has moved to January 7. As a result of these changes, in 1918 there was no Christmas in Russia at all. In 1917, the last Christmas was celebrated, which fell on December 25th. And the next time the Orthodox holiday was celebrated on January 7, 1919.

The Russian Orthodox Church uses in its liturgical life the Julian calendar (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 the Finnish Orthodox Church celebrates Easter.

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 different rules for determining leap years: in the 14th century it was 8 days, in the 20th and 21st centuries it was 13, and in the 22nd century the gap will already be 14 days. 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 confuse the recalculation of the real historical dates of the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar style with the recalculation of 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 corresponded to a particular holiday or memorial day ). 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