Today, many citizens of our country have different attitudes towards the events of the coup. 1917 years. Some consider this a positive experience for the state, others negative. One thing they always agree on is that during that coup, a lot changed, changed forever.
One of these changes was introduced on January 24, 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars, which at that time was the revolutionary government of Russia. A decree was issued on the introduction of the Western calendar in Russia.

This decree, in their opinion, should have contributed to the establishment of closer ties with Western Europe. In the distant past 1582 year, throughout civilized Europe, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, and this was condoned by famous astronomers of that time.
Since then, the Russian calendar has had slight differences from the Western one 13 days.

This initiative came from the Pope himself. However, the Russian Orthodox hierarchs were very cool towards their Catholic partners, so for Russia everything remained the same.
This is how the citizens lived different countries with different calendars for almost three hundred years.
For example, when Western Europe celebrates the New Year, in Russia it is only 19 December.
Soviet Russia began to live and count days in a new way with 1 February 1918 of the year.

By decree of the SNK (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars), which was issued 24 January 1918 year, the day was prescribed 1 February 1918 count years as 14 February.

It should be noted that the arrival of spring in the central part of Russia became completely unnoticeable. Still, it is worth recognizing that it was not for nothing that our ancestors did not want to change their calendar. After all, 1 March, more reminiscent of mid-February. Surely many have noticed that it really starts to smell like spring only from mid-March or the first days of March according to the old style.

Needless to say, a new style Not everyone liked it

If you think that it was in Russia that they were so wild that they did not want to accept the civilized calendar, then you are very mistaken. Many countries did not want to accept the Catholic calendar.
For example, in Greece they began to count according to the new calendar in 1924 year, in Turkey 1926 , and in Egypt in 1928 year.
A funny detail should be noted, despite the fact that the Egyptians, Greeks and Turks adopted the Gregorian calendar much later than the Russians, no one noticed that they were celebrating the Old and New Year.

Even in the bastion of Western democracy - England, even with great prejudices, they adopted the new calendar in 1752, Sweden followed this example a year later

What is the Julian calendar?

It is named after its creator Julius Caesar. In the Roman Empire, they switched to a new chronology 46 year BC. The year had 365 days and began exactly on January 1. The year that was divisible by 4 was called a leap year.
In a leap year, one more day was added 29 February.

How is the Gregorian calendar different from the Julian calendar?

The only difference between these calendars is that in the calendar of Julius Caesar, each 4th without exception, a year is a leap year, and Pope Gregory’s calendar only has those that can be divisible by 4, but not multiples of one hundred.
Although the difference is almost imperceptible, however, after a hundred years An Orthodox xmas will not celebrate 7 January, as usual, and 8th.

Calendar- the table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years familiar to all of us - the oldest invention of mankind. It records the periodicity of natural phenomena based on the pattern of movement of celestial bodies: the Sun, Moon, stars. The Earth rushes along its solar orbit, counting down the years and centuries. It makes one revolution around its axis per day, and around the Sun per year. 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 drawing up a calendar, which must keep the correct time count. Since the time of Adam and Eve, people have used the "cycle" of the Sun and Moon to keep time. The lunar calendar used by the Romans and Greeks was simple and convenient. From one rebirth of the Moon to the next, about 30 days pass, or more precisely, 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. Therefore, by changes in the Moon it was possible to count days, and then months.

IN 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 ancient world From the 3rd century before the birth of Christ, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year lunar-solar cycle, which gave a discrepancy with the value of the solar year by 4 days in 4 years. In Egypt, a solar calendar was compiled based on 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 another 5 days were added in honor of the “birth of the gods.”

In 46 BC, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar introduced an accurate solar calendar based on the Egyptian model - Julian. The solar year was taken as the size of the calendar year, which was slightly larger than the astronomical one - 365 days 6 hours. January 1 was legalized as the beginning of the year.

In 26 BC. e. The 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. Over 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. Essentially this was a clarification of the same Julian calendar.

For the Orthodox Church, the calendar was the basis of the annual cycle of worship, and therefore it was very important to establish the simultaneity of holidays throughout the Church. The question of when to celebrate Easter was discussed at the First Ecumenical Council. Cathedral*, as one of the main ones. The Paschalia (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 style of calendar - Gregorian. The purpose of the reform was supposedly more precise definition Easter day so that the spring equinox returns to March 21st. The Council of Eastern Patriarchs in 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 in some years the Gregorian calendar violates one of the basic church rules for the date of celebration of Easter - it happens that Catholic Easter falls in time earlier than the Jewish one, which is not allowed by the canons of the Church; Petrov’s fast also sometimes “disappears”. 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 calendar and did not recognize it. The new style was introduced by the authority of the Pope in place of the Julian calendar, or the old style, and was gradually adopted in Catholic countries. By the way, modern astronomers also use the Julian calendar in their calculations.

In Rus' Since the 10th century, the New Year has been celebrated on March 1, when, according to biblical legend, 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 was celebrated this way for more than 200 years. The months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was associated with natural phenomena. The years were counted from the creation of the world.

On December 19, 7208 (“from the creation of the world”) Peter I signed a decree on calendar reform. 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 tsar’s decree 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 to be September 1, 5508 BC) should be considered January 1, 1700 from the Nativity of Christ. The decree also ordered that this event be celebrated with particular solemnity: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and the new century, in joy, congratulate each other on the New Year... Along noble and thoroughfares, at the gates and houses, make some decorations from trees and pine branches , spruce and juniper trees... to fire small cannons and rifles, fire rockets, as many as anyone can, and light fires.” The counting of years from the birth of Christ is accepted by most countries 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 counting of centuries from His Nativity with 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 eliminated three leap years within each 400th anniversary. Over time, the difference between the Gregorian and 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.
The 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 civil authorities led to some difficulties for Orthodox Christians. The New Year, which is celebrated by the entire civil society, was moved to the Nativity Fast, when it is not appropriate to have fun. In addition, according to 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 huge country celebrates this day with glasses in hand. Orthodox people They celebrate the New Year “in the old way”, on January 14.

A calendar is a number system for large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies. The most common is the solar calendar, which is based on the solar (tropical) year - the period of time 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 an alternation of calendar years of different lengths (365 and 366 days).

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

In the Julian calendar, the average length of a year in an 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 occurred on increasingly earlier dates. Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift in the date of Easter, associated with the spring equinox. In 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea decreed a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.

In subsequent 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. He issued a bull (message) on February 24, 1582, introducing two important additions to Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - October 4 was immediately followed by October 15. This measure made it possible to preserve March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four century years were to be considered ordinary years and only those divisible by 400 were to be considered 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 count the day after January 31, 1918, not as the first, but as February 14.

The decree prescribed that until July 1, 1918, after the number in the new (Gregorian) style, the number in the old (Julian) style should be indicated in brackets. Subsequently, this practice was preserved, but they began to place the date in brackets according to the new style.

February 14, 1918 became the first day in the history of Russia that officially passed according to the “new style”. By the middle of the 20th century, almost all countries of the world used the Gregorian calendar.

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. Currently, besides the Russian, only three Orthodox churches - Georgian, Serbian and Jerusalem - continue to fully adhere to the Julian calendar.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of its year is 0.003 days (26 seconds) longer than the tropical year. An error of one day accumulates over approximately 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 modern structure of the calendar does not fully meet the needs of social life. There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

— Theoretically, the civil (calendar) year should have the same length as the astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is impossible, since the tropical year does not contain an integer number of days. Because of the need to add an extra day to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - ordinary and leap years. Since the year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of ordinary and seven types leap years- a total of 14 types of years. To fully reproduce them you need to wait 28 years.

— The length of the months varies: they can contain from 28 to 31 days, and this unevenness leads to certain difficulties in economic calculations and statistics.

— Neither ordinary nor leap years contain an integer number of weeks. Semi-years, quarters and months also do not contain a whole and equal number of weeks.

— From week to week, from month to month and from year to year, the correspondence of dates and days of the week changes, so it is difficult to establish the moments of various events.

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

A new calendar can be introduced only 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 proposed to establish a transition period from December 31, 2007, when, for 13 days, chronology would 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 discussed Russia’s transition to the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar. It is currently under review.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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, for many years it was state Julian. What is the difference between them, and why is the latter now used only by the 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 calendar: 365 days, 12 months of 30 days. In 46 BC. Emperor of 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. The new method of calculating 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 in order 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 celebrating 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 Jewish Easter happened later than 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, but 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 Orthodox tradition this holiday falls on January 7th. 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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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.
The Gregorian calendar (“new style”) is a time calculation system 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, 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. 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, Rumania.
1927 - Türkiye.
1928 - Egypt.
1929 - Greece.

Gregorian calendar in Russia

As you know, before 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)