Why can't you compare the old and the new style. What does the old and new calendar style mean

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 a negative one. In one thing they always agree that with that coup a lot has 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 1582 throughout civilized Europe, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, and this was indulged by famous astronomers of that time.
Since then, the Russian calendar has had a slight difference from the Western one in 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 citizens of different countries lived with different calendars for almost three hundred years.
For example, when New Year is celebrated in Western Europe, in Russia it is still only 19 December.
Soviet Russia began to live and count days in a new way with 1 February 1918 of the year.

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

It should be noted that the arrival of spring in the central part of Russia has become completely invisible. Nevertheless, it is worth recognizing that our ancestors did not want to change their calendar for nothing. 1 March, more reminiscent of mid-February. Surely, many paid attention to the fact that it really starts to smell like spring only from the middle of March or the first of its days according to the old style.

Needless to say, not everyone liked the new style.

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 greatly 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 1928 year.
It should be noted a funny detail, despite the fact that the Egyptians, Greeks and Turks adopted the Gregorian calendar much later than the Russians, but no one behind them noticed that they were celebrating the Old and New Years.

Even in the stronghold of Western democracy - England, and then with great prejudice, adopted a 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 in 46 BC. The year had 365 days and began exactly on January 1. That year, which was divided by 4, was called a leap year.
Leap year adds one more day 29 February.

How is the Gregorian calendar different from the Julian calendar?

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

The question of the difference in calendars does not belong to the realm of dogmatics. And therefore, the question is often asked about the expediency of preserving the old style by the majority of Orthodox. Really - is it really so important what day to celebrate? And the celebration of Christmas and other holidays on the same day by all Christians would resolve many issues related to the celebration of the New Year and inter-confessional relations. Why is it still the old style?

First, a little history:

Julian calendar (old style).

In 46 B.C. Roman statesman and commander Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar, which by that time was very chaotic and complex. We are talking, of course, about the solar calendar, i.e. on the distribution of the solar year by calendar days and months. Since the solar year is not divisible by an even number of days, the leap year system was adopted, which "catches up" with the length of the solar year.

The Julian year is 365 days and 6 hours long. But this value is greater than the solar (tropical year) by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Therefore, for every 128 years, a whole day accumulated. Thus, the Julian calendar was not distinguished by great astronomical accuracy, but on the other hand, and this was the advantage of this calendar, it was distinguished by the simplicity and harmony of the system.

Gregorian calendar (new style).

So, in the "old" calendar, every 128 years, an "extra" day was accumulated. Consequently, astronomical dates (such as the days of the equinoxes) shifted. At the First Ecumenical Council, which took place in 325, it was decided that all the Local Churches should celebrate the day of Easter, the Resurrection of Christ, on the same day. The day of the spring equinox (which plays an important role in calculating the day of the celebration of Easter) then fell on March 21. But since every 128 years an error of one day accumulated, the real equinox began to occur earlier. In the 5th century, the moment of equinox came already on March 20, then on the 19th, 18th, and so on.

By the second half of the 16th century, the error was already ten days: according to the Julian calendar, the moment of the equinox should occur on March 21, but in reality it already occurred on March 11. That is why Pope Gregory XIII undertook a reform of the calendar in 1582. According to his instructions, the day after Thursday, October 4, was prescribed to be considered not October 5, but October 15. Thus, the day of the spring equinox returned to March 21, where it was during the First Ecumenical (Nicene) Council.

But the Gregorian calendar could not be absolutely accurate, since in principle it is impossible to accurately divide the solar year by the number of days. Additional measures were needed to prevent the calendar days from going forward, and the moment of the vernal equinox, respectively, back. For this, not only leap years were introduced, but also, a kind of non-leap centuries. It was decided that those centuries that are not divisible by 4 without a remainder will be simple, and not leap years, as is the case in the Julian calendar. Those. centuries 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100 and so on are simple, that is, in these years there is no insertion of an additional day in February. And so in these centuries, the Julian calendar goes one day ahead. It so happened that by our time there has accumulated a difference between the two calendars of 13 days, which will increase by another day in 2100.

Why does the Russian Orthodox Church live according to the "old style"?

Many chronographers, mathematicians and theologians (Prof. V.V. Bolotov, Prof. Glubokovsky, A.N. Zelinsky) did not approve of the introduction of a new calendar – “a true torment for chronographs”.

The transition to the Gregorian calendar will lead to the fact that in some years the Petrovsky fast will disappear from the calendar completely. The new style is significantly inferior to the Julian calendar in liturgical accuracy: after all, it is the Julian calendar that is consistent with the Alexandrian Paschalia. That is why in some local churches the services of the Paschal circle (Easter and the passing feasts) are celebrated in the old style, and fixed feasts in the new style. This is the so-called Greek style.

The calendar issue, first of all, is connected with the celebration of Easter. “Easter is calculated simultaneously in two cycles: solar and lunar. All calendars (Julian, New Julian, Gregorian) tell us only about the solar cycle. But the day of Easter is a holiday dating back to the Old Testament. And the calendar of the Old Testament is lunar. Thus, the church Paschalia is not just a calendar, whatever it may be, but the calculation of a certain day according to rules that depend on both the solar and lunar cycles.

At the Moscow Meeting of 1948, an official decision was made regarding the calendar problem, according to which it is obligatory for the entire Orthodox world to celebrate the feast of Holy Pascha only according to the old (Julian) style, according to the Alexandrian Paschalia, and for fixed holidays, each autocephalous Church can use the existing in this Churches by calendar, and finally, clergy and laity must necessarily follow the calendar or style of the local Church within which they live.

For all of us, the calendar is a familiar and even ordinary thing. This ancient human invention fixes days, numbers, months, seasons, periodicity of natural phenomena, which are based on the system of movement of celestial bodies: the Moon, the Sun, the stars. The Earth sweeps through the solar orbit, leaving years and centuries behind.

Moon calendar

In one day, the Earth makes one complete rotation around its own axis. It goes around the sun once a year. Solar or lasts three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and forty-six seconds. Therefore, there is no integer number of days. Hence the difficulty in drawing up an accurate calendar for the correct timing.

The ancient Romans and Greeks used a convenient and simple calendar. The rebirth of the moon occurs at intervals of 30 days, and to be precise, in twenty-nine days, twelve hours and 44 minutes. That is why the days, and then the months, could be counted according to the changes of the moon.

In the beginning, this calendar had ten months, which were named after the Roman gods. From the third century to the ancient world, an analog was used, based on a four-year luni-solar cycle, which gave an error in the value of the solar year in one day.

In Egypt, they used a solar calendar based on observations of the Sun and Sirius. The year according to it was three hundred and sixty-five days. It consisted of twelve months of thirty days. After its expiration, five more days were added. This was formulated as "in honor of the birth of the gods."

History of the Julian calendar

Further changes took place in 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar, the emperor of ancient Rome, introduced the Julian calendar following the Egyptian model. In it, the solar year was taken as the value of the year, which was slightly longer than the astronomical one and was three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours. The first of January was the beginning of the year. Christmas according to the Julian calendar began to be celebrated on the seventh of January. So there was a transition to a new chronology.

In gratitude for the reform, the Senate of Rome renamed the month Quintilis, when Caesar was born, into Julius (now it is July). A year later, the emperor was killed, and the Roman priests, either out of ignorance or deliberately, again began to confuse the calendar and began to declare every third year a leap year. As a result, from the forty-fourth to the ninth year BC. e. instead of nine, twelve leap years were declared.

The Emperor Octivian August saved the situation. By his order, there were no leap years for the next sixteen years, and the rhythm of the calendar was restored. In his honor, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August).

For the Orthodox Church, the simultaneity of church holidays was very important. The date of the celebration of Easter was discussed at the First and this issue became one of the main ones. The rules established at this Council for the exact calculation of this celebration cannot be changed under pain of anathema.

Gregorian calendar

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, approved and introduced a new calendar in 1582. It was called "Gregorian". It would seem that the Julian calendar was good for everyone, according to which Europe lived for more than sixteen centuries. However, Gregory the Thirteenth considered that the reform was necessary to determine a more accurate date for the celebration of Easter, as well as to ensure that the day returned to the twenty-first of March.

In 1583, the Council of the Eastern Patriarchs in Constantinople condemned the adoption of the Gregorian calendar as violating the liturgical cycle and calling into question the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. Indeed, in some years it violates the basic rule of celebrating Easter. It happens that Catholic Bright Sunday falls in time before Jewish Easter, and this is not allowed by the canons of the church.

The chronology in Russia

On the territory of our country, starting from the tenth century, the New Year was celebrated on the first of March. Five centuries later, in 1492, in Russia, the beginning of the year was moved, according to church traditions, to the first of September. This went on for over two hundred years.

On December 19, seven thousand two hundred and eight, Tsar Peter the Great issued a decree that the Julian calendar in Russia, adopted from Byzantium along with baptism, was still valid. The start date has changed. It has been officially approved in the country. New Year according to the Julian calendar was to be celebrated on the first of January "from the Nativity of Christ".

After the revolution of the fourteenth of February, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, new rules were introduced in our country. The Gregorian calendar ruled out three within each four hundred years. It was this that was adopted.

What is the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars? The difference between in the calculation of leap years. It increases over time. If in the sixteenth century it was ten days, then in the seventeenth it increased to eleven, in the eighteenth century it was already equal to twelve days, thirteen in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and by the twenty-second century this figure will reach fourteen days.

The Orthodox Church of Russia uses the Julian calendar, following the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, and the Catholics use the Gregorian.

You can often hear the question of why the whole world celebrates Christmas on the twenty-fifth of December, and we - on the seventh of January. The answer is quite obvious. The Orthodox Russian Church celebrates Christmas according to the Julian calendar. This also applies to other major church holidays.

Today, the Julian calendar in Russia is called the "old style". At present, its scope is very limited. It is used by some Orthodox Churches - Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Russian. In addition, the Julian calendar is used in some Orthodox monasteries in Europe and the United States.

in Russia

In our country, the issue of calendar reform has been raised repeatedly. In 1830 it was staged by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prince K.A. Lieven, who at that time was the Minister of Education, considered this proposal untimely. Only after the revolution, the issue was submitted to a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation. Already on January 24, Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar.

Features of the transition to the Gregorian calendar

For Orthodox Christians, the introduction of a new style by the authorities caused certain difficulties. The new year turned out to be shifted into when any fun is not welcome. Moreover, January 1 is the day of memory of St. Boniface, who patronizes everyone who wants to give up drunkenness, and our country celebrates this day with a glass in hand.

Gregorian and Julian calendar: differences and similarities

Both of them consist of three hundred and sixty-five days in a normal year and three hundred and sixty-six in a leap year, have 12 months, 4 of which are 30 days and 7 are 31 days, February is either 28 or 29. The difference lies only in the frequency of leap years. years.

According to the Julian calendar, a leap year occurs every three years. In this case, it turns out that the calendar year is 11 minutes longer than the astronomical year. In other words, after 128 years there is an extra day. The Gregorian calendar also recognizes that the fourth year is a leap year. The exceptions are those years that are a multiple of 100, as well as those that can be divided by 400. Based on this, an extra day appears only after 3200 years.

What awaits us in the future

Unlike the Gregorian, the Julian calendar is simpler for chronology, but it is ahead of the astronomical year. The basis of the first became the second. According to the Orthodox Church, the Gregorian calendar violates the sequence of many biblical events.

Due to the fact that the Julian and Gregorian calendars increase the difference in dates over time, Orthodox churches that use the first of them will celebrate Christmas from 2101 not on January 7, as it happens now, but on January 8, but from nine thousand of the nine hundred and first year, the celebration will take place on the eighth of March. In the liturgical calendar, the date will still correspond to the twenty-fifth of December.

In countries where the Julian calendar was used by the beginning of the twentieth century, such as Greece, the dates of all historical events that occurred after October fifteenth, one thousand five hundred and eighty-two, are nominally noted on the same dates when they happened.

Consequences of calendar reforms

Currently, the Gregorian calendar is fairly accurate. According to many experts, it does not need to be changed, but the question of its reform has been discussed for several decades. In this case, we are not talking about the introduction of a new calendar or any new methods of accounting for leap years. It is about rearranging the days of the year so that the beginning of each year falls on one day, such as Sunday.

Today, calendar months are from 28 to 31 days, the length of a quarter ranges from ninety to ninety-two days, with the first half of the year shorter than the second by 3-4 days. This complicates the work of financial and planning authorities.

What are the new calendar projects

Over the past one hundred and sixty years, various projects have been proposed. In 1923, a calendar reform committee was created under the League of Nations. After the end of the Second World War, this issue was referred to the Economic and Social Committee of the United Nations.

Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of them, preference is given to two options - the 13-month calendar of the French philosopher Auguste Comte and the proposal of the French astronomer G. Armelin.

In the first variant, the month always starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. In a year, one day has no name at all and is inserted at the end of the last thirteenth month. In a leap year, such a day occurs in the sixth month. According to experts, this calendar has many significant shortcomings, so more attention is paid to the project of Gustave Armelin, according to which the year consists of twelve months and four quarters of ninety-one days each.

In the first month of the quarter there are thirty-one days, in the next two - thirty. The first day of each year and quarter begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. In a normal year, one extra day is added after December 30th, and in a leap year after June 30th. This project was approved by France, India, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and some other countries. For a long time the General Assembly delayed the approval of the project, and recently this work in the UN has stopped.

Will Russia return to the "old style"

It is rather difficult for foreigners to explain what the concept of "Old New Year" means, why we celebrate Christmas later than Europeans. Today there are people who want to make the transition to the Julian calendar in Russia. Moreover, the initiative comes from well-deserved and respected people. In their opinion, 70% of Russian Orthodox Russians have the right to live according to the calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church.

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 be counted. By the same decree, until July 1, 1918, after the number of each day according to the new style, in brackets, write 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 in the lunar phases. But already by the time of the adoption of Christianity, that is, by the end of the tenth century. n. e., Ancient Russia used the lunisolar calendar.

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

The oldest monuments of Russian writing show that the months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was closely connected with natural phenomena. At the same time, the same months, depending on the climate of those places in which different tribes lived, received different names. So, January was called where the cross section (the time of deforestation), where it was blue (after the winter cloudiness, a blue sky appeared), where it was jelly (because it became cold, cold), etc .; February - cut, snow or fierce (severe frosts); March - berezosol (there are several interpretations here: birch begins to bloom; they took sap from birch trees; burned birch on coal), dry (the poorest in precipitation in ancient Kievan Rus, in some places the earth was already drying up, sokovik (a reminder of birch sap); April - pollen (flowering gardens), birch (beginning of birch flowering), oak tree, oak tree, etc.; May - grass (grass turns green), summer, pollen; June - worm (cherries turn red), isok (grasshoppers are chirping - “isoki ”), milky; July - Lipets (linden blossom), worm (in the north, where phenological phenomena are late), sickle (from the word “sickle”, indicating harvest time); August - sickle, stubble, glow (from the verb “roar "- the roar of deer, or from the word "glow" - cold dawns, and possibly from "pazors" - polar lights); September - veresen (heather bloom); ruen (from the Slavic root of the word meaning tree, giving yellow paint); october - leaf fall, "pazdernik" or "kastrychnik" (pazders - hemp bonfires, the name for the south of Russia); November - breast (from the word "pile" - a frozen rut on the road), leaf fall (in the south of Russia); December - jelly, breast, blueberry.

The year began on March 1, and from about that time they started agricultural work.

Many of the ancient names of the months later passed into a number of Slavic languages and have largely survived in some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

At the end of the tenth century Ancient Russia adopted Christianity. At the same time, the chronology used by the Romans passed to us - the Julian calendar (based on the solar year), with the Roman names of the months and the seven-day week. The account of years in it was conducted from the "creation of the world", which allegedly occurred 5508 years before our reckoning. This date - one of the many options for eras from the "creation of the world" - was adopted in the 7th century. in Greece and has long been used by the Orthodox Church.

For many centuries, March 1 was considered the beginning of the year, 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 the Muscovites celebrated their regular 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 was signed and promulgated on the reform of the calendar in Russia, according to which a new beginning of the year was introduced - from January 1 and a new era - the Christian chronology (from the "Christmas").

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

Meeting of the first civil New Year in Moscow. The day after the announcement on Red Square in Moscow of the decree of Peter I on the reform of the calendar, 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 the last year of the 17th century, and not the first year of the 18th century. The new century began on January 1 1701. A mistake that is sometimes repeated even today.), the decree ordered to celebrate this event with special 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, thus signaling the opening of the holiday. The streets were illuminated with illumination. The ringing of bells and cannon fire began, the sounds of trumpets and timpani were heard. The king congratulated the population of the capital on the New Year, the festivities continued all night. Multi-colored rockets flew up from the courtyards into the dark winter sky, and “along the large streets, where there is space,” fires burned - bonfires and tar barrels attached to poles.

The houses of the inhabitants of the wooden capital were dressed up in needles “from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper”. For a whole week the houses stood decorated, and at nightfall the lights were lit. Shooting "from small cannons and from muskets or other small weapons", as well as launching "rockets" were entrusted to people "who do not count gold." And the “meager people” were offered “everyone, at least a tree or a branch on the gate or over his temple.” Since that time, the custom has been established in our country every year on January 1 to celebrate New Year's Day.

After 1918, there were more 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. So, 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", in which it was recognized as necessary from the 1929-1930 financial year to begin a systematic and consistent transfer of enterprises and institutions to continuous production. In the autumn of 1929, a gradual transition to "continuous work" began, which ended in the spring of 1930 after the publication of a resolution by a special government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense. This resolution introduced a single production time sheet-calendar. The calendar year provided for 360 days, 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 Soviet memorable days and revolutionary holidays: January 22, May 1 and 2, and November 7 and 8.

The employees of each enterprise and institution were divided into 5 groups, and each group was given a day of rest every five days for the whole year. This meant that after four days of work there was a day of rest. After the introduction of the "continuity" there was no need for a seven-day week, since days off 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 interrupted production week. For them, regular days off were set 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 but 31 days, the last day of the month was considered a full month and paid separately. The decree on the transition to a discontinuous six-day week came into force on December 1, 1931.

Both the five-day and six-day days completely broke the traditional seven-day week with a common 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 unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions", In the development of this decree, on June 27, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted the resolution, in which he established that “beyond Sundays, non-working days are also:

January 22, May 1 and 2, November 7 and 8, December 5. The same decree abolished the six special days of rest and non-working days that existed in rural areas on March 12 (Day of the overthrow of the autocracy) and March 18 (Day of the Paris Commune).

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union 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 the passions do not subside. The next round happens already in our new time. Sergey Baburin, Viktor Alksnis, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko submitted a bill to the State Duma in 2007 - on the transition of Russia from January 1, 2008 to the Julian calendar. In the explanatory note, the deputies noted that "the world calendar does not exist" and proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when within 13 days the 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 elect ignored the vote.

- a number system for long periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies.

The most common solar calendar is based on the solar (tropical) year - the time interval between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox.

A tropical year is approximately 365.2422 mean solar days.

The solar calendar includes the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and some others.

The modern calendar is called the Gregorian (new style) and was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style) that had been in use since the 45th century BC.

The Gregorian calendar is a further refinement of the Julian calendar.

In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, the average length of the year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Over time, the onset of seasonal phenomena according to the Julian calendar fell on ever earlier dates. Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift in the date of Easter, associated with the spring equinox. In 325, the Nicene Council issued a decree on a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.

In the following centuries, many proposals were made to improve the calendar. The proposals of the Neapolitan astronomer and physician Aloysius Lilius (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius were approved by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a bull (message) introducing two important additions to the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - after October 4, October 15 immediately followed. This measure made it possible to keep March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four century years were to be considered ordinary and only those divisible by 400 were leap years.

1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar, called the new style.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced at different times in different countries. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg were the first to adopt the new style in 1582. Then in the 1580s it was introduced in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary. In the XVIII century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, in the XIX century - in Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.

In Russia, along with the adoption of Christianity (X century), the Julian calendar was established. Since the new religion was borrowed from Byzantium, the years were counted according to the Constantinople era "from the creation of the world" (for 5508 BC). By decree of Peter I in 1700, the European chronology was introduced in Russia - "from the Nativity of Christ."

December 19, 7208 from the creation of the world, when the reformation decree was issued, in Europe corresponded to December 29, 1699 from the birth of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar.

At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after the October Revolution of 1917 - from February 14, 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church, preserving traditions, lives according to the Julian calendar.

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.

Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than the tropical year and accumulates an error of 0.0003 days per year, which is three days in 10 thousand years. The Gregorian calendar also does not take into account the slowing of the Earth's rotation, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds per 100 years.

The modern structure of the Gregorian calendar also does not fully meet the needs of public life. Chief among its shortcomings is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and half-years.

There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:

- Theoretically, the civil (calendar) year should have the same duration as the astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is impossible because the tropical year does not contain an integer number of days. Because of the need to add extra days to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - ordinary and leap years. Because a year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of common years and seven types of leap years, for a total of 14 types of years. For their full reproduction, you need to wait 28 years.

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

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

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

In 1954 and 1956, the drafts of the new calendar were discussed at the sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), but the final decision on the issue was postponed.

In Russia, the State Duma was proposing to return the Julian calendar in the country from January 1, 2008. Deputies Victor Alksnis, Sergey Baburin, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when the chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars for 13 days. In April 2008, the bill was voted down by a majority vote.

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