Time calendar Julian and Gregorian. Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendar

The converter converts dates to the Gregorian and Julian calendars and calculates the Julian date; for the Julian calendar, the Latin and Roman versions are displayed.

Notes

• Gregorian calendar (« a new style”) introduced in 1582 AD. e. by Pope Gregory XIII so that the day of the vernal equinox corresponds to a certain day (March 21). More early dates are converted using the standard rules for Gregorian leap years. Can be converted up to 2400
• Julian calendar (« old style”) introduced in 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar and totaled 365 days; leap year was every third year. This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus: from 8 BC. e. and up to 8 AD e. extra days in leap years were skipped. Earlier dates are converted using the standard rules for Julian leap years.
• Roman version the Julian calendar was introduced around 750 BC. e. Due to the fact that the number of days in the Roman calendar year varied, dates before 8 AD. e. are not accurate and are for demonstration purposes only. The reckoning was conducted from the founding of Rome ( ab Urbe condata) - 753/754 BC e. Dates prior to 753 BC e. not calculated.
• Month names of the Roman calendar are agreed definitions (adjectives) with a noun mensis'month':

• Numbers of the month determined by the phases of the moon. In different months, Kalends, Nonas and Ides fell on different dates:

The first days of the month are determined by counting the days from the upcoming Nons, after the Non - from the Eid, after the Eid - from the upcoming Kalends. It uses the preposition ante‘before’ c accusative(accusativus):

a. d. XI Kal. Sept. (abbreviated form);

ante diem undecĭmum Kalendas Septembres (full form).

The ordinal number is consistent with the form diem, that is, it is put in the accusative case of the masculine singular (accusatīvus singularis masculīnum). Thus, numerals take the following forms:

If a day falls on the Kalends, Nonae, or Ides, then the name of that day (Kalendae, Nonae, Idūs) and the name of the month are put in the instrumental case plural feminine (ablatīvus plurālis feminīnum), for example:

The day immediately preceding the Kalends, Nonams, or Idams is denoted by the word pridie(‘on the eve’) with accusative feminine plural (accusatīvus plurālis feminīnum):

Thus, adjective-names of months can take the following forms:

• Julian date is the number of days that have passed since noon on January 1, 4713 BC. e. This date is arbitrary and was chosen only for agreement various systems chronology.

Calendar- the table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years familiar to all of us is the oldest invention of mankind. It fixes the periodicity of natural phenomena, based on the patterns of movement of celestial bodies: the Sun, Moon, stars. The earth is rushing along solar orbit counting years and centuries. In a day, it makes one revolution around its axis, and in a year - around the Sun. The astronomical or solar year lasts 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Therefore, there is no whole number of days, which is where the difficulty arises in compiling a calendar that should keep a correct count of time. Since the time of Adam and Eve, people have used the "circle" of the Sun and Moon to keep track of time. The lunar calendar used by the Romans and Greeks was simple and convenient. From one revival of the moon to the next, about 30 days pass, or rather, 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. Therefore, according to the changes of the moon, it was possible to count the days, and then the months.

IN lunar calendar at first there were 10 months, the first of which were dedicated to the Roman gods and supreme rulers. For example, the month of March was named after the god Mars (Martius), the month of May is dedicated to the goddess Maia, July is named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and August is named after the emperor Octavian Augustus. In the ancient world, from the 3rd century BC, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year luni-solar cycle, which gave a discrepancy with the solar year by 4 days in 4 years. In Egypt, a solar calendar was compiled from observations of Sirius and the Sun. The year in this calendar lasted 365 days, it had 12 months of 30 days, and at the end of the year 5 more days were added in honor of the “birth of the gods”.

In 46 BC, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar introduced an exact solar calendar following the Egyptian model - Julian. The solar year was taken as the value of the calendar year, which was slightly more than the astronomical one - 365 days 6 hours. January 1 was legalized as the beginning of the year.

In 26 BC. e. Roman emperor Augustus introduced the Alexandrian calendar, in which 1 more day was added every 4 years: instead of 365 days - 366 days a year, that is, 6 extra hours annually. For 4 years, this amounted to a whole day, which was added every 4 years, and the year in which one day was added in February was called a leap year. In essence, this was a refinement of the same Julian calendar.

For the Orthodox Church, the calendar was the basis of the yearly cycle of worship, and therefore it was very important to establish the simultaneity of holidays throughout the Church. The question of the time of the celebration of Easter was discussed at the First Ecumenical. Cathedral *, as one of the main ones. Paschalia (the rules for calculating the day of Easter) established at the Council, together with its basis - the Julian calendar - cannot be changed under pain of anathema - excommunication and rejection from the Church.

In 1582, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, introduced a new calendar style - Gregorian. The aim of the reform was supposedly to precise definition the day of the celebration of Easter, so that the spring equinox returns by March 21. The Council of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1583 in Constantinople condemned the Gregorian calendar as violating the entire liturgical cycle and the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. It is important to note that the Gregorian calendar in some years violates one of the main church rules on the date of the celebration of Easter - it happens that the Catholic Easter falls earlier than the Jewish one, which is not allowed by the canons of the Church; also sometimes "disappears" Petrov post. At the same time, such a great learned astronomer as Copernicus (being a Catholic monk) did not consider the Gregorian calendar more accurate than the Julian, and did not recognize it. The new style was introduced by the authority of the Pope in place of the Julian calendar, or old style, and was gradually adopted in the Catholic countries. By the way, modern astronomers also use the Julian calendar in their calculations.

In Russia since the 10th century New Year March 1st was celebrated when, according to biblical tradition, God created the world. 5 centuries later, in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year in Russia was moved to September 1, and they celebrated this way for more than 200 years. The months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was associated with natural phenomena. Years were counted from the creation of the world.

December 19, 7208 ("from the creation of the world") Peter I signed a decree on the reform of the calendar. The calendar remained Julian, as before the reform, adopted by Russia from Byzantium along with baptism. A new beginning of the year was introduced - January 1 and the Christian chronology "from the Nativity of Christ." The decree of the king prescribed: “The day after December 31, 7208 from the creation of the world (the Orthodox Church considers the date of the creation of the world - September 1, 5508 BC) to be considered January 1, 1700 from the birth of Christ. The decree also ordered to celebrate this event with particular solemnity: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and the new centennial century, in fun, congratulate each other on the New Year ... On the noble and passable streets at the gates and houses, make some decoration from pine trees and branches , spruce and juniper ... repair shooting from small cannons and guns, launch rockets, as many as anyone happens to, and light fires. The account of years from the Nativity of Christ is accepted by most states of the world. With the spread of godlessness among the intelligentsia and historians, they began to avoid mentioning the name of Christ and replace the countdown of the centuries from His Nativity to the so-called "our era."

After the great October socialist revolution, the so-called new style (Gregorian) was introduced in our country on February 14, 1918.

The Gregorian calendar excluded three leap years within each 400th anniversary. With the passage of time, the difference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendar increases. The initial value of 10 days in the 16th century subsequently increases: in the 18th century - 11 days, in the 19th century - 12 days, in the 20th and XXI centuries- 13 days, in XXII - 14 days.
The Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar, unlike the Catholics, who use the Gregorian.

At the same time, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by the civil authorities led to some difficulties for Orthodox Christians. The New Year, which is celebrated by all civil society, has been moved to Advent, when it is inappropriate to have fun. In addition, by church calendar January 1 (December 19, old style) marks the memory of the holy martyr Boniface, who patronizes people who want to get rid of alcohol abuse - and our entire vast country celebrates this day with glasses in their hands. Orthodox people celebrate the New Year "in the old way", on January 14th.

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

Reasons for switching to the Gregorian calendar

The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the gradual shift in the Julian calendar of the day of the vernal equinox, according to which the date of Easter was determined, and the mismatch of the Easter full moons with astronomical ones. Julian calendar error at 11 min. 14 sec. in a year, which Sosigen neglected, by the 16th century led to the fact that the vernal equinox fell not on March 21, but on the 11th. The shift led to the correspondence of the same days of the year to other natural phenomena. Year by julian calendar in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds, as later scientists found out, was 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the present solar year. "Extra" days ran for 128 years. So, for a millennium and a half, humanity lagged behind the real astronomical time by as much as ten days! Reform of Pope Gregory XII I was intended to eliminate this error.

Before Gregory XIII, Popes Paul III and Pius IV tried to implement the project, but they did not achieve success. The preparation of the reform at the direction of Gregory XIII was carried out by the astronomers Christopher Clavius ​​and Aloysius Lily.

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

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

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

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

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

Switching to the Gregorian calendar

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

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

As is known, the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar in her worship, while the Russian state, together with most countries, has been using the Gregorian calendar for some time now. At the same time, both in the Church itself and in society, voices are heard from time to time calling for a transition to a new style.

The arguments of the defenders of the Julian calendar, which can be found in the Orthodox press, basically boil down to two. First argument: the Julian calendar is consecrated by centuries of use in the Church, and good reasons there is no denying it. The second argument: when switching to the "new style" while preserving the traditional Paschalia (the system for calculating the date of the Easter holiday), many inconsistencies arise, and violations of the liturgical Rule are inevitable.

Both of these arguments are quite convincing for a believing Orthodox person. However, they do not seem to relate to the Julian calendar as such. After all, the Church did not create a new calendar, but adopted the one that already existed in the Roman Empire. What if the calendar was different? Perhaps then it was that other calendar that would have been consecrated by liturgical use, and it would be with this in mind that Paschalia would have been compiled?

This article is an attempt to consider some aspects of the calendar problem, providing the reader with material for independent reflection. The author does not consider it necessary to hide his sympathy for the Julian calendar, but he is aware that it is impossible to prove its advantage in any way. Just as the advantage of the liturgical Church Slavonic language over Russian or the icons of St. Andrei Rublev in front of a painting by Raphael.

The presentation will be carried out in three stages: first, brief conclusions, then a more detailed mathematical justification, and, finally, a short historical outline.

Any phenomenon of nature can serve to measure time and draw up a calendar, if it is evenly and periodically repeated: the change of day and night, the change in the phases of the moon, the seasons, etc. All these phenomena are associated with certain astronomical objects. In the book of Genesis we read: And God said: let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven for ... times, and days, and years ... And God created two great luminaries: a greater luminary, to rule the day, and a smaller luminary, to rule the night, and stars(Gen. 1:14-16). The Julian calendar is compiled precisely taking into account the three main astronomical objects - the Sun, the Moon and the stars. This gives reason to consider it a truly biblical calendar.

Unlike the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar takes into account only one object - the Sun. It is drawn up in such a way that the vernal equinox (when the lengths of day and night are equal) would deviate as slowly as possible from the date of March 21. At the same time, the connection of the calendar with the moon and stars was destroyed; in addition, the calendar became more complicated and lost its rhythm (compared to the Julian).

Let's consider one feature of the Julian calendar that is most often criticized. In the Julian calendar, the vernal equinox moves back along calendar dates at a rate of approximately 1 day in 128 years. (In general, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian dates is currently 13 days and increases by 3 days every 400 years.) This means, for example, that the day of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, December 25, will eventually move to spring. But, firstly, this will happen in about 6000 years, and secondly, even now in the southern hemisphere Christmas is celebrated not even in the spring, but in the summer (since December, January and February are the summer months there).

In view of all of the above, we can conclude that the statement "the Gregorian calendar is more accurate than the Julian one" is far from being indisputable. Everything here is determined by the criteria of accuracy, and they can be different.

To substantiate the above statements, we present some astronomical and arithmetic reasoning and facts.

One of the main periods of time for us is a year. But it turns out that there are several different "types" of the year. Let us mention two of the most important for our considerations.

• Sidereal or sidereal year. This is what they mean when they say that the Sun passes through twelve zodiac signs in a year. For example, St. Basil the Great (4th century) in "Conversations on the Six Days" writes: "The solar year is the return of the Sun, due to its own movement, from a known sign to the same sign."
• tropical year. It takes into account the change of seasons on Earth.

The Julian year averages 365.25 days, which is between the sidereal and tropical years. The Gregorian year averages 365.2425 days and is very close to the tropical year.

In order to better understand the aesthetics and logic of the calendar, it is useful to shed some light on the problems that arise when creating it. Strictly speaking, the construction of the calendar includes two fairly independent procedures. The first is empirical in nature: it is necessary to measure the duration of astronomical cycles as accurately as possible. (Note that the lengths of the sidereal and tropical years were found with great accuracy in the 2nd century BC by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus.) it would deviate as little as possible from the chosen space landmarks, and on the other hand, it would not be very cumbersome and complex.

Let, for example, it is required to make a calendar focused on a tropical year (after the duration of the last is measured - 365.24220 days). It is clear that each year of such a calendar must contain either 365 or 366 days (in the latter case, the year is called a leap year). At the same time, it is necessary to try so that, firstly, the average number of days in a year is as close as possible to 365.2422 and, secondly, so that the rule for alternating simple and leap years is as simple as possible. In other words, it is necessary to define a cycle of N years, of which M will be leap years. In this case, firstly, the fraction m / n should be as close as possible to 0.2422, and secondly, the number N should be as small as possible.

These two requirements contradict each other, since accuracy is achieved only at the cost of increasing the number N. The most simple solution The problem is the fraction 1/4, on which the Julian calendar is based. The cycle consists of four years, every fourth year (whose serial number is divisible by 4) is a leap year. The Julian year averages 365.25 days, which is 0.0078 days longer than the tropical year. At the same time, an error of one day accumulates over 128 years (0.0078 x 128 ~ 1).

The Gregorian calendar is based on the fraction 97/400, i.e. in a 400-year cycle of 97 leap years. Leap years are years whose serial number is either divisible by 4 and not divisible by 100, or divisible by 400. The Gregorian year averages 365.2425 days, which is 0.0003 days more than the duration of the tropical year. In this case, the error of one day accumulates over 3333 years (0.0003 x 3333 ~ 1).

From what has been said, it can be seen that the advantage of the Gregorian calendar over the Julian one is debatable even as it is focused only on the tropical year - accuracy is achieved at the cost of complication.

Consider now the Julian and Gregorian calendars in terms of correlation with the moon.

The change in the phases of the moon corresponds to the synodic, or lunar, month, which is 29.53059 days. During this time, all the phases of the moon are replaced - new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter. An integer number of months does not fit into one year without a trace, therefore, to build almost all the current luni-solar calendars, a 19-year cycle was used, bearing the name of the Greek astronomer Meton (V century BC). In this cycle, the relation

19 years ~ 235 synodic months,

i.e. if the beginning of a certain year coincides with the appearance in the sky new moon, then this coincidence will take place in 19 years.

If the year is Gregorian (365.2425 days), then the error of the Metonic cycle is

235 x 29.53059 - 19 x 365.2425 ~ 0.08115.

For the Julian year (365.25 days), the error is smaller, namely

235 x 29.53059 - 19 x 365.25 ~ 0.06135.

Thus, we get that the Julian calendar is better correlated with changes in the phases of the moon (see also: Klimishin I.A. Calendar and chronology. - 3rd ed., revised and added. - M., Nauka, 1990. - P. 92 ).

In general, the Julian calendar is a combination of simplicity, rhythm (a cycle lasting only 4 years), harmony (correlation immediately with the Sun, Moon and stars). It is appropriate to mention its practicality: the same number of days in each century and the continuous counting of time over two millennia (disturbed by the transition to the Gregorian calendar) simplify astronomical and chronological calculations.

Two surprising circumstances are associated with the Julian calendar. The first circumstance is astronomical - the proximity of the fractional part of the length of the year (both sidereal and tropical) to such a simple fraction 1/4 (we invite the reader familiar with the methods of testing statistical hypotheses to calculate the corresponding probability). However, the second circumstance is even more surprising - for all its merits, the Julian calendar was never used anywhere until the 1st century BC. BC

The predecessor of the Julian calendar can be considered a calendar that has been used in Egypt for many centuries. In the Egyptian calendar, each year contained exactly 365 days. Of course, the error of this calendar was very large. For about one and a half thousand years, the day of the vernal equinox "ran through" all the numbers of the calendar year (which consisted of 12 months of 30 days and five additional days).

Around 1700 BC, the northern part of the Nile Delta came under the dominion of the nomadic tribes of the Hyksos. One of the Hyksos rulers who made up the XV dynasty of Egypt carried out a calendar reform. After 130 years, the Hyksos were expelled, the traditional calendar was restored, and since then, every pharaoh, assuming the throne, took an oath not to change the length of the year.

In 238 BC, Ptolemy III Euergetes, who ruled Egypt (a descendant of one of the commanders of Alexander the Great), tried to reform by adding an extra day every 4 years. This would make the Egyptian calendar virtually identical to the Julian. However, for unknown reasons, the reform was not carried out.

And now the time of the Incarnation and the founding of the Church has come. Some of the participants in the events described by the evangelists were already walking on the land of Palestine. From January 1, 45 BC, a new calendar was introduced in the Roman Empire by order of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44). This calendar, now called the Julian, was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers headed by Sosigenes. From then until the 16th century, that is, approximately 1600 years, Europe lived according to the Julian calendar.

In order not to deviate from our topic, we will not consider the calendar systems of different countries and peoples. Note that some of them are rather unsuccessful (one of the worst, it seems, was the calendar used in the Roman Empire before the introduction of the Julian). Let us mention only one calendar, which is interesting in that the calendar year in it is closer to the tropical one than that of the Gregorian, which was created later. From 1079 to the middle of the XIX century. in Iran, the Persian calendar was developed, developed by a commission led by the scientist and poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1123). The Persian calendar is based on the fraction 8/33, i.e. the cycle is 33 years, of which 8 are leap years. Leap years were the 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, 20th, 24th, 28th and 32nd years of the cycle. The average length of the year in the Persian calendar is 365.24242 days, which is 0.00022 more than in the tropical one. An error of one day accumulates over 4545 years (0.00022 x 4545 ~ 1).

The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. During the transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, 10 days were thrown out, that is, after October 4, October 15 immediately followed. The calendar reform of 1582 caused a lot of protests (in particular, almost all universities spoke out against it). Western Europe). Nevertheless, Catholic countries, for obvious reasons, almost immediately switched to the Gregorian calendar. Protestants did this gradually (for example, Great Britain - only in 1752).

In November 1917, immediately after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, the issue of the calendar was brought up for discussion by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. On January 24, 1918, the "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic" was adopted.

Local Orthodox Churches adhered to the Julian calendar until the 1920s, when the Ecumenical (Constantinople) Patriarchate abandoned it. main goal This solution was, apparently, the celebration of Christian holidays jointly with Catholics and Protestants.

Over the next decades, most of the Local Churches adopted the new style, and formally the transition was made not to the Gregorian, but to the so-called New Julian calendar, based on the fraction 218/900. However, until 2800 it completely coincides with the Gregorian.

It is expressed in the joint celebration of Easter and the so-called moving holidays associated with it (the only exception is the Finnish Orthodox Church, which celebrates Easter on the same day as Western Christians). The date of Easter is calculated according to a special lunisolar calendar, inextricably linked with the Julian. In general, the method of calculating the date of Easter is the most important point in comparing the Julian and Gregorian calendars as church calendars. However, this topic, which requires both scientific and theological consideration, is beyond the scope of this article. We only note that the creators of the Orthodox Paschalia achieved the same goal as the creators of the Julian calendar - the greatest possible simplicity with a reasonable level of accuracy.

- a number system for long periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies.

The most common solar calendar is based on the solar (tropical) year - the time interval between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox.

A tropical year is approximately 365.2422 mean solar days.

The solar calendar includes the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and some others.

The modern calendar is called the Gregorian (new style) and was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style) that had been in use since the 45th century BC.

The Gregorian calendar is a further refinement of the Julian calendar.

In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, the average length of the year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Over time, the onset of seasonal phenomena according to the Julian calendar fell on ever earlier dates. Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift in the date of Easter, associated with the spring equinox. In 325, the Nicene Council issued a decree on a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.

© Public Domain

© Public Domain

In the following centuries, many proposals were made to improve the calendar. The proposals of the Neapolitan astronomer and physician Aloysius Lilius (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius ​​were approved by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a bull (message) introducing two important additions to the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - after October 4, October 15 immediately followed. This measure made it possible to keep March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four century years were to be considered ordinary and only those divisible by 400 were leap years.

1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar, called the new style.

Gregorian calendar in different countries was introduced at different times. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg were the first to adopt the new style in 1582. Then in the 1580s it was introduced in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary. In the XVIII century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, in the XIX century - in Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

In Russia, along with the adoption of Christianity (X century), the Julian calendar was established. Since the new religion was borrowed from Byzantium, the years were counted according to the Constantinople era "from the creation of the world" (for 5508 BC). By decree of Peter I in 1700, the European chronology was introduced in Russia - "from the Nativity of Christ."

December 19, 7208 from the creation of the world, when the reformation decree was issued, in Europe corresponded to December 29, 1699 from the birth of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar.

At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after the October Revolution of 1917 - from February 14, 1918. Russian Orthodox Church, preserving traditions, lives according to the Julian calendar.

The difference between the old and new styles is 11 days for the 18th century, 12 days for the 19th century, 13 days for the 20th and 21st centuries, 14 days for the 22nd century.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in the Gregorian calendar 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. The Gregorian calendar also does not take into account the slowing of the Earth's rotation, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds per 100 years.

The modern structure of the Gregorian calendar also does not fully meet the needs of public life. Chief among its shortcomings is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and half-years.

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

- Theoretically, the civil (calendar) year should have the same duration as the astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is impossible because the tropical year does not contain an integer number of days. Because of the need to add extra days to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - ordinary and leap years. Since a year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of common years and seven types of leap years, for a total of 14 types of years. For their full reproduction, you need to wait 28 years.

- The length of the 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. Half-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.

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

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

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources