May 1st is 151 days in the Gregorian calendar. Literary and historical notes of a young technician

We use the calendar all our lives. This seemingly simple table of numbers with the days of the week has a very ancient and rich history. Civilizations known to us already then knew how to divide the year into months and days. For example, in ancient egypt, based on the laws of the movement of the moon and Sirius, a calendar was created. The year was approximately 365 days and was divided into twelve months, which, in turn, were divided into thirty days.

Innovator Julius Caesar

Around 46 BC. e. there was a transformation of the chronology. Roman emperor Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar. It was slightly different from the Egyptian one: the fact is that instead of the Moon and Sirius, the sun was taken as the basis. Now the year was 365 days and six hours. The beginning of the new time was considered the first of January, but Christmas began to be celebrated on January 7th.

In connection with this reform, the senate decided to thank the emperor by naming one month after him, which we know as "July". After the death of Julius Caesar, the priests began to confuse months, the number of days - in a word, the old calendar no longer looked like a new one. Every third year was considered a leap year. From 44 to 9 BC there were 12 leap years, which was not true.

After the emperor Octavian Augustus came to power, there were no leap years for sixteen years, so everything fell into place, and the situation with the chronology improved. In honor of Emperor Octavian, the eighth month was renamed from Sextilis to August.

When the question arose about the appointment of the celebration of Easter day, disagreements began. It was this question that was decided at the Ecumenical Council. The rules that were established at this Council, no one has the right to change to this day.

Innovator Gregory XIII

In 1582, Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one.. The movement of the vernal equinox was main reason changes. It was according to him that the day of Easter was calculated. At the time when the Julian calendar was introduced, March 21 was considered this day, but around the 16th century the difference between the tropical and Julian calendar was about 10 days, therefore, March 21 was replaced by 11.

In 1853, in Constantinople, the Council of the Patriarchs criticized and condemned the Gregorian calendar, according to which the Catholic Bright Sunday was celebrated before Jewish Easter, which was contrary to established rules Ecumenical Councils.

Differences between old and new style

So, how is the Julian calendar different from the Gregorian?

• Unlike the Gregorian, the Julian was adopted much earlier and is 1,000 years older.
• On the this moment old style(Julian) is used to calculate the celebration of Easter among Orthodox Christians.
• The chronology created by Gregory is much more accurate than the previous one and will not be subject to change in the future.
• A leap year in the old style is every fourth year.
• In Gregorian, leap years are not those years that are divisible by four and end in two zeros.
• Everyone is marked according to the new style church holidays.

As we can see, the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian is obvious not only in terms of calculations, but also in terms of popularity.

Stands up interest Ask. What calendar are we living on now?

The Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian, which was adopted during the Ecumenical Council, while the Catholics use the Gregorian. Hence the difference in the dates of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ and Easter. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, following the decision of the Ecumenical Council, and Catholics on December 25.

These two chronologies were named - old and new style calendar.

The area where the old style is used is not very large: the Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem Orthodox Churches.

As we can see, after the introduction of the new style, the life of Christians around the world has changed. Many gladly accepted the changes and began to live according to it. But there are also those Christians who are faithful to the old style and live according to it even now, albeit in very small numbers.

There will always be disagreements between Orthodox and Catholics, and this is not connected with the old or new style of reckoning. Julian and Gregorian calendars - the difference is not in faith, but in the desire to use one or another calendar.

With the measurement of some quantities, no problems arise. When it comes to length, volume, weight - no one has any disagreements. But one has only to touch the measurement of time, and immediately encounter different points vision. Special attention should be paid to what the Julian and Gregorian calendars are, the difference between them has really changed the world.

The difference between Catholic and Orthodox holidays

It's no secret to anyone that Catholics celebrate Christmas not on January 7, like the Orthodox, but on December 25. With other Christian holidays, the situation is the same.

A whole series of questions arise:

• Where did these 13 days of difference come from?
• Why can't we celebrate the same event on the same day?
• Will the difference of 13 days ever change?
• Maybe it will shrink over time and disappear altogether?
• Yes, at least find out what it's all connected with?

To answer these questions, we will have to mentally travel to pre-Christian Europe. However, at that time there was no talk of any integral Europe, civilized Rome was surrounded by many scattered barbarian tribes. Subsequently, they were all captured and became part of the Empire, but that's another story.

However, history is written by the victors, and we will never know how “ barbaric were the neighbors of Rome. It's no secret that great rulers have a hand in all events in the state. Julius Caesar was no exception when he decided to introduce a new calendar - Julian .

What calendars and for how long did you use them?

You can’t refuse the ruler’s modesty, but he made too much contribution to the history of the whole world to be criticized on trifles. Suggested calendar:

1. It was much more accurate than the previous versions.
2. All years consisted of 365 days.
3. In every fourth year there was 1 more day.
4. The calendar was consistent with the astronomical data known at that time.
5. For one and a half thousand years, not a single worthy analogue has been proposed.

But nothing stands still, at the end of the XIV century a new calendar was introduced, this was facilitated by the then Pope - Gregory XIII. This version of the reference was reduced to the fact that:

• In a normal year there are 365 days. A leap year still contains the same 366.
• But now not every fourth year was considered a leap year. Now if the year ends with two zeros, and at the same time divisible by both 4 and 100, it is not a leap year.
• For a simple example, 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be leap years. Unlike 2400.

Why did it have to change something, could it really not be possible to leave everything as it is? The fact is that according to astronomers, The Julian calendar is not entirely accurate..

The error is only 1/128 of a day, but for 128 years a whole day accumulates, and for five centuries - almost a full four days.

How is the Julian calendar different from the Gregorian calendar?

Fundamental differences between the two calendars are that:

• Julian was adopted much earlier.
• He also existed for 1000 years more than the Gregorian.
• Unlike the Gregorian, the Julian calendar is now almost never used anywhere.
• The Julian calendar is used only for the calculation of Orthodox holidays.
• The Gregorian calendar is more accurate and avoids minor errors.
• The calendar adopted by Gregory XIII is presented as the final version, absolutely correct system reference that will not change in the future.
• In the Julian calendar, every 4th year is a leap year.
• In Gregorian, leap years are not those that end in 00 and are not divisible by 4.
• Almost every century ends with the fact that the difference between the two calendars increases by another day.
• The exception is centuries that are multiples of four.
• According to the Gregorian calendar, almost all Christians of the world celebrate church holidays - Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans.
• Orthodox Christians celebrate according to the Julian, guided by the apostolic instructions.

What can lead to an error of a few days?

But is it really so important to observe this accuracy, maybe it is better to pay tribute to traditions? What terrible thing will happen if the calendar shifts by 4 days in five centuries, is it noticeable?

In addition, those who decide to make changes will certainly not live to see the time when “ wrong The calculation option will disperse at least for a day.

Just imagine that warming comes already in February, the first flowering begins. But with all this, the ancestors describe February as a harsh and frosty winter month.

Here, a slight misunderstanding may already arise, what is happening with nature and the planet? Especially if in November there are snowdrifts instead of fallen leaves. And in October, the colorful foliage on the trees does not please the eye, because all of it has long been rotting on the ground. This seems insignificant at first glance, when the margin of error is only 24 hours in 128 years.

But calendars regulate, including the most important events in the life of many civilizations - sowing and harvesting. The more accurately all adjustments are made, the better about Larger food supplies will be kept next year.

Of course, now it is not so important, in the era of rapid development scientific and technological progress. But once it was a matter of life and death for millions of people.

Significant features of the calendars

Distinguishing between two calendars:

1. A more accurate measurement using the Gregorian.
2. The irrelevance of the Julian calendar: except for the Orthodox Church, almost no one uses it.
3. The universal use of the Gregorian calendar.
4. Throwing out 10 days of delay and introducing a new rule - all years ending in 00 and not divisible by 4 are no longer leap years.
5. Thanks to this, the difference between the calendars is inexorably increasing. For 3 days every 400 years.
6. Julian was adopted by Julius Caesar, 2 thousand years ago.
7. Gregorian is more "young", he is not even five hundred years old. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.

What are the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the difference between them and the reasons for their introduction can be known for general development. AT real life this information will never be useful. Unless, if you want to impress someone with your erudition.

Video about the differences between Gregorian and Julian

In this video, Priest Andrei Shchukin will talk about the main differences between these two calendars in terms of religion and mathematics:

Calendar- the table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years familiar to all of us is the oldest invention of mankind. It fixes the frequency natural phenomena, based on the laws of motion of heavenly bodies: the Sun, the Moon, the stars. The earth rushes along its solar orbit, counting the 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.

AT 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. AT 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. For the value of the calendar year was taken solar year, which was a little more than astronomical - 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 Catholic Church Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new style of calendar - Gregorian. The aim of the reform was supposedly to precise definition Easter day to the vernal equinox back on March 21st. 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 one, 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 within each 400th anniversary three leap years. 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.
Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar - unlike 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.

A calendar is a system of counting large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies. The most common solar calendar, which is based on the solar (tropical) year - the time interval between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox. It is approximately 365.2422 days.

The history of the development of the solar calendar is the establishment of the alternation of calendar years of different durations (365 and 366 days).

In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, three years in a row contained 365 days each, and the fourth (leap year) - 366 days. Leap years were all years whose serial numbers were divisible by four.

In the Julian calendar, 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 for it 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 AD 325, the Council of Nicaea decreed a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.

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 in the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the calendar of 1582 - 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.

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.

Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated January 26, 1918 "On the introduction of the Western European calendar." Since by the time the document was adopted, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars was 13 days, it was decided to consider the day after January 31, 1918 not the first, but February 14.

The decree prescribed until July 1, 1918, after the number according to the new (Gregorian) style, to indicate in brackets the number according to the old (Julian) style. Subsequently, this practice was preserved, but the date was placed in brackets according to the new style.

February 14, 1918 was the first day in the history of Russia that officially passed according to the "new style". By the middle of the 20th century Gregorian calendar used by almost every country in the world.

The Russian Orthodox Church, preserving traditions, continues to follow the Julian calendar, while in the 20th century some local Orthodox churches switched to the so-called. New Julian calendar. At present, in addition to the Russian, only three Orthodox churches - Georgian, Serbian and Jerusalem - continue to adhere entirely to the Julian calendar.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in it is 0.003 days (26 seconds) longer than the tropical year. An error of one day accumulates in about 3300 years.

The Gregorian calendar also, as a result of which the length of the day on the planet grows by 1.8 milliseconds every century.

The current calendar structure does not quite meet the needs public life. 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.

The question of improving the calendar was raised repeatedly and for a long time. In the 20th century, it was raised to international level. In 1923, the International Committee for the Reform of the Calendar was established in Geneva under the League of Nations. During its existence, this committee has reviewed and published several hundred projects submitted by different countries. In 1954 and 1956, drafts of the new calendar were discussed at sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council, but the final decision was postponed.

A new calendar can only be introduced after it has been approved by all countries under a generally binding international agreement, which has not yet been reached.

In Russia in 2007 State Duma A bill was introduced proposing to return the country to the Julian calendar from January 1, 2008. It was proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when within 13 days the chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. In April 2008, the bill

In the summer of 2017, the State Duma again about Russia's transition to the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian. It is currently under review.

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

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 rushes along its solar orbit, counting the 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 the 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 purpose of the reform was allegedly to more accurately determine the day of the celebration of Easter, so that the spring equinox would return 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 one, 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, the New Year has been celebrated on March 1, 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 21st centuries - 13 days, in the 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, according to the church calendar, January 1 (December 19, old style) commemorates 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.