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

From the history of chronology in Russia.

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

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

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

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

Many of the ancient names of the months later passed into a number of Slavic languages ​​and were largely retained in some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gregorian calendar- the most common chronological system at present, named after XII, who insisted on its introduction in the Catholic world. Many mistakenly believe that it was Gregory who came up with this system, however, this is far from the case. According to one version, the main inspirer of this idea was the Italian doctor Aloysius, who theoretically substantiated the need to change the chronology that existed before that.

The problem of chronology at all times has been quite acute, because what is taken as a starting point and what a day, month and year are equal to, largely depends on the development historical science in the country, and even the outlook of ordinary citizens.

There have been and still are many chronological systems: some take as a basis the movement of the moon around the Earth, others consider the creation of the world as a starting point, and still others consider the departure of Muhammad from Mecca. In many civilizations, each change of ruler led to a change in the calendar. At the same time, one of the main difficulties is that neither the Earth day nor the Earth year lasts for a round number of hours and days, the whole question is - what to do with the remaining balance?

One of the first most successful systems was the so-called so named after the reign of which it appeared. The main innovation was that one day was added to every fourth year. This year has become known as a leap year.

However, the introduction only temporarily smoothed the problem. On the one hand, the discrepancy between the calendar year and the tropical year continued to accumulate, although not as fast as before, and on the other hand, Easter day fell on different days weeks, although according to most Catholics, Easter should always fall on a Sunday.

In 1582, after numerous calculations and based on clear astronomical calculations, in Western Europe transition to the Gregorian calendar. This year in many European countries ah, just after October 4, the fifteenth came.

The Gregorian calendar largely repeats the main provisions of its predecessor: an ordinary year also consists of 365 days, and a leap year of 366, and the number of days only changes in February - 28 or 29. The main difference is that the Gregorian calendar excludes all years divisible by a hundred, except for those divisible by 400. In addition, if according to the Julian calendar the New Year came on the first of September or the first of March, then in the new chronological system it was originally declared on December 1, and then shifted by another month.

In Russia under the influence of the church new calendar for a long time they did not recognize it, believing that according to it the entire sequence of evangelical events was violated. The Gregorian calendar in Russia was introduced only at the beginning of 1918, after the fourteenth came immediately after the first of February.

Despite much greater accuracy, the Gregorian system is still imperfect. However, if in the Julian calendar an extra day was formed in 128 years, then in the Gregorian this would require 3200.

Julian calendar IN Ancient Rome from the 7th c. BC e. used lunisolar calendar, which had 355 days divided into 12 months. The superstitious Romans were afraid of even numbers, so each month consisted of 29 or 31 days. The New Year started on March 1st.

In order to bring the year as close as possible to the tropical one (365 and ¼ days), every two years they began to introduce an additional month - marcedony (from the Latin "Marces" - payment), initially equal to 20 days. This month should have been the end of all cash settlements of the previous year. However, this measure failed to eliminate the discrepancy between the Roman and tropical years. Therefore, in the 5th c. BC e. marcedonia began to be administered twice every four years, alternating 22 and 23 additional days. Thus, average year in this 4-year cycle was equal to 366 days and became longer than the tropical year by about ¾ days. Using their right to introduce additional days and months into the calendar, the Roman priests - pontiffs (one of the priestly colleges) confused the calendar so much that in the 1st century. BC e. there is an urgent need for its reform.

Such a reform was carried out in 46 BC. e. initiated by Julius Caesar. The reformed calendar in his honor became known as the Julian. The Alexandrian astronomer Sosigen was invited to create a new calendar. The reformers were still faced with the same task - to bring the Roman year as close as possible to the tropical one and, thanks to this, to maintain the constant correspondence of certain days of the calendar to the same seasons.

The Egyptian year of 365 days was taken as the basis, but it was decided to introduce an additional day every four years. Thus, the average year in a 4-year cycle became equal to 365 days and 6 hours. The number of months and their names remained the same, but the duration of the months was increased to 30 and 31 days. An extra day was added to February, which had 28 days, and inserted between the 23rd and 24th, where marcedony had previously been inserted. As a result, in such an elongated year, a second 24th appeared, and since the Romans kept count of the day original way, determining how many days remain until a certain date of each month, this extra day turned out to be the second sixth before the March calendars (until March 1). In Latin, such a day was called "bis sectus" - the second sixth ("bis" - twice, another "sixto" - six). In the Slavic pronunciation, this term sounded somewhat different, and the word "leap year" appeared in Russian, and the elongated year began to be called a leap year.

In ancient Rome, in addition to kalends, special names had the fifth of each short (30 day) month or the seventh of a long (31 day) month - nones and the thirteenth of a short or fifteenth of a long month - ides.

January 1 began to be considered the beginning of the new year, since on this day the consuls and other Roman magistrates began to perform their duties. Subsequently, the names of some months were changed: in 44 BC. e. quintilis (fifth month) in honor of Julius Caesar became known as July, in 8 BC. e. sextilis (sixth month) - August in honor of the emperor Octavian Augustus. In connection with the change in the beginning of the year, the ordinal names of some months lost their meaning, for example, the tenth month ("December" - December) became the twelfth.

The new Julian calendar took on the following form: January ("januaris" - named after the two-faced god Janus); February ("februarius" - the month of purification); March ("martius" - named after the god of war Mars); April ("aprilis" - probably got its name from the word "aprikus" - warmed by the sun); May ("mayus" - named after the goddess Maya); June ("junius" - named after the goddess Juno); July ("Julius" - named after Julius Caesar); August ("Augustus" - named after Emperor Augustus); September ("september" - the seventh); October ("Oktober" - the eighth); November ("November" - the ninth); December ("December" - the tenth).

So, in the Julian calendar, the year became longer than the tropical year, but much less than the Egyptian year, and was shorter than the tropical year. If the Egyptian year was ahead of the tropical one by one day every four years, then the Julian was behind the tropical one by one day every 128 years.

In 325, the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea decided to consider this calendar obligatory for all Christian countries. The Julian calendar is the basis of the calendar system used by most countries in the world today.

In practice, a leap year in the Julian calendar is determined by the divisibility of the last two digits of the year designation by four. Leap years in this calendar are also years, the designations of which have zeros in the last two digits. For example, among the years 1900, 1919, 1945, and 1956, 1900 and 1956 were leap years.

Gregorian calendar In the Julian calendar, the average length of the year was 365 days 6 hours, therefore, it was longer than the tropical year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds) by 11 minutes 14 seconds. This difference, accumulating annually, led after 128 years to an error of one day, and after 1280 years already in 10 days. As a result, the spring equinox (March 21) at the end of the 16th century. already fell on March 11, and this threatened in the future, provided that the equinox on March 21 was preserved, the main holiday of the Christian church, Easter, would be moved from spring to summer. According to church rules, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, which falls between March 21 and April 18. Again there was a need for reform of the calendar. The Catholic Church carried out a new reform in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the new calendar got its name.

A special commission was created from clerics and astronomers. The author of the project was an Italian scientist - physician, mathematician and astronomer Aloysius Lilio. The reform was supposed to solve two main tasks: firstly, to eliminate the accumulated difference of 10 days between the calendar and tropical years, and secondly, to bring calendar year to tropical, so that in the future the difference between them would not be noticeable.

The first problem was solved by the administrative procedure: a special papal bull ordered October 5, 1582 to be considered October 15. Thus, the spring equinox returned to March 21st.

The second problem was solved by reducing the number of leap years in order to reduce the average length of the Julian year. Every 400 years, 3 leap years were thrown out of the calendar, namely those that ended centuries, provided that the first two digits of the year designation are not divisible by four without a remainder. Thus, 1600 remained a leap year in the new calendar, while 1700, 1800 and 1900 remained a leap year. become prime because 17, 18, and 19 are not evenly divisible by four.

The new Gregorian calendar created has become much more perfect than the Julian one. Each year now lagged behind the tropical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy between them in one day accumulated after 3323 years.

Since different textbooks give different figures characterizing the discrepancy of one day between the Gregorian and tropical years, the corresponding calculations can be made. A day contains 86,400 seconds. The difference between the Julian and tropical calendars of three days accumulates after 384 years and amounts to 259,200 seconds (86400*3=259,200). Every 400 years, three days are thrown out of the Gregorian calendar, i.e., we can assume that the year in the Gregorian calendar is reduced by 648 seconds (259200:400=648) or 10 minutes 48 seconds. The average length of the Gregorian year is thus 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds (365 days 6 hours - 10 minutes 48 seconds = 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 12 seconds), which is only 26 seconds longer than the tropical year (365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds - 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds = 26 seconds). With such a difference, the discrepancy between the Gregorian calendar and the tropical years in one day will come only after 3323 years, since 86400:26 = 3323.

The Gregorian calendar was originally introduced in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Southern Netherlands, then in Poland, Austria, the Catholic lands of Germany and a number of other European countries. In those states where the Orthodox Christian church, used the Julian calendar for a long time. For example, in Bulgaria a new calendar was introduced only in 1916, in Serbia in 1919. In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918. In the 20th century. the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars had already reached 13 days, so in 1918 it was prescribed to count the day following January 31 not on February 1, but on February 14.

07.12.2015

Gregorian calendar - modern system calculus, based on astronomical phenomena, namely, on the cyclic revolution of our planet around the Sun. The length of the year in this system is 365 days, while every fourth year becomes a leap year and is equal to 364 days.

History of occurrence

The date of approval of the Gregorian calendar is 10/4/1582. This calendar replaced the current Julian calendar. Majority modern countries lives exactly according to the new calendar: look at any calendar and you will get visual representation about the 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 led to 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 the leap year began to operate;
  • 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 that was by that time under the control of Soviet power, it was announced that after 01/31/1918, 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 were indicated for a long time in a stromal and new style.

By the way, the Orthodox Church still lives according to the Julian calendar (unlike the Catholic one), so the days church holidays(Easter, Christmas) in Catholic countries do not coincide with Russian ones. According to the higher clergy Orthodox Church, the transition to the Gregorian system will lead to canonical violations: the rules of the Apostles do not allow the celebration of Holy Pascha to begin 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 People's Republic of China. In the same year, the world-wide calculus of years was established in China - from the Nativity of Christ.

At the time of the approval of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between the two systems of calculation was 10 days. By now, due to different quantity leap years discrepancies increased to 13 days. By March 1, 2100, the difference will already be 14 days.

Compared to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar is more accurate from an astronomical point of view: it is as close as possible to the tropical year. The reason for the change of systems was the gradual shift of the day of the equinox in the Julian calendar: this caused the divergence of the Easter full moons from the astronomical ones.

All modern calendars look familiar to us precisely due to the transition of leadership Catholic Church to a new time scale. If the Julian calendar continued to function, the discrepancies between the real (astronomical) equinoxes and Easter holidays would increase even more, which would confuse 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 continue to successfully use new system time for more than 400 years. The calendar is still a useful and functional thing that everyone needs to coordinate dates, plan business and personal life.

Modern printing production has reached an 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.

In Europe, starting in 1582, the reformed (Gregorian) calendar gradually spread. The Gregorian calendar gives a much more accurate approximation of the tropical year. For the first time, the Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in Catholic countries on October 4, 1582 to replace the previous one: the next day after Thursday, October 4, was Friday, October 15.
The Gregorian calendar ("new style") is a system of time calculation based on the cyclic revolution of the Earth around the Sun. The duration of the year is taken equal to 365.2425 days. The Gregorian calendar contains 97 by 400 years.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars

At the time of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between it and the Julian calendar was 10 days. However, this difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars gradually increases over time due to the difference in the rules for determining leap years. Therefore, when determining which date of the “new calendar” falls on this or that date of the “old calendar”, it is necessary to take into account the century in which the event took place. For example, if in the XIV century this difference was 8 days, then in the XX century it was already 13 days.

From here follows the distribution of leap years:

  • a year whose number is a multiple of 400 is a leap year;
  • the remaining years, the number of which is a multiple of 100, are non-leap years;
  • the rest of the years, the number of which is a multiple of 4, are leap years.

Thus, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. Nor will 2100 be a leap year. An error of one day compared to the year of the equinoxes in the Gregorian calendar will accumulate in about 10 thousand years (in the Julian - in about 128 years).

Time of approval of the Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, was not immediately put into use:
1582 - Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Lorraine, Holland, Luxembourg;
1583 - Austria (part), Bavaria, Tyrol.
1584 - Austria (part), Switzerland, Silesia, Westphalia.
1587 - Hungary.
1610 - Prussia.
1700 - Protestant German states, Denmark.
1752 - Great Britain.
1753 - Sweden, Finland.
1873 - Japan.
1911 - China.
1916 - Bulgaria.
1918 - Soviet Russia.
1919 - Serbia, Romania.
1927 - Türkiye.
1928 - Egypt.
1929 - Greece.

Gregorian calendar in Russia

As you know, until February 1918, Russia, like most Orthodox countries, lived according to the Julian calendar. The "new style" of chronology appeared in Russia in January 1918, when the Council of People's Commissars replaced the traditional Julian calendar with the Gregorian one. As stated in the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars, this decision was made "in order to establish in Russia the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples." In accordance with the decree, the terms of all obligations were considered to have come 13 days later. Until July 1, 1918, a kind of transitional period was established, when it was allowed to use the old style chronology. But at the same time, the order of writing old and new dates was clearly established in the document: it was necessary to write “after the number of each day according to the new calendar, in brackets the number according to the calendar that was still in force”.

Events and documents are dated with a double date in cases where it is required to indicate the old and new styles. For example, for anniversaries, major events in all biographical works, and dates of events and historical documents international relations associated with countries where the Gregorian calendar was introduced earlier than in Russia.

Date according to the new style (Gregorian calendar)