Exactly 100 years ago, the Russian Republic lived the first day of the new style. Due to the transition from the Julian calendar to the more accurate Gregorian calendar, which was adopted in most European countries back in the 17th century, the first 13 days of February 1918 simply fell out of the calendar, and after January 31, February 14 immediately came. This not only helped to synchronize the national calendar with the calendars of other countries, but also led to the fact that the day of the Great October Revolution in the Soviet Union, despite the name, began to be celebrated on November 7, Pushkin's birthday in June, although he was born, as you know, May 26, and in mid-January, an incomprehensible holiday appeared - the Old New Year. At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar, so, for example, Orthodox and Catholics celebrate Christmas on different days.
On January 26, 1918, a decree was adopted, according to which the young Soviet Russian Republic switched to the Gregorian calendar generally accepted in Europe. This led not only to a shift in dates, but also to some amendments in the definition of leap years. In order to understand where the discrepancy between the two calendars comes from, let us first consider the natural processes that were used in their development.
Astronomy and calendar
The most common calendars are based on the ratio of the times of three cyclic astronomical processes: the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the rotation of the Moon around the Earth, and the rotation of the Earth itself around the Sun. These three processes lead to periodic changes that are clearly visible on Earth: the change of day and night, the change in the phases of the moon and the alternation of the seasons, respectively. The ratio of the durations of these time intervals underlies the overwhelming number of calendars used by mankind. It is clear that there are other astronomical events visible to humans on Earth that occur with convenient regularity (for example, in ancient Egypt, the ascent of Sirius was observed, which had the same annual cycle), but using them to develop a calendar is still rather an exception.
Of the three indicated intervals, from an astronomical point of view, it is easiest to deal with the shortest of them - the length of the day. Now for the period of time, on the basis of which, in particular, calendars are compiled, they take the average solar day - that is, the average period of time during which the Earth rotates around its axis relative to the center of the Sun. Solar days are because the center of the Sun is used as a reference point, and it is necessary to average a day over a year due to the fact that, due to the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit and its perturbation by other celestial bodies, the period of revolution of our planet changes over the course of the year, and the longest and most short days differ from each other by almost 16 seconds.
A method for determining the duration of a solar day, which are calculated by changing the orientation of the Earth relative to the initial position (1) not by a full turn of 360 degrees to position (2), but by one revolution relative to the center of the Sun to position (3)
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The second of the time intervals needed for the calendar is the year. Of several possible options for determining a gap of one year, when compiling a calendar, a seasonal cycle is used, which can be observed when looking at the position of the Sun in the sky from Earth - the so-called tropical year. It is determined by the change in the ecliptic coordinates of the Sun, and one annual cycle corresponds to a change of 360 degrees in its ecliptic longitude (that is, its longitudinal position on the celestial sphere, measured from the vernal equinox, at which the plane of the Earth's rotation around the Sun and the Earth's equatorial plane intersect). At the same time, the length of the year may vary slightly depending on the choice of the starting point, and, as a rule, the point of the vernal equinox is chosen as the starting position, because for it the error in determining the length of the year is minimal.
At the heart of the solar calendars most common now (including the Julian and Gregorian) is the ratio of the time of the daily and annual periods. This ratio, that is, the duration of the tropical year in days, is, of course, not an integer and amounts to 365.2422. And how close the calendar can adjust to this value directly depends on its accuracy.
It is worth noting that despite the fact that the duration of one tropical year is almost constant, due to small perturbations in the Earth's orbit, it still changes slightly. These perturbations are associated with the influence of the celestial bodies closest to the Earth, primarily Mars and Venus, they are all periodic and have an amplitude of 6 to 9 minutes. The period of each of the perturbations is two or three years, which together give a 19-year nutation cycle. In addition, the duration of the tropical year does not coincide with the time of the Earth's revolution around the Sun (the so-called sidereal year). This is due to the precession of the earth's axis, which leads to a difference that is now about 20 minutes (the length of a sidereal year in days is 365.2564).
The third of the periods of time used for compiling calendars is the synodic month. It is measured as the time between two identical phases of the moon (for example, new moons) and averages 29.5306 solar days. The phases of the moon are determined by the mutual position of the three celestial bodies - the Earth, the Moon and the Sun and, for example, do not correspond to the periodicity of the position of the Moon on the celestial sphere relative to the stars. Also, like the tropical year, the synodic month varies greatly in length.
Lunar calendars based on the phases of the moon were used quite widely, but in most cases they were supplanted by solar or solar-lunar calendars. This is explained both by the inconvenience of using lunar calendars due to noticeable variations in the length of the month, and by the natural binding of human activity to seasonal weather changes, which can be associated with the position of the Sun in the sky, but not with the phase of the Moon. Today, lunar calendars are used mainly to determine the dates of religious holidays. In particular, the Muslim calendar is lunar, and the dates of Old Testament Christian holidays, especially Easter, are also determined by the lunar calendar.
Any calendar is based on attempts to link at least two of these time intervals. But since any of these ratios cannot be represented as an ordinary fraction, it is impossible to compile an absolutely accurate calendar. This problem can be solved in a relatively simple way, without resorting to any calendars at all, but using only one interval, for example, the length of a day. For example, astronomers who simply count the days starting from a certain point in the past (according to the modern calendar, this point corresponds to noon on November 24, 4714 BC) suggest doing this. In this case, any time point is determined by the Julian date - a fractional number that corresponds to the number of days that have passed since the start of the reference.
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In the figure above: A method for determining the ecliptic coordinates of a celestial body (for example, the Sun) on the celestial sphere. They are measured from the vernal equinox.
Julian calendar
But counting time only by days is still not very convenient, and I want to have time intervals on a larger scale at hand. Even realizing that no calendar will allow us to describe with absolute accuracy the relationship between the duration of a solar day, a tropical year, and a synodic month, one can achieve satisfactory accuracy from it. It is precisely in the degree of accuracy in describing the ratio of two of these three intervals that the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian one lies.
Both of these calendars are solar, they are designed to link the length of the mean solar day and the tropical year. We know that from an astronomical point of view, the length of a tropical year is approximately 365.2422 days. To make a calendar, this number must be somehow described so that in each calendar year there is an integer number of days. The easiest way to do this is by varying the length of the year.
The roughest acceptable rounding gives 365.25 days, and it is on this that the Julian calendar is built. If, with this rounding of the average length of the year, we divide the year into 365 days, then for every four years an error of one day will accumulate. It is from here that the structure of the calendar appears, in which every fourth year is a leap year, that is, it includes one day more than usual. The full cycle of such a calendar is only four years, which makes it very easy to use.
The Julian calendar was developed by Alexandrian astronomers, named after Julius Caesar and put into use in 46 BC. It is interesting that initially an extra day in a leap year was added not by introducing a new date - February 29, but by duplicating February 24.
Of course, the Julian calendar is far from the first version of the solar calendar. So, the ancient Egyptian solar calendar served as the basis for all modern solar calendars. It was counted according to the position of the rising Sirius in the sky and included 365 days. And although the Egyptians understood that with such a counting system, for example, a shift in the dates of the solstices and equinoxes occurs very quickly, for convenience, the length of the year did not change. Therefore, every four years there was a shift by one day, and after 1460 years (this interval was called the Great Year of Sothis), the year returned to its original position.
At the same time, in Ancient Rome itself, the Julian calendar replaced the previously used Roman calendar, which consisted of ten months and included 354 days. To bring the length of the calendar year into line with the length of the tropical year, an extra month was added to the year every few years.
The Julian calendar turned out to be much more convenient than the Roman one, but it was still not very accurate. The difference between 365.2422 and 365.25 is still large, so the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was noticed quite soon, primarily due to the shift in the date of the vernal equinox. By the 16th century, it had already moved 10 days from its initial position, established by the Council of Nicaea in 325 on March 21. Therefore, in order to improve the accuracy of the calendar, it was proposed to amend the existing system of leap years.
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Graph of the shift in the time of the summer solstice depending on the year according to the Gregorian calendar. Years are plotted along the abscissa, and the calculated actual time of the summer solstice in calendar notation is plotted along the ordinate (a quarter of a day corresponds to six hours).
Gregorian calendar
The new calendar was put into use by Pope Gregory XIII, who issued the bull Inter gravissimas in 1582. To more accurately match the calendar year to the tropical number of leap years in the new Gregorian calendar compared to the Julian decreased by three for every 400 years. Therefore, leap years ceased to be those whose serial numbers are completely divisible by 100, but are not divisible by 400. That is, 1900 and 2100 are not leap years, but, for example, 2000 was a leap year.
Taking into account the introduced amendments, the duration of one year in days according to the Gregorian calendar was 365.2425, which is already much closer to the required value of 365.2422 compared to what the Julian calendar offered. As a result of the proposed amendments, a difference of three days accumulates between the Julian and Gregorian calendars for 400 years. At the same time, the correction was carried out according to the shift of the day of the vernal equinox in relation to the date established by the Council of Nicaea - March 21, 325, so it was only 10 days (the next day after October 4 in 1582 was immediately October 15), and the zero difference between the calendars does not correspond to the first century AD, and the third.
The transition to a more accurate Gregorian calendar in Europe occurred gradually. First, in the 80s of the 16th century, all Catholic countries switched to the Gregorian calendar, and during the 17th and 18th centuries, gradually Protestant states. Despite the fact that the reform of Gregory XIII was a measure of the Counter-Reformation, symbolically subordinating calendar time to the bull of the Roman pontiff, its objective advantages were too obvious to be resisted for a long time on religious grounds.
In Russia, the process of transition to an updated calendar was somewhat delayed: until 1700, when most European countries already lived according to the Gregorian calendar, the Byzantine chronology was still adopted in the Russian kingdom. In terms of the definition of leap years, the Byzantine calendar, developed in the 7th century, corresponded to the Julian calendar, but differed in the names of the months, the date of the beginning of the year (September 1) and the reference point of the chronology. If the Julian and Gregorian calendars consider January 1 of the year in which Jesus Christ was born, then in the Byzantine version, the time is considered “from the creation of the world”, supposedly in 5509 BC. (Note that in determining the exact year of the birth of Christ, a mistake of several years was probably made, due to which, according to the Julian calendar, this should not be the first year of our era, but 7-5 years BC).
Russia was converted to the Julian calendar by Peter the Great in 1700. On the one hand, he saw the need to "synchronize" the historical time of Russia with the European one, on the other hand, he had a deep distrust of the "papist" calendar, not wanting to introduce a "heretical" Paschal. True, the Old Believers did not accept his reforms and still count the dates according to the Byzantine calendar. The New Believer Orthodox Church switched to the Julian calendar, but at the same time, until the beginning of the 20th century, it opposed the introduction of a more accurate Gregorian.
Due to the practical inconveniences that arose in the conduct of international affairs, as a result of the discrepancy between the calendars adopted in Europe and the Russian Empire, the issue of switching to the Gregorian calendar was raised, especially during the 19th century, more than once. For the first time, such a question was discussed during the liberal reforms of Alexander I, but then it never reached the official level. The problem of the calendar was raised more seriously in 1830, a special committee at the Academy of Sciences was even assembled for this, but as a result, Nicholas I chose to abandon the reform, agreeing with the arguments of the Minister of Education Karl Lieven about the unpreparedness of the people to switch to another calendar system due to insufficient education and possible indignations.
"Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic"
The next time a serious commission about the need to switch to the Gregorian calendar in the Russian Empire was collected at the very end of the 19th century. The commission was formed under the Russian Astronomical Society, but, despite the participation of prominent scientists in it, in particular Dmitri Mendeleev, it was still decided to abandon the transition due to the insufficient accuracy of the Gregorian calendar.
At the same time, the commission considered the issue of switching both to the Gregorian calendar and to an even more accurate version developed by astronomer Johann Heinrich von Medler, a professor at Dorpat University, in 1884. Medler proposed to use a calendar with a 128-year cycle containing 31 leap years. The average length of a year in days according to such a calendar will be 365.2421875, and an error of one day accumulates over 100,000 years. However, this project was not accepted either. According to historians, the opinion of the Orthodox Church played a significant role in the rejection of reforms.
Only in 1917, after the October Revolution and the separation of church and state, did the Bolsheviks decide to switch to the Gregorian calendar. By that time, the difference between the two calendars had already reached 13 days. Several options were proposed for the transition to the new style. The first of them involved a gradual transition over 13 years, in which each year an amendment would be made in one day. However, in the end, the second, more radical, option was chosen, according to which, in 1918, the first half of February was simply canceled, so that after January 31, February 14 immediately came.
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Graph of the offset time of the vernal equinox according to the New Julian calendar. Years are plotted along the abscissa, and the calculated actual time of the vernal equinox in calendar notation (a quarter of a day corresponds to six hours) is plotted along the ordinate. The blue vertical line marks the year 1923, when the calendar was designed. The time period before this date is considered according to the proleptic New Julian calendar, which extends the dating to an earlier time.
Julian calendar and the Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church still continues to use the Julian calendar. The main reason why she refuses to switch to the Gregorian calendar is the linking of a number of church holidays (primarily Easter) to the lunar calendar. To calculate the date of Easter, the easter system is used, which is based on a comparison of lunar months and tropical years (19 tropical years are quite exactly equal to 235 lunar months).
The transition to the Gregorian calendar, according to representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, will lead to serious canonical violations. In particular, in some cases, when using the Gregorian calendar, the date of the Catholic Easter turns out to be earlier than the Jewish date or coincides with it, which contradicts the Apostolic canons. After the transition to the Gregorian calendar, Catholics celebrated Easter four times before the Jews (all in the 19th century) and five times simultaneously with them (in the 19th and 20th centuries). In addition, Orthodox priests find other reasons not to switch to the Gregorian calendar, such as reducing the duration of some fasts.
At the same time, part of the Orthodox churches at the beginning of the 20th century switched to the New Julian calendar - with amendments introduced by the Serbian astronomer Milutin Milanković (known primarily for describing climatic cycles). Milankovitch suggested that instead of subtracting three leap years every 400 years, subtract seven leap years every 900 years. Thus, the full cycle of the New Julian calendar is 900 years, which makes it even more accurate, but also more difficult to use, even in relation to the Gregorian.
Milankovitch's amendments lead to the fact that the date according to the New Julian calendar may differ from the Gregorian both up and down (in the foreseeable future - no more than one day). At the moment, the dates of the New Julian and Gregorian calendars coincide, and the nearest discrepancy between them will appear only in 2800.
The accuracy of the New Julian calendar leads to an error accumulation of one day in 43,500 years. This is much better than the Gregorian calendar (one day in 3280 years) and, of course, the Julian (one day in 128 years). But, for example, the already mentioned Medler amendments, which were also considered by the Russian Orthodox Church as an alternative to the Julian calendar, make it possible to achieve twice the accuracy (one day per 100 thousand years), even despite a much shorter cycle of 128 years.
Returning to the issue of dating the October Revolution and Pushkin's birthday, it is worth noting that they are dated according to the new style (that is, according to the Gregorian calendar), indicating the date in brackets according to the old (Julian) style. Similarly, they do in European countries to date even those events that occurred before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, while using the so-called proleptic Gregorian calendar, that is, expanding the Gregorian chronology for the period up to 1582.
The difference between the dates of the Catholic and Orthodox Christmas is now fully consistent with the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Accordingly, after the year 2100, Orthodox Christmas will shift from January 7 to January 8, and the difference in dates will increase by one more day.
Alexander Dubov
Different ways of reckoning the calendar. A new style of counting time was introduced by the Council of People's Commissars - the government of Soviet Russia January 24, 1918 "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic".
The decree was intended to promote “the establishment in Russia of the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples”. After all, since 1582, when throughout Europe the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in accordance with the recommendations of astronomers, the Russian calendar turned out to be different from the calendars of civilized states by 13 days.
The fact is that the new European calendar was born through the efforts of the Pope, but the Catholic Pope was not an authority or decree for the Russian Orthodox clergy, and they rejected the innovation. So they lived for more than 300 years: New Year in Europe, December 19 in Russia.
Decree of the Council of People's Commissars (abbreviation of the Council of People's Commissars) dated January 24, 1918 ordered February 1, 1918 to be considered February 14 (in parentheses, we note that according to long-term observations, the Russian Orthodox calendar, that is, the "Old Style", is more consistent with the climate of the European part of the Russian Federation For example, on March 1, when according to the old style it is still deep February, there is no smell of spring, and relative warming begins from mid-March or its first days according to the old style).
Not everyone liked the new style
However, not only Russia rested on the establishment of a Catholic count of days, in Greece the "New Style" was legalized in 1924, Turkey - 1926, Egypt - 1928. At the same time, something is not heard that the Greeks or Egyptians celebrated, as in Russia, two holidays: the New Year and the Old New Year, that is, the New Year according to the old style.
Interestingly, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar was also accepted without enthusiasm in those European countries where Protestantism was the leading religion. So in England they switched to a new account of time only in 1752, in Sweden - a year later, in 1753.
Julian calendar
It was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Started January 1st. The year had 365 days. The number of the year divisible by 4 was recognized as a leap year. One day was added to it - February 29. The difference between the calendar of Julius Caesar and the calendar of Pope Gregory is that the former has a leap year every fourth year without exception, while the latter has leap years only those years that are divisible by four, but not multiples of a hundred. As a result, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is gradually increasing and, for example, in 2101 Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated not on January 7, but on January 8.
The converter converts dates to the Gregorian and Julian calendars and calculates the Julian date; for the Julian calendar, the Latin and Roman versions are displayed.
Notes
- Gregorian calendar("new style") introduced in 1582 AD. e. by Pope Gregory XIII so that the day of the vernal equinox corresponds to a certain day (March 21). Earlier dates are converted using the standard rules for Gregorian leap years. Can be converted up to 2400
- Julian calendar("old style") introduced in 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar and totaled 365 days; leap year was every third year. This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus: from 8 BC. e. and up to 8 AD e. extra days in leap years were skipped. Earlier dates are converted using the standard rules for Julian leap years.
- Roman version the Julian calendar was introduced around 750 BC. e. Due to the fact that the number of days in the Roman calendar year varied, dates before 8 AD. e. are not accurate and are for demonstration purposes only. The reckoning was conducted from the founding of Rome ( ab Urbe condata) - 753/754 BC e. Dates prior to 753 BC e. not calculated.
- Month names of the Roman calendar are agreed definitions (adjectives) with a noun mensis'month':
- Numbers of the month determined by the phases of the moon. In different months, Kalends, Nonas and Ides fell on different dates:
The first days of the month are determined by counting the days from the upcoming Nons, after the Non - from the Eid, after the Eid - from the upcoming Kalends. It uses the preposition ante‘before’ with the accusative case (accusatīvus):
a. d. XI Kal. Sept. (abbreviated form);
ante diem undecĭmum Kalendas Septembres (full form).
The ordinal number is consistent with the form diem, that is, it is put in the accusative case of the masculine singular (accusatīvus singularis masculīnum). Thus, numerals take the following forms:
tertium decimum |
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quartum decimum |
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quintum decimum |
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septimum decimum |
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If a day falls on the Kalends, Nonae, or Ides, then the name of that day (Kalendae, Nonae, Idūs) and the name of the month are put in the feminine instrumental plural (ablatīvus plurālis feminīnum), for example:
The day immediately preceding the Kalends, Nonams, or Idams is denoted by the word pridie(‘on the eve’) with accusative feminine plural (accusatīvus plurālis feminīnum):
Thus, adjective-names of months can take the following forms:
form acc. pl. f |
Form abl. pl. f |
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|---|---|---|
- Julian date is the number of days that have passed since noon on January 1, 4713 BC. e. This date is arbitrary and was chosen only to harmonize various systems of chronology.
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 chirp - “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. Thus, on August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR", 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.
The old and new style of the calendar in our time has a difference of 13 days. Such a difference occurred in 1582, when civilized Europeans, at the insistence of the Pope, changed the Julian calendar to the Gregorian.
In general, the whole history with calendars and chronology stretches into hoary antiquity. Peasants who were engaged in agriculture were very dependent on the time of year. So they were the first and began to try to systematize and streamline time.
The great Mayan civilization achieved great values in the accuracy of calendar calculations. They accurately determined the days of the summer and winter solstices and could calculate the time for several millennia in advance. But we did not accept their achievements, but adopted the Roman (Julian) calendar.
When Rome was the center of civilization and enlightenment, during the reign of Julius Caesar, when the state was at its peak, the Roman Senate decided to replace the old Greek calendar, which had only ten months, with the Julian one, which Caesar, on the advice of Egyptian astrologers, adopted for the most convenient option. The fact is that the priests were engaged in chronology in Rome.
The beginning of the year was considered the month of March, named after Mars (the Greek god of fertility). And once every four years, an additional month of Mercedoni was added. Firstly, no one knew when the end of mercedony would come, and secondly, the payment of taxes and the return of debts was too delayed due to the extra month.
There is information that the priests received solid gifts and rewards for postponing the end of the year. It is precisely because of the instability of the replenishment of the state budget (treasury) that fundamental changes have taken place.
When was the Julian calendar introduced in Russia?
This event happened in 1918. This year there were simply no dates: 1, 2, 3, etc. before February 13th. It was January 31st, and the next day was February 14th.
This was done for rapprochement with Europe. The party leadership hoped for world communism and tried to merge as closely as possible with the West.
What is today's date according to the old style
With each century, the gap between the Gregorian and Julian calendars grows, if the number of the previous century is not divisible by 4 with the whole result.
For example, from 1700 to 1800 to determine the date of the event according to the new style, 11 days should be added, from 1800 to 1900 - 12 days, and from 1900 to 2100 - 13. After 2100, the gap will increase by another day and will be 14 days.
Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars
There is no particular difference in these time measurement systems, but Orthodox Christians have completely abandoned the use of the Gregorian calendar to determine the dates of holidays.
In 1923, the Soviet government put strong pressure on His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, but was never able to get the Church to agree to the use of the Gregorian calendar (new style).
How to Easily Convert Dates from Julian to Gregorian Calendar
To do this, you need to know the date of the event. If the date is earlier than 1700, then 10 days must be added, if from 1700 to 1800 - 11, from 1800 to 1900 - 12, and from 1900 to 2100 - 13 days. But it is worth noting that in Russia, in connection with the transition to a new style of chronology, there were no numbers from 02/01/1918 to 02/13/1918 at all.
They changed the old style of the calendar to a new one after the revolution. The decree on the introduction of a new calendar system was proposed at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars and approved personally by V. Lenin.
Examples of translation to a new calculus style
For example, let's deal with Taras Shevchenko's birthday. Everyone knows that he was born on February 25, 1814, according to the old style. This year was not a leap year and had 28 days in February. We add 12 days to this date and get March 9 according to the new style (Gregorian).
Errors with date translations to the new style
When translating the events of bygone days into a new style, a colossal number of errors are made. People did not think about the growing difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars.
Now such errors can be seen in very authoritative sources - Wikipedia is no exception. But now you know how you can easily and quickly calculate the date of an event, knowing only its date according to the old style.