Old and new style in historical dates. Calendar revolution

Humanity has been using chronology since ancient times. Take, for example, the famous Mayan circle, which made a lot of noise in 2012. Measuring day by day, the pages of the calendar take weeks, months and years away. Almost all countries of the world today live according to the generally accepted Gregorian calendar, however long years was state-owned Julian. What is the difference between them, and why is the latter now used only Orthodox Church?

Julian calendar

The ancient Romans counted the days by lunar phases. This simple calendar had 10 months named after the gods. The Egyptians had the usual modern chronology: 365 days, 12 months of 30 days. In 46 BC. emperor Ancient Rome Gaius Julius Caesar ordered leading astronomers to create a new calendar. The solar year with its 365 days and 6 hours was taken as a model, and the starting date was January 1. New way The calculation of days was then, in fact, called a calendar, from the Roman word “calends” - this was the name given to the first days of each month when interest on debts was paid. In honor of the ancient Roman commander and politician, in order to immortalize his name in the history of a grandiose invention, one of the months was called July.

After the assassination of the emperor, the Roman priests became a little confused and declared every third year to be a leap year to equalize the six-hour shift. The calendar was finally aligned under Emperor Octavian Augustus. And his contribution was recorded with a new name for the month - August.

From Julian to Gregorian

For centuries Julian calendar states lived. It was also used by Christians during the First Ecumenical Council, when the date for the celebration of Easter was approved. Interestingly, this day is celebrated differently each year depending on the first full moon after the spring equinox and the Jewish Passover. This rule could only be changed under pain of anathema, but in 1582 the head catholic church Pope Gregory XIII took a risk. The reform was successful: the new calendar, called the Gregorian, was more accurate and returned the equinox to March 21. The hierarchs of the Orthodox Church condemned the innovation: it turned out that the Jewish Easter happened later than the Christian Easter. This was not allowed by the canons of the Eastern tradition, and another point appeared in the discrepancies between Catholics and Orthodox.

Calculation of chronology in Rus'

In 1492, the New Year in Rus' began to be celebrated according to church tradition on September 1, although previously the New Year began simultaneously with spring and was considered “from the creation of the world.” Emperor Peter I established that received from Byzantium Julian calendar in the territory Russian Empire is valid, however, the New Year was now celebrated without fail on January 1. The Bolsheviks transferred the country to Gregorian calendar , according to which all of Europe has long lived. It is interesting that in this way that February became the most short month in the history of chronology: February 1, 1918 became February 14.

WITH Julian to Gregorian calendar in 1924 Greece officially passed, followed by Turkey, and in 1928 Egypt. In our time, according to the Julian calendar, only a few Orthodox churches live - Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Polish, Jerusalem, as well as eastern ones - Coptic, Ethiopian and Greek Catholic. Therefore, there are discrepancies in the celebration of Christmas: Catholics celebrate the birthday of Christ on December 25, and in the Orthodox tradition this holiday falls on January 7. The same is with secular holidays - which confuses foreigners, is celebrated on January 14 as a tribute to the previous calendar. However, it doesn’t matter who lives by which calendar: the main thing is not to waste precious days.

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Since 46 BC, most countries in the world have used the Julian calendar. However, in 1582, by the decision of Pope Gregory XIII, it was replaced by Gregorian. That year, the next day after the fourth of October was not the fifth, but the fifteenth of October. Now the Gregorian calendar is officially adopted in all countries except Thailand and Ethiopia.

Reasons for adopting the Gregorian calendar

The main reason for introducing new system chronology began to move the day of the vernal equinox, depending on which the date of the celebration of Christian Easter was determined. Due to discrepancies between the Julian and tropical calendars (the tropical year is the period of time during which the sun completes one cycle of changing seasons), the day of the vernal equinox gradually shifted to earlier dates. At the time of the introduction of the Julian calendar, it fell on March 21, both according to the accepted calendar system and in fact. But by the 16th century, the difference between the tropical and Julian calendars was already about ten days. As a result, the vernal equinox no longer fell on March 21, but on March 11.

Scientists paid attention to the above problem long before the adoption of the Gregorian chronology system. Back in the 14th century, Nikephoros Grigora, a scientist from Byzantium, reported this to Emperor Andronicus II. According to Grigora, it was necessary to revise the calendar system that existed at that time, since otherwise the date of Easter would continue to shift to a later and later time. However, the emperor did not take any action to eliminate this problem, fearing protest from the church.

Subsequently, other scientists from Byzantium also spoke about the need to switch to a new calendar system. But the calendar continued to remain unchanged. And not only because of the rulers’ fear of causing indignation among the clergy, but also because the further the Christian Easter moved away, the less chance it had of coinciding with the Jewish Passover. This was unacceptable according to church canons.

By the 16th century, the problem had become so urgent that the need to solve it was no longer in doubt. As a result, Pope Gregory XIII assembled a commission, which was tasked with carrying out all the necessary research and creating a new calendar system. The results obtained were displayed in the bullet “Among the most important”. It was she who became the document with which the adoption of the new calendar system began.

The main disadvantage of the Julian calendar is its lack of accuracy in relation to the tropical calendar. In the Julian calendar, all years that are divisible by 100 without a remainder are considered leap years. As a result, the difference with the tropical calendar increases every year. Approximately every century and a half it increases by 1 day.

The Gregorian calendar is much more accurate. It has fewer leap years. In this chronology system, leap years are considered to be years that:

divisible by 400 without remainder;
divisible by 4 without a remainder, but not divisible by 100 without a remainder.

Thus, the years 1100 or 1700 in the Julian calendar are considered leap years because they are divisible by 4 without a remainder. In the Gregorian calendar, from those that have already passed since its adoption, 1600 and 2000 are considered leap years.

Immediately after the introduction of the new system, it was possible to eliminate the difference between the tropical and calendar years, which at that time was already 10 days. Otherwise, due to errors in calculations, an extra year would accumulate every 128 years. In the Gregorian calendar, an extra day occurs only every 10,000 years.

Not at all modern states the new chronology system was adopted immediately. The Catholic states were the first to switch to it. In these countries, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted either in 1582 or shortly after the decree of Pope Gregory XIII.

In a number of states, the transition to a new calendar system was associated with popular unrest. The most serious of them took place in Riga. They lasted for five whole years - from 1584 to 1589.

There were also some funny situations. So, for example, in Holland and Belgium, due to the official adoption of the new calendar, after December 21, 1582, January 1, 1583 came. As a result, the inhabitants of these countries were left without Christmas in 1582.

Russia was one of the last to adopt the Gregorian calendar. The new system was officially introduced on the territory of the RSFSR on January 26, 1918 by decree of the Council of People's Commissars. In accordance with this document, immediately after January 31 of that year, February 14 came on the territory of the state.

Later than in Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced only in a few countries, including Greece, Turkey and China.

After the official adoption of the new chronology system, Pope Gregory XIII sent a proposal to Constantinople to switch to a new calendar. However, she was met with refusal. Its main reason was the inconsistency of the calendar with the canons of celebrating Easter. However, later most Orthodox churches switched to the Gregorian calendar.

Today, only four Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar: Russian, Serbian, Georgian and Jerusalem.

Rules for specifying dates

In accordance with the generally accepted rule, dates falling between 1582 and the moment the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the country are indicated in both the old and new styles. Wherein a new style indicated in quotation marks. Earlier dates are indicated according to the proleptic calendar (i.e., a calendar used to indicate dates earlier than the date the calendar appeared). In countries where the Julian calendar was adopted, dates before 46 BC. e. are indicated according to the proleptic Julian calendar, and where there was none - according to the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

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. The same decree prescribed, until July 1, 1918, after the date of each day according to the new style, to write in brackets 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 the period of change lunar phases. But already by the time of the adoption of Christianity, i.e. by the end of the 10th century. n. e., Ancient Rus' I used the lunisolar calendar.

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

The most ancient monuments of Russian writing show that the months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was closely related to natural phenomena. Moreover, the same months, depending on the climate of the places in which different tribes lived, received different names. So, January was called where the section (the time of deforestation), where the prosinets (after the winter clouds the blue sky appeared), where the jelly (since it became icy, cold), etc.; February—cut, snowy or severe (severe frosts); March - berezozol (there are several interpretations here: the birch begins to bloom; they took sap from birches; they burned the birch for coal), dry (the poorest in precipitation in the ancient Kievan Rus, in some places the earth was already dry, the sap (a reminder of birch sap); April - pollen (flowering of gardens), birch (beginning of birch flowering), duben, kviten, etc.; May - grass (grass turns green), summer, pollen; June - Cherven (cherries turn red), Izok (grasshoppers chirp - “Izoki”), Mlechen; July - lipets (linden blossoms), cherven (in the north, where phenological phenomena are delayed), serpen (from the word “sickle”, indicating the time of harvest); August - sickle, stubble, roar (from the verb “to roar” - the roar of deer, or from the word “glow” - cold dawns, and possibly from “pasori” - auroras); September - veresen (heather blossoms); ruen (from the Slavic root word meaning tree, giving yellow paint); October - leaf fall, “pazdernik” or “kastrychnik” (pazdernik - hemp buds, the name for the south of Russia); November - gruden (from the word “heap” - frozen rut on the road), leaf fall (in the south of Russia); December - jelly, chest, prosinets.

The year began on March 1, and around this time agricultural work began.

Many ancient names of months later moved into the series Slavic languages and largely held in some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

At the end of the 10th century. Ancient Rus' adopted Christianity. At the same time, the chronology used by the Romans came to us - the Julian calendar (based on the solar year), with Roman names for the months and a seven-day week. It counted years from the “creation of the world,” which allegedly occurred 5508 years before our chronology. This date - one of the many variants of 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, the beginning of the year was considered March 1, 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 Muscovites celebrated their next New Year on September 1, 7208, 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 “Nativity of Christ”).

Peter's decree was called: "On the writing henceforth of Genvar from the 1st day of 1700 in all papers of the year from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world." Therefore, the decree prescribed that the day after December 31, 7208 from the “creation of the world” should be considered January 1, 1700 from the “Nativity of Christ.” 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, freely in a row.”

Celebrating the first civil New Year in Moscow. The day after the announcement of Peter I’s decree on calendar reform on Red Square in Moscow, i.e. December 20, 7208, a new decree of the tsar was announced - “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. The new century began on January 1, 1701. An error that is sometimes repeated today, the decree ordered that this event be celebrated with especially 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, giving the signal for the opening of the holiday. The streets were illuminated. The ringing of bells and cannon fire began, and the sounds of trumpets and timpani were heard. The Tsar congratulated the population of the capital on the New Year, and the festivities continued all night. Multi-colored rockets took off from the courtyards into the dark winter sky, and “along the large streets, where there is space,” lights burned—bonfires and tar barrels attached to poles.

The houses of the residents of the wooden capital were decorated with needles “from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper.” For a whole week the houses were decorated, and as night fell the lights were lit. Shooting “from small cannons and from muskets or other small weapons,” as well as launching “missiles,” were entrusted to people “who do not count gold.” And “poor people” were asked to “put at least a tree or branch on each of their gates or over their temple.” Since that time, our country has established the custom of celebrating New Year's Day on January 1 every year.

After 1918, there were still 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,” which recognized the need to begin systematic and consecutive translation enterprises and institutions for continuous production. In the fall of 1929, a gradual transition to “continuity” 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 decree introduced a unified production timesheet and calendar. IN calendar year 360 days were provided, 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 the Soviet memorable days and revolutionary holidays: January 22, May 1 and 2, and November 7 and 8.

The workers of each enterprise and institution were divided into 5 groups, and each group was given a day of rest on every five-day week for the whole year. This meant that after four working days there was a day of rest. After the introduction of the “uninterrupted” period, there was no longer a need for a seven-day week, since weekends could fall not only on different days of the month, but also on different days of the week.

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 intermittent production week. For them, permanent days off were established on the following dates of the month: 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 31 days, the last day of the month was considered the same month and was paid specially. The decree on the transition to an intermittent six-day week came into force on December 1, 1931.

Both the five-day and six-day periods completely disrupted the traditional seven-day week with a general 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 the unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions." In development of this decree, on June 27, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution in which it established that "in addition to 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 on March 12 (Day of the Overthrow of the Autocracy) and March 18 (Paris Commune Day).

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Russian 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 affect the structure of the modern calendar."

But the most interesting thing is that passions do not subside. The next revolution is happening in our new time. Sergey Baburin, Victor Alksnis, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko contributed to the State Duma a bill on the transition of Russia from January 1, 2008 to the Julian calendar. IN explanatory note deputies noted that “there is no world calendar” and proposed to establish transition period from December 31, 2007, when for 13 days 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 elected representatives ignored the vote.

Gregorian calendar

This calculator allows you to convert the date from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, as well as calculate the date of Orthodox Easter according to the old style

* to calculate Easter according to the new style, you must enter the date obtained according to the old style into the calculation form

(amendment + 13 days to the Julian calendar)

2019 non-leap

IN 2019 Orthodox Easter falls on April 15(according to the Julian calendar)

Date calculation Orthodox Easter performed according to the algorithm of Carl Friedrich Gauss

Disadvantages of the Julian calendar

In 325 AD e. The Nicene Church Council took place. It adopted the Julian calendar for the entire Christian world, according to which at that time the vernal equinox fell on March 21st. For the church it was important point in determining the time of celebration of Easter - one of the most important religious holidays. By accepting the Julian calendar, the clergy believed that it was perfectly accurate. However, as we know, for every 128 years an error of one day accumulates.

An error in the Julian calendar resulted in real time The vernal equinox no longer coincides with the calendar. The moment of equality between day and night moved to earlier and earlier dates: first to March 20, then to 19, 18, etc. By the second half of the 16th century. the error was 10 days: according to the Julian calendar, the moment of the equinox was supposed to occur on March 21, but in reality it already occurred on March 11.

History of the Gregorian reform.

The inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was discovered in the first quarter of the 14th century. Thus, in 1324, the Byzantine scientist Nikephoros Grigora drew the attention of Emperor Andronikos II to the fact that the spring equinox no longer falls on March 21 and, therefore, Easter will gradually be pushed back to a later time. Therefore, he considered it necessary to correct the calendar and with it the calculation of Easter. However, the emperor rejected Grigor's proposal, considering the reform practically impracticable due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement on this matter between individual Orthodox churches.

The inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was also pointed out by the Greek scientist Matvei Vlastar, who lived in Byzantium in the first half of the 14th century. However, he did not consider it necessary to make corrections, since he saw in this some “advantage”, consisting in the fact that the delay of the Orthodox Easter saves it from coinciding with the Jewish Passover. Their simultaneous celebration was prohibited by the decrees of some “Ecumenical” councils and various church canons.

It is interesting to note that in 1373, the Byzantine scientist Isaac Argir, who more deeply understood the need to correct the Julian calendar and the rules for calculating Easter, considered such an event useless. The reason for this attitude towards the calendar was explained by the fact that Argir was deeply confident in the coming “doomsday” and the end of the world in 119 years, since it would be 7000 years “since the creation of the world.” Is it worth it to reform the calendar if there is so little time left for the life of all humanity!

The need to reform the Julian calendar was also understood by many representatives of the Catholic Church. In the XIV century. Pope Clement VI spoke in favor of correcting the calendar.

In March 1414, the calendar issue was discussed at the initiative of Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. The shortcomings of the Julian calendar and the inaccuracy of the existing Paschals were the subject of discussion at the Council of Basel in March 1437. Here, the outstanding philosopher and scientist of the Renaissance, Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), one of the predecessors of Copernicus, came up with his project.

In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV began preparations for the reform of the calendar and the correction of Easter. For this purpose, he invited the outstanding German astronomer and mathematician Regiomontanus (1436-1476) to Rome. However, the unexpected death of the scientist forced the pope to postpone the implementation of his intention.

In the 16th century Two more “ecumenical” councils dealt with issues of calendar reform: the Lateran (1512-1517) and the Trent Council (1545-1563). When in 1514 the Lateran Council created a commission to reform the calendar, the Roman Curia invited the then well-known Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) in Europe to come to Rome and take part in the work of the calendar commission. However, Copernicus avoided participating in the commission and pointed out the prematureness of such a reform, since, in his opinion, by this time the length of the tropical year had not been established accurately enough.

Gregorian reform. By the middle of the 16th century. the question of calendar reform became so widespread and the importance of its solution turned out to be so necessary that postponing this issue further was considered undesirable. That is why in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII created a special commission, which included Ignatius Danti (1536-1586), a well-known professor of astronomy and mathematics at the University of Bologna at that time. This commission was tasked with developing a draft of a new calendar system.

After reviewing all the proposed options for the new calendar, the commission approved the project, the author of which was the Italian mathematician and physician Luigi Lilio (or Aloysius Lilius, 1520-1576), a teacher of medicine at the University of Perugia. This project was published in 1576 by the scientist’s brother, Antonio Lilio, who, during Luigi’s lifetime, took Active participation in the development of a new calendar.

Lilio's project was accepted by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a special bull (Fig. 11), according to which the count of days was moved forward 10 days and the day after Thursday October 4, 1582, Friday was ordered to be counted not as October 5, but as October 15. This immediately corrected the error that had accumulated since the Council of Nicaea, and the spring equinox again fell on March 21.

It was more difficult to resolve the issue of introducing an amendment to the calendar that would ensure coincidence for long periods of time. calendar date vernal equinox with its actual date. To do this, it was necessary to know the length of the tropical year.

By this time, astronomical tables, known as the “Prussian Tables,” had already been published. They were compiled by the German astronomer and mathematician Erasmus Reinhold (1511-1553) and published in 1551. The length of the year in them was taken to be 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds, i.e. more than the true value of the tropical year by only 30 seconds. The length of the year of the Julian calendar differed from it by 10 minutes. 44 sec. per year, which gave an error per day for 135 years, and for 400 years - slightly more than three days.

Consequently, the Julian calendar moves ahead by three days every 400 years. Therefore, in order to avoid new errors, it was decided to exclude 3 days from the count every 400 years. According to the Julian calendar, there should be 100 leap years in 400 years. To implement the reform, it was necessary to reduce their number to 97. Lilio proposed to consider as simple those century years of the Julian calendar, the number of hundreds in which is not divisible by 4. Thus, in the new calendar, only those century years are considered leap years, the number of centuries of which is divisible by 4 without remainder. Such years are: 1600, 2000, 2400, 2800, etc. The years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, etc. will be simple.

The reformed calendar system was called the Gregorian or "new style".

Is the Gregorian calendar accurate? We already know that the Gregorian calendar is also not entirely accurate. After all, when correcting the calendar, they began to throw out three days every 400 years, while such an error accumulates only in 384 years. To determine the error of the Gregorian calendar, we calculate the average length of the year in it.

In a period of 400 years there will be 303 years of 365 days and 97 years of 366 days. The total number of days in a four-century period will be 303 × 365 + 97 × 366 == 110,595 + 35,502 = 146,097. Divide this number by 400. Then we get 146097/400 = 365.242500 accurate to the sixth decimal place. This is average duration years of the Gregorian calendar. This value differs from the currently accepted value of the length of the tropical year by only 0.000305 average day, which gives a difference of a whole day over 3280 years.

The Gregorian calendar could be improved and made even more accurate. One is enough for this leap year once every 4000 years is considered simple. Such years could be 4000, 8000, etc. Since the error of the Gregorian calendar is 0.000305 days per year, then in 4000 years it will be 1.22 days. If you correct the calendar for one more day in 4000 years, then an error of 0.22 days will remain. Such an error will increase to a full day in only 18,200 years! But such accuracy is no longer of any practical interest.

When and where was the Gregorian calendar first introduced? The Gregorian calendar did not immediately become widespread. In countries where Catholicism was the dominant religion (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, etc.), it was introduced in 1582 or somewhat later. Other countries recognized it only after tens and hundreds of years.

In states where Lutheranism was strongly developed, for a long time they were guided by the saying that “it is better to separate from the Sun than to get along with the Pope.” The Orthodox Church opposed the new style even longer.

In a number of countries, great difficulties had to be overcome when introducing the Gregorian calendar. History knows of the “calendar riots” that arose in 1584 in Riga and were directed against the decree of the Polish king Stefan Batory on the introduction of a new calendar not only in Poland, but also in the Duchy of Zadvina, which was at that time under Lithuanian-Polish domination. The struggle of the Latvian people against Polish dominance and Catholicism continued for several years. The “calendar riots” stopped only after the leaders of the uprising, Giese and Brinken, were arrested and subjected to brutal torture and executed.

In England, the introduction of a new calendar was accompanied by a postponement of the start of the new year from March 25 to January 1. Thus, the year 1751 in England consisted of only 282 days. Lord Chesterfield, on whose initiative calendar reform was carried out in England, was pursued by the townspeople shouting: “Give us our three months.”

In the 19th century Attempts were made to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, but each time these attempts failed due to opposition from the church and government. Only in 1918, immediately after the establishment in Russia Soviet power, calendar reform was implemented.

The difference between the two calendar systems. By the time of the calendar reform, the difference between the old and new styles was 10 days. This amendment remained the same in the 17th century, since 1600 was a leap year both according to the new style and the old one. But in the 18th century. the amendment increased to 11 days in the 19th century. - up to 12 days and, finally, in the 20th century. - up to 13 days.

How to set the date after which the amendment changes its value?

The reason for the change in the magnitude of the correction depends on the fact that in the Julian calendar the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 are leap years, i.e. these years contain 29 days in February, but in the Gregorian calendar they are not leap years and have only 28 days in February.

To convert the Julian date of any event that occurred after the reform of 1582 to the new style, you can use the table:

From this table it is clear that critical days, after which the amendment is increased by one day, are February 29, old style, of those century years in which, according to the rules of the Gregorian reform, one day was removed from the count, i.e., the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, etc. Therefore, starting from March 1 of these years, again according to the old style, the amendment increases by one day.

A special place is occupied by the issue of recalculating the dates of events that took place before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Such a recount is also important when they are going to celebrate the anniversary of any historical event. Thus, in 1973, humanity celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. It is known that he was born on February 19, 1473 according to the old style. But we now live according to the Gregorian calendar and therefore it was necessary to recalculate the date of interest to us to the new style. How was this done?

Since in the 16th century. the difference between the two calendar systems was 10 days, then, knowing the speed with which it changes, it is possible to establish the magnitude of this difference for the various centuries preceding the calendar reform. It should be borne in mind that in 325 the Council of Nicaea adopted the Julian calendar and the spring equinox then fell on March 21. Taking all this into account, we can continue the table. 1 in reverse side and receive the following translation amendments:

Date interval	Amendment
from 1.III.300 to 29.II.400	0 days
from 1.III.400 to 29.II.500	+ 1 day
from 1.III.500 to 29.II.600	+ 2 days
from 1.III.600 to 29.II.700	+ 3 days
from 1.III.700 to 29.II.900	+ 4 days
from 1.III.900 to 29.II.1000	+ 5 days
from 1.III.1000 to 29.II.1100	+ 6 days
from 1.III.1100 to 29.II.1300	+ 7 days
from 1.III.1300 to 29.II.1400	+ 8 days
from 1.III.1400 to 29.II.1500	+ 9 days
from 1.III.1500 to 29.II.1700	+ 10 days

From this table it is clear that for the date February 19, 1473, the correction will be +9 days. Consequently, the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus was celebrated on February 19 +9-28, 1973.

Citizens of the Soviet country, having gone to bed on January 31, 1918, woke up on February 14. The "Decree on the introduction of Russian Republic Western European calendar." Bolshevik Russia switched to the so-called new, or civil, style of calculating time, which coincided with the church Gregorian calendar, which was used in Europe. These changes did not affect our Church: it continued to celebrate its holidays according to the old, Julian calendar.

Calendar split between Western and Eastern Christians (believers began to celebrate the main holidays in different time) occurred in the 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform that replaced the Julian style with the Gregorian. The goal of the reform was to correct the growing difference between astronomical year and calendar.

Obsessed with the idea of world revolution and internationalism, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not care about the Pope and his calendar. As stated in the decree, the transition to the Western, Gregorian style was made “in order to establish in Russia the same with almost everyone cultural peoples calculation of time..." At one of the first meetings of the young Soviet government in early 1918, two time reform projects were considered. The first involved a gradual transition to the Gregorian calendar, dropping 24 hours each year. This would take 13 years. The second was to do it in one fell swoop. It was he who pleased the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who surpassed the current ideologist of multiculturalism, Angela Merkel, in globalist projects.

Competently

Historian of religion Alexey Yudin - about how Christian churches celebrate Christmas:

First of all, let’s make it clear right away: it is incorrect to say that someone celebrates December 25, and someone celebrates January 7. Everyone celebrates Christmas on the 25th, but according to different calendars. In the next hundred years, from my point of view, no unification of Christmas celebrations can be expected.

The old Julian calendar, adopted under Julius Caesar, lagged behind astronomical time. The reform of Pope Gregory XIII, which was called papist from the very beginning, was extremely negatively received in Europe, especially in Protestant countries, where the reformation was already firmly established. Protestants were against it primarily because “it was planned in Rome.” And this city in the 16th century was no longer the center of Christian Europe.

Red Army soldiers take church property out of the Simonov Monastery at a subbotnik (1925). Photo: Wikipedia.org

If desired, the calendar reform can, of course, be called a schism, bearing in mind that the Christian world has already split not only along the “east-west” principle, but also within the west.

Therefore, the Gregorian calendar was perceived as Roman, papist, and therefore unsuitable. Gradually, though, Protestant countries he was accepted, but the transition process took centuries. This is how things were in the West. The East did not pay attention to the reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

The Soviet Republic switched to a new style, but this, unfortunately, was connected with the revolutionary events in Russia; the Bolsheviks, naturally, did not think about any Pope Gregory XIII, they simply considered the new style the most adequate to their worldview. And the Russian Orthodox Church has an additional trauma.

In 1923, on the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of Orthodox churches was held, at which they decided to correct the Julian calendar.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, were unable to travel abroad. But Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the “New Julian” calendar. However, this caused protests among believers, and the decree was quickly canceled.

You see that there were several stages of searching for a calendar match. But this did not lead to the final result. So far, this issue is completely absent from serious church discussion.

Is the Church afraid of another schism? Of course, some ultra-conservative groups within the Church will say: “They betrayed sacred time". Any Church is a very conservative institution, especially with regard to everyday life and liturgical practices. And they depend on the calendar. And the church-administrative resource is ineffective in such matters.

Every Christmas, the topic of switching to the Gregorian calendar comes up. But this is politics, a profitable media presentation, PR, whatever you want. The Church itself does not participate in this and is reluctant to comment on these issues.

Why does the Russian Orthodox Church use the Julian calendar?

Father Vladimir (Vigilyansky), rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University:

Orthodox churches can be divided into three categories: those that serve all church holidays according to the new (Gregorian) calendar, those that serve only according to the old (Julian) calendar, and those that mix styles: for example, in Greece Easter is celebrated according to the old calendar, and all other holidays are celebrated in a new way. Our churches (Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Athos monasteries) have never changed church calendar and they did not mix it with the Gregorian, so that there would be no confusion in the holidays. We have a single calendar system, which is tied to Easter. If we switch to celebrating, say, Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, then two weeks are “eaten up” (remember how in 1918, after January 31, February 14 came), each day of which brings Orthodox man special semantic significance.

The Church lives according to its own order, and in it many significant things may not coincide with secular priorities. For example, in church life there is a clear system of progression of time, which is tied to the Gospel. Every day excerpts from this book are read, which has a logic connected with the gospel story and earthly life Jesus Christ. All this lays down a certain spiritual rhythm in the life of an Orthodox person. And those who use this calendar do not want and will not violate it.

A believer has a very ascetic life. The world can change, we see how before our eyes our fellow citizens have a lot of opportunities, for example, for relaxation during the secular New Year holidays. But the Church, as one of our rock singers sang, “will not bend to the changing world.” Make it dependent on ski resort we will not have our church life.

The Bolsheviks introduced a new calendar "in order to calculate time in the same way as almost all cultural peoples." Photo: Publishing project of Vladimir Lisin "Days of 1917 100 years ago"