New Year according to the Gregorian calendar. Literary and historical notes of a young technician

24.02.2022

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar in Catholic countries was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII on October 4, 1582 to replace the old Julian calendar: the day after Thursday, October 4, was Friday, October 15.

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

365,2425 = 365 + 0,25 - 0,01 + 0,0025 = 365 + 1 / 4 - 1 / 100 + 1 / 400

From here follows the distribution of leap years:

A year whose number is a multiple of 400 is a leap year;

The remaining years - a year whose number is a multiple of 100 - is not a leap year;

The remaining years - the year, the number of which is a multiple of 4 - is a leap year.

An error of one day compared to the year of the equinoxes in the Gregorian calendar will accumulate in about 10,000 years (in the Julian - in about 128 years). A frequently encountered estimate, leading to a value of the order of 3000 years, obtained by comparing the length of the year in the Gregorian calendar with the average current astronomical length of the tropical year, is associated with an incorrect definition of the latter as the interval between adjacent equinoxes and is a well-established misconception.

Months

According to the Gregorian calendar, the year is divided into 12 months, lasting from 28 to 31 days:

History

The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the gradual shift in relation to 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. 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 a 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:

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

2. other years - the year number is a multiple of 4 and not a multiple of 100 (…1892, 1896, 1904, 1908…).

Thirdly, the rules for calculating the Christian Easter were modified.

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 is much more accurate than the Julian calendar. 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.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars

The difference between the dates of the 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

Until October 5 (15), 1582, there was only one calendar - the Julian. You can recalculate retroactively according to the table. For example, 14 (23) July 1471.

Dates for countries to switch to the Gregorian calendar

Last day of the Julian calendar	First day of the Gregorian calendar	States and territories
October 4, 1582	October 15, 1582	Spain, Italy, Portugal, Rzeczpospolita (federal state within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland)
December 9, 1582	December 20, 1582	France, Lorraine
December 21, 1582	January 1, 1583	Holland, Brabant, Flanders
February 10, 1583	February 21, 1583	Liege
February 13, 1583	February 24, 1583	Augsburg
October 4, 1583	October 15, 1583	Trier
December 5, 1583	December 16, 1583	Bavaria, Salzburg, Regensburg
1583	Austria (part), Tyrol
January 6, 1584	January 17, 1584	Austria
January 11, 1584	January 22, 1584	Switzerland (cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, Freiburg, Solothurn)
January 12, 1584	January 23, 1584	Silesia
1584	Westphalia, Spanish colonies in America
October 21, 1587	November 1, 1587	Hungary
December 14, 1590	December 25, 1590	Transylvania
August 22, 1610	September 2, 1610	Prussia
February 28, 1655	March 11, 1655	Switzerland (Canton of Valais)
February 18, 1700	March 1, 1700	Denmark (including Norway), Protestant German states
November 16, 1700	November 28, 1700	Iceland
December 31, 1700	January 12, 1701	Switzerland (Zurich, Bern, Basel, Geneva)
September 2, 1752	September 14, 1752	UK and colonies
February 17, 1753	March 1, 1753	Sweden (including Finland)
October 5, 1867	October 18, 1867	Alaska
	January 1, 1873	Japan
	November 20, 1911	China
December 1912	Albania
March 31, 1916	April 14, 1916	Bulgaria
January 31, 1918	February 14, 1918	Soviet Russia, Estonia
February 1, 1918	February 15, 1918	Latvia, Lithuania (in fact, since the beginning of the German occupation in 1915)
January 18, 1919	February 1, 1919	Romania, Yugoslavia
March 9, 1924	March 23, 1924	Greece
December 18, 1925	January 1, 1926	Turkey
September 17, 1928	October 1, 1928	Egypt

Remarks

From this list it follows that in a number of countries, for example in Russia, in 1900 there was a day on February 29, while in most countries it was not.

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 the 16th century, only the Catholic part of Switzerland switched to the Gregorian calendar, the Protestant cantons switched in 1753, and the last, Grison, in 1811.

In some cases, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was accompanied by serious unrest. For example, when the Polish king Stefan Batory introduced a new calendar in Riga (1584), local merchants rebelled, saying that a 10-day shift disrupted their delivery dates and led to significant losses. The rebels destroyed the Riga church and killed several municipal employees. It was only in the summer of 1589 that it was possible to cope with the "calendar disturbances" and hang its leaders.

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.

The transition to the Gregorian calendar in Alaska was unusual, as there it was combined with the transfer of the date line. Therefore, after Friday, October 5, 1867, according to the old style, another Friday, October 18, 1867, according to the new style, followed.

Gregorian calendar

This calculator allows you to convert the date from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, as well as calculate the date of Orthodox Easter according to the old style

* to calculate Easter according to the new style, you need to enter the date obtained according to the old style into the calculation form

(correction + 13 days to the Julian calendar)

2019 non-leap

IN 2019 Orthodox Easter falls on April 15(according to the Julian calendar)

The calculation of the date of Orthodox Easter is carried out according to the algorithm of Carl Friedrich Gauss

Disadvantages of the Julian calendar

In 325 AD e. The Council of Nicaea took place. It adopted the Julian calendar for the entire Christian world, according to which at that time the spring equinox fell on March 21. For the church, this was an important moment in determining the timing of the celebration of Easter, one of the most important religious holidays. Accepting the Julian calendar, the clergy believed that it was perfectly accurate. However, as we know, it accumulates an error of one day for every 128 years.

The error of the Julian calendar led to the fact that the actual time of the vernal equinox no longer coincided with the calendar. The moment of equality of day and night passed to ever earlier numbers: first on March 20, then on March 19, 18, etc. By the second half of the 16th century. the error was 10 days: according to the Julian calendar, the equinox was supposed to occur on March 21, but in reality it already occurred on March 11.

History of the Gregorian Reform.

The inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was discovered in the first quarter of the 14th century. So, in 1324, the Byzantine scholar Nicephorus Gregoras drew the attention of Emperor Andronicus II to the fact that the spring equinox no longer falls on March 21 and, therefore, Easter will gradually be pushed back to a later time. Therefore, he considered it necessary to correct the calendar and, along with it, the calculation of Easter. However, the emperor rejected Gregory's proposal, considering the reform practically impracticable due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement on this issue between individual Orthodox churches.

The inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was also pointed out by the Greek scientist Matvei Vlastar, who lived in Byzantium in the first half of the 14th century. However, he did not consider it necessary to make corrections, since he saw in this some "advantage", consisting in the fact that the delay of the Orthodox Easter saves it from coincidence with the Jewish Passover. Their simultaneous celebration was forbidden by the decisions of some "Ecumenical" councils and various church canons.

It is interesting to note that in 1373 the Byzantine scholar Isaac Argir, who more deeply understood the need to correct the Julian calendar and the rules for calculating paschal, considered such an event useless. The reason for such an attitude to the calendar was due to the fact that Argyr was deeply confident in the coming "doomsday" in 119 years and the end of the world, as it would be 7000 years "from the day of the creation of the world." Is it worth it to reform the calendar, if there is so little time left for the life of all mankind!

The need to reform the Julian calendar was understood by many representatives of the Catholic Church. In the XIV century. Pope Clement VI spoke out for correcting the calendar.

In March 1414, the calendar issue was discussed at the initiative of Cardinal Pierre d'Alli. The shortcomings of the Julian calendar and the inaccuracy of the existing paschals were the subject of discussion at the Basel Cathedral in March 1437. Here, the outstanding philosopher and scientist of the Renaissance, Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), one of the predecessors of Copernicus, presented his project.

In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV began preparations for a reform of the calendar and the correction of Paschal. For this purpose, he invited the outstanding German astronomer and mathematician Regiomontanus (1436-1476) to Rome. However, the unexpected death of the scientist forced the pope to postpone the implementation of his intention.

In the XVI century. two more "ecumenical" councils dealt with issues of calendar reform: the Lateran (1512-1517) and Trent (1545-1563). When in 1514 the Lateran Council created a commission for the reform of the calendar, the Roman curia invited the then already well-known in Europe Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) to come to Rome and take part in the work of the calendar commission. However, Copernicus declined to participate in the commission and pointed out the prematureness of such a reform, since, in his opinion, by this time the duration of the tropical year had not been established accurately enough.

Gregorian reform. By the middle of the XVI century. the question of the reform of the calendar was so widespread and the importance of its decision was so necessary that it was considered undesirable to postpone this question any further. That is why in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII created a special commission, which included Ignatius Danti (1536-1586), a well-known professor of astronomy and mathematics at the University of Bologna at that time. This commission was charged with drafting a new calendar system.

After reviewing all the proposed versions of the new calendar, the commission approved the project, authored by the Italian mathematician and physician Luigi Lilio (or Aloysius Lily, 1520-1576), a teacher of medicine at the University of Perugia. This project was published in 1576 by the scientist's brother, Antonio Lilio, who, during Luigi's lifetime, took an active part in the development of a new calendar.

The Lilio project was adopted by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a special bull (Fig. 11), according to which the count of days was moved 10 days ahead and the day after Thursday, October 4, 1582, Friday was prescribed to be counted not on October 5, but on October 15. This immediately corrected the error that had accumulated since the Council of Nicaea, and the spring equinox again fell on March 21.

It was more difficult to resolve the issue of introducing such an amendment into the calendar that would ensure for a long time the coincidence of the calendar date of the vernal equinox with its actual date. To do this, it was necessary to know the length of the tropical year.

By this time, astronomical tables, known as the Prussian Tables, had already been published. They were compiled by the German astronomer and mathematician Erasmus Reingold (1511-1553) and published in 1551. The length of the year was taken to be 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds, i.e., only 30 seconds more than the true value of the tropical year. The length of the Julian calendar year differed from it by 10 minutes. 44 sec. per year, which gave an error per day for 135 years, and for 400 years - a little more than three days.

Therefore, the Julian calendar moves forward by three days every 400 years. Therefore, in order to avoid new errors, it was decided to throw out 3 days from the account every 400 years. According to the Julian calendar, there should be 100 leap years in 400 years. To implement the reform, it was necessary to reduce their number to 97. Lilio proposed to consider as simple those century years of the Julian calendar, the number of hundreds in which is not divisible by 4. Thus, in the new calendar, only those century years, the number of centuries of which is divisible by 4 without remainder. Such years are: 1600, 2000, 2400, 2800, etc. The years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, etc. will be simple.

The reformed calendar system was called the Gregorian or "new style".

Is the Gregorian calendar accurate? We already know that the Gregorian calendar is also not entirely accurate. Indeed, when correcting the calendar, they began to throw out three days in every 400 years, while such an error occurs only in 384 years. To determine the error of the Gregorian calendar, we calculate the average length of the year in it.

In a period of 400 years there will be 303 years of 365 days and 97 years of 366 days. There will be 303 × 365 + 97 × 366 == 110,595 + 35,502 = 146,097 days in a four-century period. Divide this number by 400. Then we get 146097/400 = 365.242500 accurate to the sixth decimal place. This is the average length of a year in the Gregorian calendar. This value differs from the currently accepted value of the length of the tropical year by only 0.000305 average days, which gives a difference of a whole day for 3280 years.

The Gregorian calendar could be improved and made even more accurate. To do this, it is enough to consider one leap year every 4000 years as simple. Such years could be 4000, 8000, etc. Since the error of the Gregorian calendar is 0.000305 days per year, then in 4000 years it will be 1.22 days. If we correct the calendar for one more day in 4000 years, then there will be an error of 0.22 days. Such an error will increase to a whole day in only 18,200 years! But such accuracy is no longer of any practical interest.

When and where was the Gregorian calendar first introduced? The Gregorian calendar did not immediately become widespread. In countries where the dominant religion was Catholicism (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, etc.), it was introduced in 1582 or somewhat later. Other countries recognized it only after tens and hundreds of years.

In states in which Lutheranism was strongly developed, for a long time they were guided by the saying that "it is better to part with the Sun than get along with the pope." The Orthodox Church opposed the new style even longer.

In a number of countries, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar had to overcome great difficulties. History knows the “calendar riots” that arose in 1584 in Riga and were directed against the decree of the Polish king Stefan Batory on the introduction of a new calendar not only in Poland, but also in the Duchy of Zadvinsk, which at that time was under Lithuanian-Polish domination. For several years the struggle of the Latvian people against Polish dominance and Catholicism continued. The "calendar disturbances" stopped only after the leaders of the uprising, Giese and Brinken, were arrested in 1589, subjected to severe torture and executed.

In England, the introduction of the new calendar was accompanied by the transfer of the beginning of the new year from March 25 to January 1. Thus, the year 1751 in England consisted of only 282 days. Lord Chesterfield, on whose initiative the calendar reform was carried out in England, was chased by the townspeople with cries: "Give us our three months."

In the 19th century attempts were made to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, but each time these attempts failed due to the opposition of the church and government. Only in 1918, immediately after the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, was a calendar reform implemented.

The difference between the two calendar systems. By the time of the calendar reform, the difference between the old and new styles was 10 days. This amendment remained the same in the 17th century, since 1600 was a leap year both in the new style and in the old one. But in the XVIII century. the amendment increased to 11 days, in the XIX century. - up to 12 days and, finally, in the XX century. - up to 13 days.

How to set the date after which the amendment changes its value?

The reason for changing the amount of the correction depends on the fact that in the Julian calendar 1700, 1800 and 1900 are leap years, i.e. these years contain 29 days in February, and in the Gregorian they are not leap years and have only 28 days in February.

To transfer the Julian date of any event that occurred after the reform of 1582 to a new style, you can use the table:

This table shows that the critical days, after which the correction is increased by one day, are February 29, according to the old style, of those century years in which, according to the rules of the Gregorian reform, one day is dropped from the account, i.e., the years 1700, 1800, 1900 , 2100, 2200, etc. Therefore, starting from March 1 of these years, again according to the old style, the amendment increases by one day.

A special place is occupied by the question of recalculating the dates of events that took place before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Such a recount is also important when they are going to celebrate the anniversary of a historical event. Thus, in 1973 mankind celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. It is known that he was born on February 19, 1473, according to the old style. But we now live according to the Gregorian calendar and therefore it was necessary to recalculate the date of interest to us for a new style. How was it done?

Since in the 16th century the difference between the two calendar systems was 10 days, then, knowing how fast it changes, you can set the value of this difference for different centuries that preceded the reform of the calendar. It should be borne in mind that in 325 the Council of Nicaea adopted the Julian calendar and the spring equinox then fell on March 21st. Considering all this, we can continue the table. 1 in the opposite direction and get the following translation corrections:

Date interval	Amendment
from 1.III.300 to 29.II.400	0 days
from 1.III.400 to 29.II.500	+ 1 day
from 1.III.500 to 29.II.600	+ 2 days
from 1.III.600 to 29.II.700	+ 3 nights
from 1.III.700 to 29.II.900	+ 4 nights
from 1.III.900 to 29.II.1000	+ 5 nights
from 1.III.1000 to 29.II.1100	+ 6 nights
from 1.III.1100 to 29.II.1300	+ 7 nights
from 1.III.1300 to 29.II.1400	+ 8 nights
from 1.III.1400 to 29.II.1500	+ 9 nights
from 1.III.1500 to 29.II.1700	+ 10 days

From this table it can be seen that for the date February 19, 1473, the amendment will be +9 days. Consequently, the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus was celebrated on February 19 + 9-28, 1973.

Humanity has been using chronology since ancient times. Take, for example, the famous Mayan circle that made a lot of noise in 2012. Measuring day by day, the pages of the calendar take weeks, months and years away. Almost all countries of the world today live according to the generally recognized Gregorian calendar, however, for many years the state was Julian. What is the difference between them, and why is the latter now used only by the Orthodox Church?

Julian calendar

The ancient Romans counted the days by the phases of the moon. This simple calendar had 10 months named after gods. The Egyptians had a familiar modern reckoning: 365 days, 12 months of 30 days. In 46 BC. Emperor of Ancient Rome Gaius Julius Caesar ordered the leading astronomers to create a new calendar. The solar year with its 365 days and 6 hours was taken as a model, and the starting date was January 1st. The new way of counting days then, in fact, was called a calendar, from the Roman word "calends" - that was the name of the first days of each month when interest on debts was paid. To the glory of the ancient Roman commander and politician, in order to perpetuate his name in the history of a grandiose invention, one of the months was called July.

After the assassination of the emperor, the Roman priests got a little confused and declared every third year to be a leap year to even out the six-hour shift. The calendar was finally aligned under the emperor Octavian Augustus. And his contribution was recorded by the new name of the month - August.

Julian to Gregorian

For centuries julian calendar states lived. It was also used by Christians during the First Ecumenical Council, when the date for celebrating Easter was approved. Interestingly, this day is celebrated differently every year, depending on the first full moon after the spring equinox and the Jewish Passover. This rule could only be changed on pain of anathema, but in 1582 the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, took the risk. The reform was successful: the new calendar, called the Gregorian, was more accurate and returned the day of the equinox to March 21. The hierarchs of the Orthodox Church condemned the innovation: it turned out that the Jewish Easter happened later than the Christian Easter. This was not allowed by the canons of the Eastern tradition, and another point appeared in the discrepancies between Catholics and Orthodox.

The chronology in Russia

In 1492, the New Year in Russia began to be celebrated according to church tradition on September 1, although earlier the New Year began simultaneously with spring and was considered "from the creation of the world." Emperor Peter I established that adopted from Byzantium Julian calendar on the territory of the Russian Empire is valid, but the New Year was now celebrated without fail on January 1. The Bolsheviks brought the country to Gregorian calendar, according to which the whole of Europe has long lived. It is interesting that in this way the then February became the shortest month in the history of the chronology: February 1, 1918 turned into February 14.

FROM Julian to Gregorian calendar in 1924, Greece officially crossed, followed by Turkey, and in 1928, Egypt. In our time, according to the Julian chronology, only some Orthodox churches live - Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Polish, Jerusalem, as well as eastern - Coptic, Ethiopian and Greek Catholic. Therefore, there are discrepancies in the celebration of Christmas: Catholics celebrate the birthday of Christ on December 25, and in the Orthodox tradition this holiday falls on January 7. The same with secular holidays - confusing foreigners, is celebrated on January 14 as a tribute to the previous calendar. However, it does not matter who lives according to what calendar: the main thing is not to waste precious days.

Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village

Welcome to ! On January 6, 2019, the magic of Christmas Eve will envelop the entire park, and its visitors will find themselves in a real winter fairy tale!

An exciting thematic program of the park awaits all guests of the park: interactive excursions, craft workshops, street games with mischievous buffoons.

Enjoy the winter views of ETNOMIR and the festive atmosphere!

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 - mercedoniy - was inserted by the pontiffs at their own discretion, quite arbitrarily and in accordance with various momentary interests. In 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar carried out a reform of 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, he, by his power as the great pontiff, 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 rest of the months, were nones. 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.

History

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 a 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 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.

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:

The basis for it was the calendar of 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 since switched to this method of reckoning, and only the reactionary tsarist government suppressed the initiative of peasants and workers who were very prone to astronomy and other exact sciences.
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 dates of historical events that happened long ago, the births of famous personalities have a double, confusing reckoning.

For example, the October Revolution in Russia 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.