Second month in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Gregorian calendar - history and modern state

Calendar Celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (in memory of the deliverance of Moscow and Russia from the Poles in 1612) Yuri Ruban, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Theology, Associate Professor of St.

Calendar Yuri Ruban, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Theology, Associate Professor of St. Petersburg State University A leafy December page of the Orthodox calendar (December according to the new style, according to which we really live), involuntarily you keep your eyes on the name of the Apostle Andrew (December 13). As in

Calendar One of the scariest things is diaries, electronic reminders and e-mail. The day of the funeral, and a reminder pops up in Tolik's calendar - to pay for a trip to the sea. The next morning after the funeral, a letter arrives with confirmation of the reservation for a loved one

Different ways of calculating the calendar... A new style of time reckoning was introduced by the Council of People's Commissars - the government of Soviet Russia January 24, 1918 "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic".

The decree was intended to facilitate "The establishment in Russia of the same reckoning of time with almost all cultural peoples"... Indeed, since 1582, when throughout Europe the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian in accordance with the recommendations of astronomers, the Russian calendar turned out to be 13 days different from the calendars of civilized states.

The fact is that the new European calendar was born through the efforts of the Pope, but the Catholic Pope was not an authority or a decree for the Russian Orthodox clergy, and they rejected the innovation. So they lived for more than 300 years: New Year in Europe, in Russia on December 19.

By the decree of the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars) of January 24, 1918, February 1, 1918 was ordered to be considered February 14 (in parentheses, we note that, according to long-term observations, the Russian Orthodox calendar, that is, "Old Style", is more consistent with the climate of the European part of the Russian Federation For example, on March 1, when, according to the old style, it is still deep February, there is no smell of spring, and the relative warming begins from mid-March or the first days of it, according to the old style).

Not everyone liked the new style

However, not only Russia rested against the establishment of a Catholic day count, in Greece the "New Style" was legalized in 1924, Turkey - 1926, Egypt - 1928. At the same time, something is not heard that the Greeks or Egyptians celebrated, as in Russia, two holidays: New Year and Old New Year, that is, New Year in the old style.

It is interesting that the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was accepted without enthusiasm in those European countries where the leading religion was Protestantism. So in England, the time was changed only in 1752, in Sweden - a year later, in 1753.

Julian calendar

Introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Started on January 1st. The year had 365 days. The year number divisible by 4 was recognized as a leap year. One day was added to it - February 29. The difference between the calendar of Julius Caesar and the calendar of Pope Gregory is that the first has every fourth year, without exception, a leap year, and the second only has leap years that are divisible by four, but not multiples of one hundred. As a result, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is gradually increasing and, for example, in 2101, Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated not on January 7, but on January 8.

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 next day after Thursday, October 4, was Friday October 15.

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

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

Hence the distribution of leap years:

A year with a number divisible by 400 is a leap year;

The rest of the years - the year, the number of which is a multiple of 100 - not a leap year;

The rest of the years - the year, the number of which is a multiple of 4 - 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 common estimate leading to a value of the order of 3000 years, obtained when comparing the length of the year in the Gregorian calendar with the current average astronomical length of the tropical year, is associated with the incorrect definition of the latter as the interval between neighboring equinoxes and is an established misconception.

Months

According to the Gregorian calendar, a year is divided into 12 months, ranging 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, by which the date of Easter was determined, and the mismatch of the Easter full moons with the astronomical ones. Before Gregory XIII, Pope 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 Lilius). The results of their labor were recorded in the papal bull, named after the first line of lat. Inter gravissimas("Among the most important").

First, 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 leap year rule began to operate in it. A leap year, that is, it contains 366 days, if:

1.the 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 Passover have been 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 a 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 inconsistent 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, after January 31, February 14 followed.

Since 1923, most of the local Orthodox churches, with the exception of the Russian, Jerusalem, Georgian, Serbian and Athos, adopted a New Julian calendar similar to the Gregorian, which coincides 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, in general caused disagreement in the Church, therefore already on November 8, 1923, Patriarch Tikhon ordered to "temporarily postpone the widespread and obligatory introduction of a new style into church use." Thus, the new style was in effect in the ROC for only 24 days.

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

Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars

Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars:

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

Dates of transition of countries to the Gregorian calendar

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 calendar 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 were transferred in 1753, and the last, Grisons, in 1811.

In some cases, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was accompanied by serious unrest. For example, when the Polish king Stefan Bathory introduced a new calendar in Riga (1584), local merchants revolted, claiming that a 10-day shift would disrupt their delivery times and result in 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, actual 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, since there it was combined with the transfer of the date line. Therefore, after Friday, October 5, 1867, the old style was followed by another Friday, October 18, 1867 in the new style.

Is a long-range numeral system based on the periodicity of the Earth's motion around the Sun.

The length of a year in the Gregorian calendar is 365.2425 days, there are 97 leap years for 400 years.

The Gregorian calendar is an improved Julian calendar. It was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, replacing the imperfect Julian.

The Gregorian calendar is called the new style, and the Julian calendar is called the old style. The difference between the old and new styles is 11 days for the XVIII century, 12 days for the XIX century, 13 days for the XX and XXI centuries, 14 days for the XXII century.

Adoption of the Gregorian calendar in different countries

The Gregorian calendar in different countries was introduced at different times. The first to switch to the new style were in Italy in 1582. The Italians were followed by Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg. In the 1580s, these countries were joined by Austria, Switzerland and Hungary.

Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden introduced the new style in the 18th century. The Japanese introduced the Gregorian calendar in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the new style was joined in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

In Russia, where from the 10th century they lived according to the Julian calendar, a new European chronology was introduced by the decree of Peter I in 1700. At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia, according to which the Russian Orthodox Church still lives. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after the October Revolution of 1917 - from February 14, 1918.

Disadvantages of the Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar is not absolute and has inaccuracies, although it is consistent with natural phenomena. The length of the year in it is 26 seconds longer than the tropical year and accumulates an error of 0.0003 days per year, which is three days in 10 thousand years.

In addition, the Gregorian calendar does not account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds over 100 years.

Also, the Gregorian calendar does not meet the needs of society. Chief among its disadvantages is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and semesters.

Gregorian calendar problems

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

• Inconsistency of the Gregorian calendar with the tropical year. True, such a correspondence is generally unattainable due to the fact that the tropical year does not contain a whole number of days. Due to the need to add additional days to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - regular and leap years. Since the year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of regular and seven types of leap years - a total of 14 types of years. For their full reproduction, you need to wait 28 years.
• The length of months is different: they can contain from 28 to 31 days, and this unevenness leads to certain difficulties in economic calculations and statistics. |
• Neither regular nor leap years contain an integer number of weeks. Semi-years, quarters and months also do not contain a whole and equal number of weeks.
• From week to week, from month to month and from year to year, the correspondence of dates and days of the week changes, so it is difficult to establish the moments of various events.

New calendar projects

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

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

People have been thinking about the need for chronology for a very long time. It is worth remembering the very 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 Gregorian calendar. 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 thanks to the most famous Roman emperor Guy Julius Caesar... The development of the calendar was, of course, not the emperor himself, but this was done by his order by a whole group of astronomers. The birthday of this method of chronology is January 1, 45 BC. The word calendar was also born in ancient Rome. Translated from Latin, it means - a debt book. The fact is that then interest on debts was paid on calendars (as the first days of each month were called).

In addition to the name of the entire calendar, Julius Caesar also gave the 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 apart from July, today only August is used - 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 one. This country was the last to switch to the Gregorian calendar. The first to cross Italy, Spain and the Commonwealth in 1528. Russia made the transition in 1918.

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

This calendar was introduced by the Pope Gregory XIII... The calendar got its name in honor of him. The need to replace the Julian calendar was, first of all, in the confusion over 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 got lost with its appearance. Therefore, some Orthodox churches still live according to the Julian calendar. A good example is the fact that Catholics celebrate Christmas on December 25, and Orthodox Christians on January 7.

Not all people took the transition to a 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, did live on 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 per week.
2. Months... In the Gregorian calendar, all 12 months are called 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 own hands into fists. The knuckle on the little finger of the left hand will be considered January, and the cavity that follows it will be considered February. Thus, all knuckles will symbolize months in which there are 31 days, and all troughs will symbolize months in which there are 30 days. Of course, the exception is February, which has 28 or 29 days (depending on whether it is a leap year or not). The hollow after the ring finger of the right hand and the knuckle of the right little finger are not counted, 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 calendar. However, the celebration takes place on different days and dates. For example, Christmas.
4. Place of invention... Like the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was invented in Rome, but in 1582 Rome was part of Italy, and in 45 BC it was 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. So 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 be called a church calendar.
3. Leap year... In the Julian calendar, every fourth year is a leap year. In the Gregorian, the leap year is the one whose number is a multiple of 400 and 4, but the 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 for 10 days compared to the Julian. That is, according to the Julian calendar, October 5, 1582 was considered October 15, 1582 according to the Gregorian calendar. However, now the difference between the calendars is already 13 days. In connection with this difference in the countries of the former Russian Empire, such an expression appeared as in the old style. For example, a holiday called Old New Year is simply New Year, but according to the Julian calendar.