Change of calendar. Calendar revolution. What is the Julian calendar

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

Difference between 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 differences in the rules for determining leap years. Therefore, when determining which date of the “new calendar” a particular date of the “old calendar” falls on, it is necessary to take into account the century in which the event took place. For example, if in the 14th century this difference was 8 days, then in the 20th century it was already 13 days.

This follows the distribution of leap years:

• a year whose number is a multiple of 400 is a leap year
• other years, the number of which is a multiple of 100, are non-leap years
• other years whose number is a multiple of 4 are leap years

Thus, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. Also, 2100 will not be a leap year. An error of one day compared to the year of the equinoxes in the Gregorian calendar will accumulate in approximately 10 thousand years (in the Julian calendar - approximately in 128 years).

Time of approval of the Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, was not put into use immediately:
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 calendar. As stated in the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars, this decision was made “in order to establish in Russia the same calculation of time with almost all cultural peoples.” In accordance with the decree, the dates of all obligations were considered to have occurred 13 days later. Until July 1, 1918, a kind of transition period was established when it was allowed to use the old style calendar. But at the same time, the document clearly established the order of writing old and new dates: it was necessary to write “after the date 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 necessary to indicate the old and new styles. For example, for anniversaries, main events in all works of a biographical nature and dates of events and documents on the history of international relations associated with countries where the Gregorian calendar was introduced earlier than in Russia.

New style date (Gregorian calendar)

Different ways of calculating the calendar. A new style of time calculation was introduced by the Council of People's Commissars - the government of Soviet Russia January 24, 1918 "The Decree on the introduction of Russian Republic Western European calendar".

The decree was intended to promote “the establishment in Russia of the same time reckoning with almost all cultural peoples”. Indeed, since 1582, when throughout Europe the Julian calendar, in accordance with the recommendations of astronomers, was replaced by the Gregorian, the Russian calendar turned out to differ from the calendars of civilized states by 13 days.

The fact is that the new European calendar was born through the efforts of the Pope, but the Russian Orthodox clergy had no authority or decree from the Catholic Pope, and they rejected the innovation. So they lived for more than 300 years: in Europe New Year,V Russia is still December 19th.

The decree of the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars) dated January 24, 1918, ordered February 1, 1918 to be considered February 14th (in parentheses, we note that, according to many years of observations, the Russian orthodox calendar, that is " old style", more consistent with the climate of the European part Russian Federation. For example, on March 1, when according to the old style it is still deep February, there is no smell of spring, and relative warming begins in mid-March or its first days according to the old style).

Not everyone liked the new style

However, not only Russia resisted the establishment of the Catholic count of days; in Greece, the “New Style” was legalized in 1924, Turkey - 1926, Egypt - 1928. At the same time, it is not heard that the Greeks or Egyptians celebrated, as in Russia, two holidays: New Year and Old New Year, that is, New Year according to the old style.

It is interesting that the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was accepted without enthusiasm in those European countries where Protestantism was the leading religion. So in England they switched to a new account of time only in 1752, in Sweden - a year later, in 1753.

Julian calendar

It was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Started on January 1st. The year had 365 days. A year number divisible by 4 was considered a leap year. One day was added to it - February 29. The difference between the calendar of Julius Caesar and the calendar of Pope Gregory is that the first has a leap year every fourth year without exception, while the second has leap years only those years that are divisible by four, but not divisible by a hundred. As a result, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is gradually increasing and, for example, in 2101, Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated not on January 7, but on January 8.

Various nations, religious cults, and astronomers tried to make counting the inexorably current time both the most accurate and simplest for any person. The starting point was the movement of the Sun, Moon, Earth, and the location of the stars. There are dozens of calendars developed and still used today. For the Christian world, there were only two significant calendars used for centuries - the Julian and the Gregorian. The latter is still the basis of chronology, considered the most accurate and not subject to the accumulation of errors. The transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia occurred in 1918. This article will tell you what this was connected with.

From Caesar to the present day

It was after this multifaceted personality that the Julian calendar was named. The date of its appearance is considered to be January 1, 1945. BC e. based on the emperor's decree. It's funny that the starting point has little to do with astronomy - it is the day the consuls of Rome took office. This calendar, however, was not born out of nowhere:

• The basis for it was the calendar of ancient Egypt, which had existed for centuries, in which there were exactly 365 days, changing seasons.
• The second source for compiling the Julian calendar was the existing Roman one, which was divided into months.

The result is a fairly balanced, thoughtful way of visualizing the passage of time. It harmoniously combined ease of use, clear periods with the astronomical correlation between the Sun, Moon and stars, known for a long time and influencing the movement of the Earth.

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

When did Russia switch to the Gregorian calendar?

Thirsty for everything new after having destroyed everything, the fiery Bolsheviks gladly gave the command to switch to a new progressive calendar. The transition to it in Russia took place on January 31 (February 14), 1918. The Soviet government had quite revolutionary reasons for this event:

• Almost all European countries have long switched to this method of chronology, and only the reactionary tsarist government clamped down on the initiative of those very inclined to astronomy, among other things. exact sciences peasants and workers.
• The Russians were against such violent intervention, which violated the sequence of biblical events. Orthodox Church. But how can the “sellers of dope for the people” be smarter than the proletariat, armed with the most advanced ideas?

Moreover, the differences between the two calendars cannot be called fundamentally different. By and large, the Gregorian calendar is a modified version of the Julian calendar. The changes are mainly aimed at eliminating, reducing the accumulation of temporary errors. But as a result of the date of long-ago historical events, the birth famous personalities have a double, confusing calculation.

For example, the October Revolution in Russia happened on October 25, 1917 - according to the Julian calendar or the so-called old style, which is historical fact or November 7 of the same year in a new way - Gregorian. It feels like the Bolsheviks carried out the October Rebellion twice - the second time as an encore.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which the Bolsheviks were unable to force either by executions of clergy or by organized robbery of artistic values ​​to recognize the new calendar, did not deviate from the biblical canons, calculating the passage of time and the onset of church holidays according to the Julian calendar.

Therefore, the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia is not so much a scientific, organizational event as a political one, which at one time affected the destinies of many people, and its echoes are still heard today. However, against the backdrop of the fun game of “set the time forward/back an hour”, which has not yet completely ended, judging by the initiatives of the most active deputies, this is simply a historical event.

Wikipedia

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

Reasons for switching to the Gregorian calendar

The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the gradual shift in the Julian calendar of the vernal equinox, by which the date of Easter was determined, and the discrepancy between the Easter full moons and the astronomical ones. Julian calendar error at 11 min. 14 sec. per year, which Sosigenes neglected, to XVI century led to the fact that the spring equinox fell not on March 21, but on the 11th. The displacement led to the correspondence of the same days of the year with other natural phenomena. Year according to the Julian calendar in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds, as later scientists found out, was longer than the real solar year by 11 minutes 14 seconds. The “extra” days accumulated in 128 years. Thus, for one and a half millennia, humanity has lagged behind real astronomical time by as much as ten days! Reform of Pope Gregory XII I was precisely intended to eliminate this error.

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

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

The new calendar, immediately upon adoption, shifted the current date by 10 days and corrected accumulated errors.

In the new calendar, a new, more precise rule about leap year. A year is a leap year, that is, it contains 366 days if:

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

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

Transition to the Gregorian calendar

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

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