As in others Christian countries, from the end of the 10th century in Rus', the Julian calendar was used, based on observations of the visible movement of the Sun across the sky. He was brought into Ancient Rome Gaius Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e.
The calendar was developed by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes based on the calendar of Ancient Egypt. When Rus' adopted Christianity in the 10th century, the Julian calendar came with it. However average duration The year in the Julian calendar is 365 days and 6 hours (i.e. there are 365 days in a year, and an additional day is added every fourth year). While the duration of the astronomical solar year equal to 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds. That is, the Julian year was 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the astronomical year and, therefore, lagged behind the real change of years.
By 1582, the difference between the Julian calendar and the real change of years was already 10 days.
This led to a reform of the calendar, which was carried out in 1582 by a special commission created by Pope Gregory XIII. The difference was eliminated when, after October 4, 1582, it was ordered to count not October 5, but immediately October 15. After the name of the pope, the new, reformed calendar began to be called the Gregorian calendar.
In this calendar, unlike the Julian calendar, the final year of the century, if it is not divisible by 400, is not a leap year. Thus, the Gregorian calendar has 3 fewer leap years in each four-hundredth anniversary than the Julian calendar. Gregorian calendar retained the names of the months of the Julian calendar, an additional day in a leap year - February 29, and the beginning of the year - January 1.
The transition of countries around the world to the Gregorian calendar was long. First, the reform took place in Catholic countries (Spain, Italian states, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a little later in France, etc.), then in Protestant countries (in Prussia in 1610, in all German states by 1700, in Denmark in 1700, in Great Britain in 1752, in Sweden in 1753). And only in the 19th-20th centuries the Gregorian calendar was adopted in some Asian (in Japan in 1873, China in 1911, Turkey in 1925) and Orthodox (in Bulgaria in 1916, in Serbia in 1919, in Greece in 1924 year) states.
In the RSFSR, the transition to the Gregorian calendar was carried out according to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR “On the introduction of Russian Republic Western European calendar" dated February 6, 1918 (January 26, old style).
The calendar problem in Russia has been discussed several times. In 1899, a Commission on the issue of calendar reform in Russia worked under the Astronomical Society, which included Dmitry Mendeleev and historian Vasily Bolotov. The commission proposed modernizing the Julian calendar.
“Taking into account: 1) that in 1830 the petition of the Imperial Academy of Sciences for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia was rejected by Emperor Nicholas I and 2) that the Orthodox states and the entire Orthodox population of the East and West rejected the attempts of representatives of Catholicism to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, the Commission unanimously decided to reject all proposals for the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia and, without being embarrassed by the choice of reform, to settle on one that would combine the idea of truth and possible accuracy, both scientific and historical, in relation to Christian chronology in Russia,” reads Resolution of the Commission on the reform of the calendar in Russia from 1900.
Such a long use of the Julian calendar in Russia was due to the position Orthodox Church, which had a negative attitude towards the Gregorian calendar.
After the church was separated from the state in the RSFSR, linking the civil calendar to the church calendar lost its relevance.
The difference in calendars created inconvenience in relations with Europe, which was the reason for the adoption of the decree “in order to establish in Russia the same calculation of time with almost all cultural nations.”
The question of reform was raised in the fall of 1917. One of the projects under consideration proposed a gradual transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, dropping a day each year. But, since the difference between the calendars by that time was 13 days, the transition would take 13 years. Therefore, Lenin supported the option of an immediate transition to a new style. The church refused to switch to the new style.
“The first day after January 31 of this year should be considered not February 1, but February 14, the second day should be considered the 15th, etc.,” read the first paragraph of the decree. The remaining points indicated how new deadlines for fulfilling any obligations should be calculated and on what dates citizens would be able to receive their salaries.
The change of dates has created confusion with the celebration of Christmas. Before the transition to the Gregorian calendar in Russia, Christmas was celebrated on December 25, but now it has moved to January 7. As a result of these changes, in 1918 there was no Christmas at all in Russia. The last Christmas was celebrated in 1917, which fell on December 25th. And next time Orthodox holiday was celebrated already on January 7, 1919.
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. Nicaea took place church cathedral. It adopted the Julian calendar for the entire Christian world, according to which at that time the spring equinox fell on March 21. 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 caused the actual time to be spring 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 Matvey 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 an outstanding philosopher and scientist of the era Renaissance Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), one of the predecessors of Copernicus.
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 the Pope Gregory XIII created a special commission, which included Ignatius Danti (1536-1586), a famous 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 an active part in the development of the 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 for long periods of time that the calendar date of the vernal equinox coincided 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 the average length of a year in 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. To do this, it is enough to consider one leap year every 4000 years as 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 highly developed, for a long time were guided by the saying that “it’s better to break up with the Sun than to get back together with dad.” 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, severely tortured and executed in 1589.
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 of Soviet power in Russia, was calendar reform 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 the 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 a 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.
We have been using a calendar all our lives. This seemingly simple table of numbers with days of the week has a very ancient and rich history. The civilizations known to us already knew how to divide the year into months and days. For example, in ancient Egypt, based on the pattern of movement of the Moon and Sirius, a calendar was created. A 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 chronology. The 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 a basis. The year was now 365 days and six hours. The first of January was considered the beginning of the new time, and Christmas began to be celebrated on January 7.
In connection with this reform, the Senate decided to thank the emperor by naming one month in his honor, which we know as “July.” After the death of Julius Caesar, the priests began to confuse the months, the number of days - in a word, the old calendar no longer resembled the 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 Emperor Octavian Augustus came to power, there were no leap years for sixteen years, so everything returned to normal, and the situation with chronology was corrected. In honor of Emperor Octavian, the eighth month was renamed from Sextilis to Augustus.
When the question arose about the purpose of celebrating Easter, disagreements began. It was this issue that was resolved at the Ecumenical Council. No one has the right to change the rules that were established at this Council to this day.
Innovator Gregory XIII
In 1582, Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar.. The movement of the vernal equinox was main reason changes. It was according to this that the day of Easter was calculated. At the time the Julian calendar was introduced, this day was considered March 21, but around the 16th century, the difference between the tropical and Julian calendars was about 10 days, therefore, March 21 changed to 11.
In 1853 in Constantinople, the Council of Patriarchs criticized and condemned the Gregorian calendar, according to which the Catholic Holy Sunday was celebrated before the Jewish Passover, which was contrary to established rules Ecumenical councils.
Differences between old and new style
So, how does the Julian calendar differ from the Gregorian calendar?
- Unlike Gregorian, Julian was adopted much earlier, and it is 1 thousand years older.
- On this moment The 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 changes in the future.
- Leap year according to the old style, this is every fourth year.
- In Gregorian, years that are divisible by four and end in two zeros are not leap years.
- According to the new style, everyone is celebrated church holidays.
As we can see, the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar is obvious not only in terms of calculations, but also in popularity.
Rises interest Ask. What calendar do we live by now?
The Russian Orthodox Church uses Julian, which was adopted during the Ecumenical Council, while Catholics use Gregorian. Hence the difference in the dates of celebrating the Nativity of Christ and Easter. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, following the decision Ecumenical Council, and Catholics - December 25.
These two chronology were named - old and new style of calendar.
The area where the old style is used is not very large: the Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem Orthodox Churches.
As we see, after the introduction of the new style, the life of Christians around the world changed. Many happily accepted the changes and began to live by 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 quantities.
There will always be disagreements between Orthodox and Catholics, and this has nothing to do with the old or new style of chronology. The Julian and Gregorian calendars - the difference is not in faith, but in the desire to use one or another calendar.
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, 1100 or 1700 years in the Julian calendar are considered leap years, since 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 tropical and calendar year, which at that time was already 10 days. Otherwise, due to errors in calculations extra year would run every 128 years. In the Gregorian calendar, an extra day occurs only every 10,000 years.
Not all modern states adopted the new chronology system 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. In this case, the new style is 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.
There are no problems with measuring certain quantities. When it comes to length, volume, weight - no one has any disagreements. But as soon as you touch the dimension of time, you will immediately come across different points of view. Special attention should be paid to what the Julian and Gregorian calendars are; the difference between them has really changed the world.
Difference between Catholic and Orthodox holidays
It's no secret that Catholics celebrate Christmas not on January 7, like the Orthodox, but on December 25. The situation is the same with other Christian holidays.
A whole series of questions arises:
- Where did these 13 days difference come from?
- Why can't we celebrate the same event on the same day?
- Will the 13 day difference ever change?
- Maybe it will shrink over time and disappear altogether?
- At least find out what it's all about?
To answer these questions we will have to mentally travel to pre-Christian Europe. However, there was no talk of any integral Europe at that time; civilized Rome was surrounded by many disparate barbarian tribes. Subsequently, they were all captured and became part of the Empire, but that's another conversation.
However, history is written by the victors, and we will never know to what extent “ barbaric"were 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 I decided to introduce a new calendar - Julian .
What calendars did you use and for how long?
The ruler cannot be denied modesty, but he made too much of a contribution to the history of the whole world to be criticized over trifles. The calendar he proposed:
- It was much more accurate than previous versions.
- All years consisted of 365 days.
- Every fourth year there was 1 more day.
- The calendar was consistent with astronomical data known at that time.
- For one and a half thousand years, not a single worthy analogue has been proposed.
But nothing stands still; at the end of the 14th century, a new calendar was introduced, with the help of the then pope, Gregory XIII. This version of the countdown boiled down to the fact that:
- A normal year has 365 days. A leap year 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 simple example, 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be leap years. Unlike 2400.
Why was it necessary to change something, was it really impossible to leave everything as it was? The fact is that, according to astronomers, The Julian calendar is not entirely accurate.
The error is only 1/128 of a day, but over 128 years a whole day accumulates, and over five centuries - almost four full days.
How does the Julian calendar differ from the Gregorian calendar?
Fundamental differences between the two calendars are that:
- Julian was adopted much earlier.
- It lasted 1000 years longer than the Gregorian.
- Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar is now almost never used anywhere.
- The Julian calendar is used only for calculating 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, years that end in 00 and are not divisible by 4 are not leap years.
- Almost every century ends with the difference between the two calendars increasing by another day.
- The exception is centuries divisible by four.
- According to the Gregorian calendar, almost all Christians in the world celebrate church holidays - Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans.
- According to Julian Orthodox Christians celebrate, guided by apostolic instructions.
What could an error of several days lead to?
But is it really so important to maintain this precision; maybe it’s better to pay tribute to traditions? What terrible thing will happen if in five centuries the calendar shifts by 4 days, 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 differ by at least a day.
Just imagine that already in February the weather warms up and the first flowering begins. But despite all this, the ancestors describe February as a harsh and frosty winter month.
At this point there may already be a slight misunderstanding about what is happening to nature and the planet? Especially if in November there are snowdrifts instead of fallen leaves. And in October, the variegated foliage on the trees is not pleasing to the eye, because all of it has been rotting on the ground for a long time. This seems insignificant at first glance, when the error is only 24 hours in 128 years.
But calendars are regulated, including the most important events in the life of many civilizations - sowing and harvesting. The more accurately all adjustments are made, the more O Larger food supplies will be available next year.
Of course, now this is not so important, in an era of rapid development of scientific and technological progress. But once upon a time it was a matter of life and death for millions of people.
Significant differences between calendars
Distinguishing between the two calendars:
- More precise measurement using Gregorian.
- The irrelevance of the Julian calendar: besides the Orthodox Church, almost no one uses it.
- The universal use of the Gregorian calendar.
- By removing the 10 day lag and introducing a new rule - all years ending in 00 and not divisible by 4 are now not leap years.
- Thanks to this, the difference between calendars is inexorably increasing. For 3 days every 400 years.
- Julian was adopted by Julius Caesar, still 2 thousand years ago.
- Gregorian is more “young”, it is not even five hundred years old. And Pope Gregory XIII introduced it.
What are the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the difference between them and the reasons for their introduction can be known for general development. IN real life this information will never be useful. Unless 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 from the point of view of religion and mathematics: