Switching to the Julian calendar. Gregorian calendar - history and modern state

- notation system for large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies.

The most common solar calendar, which is based on a 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 solar mean days.

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

The modern calendar is called the Gregorian (new style), it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style), which was used from 45 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 a 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 of the date of Easter, associated with the vernal equinox. In 325, the Council of Nicaea 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 Lilia (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius \u200b\u200bwere approved by Pope Gregory XIII. He issued a bull on February 24, 1582, 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 allowed to keep March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four secular years were to be considered normal, and only those divisible by 400 were leap years.

1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar called the New Style.

The 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 18th century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, in the 19th 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 the 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. The Russian Orthodox Church, keeping 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 a year in the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than a 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 account for the slowing of the Earth's rotation, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds in 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 semesters.

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

- In theory, a civil (calendar) year should have the same duration as an astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is not possible, since 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 a whole 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.

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, the State Duma was proposing to return to the country from January 1, 2008 the Julian calendar. Deputies Viktor Alksnis, Sergei Baburin, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko proposed to establish a transition 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.

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

07.12.2015

The Gregorian calendar is a modern system of calculations based on astronomical phenomena, namely, on the cyclical revolution of our planet around the Sun. The length of a year in this system is 365 days, with every fourth year becoming a leap year and equal to 364 days.

History of origin

The date of approval of the Gregorian calendar is 10/04/1582. This calendar replaced the Julian calendar in force until this time. Most modern countries live according to the new calendar: take a look at any calendar, and you will get a visual idea of \u200b\u200bthe Gregorian system. According to the Gregorian calculus, the year is divided into 12 months, the duration of which is 28, 29, 30 and 31 days. The calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.

The transition to a new calculus brought about the following changes:

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

In the year the new system was adopted, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal joined the chronology, a couple of years later other European countries joined them. In Russia, the transition to the Gregorian calendar took place only in the 20th century - in 1918. On the territory, which by that time was under the control of the Soviet government, it was announced that after January 31, 1918, February 14 would immediately follow. For a long time, the citizens of the new country could not get used to the new system: the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia caused confusion in documents and minds. In official papers, dates of birth and other significant events have long been indicated by stroma and new style.

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

China was the last to adopt the new time reference system. This happened in 1949 after the proclamation of the PRC. In the same year, the worldwide reckoning of years from the Nativity of Christ was established in China.

At the time of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between the two systems of calculation was 10 days. By now, due to the different number of leap years, the discrepancies have increased to 13 days. By March 1, 2100, the difference will have reached 14 days.

In comparison with the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar is more accurate from the point of view of astronomy: it is as close as possible to the tropical year. The reason for the change in systems was the gradual shift of the equinox day in the Julian calendar: this caused a discrepancy between the Easter full moons and the astronomical ones.

All modern calendars look familiar to us precisely due to the transition of the leadership of the Catholic Church to a new time reckoning. If the Julian calendar continued to function, the discrepancy between the real (astronomical) equinoxes and the Easter holidays would increase even more, which would introduce confusion into the very principle of determining church holidays.

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

People have continued to successfully use the new time system for over 400 years. A calendar is still a useful and functional thing that everyone needs to agree on dates, plan business and personal life.

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

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

From Caesar to the present day

It was after this multifaceted personality that the Julian calendar was named. The date of its appearance is January 1, 45. BC e. on the basis of the 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 took office. This calendar, however, was not born from scratch:

• The basis for it was the calendar of ancient Egypt, which had 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 calendar, 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 an astronomical relationship between the Sun, Moon and stars, known for a long time and influencing the movement of the Earth.

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

When Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar

Thirsty for everything new after everything was destroyed, the ardent 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:

• Virtually all European countries have long since switched to this method of reckoning, and only the reactionary tsarist government squeezed the initiative of peasants and workers who were very inclined towards astronomy and other exact sciences.
• The Russian Orthodox Church was against such a violent intervention, disrupting 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 calendar. The changes are mainly aimed at eliminating, less accumulation of temporary errors. But as a result, the dates of historical events that took place long ago and the births of famous personalities have a double, confusing calculation.

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 - the Gregorian one. It feels like the Bolsheviks carried out the October uprising twice - the second time "for an encore."

The Russian Orthodox Church, which the Bolsheviks could not force to recognize the new calendar either by shooting priests or by organized robbery of artistic values, did not deviate from the biblical canons, counting the course 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 in its time affected the fate of many people, and its echoes are still heard today. However, against the background of a fun game of “move the time forward / backward an hour”, which has not yet finally ended, judging by the initiatives of the most active deputies, this is just a historic event.

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 time counting with almost all cultural peoples"... Indeed, since 1582, when throughout Europe the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in accordance with the recommendations of astronomers, the Russian calendar was 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 starts 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 according to the old style.

It is interesting that the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was accepted without enthusiasm in those European countries where Protestantism was the leading religion. 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 has leap years only those 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.

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

Notes

• Gregorian calendar ("New style") introduced in 1582 AD. e. Pope Gregory XIII so that the vernal equinox corresponds to a specific day (March 21). Earlier dates are converted using the standard Gregorian leap year rules. Conversion possible up to 2400 BC
• Julian calendar ("Old style") introduced in 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar and counted 365 days; every third year was a leap year. This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus: from 8 BC. e. and up to 8 AD e. extra days of leap years were skipped. Earlier dates are converted using the standard Julian leap year rules.
• Roman version the Julian calendar was introduced in about 750 BC. e. Due to the fact that the number of days in the Roman calendar year has changed, dates before 8 AD. e. are not accurate and presented for demonstration purposes. The chronology was conducted from the founding of Rome ( ab Urbe condĭta) - 753/754 BC e. Dates before 753 BC e. not calculated.
• Month names Roman calendar are agreed definitions (adjectives) for the noun mensis 'month':

• Numbers of the month determined by the phases of the moon. In different months, Kalenda, Nona and Ida fell on different dates:

The first days of the month are determined by counting the days from the forthcoming Non, after Non - from Id, after Id - from the upcoming Calendars. This uses the preposition ante 'To' with accusative case (accusatīvus):

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

ante diem undecĭmum Kalendas Septembres (long form).

The ordinal number agrees with the form diem, that is, it is placed in the accusative case of the masculine singular (accusatīvus singulāris masculīnum). Thus, the numbers take the following forms:

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

The day immediately preceding the Kalendams, Nonam or Idam is designated by the word pridie (‘The day before’) with feminine accusative plural (accusatīvus plurālis feminīnum):

Thus, month adjectives 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 to harmonize various chronology systems.