Types of calendars
A calendar is a reference publication that contains a sequential list of numbers, days of the week and months of the year, often with other information and illustrations.
For a whole year, it stands before your eyes, helping you plan your time correctly and achieve new successes. There is perhaps no other subject that, given the same functional task, would be represented by such diverse solutions. Let's look together at the motley variety of types of calendars and carefully consider each of them.
Tear-off calendar-- a pocket or wall calendar-book with loose-leaf pages, where information on a given day (less often a week or month) is located on one sheet. Often used as a wall calendar.
The tear-off wall calendar appeared in everyday use more than a century ago, namely in 1885. Its publisher was the owner of a large Moscow printing house, Ivan Sytin. The publication, which differed from all existing analogues in its affordable price and practicality, instantly gained popularity. Already the second issue of such printing totaled over 8 million copies, and their production was put on stream. The tear-off calendar reached its peak of popularity in Soviet times, being an alternative to a book, which was not so easy to purchase, a prototype of an organizer and a means of political propaganda. Published in such publications useful tips, culinary recipes, interesting facts and much more.
As a rule, they were thematic in nature and everyone, depending on their interests and inclinations, could purchase products of one content or another. In Europe, there was also an analogue to the domestic tear-off calendar, which throughout the 19th century served as visual advertising and served as a pocket diary.
Desk calendar-- a desk or wall calendar-book, in which, after a specified period (day, week or month), the pages flip over (for example, on a “spring”). TO beginning of XXI century gained more popularity than the tear-off one.
Desk calendars are the most expensive type of calendar. Often such calendars are called image calendars. Its owner will never get tired of a desk calendar - after all, each page of such a calendar corresponds to a separate image. Quite often, a desk calendar functions as a mini-catalog, with information about products and services corresponding to each month. A wall-mounted calendar is usually secured to a spring with a diameter of 5/16 inches with a metal crossbar for mounting on the wall.
Tambel calendar-- a calendar in the form of a table, it can be either pocket, wall or desktop.
Like other types of calendars, a timesheet calendar helps you plan time. First of all, this type accountants need calendars. After all, they calculate working hours, hours of missed days, vacation or sick leave. Timesheet calendars truly help them with this. For ordinary people, the timesheet calendar is the most reliable source about days of work and rest in the coming year.
Externally, timesheet calendars are small calendars in A4 format. Previously it was believed that these were desktop calendars. The accountants placed them on the table under a sheet of plexiglass and worked, glancing at the calendar if necessary. Nowadays, the calendar is often hung on the wall next to the workplace. In general, everyone arranges this calendar in a way that suits them.
The timesheet calendar is compiled in accordance with the Labor Code Russian Federation and government regulations on the transfer of working days.
Pocket calendar-- a small-format printed calendar of such a size that it can be put in a pocket (that is, no larger than a postcard). Available in the form of a table (one thick sheet) or a book (tear-off pocket calendar).
In European countries, pocket calendars have been known since the beginning of the 19th century.
In 1885, zemstvos received the right to issue calendars, and at the same time, widespread production of cheap calendars began in Russia, including small-format and pocket ones. Since calendars are released for the next year, the year 1886 is considered to be the beginning of the history of the domestic pocket calendar.
Pocket calendars were immediately seen as the cheapest means of advertising upon their appearance and, as such, were already used in Europe throughout the 19th century. In case of good design and skillfully presented information, a calendar, unlike booklets, also has a utilitarian meaning; it is not thrown away immediately upon receipt by a possible client, but is stored for at least a year, thereby multiplying its advertising opportunities.
The first known Russian pocket calendars are the calendar released as a supplement to the “Pictorial Everyday Calendar” for 1886 by type-lithography of I. N. Kushnarev and Co. and the calendar of the company “P. Van Dyck Heirs, Technical Office and Warehouse of Agricultural Machines, Tools and Artificials” fertilizers in Riga", printed by the printing house of M. Schultz in Riga.
Pocket calendars pre-revolutionary Russia are usually divided into three main categories: trade advertising calendars, business calendars (they are distinguished by strict information and the absence of drawings), calendars for public education (published by Sytin's publishing house).
A wide variety of materials are used for pocket calendars. Calendars are printed on paper and cardboard, tin, silk and leather. In the second decade of the 20th century, calendars appeared on aluminum, a metal that was just beginning to come into everyday life at that time.
Poster calendar- This is the simplest type of wall calendar. It is a regular poster, which in addition to the image also has a calendar grid. Since these calendars are ordinary posters with a specific image, they fully possess all the properties of posters.
House calendars- This new look desktop calendars. When unfolded, the calendar is an A4 sheet with full-color printing on one side. However, when assembled, it turns into a triangular prism. In this form, the format of its two main sides is approximately 210 by 100 mm. This calendar can also have a spring and flip pages.
Since this type of calendar is three-dimensional figure, it attracts increased attention, and many will enjoy the process of assembling it.
Calendar - "pyramid". This calendar, just like the house calendar, after assembly is a three-dimensional figure, but not a prism, but a pyramid. This calendar looks more impressive than the house calendar, but due to the triangular edges it will not be possible to place a lot of information on it.
Calendar "hut". Imagine a house calendar or a pyramid calendar. And mentally make a bunch of holes in them. What you get will be a hut calendar. This is the most original calendar, but, like the pyramid calendar, it is somewhat ineffective.
Calendar-diary-- a reference publication in the form of a medium format book with a thick cover, containing, in addition to the actual calendar pages, many other things useful information, which may be needed at any time: a calendar for several years in advance, address pages, telephone codes of cities and countries, a table of public holidays of your country and foreign countries, vacation planning calendar table, time zone table, units of calculation, world currencies, world maps and much more. It is an indispensable accessory and component of any planning of working time and recording of all necessary useful information.
Meets all the requirements of its purpose for every day: convenient to use, on a trip, when used in weight, in limited time conditions, on the street, in the car, etc.
Bryusov calendar— The calendar is named after Jacob Bruce, a famous Russian scientist and military leader, an associate of Peter I. The full name of the first edition is “Christian calendar or calendar. According to the old style or calculation for the summer from the incarnation of God the Word 1710. From the world 7217 . Printed in Moscow, the year of the Lord 1709. December on the day." The calendar, which became the model for all later publications with predictions, was first engraved on copper in 1709 and consisted of six separate sheets. The only complete copy of this calendar is kept in the Hermitage (in the collection of engravings and maps); an incomplete copy is available in the public library.
The calendar was a desktop reference for Russian farmers for about 200 years. Also contained astrological "omens of actions for each day according to the course of the Moon and Earth"
Organizer(English organizer) - initially a small book containing a calendar, address book and notepad, used to organize information about personal contacts and events. With development information technology the book began to be replaced first by electronic organizers, then by pocket personal computers, computer programs and online organizers with additional functions: reminders of upcoming events, protection and synchronization of information.
A calendar is usually called a certain system with the help of which it becomes possible to differentiate the flow of time into certain periods, which helps to streamline the flow of life. Throughout the history of mankind, there have been a huge number of calendars, and they were based on different principles. In this article we will discuss calendars, and also talk about what form our modern system countdown.
Origin of the word "calendar"
Before moving on to describing the types of number systems themselves, let’s find out where the word that denotes them comes from. The term “calendar” is etymologically derived from the Latin verb caleo, which translates as “to proclaim.” Another variant that became the source of the word “calendar” is calendarium. Latest in Ancient Rome called the debt book. Caleo preserves for us the memory that in Rome the beginning of every month in a special way was solemnly proclaimed. As for the debt book, its importance is due to the fact that all interest on debts and loans in Rome was paid on the first day.
Origin of the calendar system
Humanity has long realized that time flows in a certain circle on the basis of cyclically repeating events and phenomena, of which there are quite a lot. This, for example, is the change of day and night, seasons, rotation of the celestial spheres, and so on. Based on them, various types of calendars developed over time. The basic unit of time of any of them is the day, which includes one revolution of the Earth around its own axis. Then the moon played an important role in history, the change of phases of which forms the so-called synodic month. It is named after the Greek word “sinodos,” which translates as “bringing together.” We are talking about the convergence of the sun and moon in the sky. And finally, the change of four seasons makes up a tropical year. Its name comes from the Greek “tropos”, that is, “turn”.
Why do different nations living on the same planet, are there different types of calendars? The answer is that the length of the diurnal cycle, the synodic month and the tropical year do not correlate with each other, which provides a wide range of choices when compiling a calendar.
Three types of calendar
Based on the values described in different times Attempts were made to create a calendar suitable for social life. Some of them were guided only by lunar cycles. Thus, lunar calendars appeared. As a rule, they numbered twelve months, focused only on the movement of the night star, and did not correlate with the change of seasons. Others, on the contrary, made their calculations only on the basis of the circle of seasons, without taking into account the moon and its rhythm. This approach gave rise to solar calendars. Still others took into account both cycles - solar and lunar. And, starting from the latter, they tried, one way or another, to reconcile both with each other. They gave rise to mixed solar-lunar calendars.
Lunar calendar
Now let's discuss the nuances of time based solely on the movement of the moon. The lunar calendar, as already mentioned, is based on the synodic month - the cycle of changing lunar phases from new moon to full moon. The average duration of such a month is 29.53 days. Therefore, in most lunar calendars, a month lasts 29 or 30 days. In this case, the year most often consists of twelve months. Thus, it turns out that the length of the year is about 354.36 days. As a rule, it is rounded to 354, while periodically introducing a leap year of 355 days. They do it differently everywhere. For example, the Turkish cycle is known, where there are three leap years every eight years. Another option, with a ratio of 30/11, is offered by the Arabic system, on the basis of which the traditional Muslim calendar is compiled.
Since lunar calendars are in no way connected with the movement of the sun, they gradually diverge from it due to the difference of more than ten days a year. Thus, the cycle of the solar calendar of 34 years corresponds to 35 years of the lunar calendar. Despite this inaccuracy, this system satisfied many peoples, especially at an early stage of development, when they were characterized by nomadic image life. The moon is easily visible in the sky and this calendar does not require significant complex calculations. Over time, however, when the role of agriculture increased, its capabilities turned out to be insufficient - a more strict binding of the months to the seasons and the range of agricultural work was required. This stimulated the development of the solar calendar.
Disadvantage of the lunar calendar
In addition to the fact that a calendar based entirely on the lunar cycle diverges significantly from the tropical year, it also has another significant drawback. It lies in the fact that due to a very complex orbit, the duration of the synodic month is constantly changing. The difference can be up to six hours. It should be said that the starting point of the new month in the lunar calendar is not the new moon, which is difficult to observe, but the so-called neomenia - the first appearance of the young moon at sunset. This event follows the new moon 2 or 3 days later. In this case, the time of neomenia depends on the time of year, the length of the current month and the location of the observer. This means that a calendar calculated in one place will be completely inaccurate for another area. And in general, no system based on lunar cycles is capable of accurately reflecting the real movement of the night star.
Solar calendar
The history of the calendar cannot be complete without mentioning the solar cycle. It must be said that today this is the main form of time reckoning. It is based on a tropical year consisting of 365.24 days. To make calculations more accurate, leap years are periodically introduced, which collect the accumulated “surplus” into one “extra” day. There are various systems of leap years, due to which many types of calendars based on the movement of the sun are known. The starting point is traditionally considered Therefore, one of the requirements of the solar calendar is that every year this event falls on the same date.
The first leap year system had its weak point: in 128 years it gained one extra day, and the equinox point shifted back accordingly. They tried to correct this inaccuracy in various ways. For example, Omar Khayyam proposed a special 33-year cycle, which was then used as the basis for the Persian calendar. Later, on the initiative of Pope Gregory, the Gregorian calendar was introduced, which is the main civil calendar modern society. He also gradually gains one extra day, but this period stretches from 128 years to 3300.
Another attempt to improve the Julian system was made by Milutin Milanković. He developed the so-called New Julian calendar, which accumulated an error per day already in 50,000 years. This was done thanks to a special rule regarding century years (they can be considered leap years only if, when divided by 900, the remainder is 2 or 6). The disadvantage of the Gregorian and New Julian calendars, despite their accuracy, is the fact that the date of the equinox becomes floating and falls on different days every year.
Solar-lunar calendar
Finally, let's touch on the solar-lunar calendar. Its essence is to reconcile the movement of the sun with the movement of the moon in one cycle. To do this, it was necessary to periodically extend the year by one month. Such a year was called embolismic. IN Ancient Greece and Babylon, three additional months were introduced over the course of eight years. Its error is one and a half days over the entire eight-year period. The longer cycle, as the history of the calendar tells us, was adopted in China, although it was known in both Babylon and Greece. Its error is one day in 219 years.
Types of calendars
Now let's talk about what types of calendar exist today. We will talk about design, not astronomical features. Thus, the most popular today are flip, wall, pocket and tear-off calendars.
Desk calendars
Another name for this type of printing publication is “house”. Although some options may have a different design, including a plastic stand. The latter often form one whole with a pencil stand and sections for paper clips. The bottom line is that a desk calendar is designed so that the month tables are located on different pages, which need to be turned over in a timely manner. Along with the calendar, various information is very conveniently located on them, or simply beautiful images included in the overall design of the room. Such products are most often used in offices, conveniently located in the corner of the desktop. A desk calendar also often serves as a gift or souvenir.
Wall calendar
Many people have such a calendar in their kitchen, attached to the wall, refrigerator door or door. Wall calendars are very popular because they are easy to use and their aesthetic value makes them a great home decoration these days. Sometimes they are combined with "house" technology. In this case, wall calendars, as a rule, are real albums dedicated to a particular topic. And the function, in fact, of calculating time fades into the background in them.
Pocket calendar
This type is probably the most common in our time. Pocket calendars are small cards, on one side of which there is, in fact, a calendar plate, and on the other - some kind of drawing. Very often such products serve as bookmarks, business cards. They are often used for advertising purposes. Pocket calendars are a kind of postcards that have an additional function. You can easily put them in your wallet and carry them with you, taking them out as needed.
Tear-off calendars
The Soviet tear-off calendar is familiar to everyone. They were once found in almost every home, but today their popularity has fallen somewhat, although they are still often found. These products are real books, where each page is dedicated to one day of the year. When a new day dawns, the old page is torn away. That's why it's called tear-off. The reverse side of the page contains some text. As a rule, each such calendar is devoted to a particular topic and represents a fairly informative source within its framework.
Church calendars
A few words also need to be said about what the church calendar is, since many, when coming to church or reading church literature, are faced with a double dating system. In fact, the Orthodox Church calendar refers to the regular Julian calendar. It’s just that over two thousand years it began to lag behind the real astronomical passage of time by almost two weeks. The Catholic Church corrected this, resulting in the Gregorian calendar. But the Orthodox did not accept this reform. The Russian Orthodox Church and several other independent jurisdictions, for example, still adhere to the Julian calendar. But most Orthodox churches the world still switched to the New Julian calendar, which currently coincides with the Gregorian calendar.
The church calendar thus has at least three varieties. In some countries, in addition, churches use their own national calendars. For example, the Coptic chronology system is widespread in Egypt. Other religious organizations also have their own calendars. For example, Vedic, Buddhist, Islamic, Baha'i and other systems of organizing time are known.
Mayan calendar
In conclusion, let's say a few words about what it is ancient calendar Mayan. In fact, this is not one, but a whole system different chronologies. The Mayan Indians' civil calendar for the year was solar and consisted of 365 days. Its main purpose was to streamline agricultural life. There was also a ritual calendar called Tzolkin. This is translated as “counting days.” It is somewhat unusual in its structure. Thus, the Tzolkin calendar for the year contained not 365, but 260 days. The latter were divided into two cycles - twenty days and thirteen days. The days of the first of them had their own name, and the second contained only a serial number. The Mayan time counting system also included such periods as tuns (360 days), katuns (20 tuns), and baktuns (20 katuns). The era of 260 katuns was considered the largest. In terms of our usual counting system, this amounts to 5125 years. In 2012, one such era, called the fifth sun, ended and began new era sixth.
There are three types of the most common calendar systems: lunar, lunisolar, solar.
Lunar calendars without taking into account the change of seasons among many peoples of the world preceded other time counting systems. They could have been used in the primitive era, when neither agriculture nor cattle breeding were developed. As productive forms of economy developed, lunar calendars gave way to lunisolar and solar calendars, which take into account the changing seasons.
According to lunar calendars, the length of months is associated only with changes in the phases of the Moon; Each month, starting with the new moon, lasts alternately 29 and 30 days: 12 months make up a lunar year, which is equal to 354 days. Since the synodic month was longer than the calendar month (by 44 minutes 2.9 seconds), it was necessary to insert one additional day into the calendar year after a certain number of years. There are two known ways to harmonize astronomical and calendar lunar years. Both methods are based on the introduction of an additional day per year of the lunar calendar. According to one of them, an eight-year period (“Turkish cycle”) was selected, during which astronomical lunar years lagged behind simple lunar years by three days. In order to equalize the lunar calendar with the lunar astronomical, an additional day was inserted into the 2nd, 5th, 7th years of the calendar in every eighth year. Another method is more accurate. He proceeds from the position that 30 simple lunar years are ahead of 30 astronomical years by 11 days. To bridge the gap, additional days were introduced in the following years of this period, called the Arab cycle: 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th th, 26th and 29th. Since the year according to the lunar calendar lasted 354 (sometimes 355) days, its beginning was 11 days ahead of the year of the solar calendar each time. Consequently, the beginning of the year and its parts did not coincide with the seasons, but systematically moved from one season to another.
If at some point the beginning of the year coincided with the beginning of spring, then after about 9 years it marked the beginning of winter, and after the same period it ushered in autumn. It was impossible to make forecasts for agricultural work using such a calendar.
To this day, the lunar calendar has been preserved (for religious reasons) in some Muslim countries.
Solar calendars are based on the apparent annual movement of the Sun. The length of a year of twelve months is 365 or 365 1/4 days. Observations of the Sun associated with religion (the cult of the Sun) have been carried out since ancient times among many peoples of the world, but official calculation of time according to the solar calendar was rare. The most famous is the ancient Egyptian calendar. Sunny is modern between folk calendar.
In many ancient countries there were lunar-solar calendars. They took into account the changing phases of the Moon and the annual movement of the Sun. For this purpose, an additional (thirteenth) month was periodically introduced into the accounting system. Complex lunisolar calendars were used in ancient times in China, Babylonia, Judea, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. It has survived to this day in Israel.
Ancient Egypt calendar
The life of ancient Egyptian society was closely connected with the Nile. Of great importance to the Egyptians was the fact that the rise of water in the lower reaches of the river always coincided with the summer solstice.
The constant repetition of these phenomena was a convenient standard for measuring time: from flood to flood, from solstice to solstice. At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. During the solstice and, consequently, the flood of the river, the first morning appearance of Sirius, his first heliactic rising, took place. The first appearance of Sirius in the morning light gave rise to the flood of the Nile, the future harvest, and the beginning of a new agricultural year.
Originating in the 4th millennium BC, one of the oldest in the world, the Egyptian calendar was of the solar type. Its year consisted of three seasons, each of which included four thirty-day months.
The calendar length of the year of 365 days (365 + 5) was quite accurate for the era of Herodotus, but differing from the tropical one by 0.25 days, it gave an error of 1 day every four years. Therefore, the original New Year (1st Tota) slowly shifted relative to the seasons. Visible evidence of such a shift for the Egyptians was the “delay” of the first (heliac) rising of Sirius. As the error accumulated, the calendar year began earlier and earlier, shifting to spring, winter, and autumn. After 1460 tropical years (365x4=1460), or after 1461 according to the ancient Egyptian calendar, the New Year again coincided with the first appearance of Sirius and the beginning of the Nile flood. This period of 1460 years, called the "Sothis period", played an important role in Egyptian chronology.
In Egypt they knew about the discrepancy between the length of the calendar year and the movement of the Sun. In Hellenistic Egypt, an attempt was made to improve the calendar. In 1866, a slab with the inscription of Ptolemy III Euergetes, one of the kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was found in the Nile Delta. The text of this so-called Canopic decree.
The date of this monument is 238 BC. e. It outlined the leap year system. However, judging by the following sources, Euergetes’ reform did not take root, and only much later, in 26 BC. BC, Augustus introduced the system in Egypt Julian calendar.
After the reform, the Egyptian calendar largely retained its structure and month names, but gained a fixed New Year (August 29 in the Julian calendar) and leap years. Leap years were considered to be those years whose absolute number, when divided by 4, gave a remainder of three. For example, in our calendar it would be 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, and not 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984.
Counting years in Ancient Egypt initially they were conducted by the years of reign of the pharaohs (I-XXX dynasties), and in the Hellenistic era the “era of Nabonassar” was used, the beginning of which, according to the Julian calendar, is dated February 26, 747 BC. e. At the end of the 3rd century. AD Diocletian introduced dating in Egypt according to the consular year, which began on January 1, and a new “era of Diocletian”, its beginning according to the Julian calendar - 284 AD. The era took root, but the beginning of the year returned to August 29. The era of Diocletian has survived to this day in church calendar Coptic Christians, direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians.
Ancient calendar of China
The origins of the lunisolar Chinese calendar go back to the 3rd millennium BC. e., in the Bronze Age.
China is a classical country of agriculture, and here the close connection between nature and society, the fertility of the land and royal power is especially clearly visible. Issues of time counting were important and were sometimes introduced into the rank of state policy.
Emperors of the Zhou era (XI-III centuries BC) were required to travel around the country every five years, adhering to a strict ritual. In the spring, at the beginning of the year, the emperor and his retinue in green clothes went to eastern part empire, in the summer in red clothes they moved to the south, in the fall, having changed the color of their dress to white, they went west and completed their journey in the winter, going around northern regions countries in black robes.
Over the next four years, the emperor symbolically made a similar journey every year in a special “hall of fate” - a kind of model of the Universe. There he made a yearly circle, alternately facing the east (spring), south (summer), west (autumn) and north (winter), thus solemnly opening the beginning of the months and seasons. In the third month of summer, the emperor, dressed in yellow, sat on a throne in the center of the "hall of fate", symbolizing the middle of the year.
The complex ritual was subordinated to the idea that the empire should be governed in accordance with the movement of the Universe.
At the same time, good management of society was a necessary condition for maintaining order in nature.
Many features of these ancient rituals existed in China until the abolition of the monarchy in 1911. The Chinese calendar, associated with similar traditions, is equally stable. Twelve lunar months of 29 and 30 days alternately made up a year of 354 days. The months corresponded to the twelve zodiacal constellations and were grouped into three in each season. The months had no names and were designated by ordinal numbers; the days within the month were counted by decades. Originally, a month was added in every third and fifth year if the Sun was found to be in the same sign at the end of the month as at the beginning. Then they began to use a more accurate 19-year cycle. During each cycle, seven additional months were introduced: in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 19th years. The thirteenth month was always placed after the winter solstice, and the beginning of the year was at the new moon in the middle of the period between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
In the 3rd century. BC The country used a seasonal calendar, according to which the year was divided into 24 seasons, each season had a name, for example: “awakening of insects”, “earing of grain”, “cold dew”, etc.
The calendar helped the population plan and carry out agricultural work.
At the same time, in China and neighboring countries (Mongolia, Korea, Japan) there was a system of counting time in 60-year cycles. The years were grouped into cycles of sixty years. The beginning of this original chronology was conventionally considered to be 2397 BC.
The year number in the 60-year cycle was indicated by the sign of one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each of the elements appeared in two states: wood - a plant and wood - a building material, natural fire and hearth fire, metal in nature and metal in a product, wild land and cultivated land, flowing water and standing water. The elements in two qualities made up ten so-called “heavenly branches”: five odd and five even. At the same time, the cycle was divided into 12 periods - the so-called “earthly branches”, designated by the name of the animal: mouse, cow, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig.
To designate the year within the cycle, the signs of the heavenly and earthly branches were called: so, 1st year - tree and mouse, 2nd - tree and cow, 3rd - fire and tiger, 10th - water and chicken, etc. . Table 1 allows you to quickly determine the position of the year within the cycle. Thus, the third year of the 60-year cycle is designated by the cyclic sign of the earthly branch and is called the tiger. In addition to the third, the cycle also includes the 15th, 27th, 39th and 51st years under the sign of the tiger. To indicate which year of the tiger we're talking about, a specific year is also indicated by the sign of the heavenly branch. In this case, the third year will be the year of “fire and tiger”, the 15th “earth and tiger”, the 27th “metal and tiger”, etc.
To date current events, it was enough to indicate the sign of the “earthly branch,” that is, name the corresponding animal. The relationship of the date to the “heavenly branches” is often not indicated, as it is determined by indirect circumstances. The transition from one year to the next in the table is traced diagonally from top to bottom and from left to right.
To convert the dates of a modern calendar to a cyclic one, in addition to using a table, you need to know which years of our chronology the beginning of 60-year cycles occurred.
Since 1949, the international Gregorian calendar has been officially introduced in China, but in everyday life the cyclic calendar still retains its significance both in China and in a number of its neighboring countries.
Indian calendars
The ethnic diversity, linguistic and political disunity of the tribes and nationalities of India led to the creation of many calendar systems and determined the existence of numerous eras. Most Indian calendars were of the lunisolar type, but there were also lunar and solar calendars.
A year with a duration of 365–366 days was divided into 12 months with the number of days from 29 to 32. In lunisolar systems, to coordinate with the duration solar year once every three years an additional, 13th month was inserted.
In addition, the year was divided into 6 seasons associated with natural phenomena: spring (vasant), hot season (grishma), rainy season (varsha), autumn (sharat), winter (hemanta), cold season (shishira). New Year's Eve was dedicated to various days, but most often to the points of the spring or autumn equinoxes.
On March 22, 1957, India introduced a Unified National Calendar, developed on the basis of the most common systems in the country. The years are counted in it according to the Saka era, the beginning of which, according to our chronology, dates back to 78 AD. e. The beginning of the year is considered to be the day following the vernal equinox.
Leap years are defined in the same way as in the modern Gregorian calendar. The Indian year is divided into 12 months.
Calendar of Ancient Mesopotamia
Back in the 3rd millennium BC. The priests of Ancient Mesopotamia, through regular scientific observations of the starry sky, accumulated a lot of astronomical information. Already at that time, multi-story towers - ziggurats up to 20 meters high - were built at temples for observations. To the original deified heavenly bodies - the Sun, Moon and
Venus is soon joined by the deified Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. It was found that all the planets stay near the “path of the Sun,” i.e., the ecliptic; here the first maps of the starry sky, lists of constellations, etc. were compiled.
Particular attention was paid to the Moon. It is not surprising that the first city-state calendars were lunar. However, under Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who united Mesopotamia under the auspices of Babylon, the lunar-solar calendar of the city of Ur is recognized as official. The written decrees of Hammurabi brought to us evidence of such transformations: “Since the year has a deficiency, let the month that now begins receive the name of the second ululu, and therefore the tax due to Babylon is not due on the 25th of Tashrit, but on the 25th of the second ululu "
This method of arbitrarily inserting an additional month was maintained in Babylon from the era of Hammurabi until the 6th century. BC e., when they switched to a system of periodic or cyclic calculations. Moreover, from the beginning of the 6th to the end of the 4th century. BC e. the addition of the 13th month was carried out regularly three times in eight years, and from the end of the 4th century. BC e. – 7 times every 19 years.
According to the Babylonian calendar, the year consisted of 12 months.
Each month consisted of 29 or 30 days. The beginning of the year was considered the day of the spring equinox.
The Babylonians borrowed a seven-day week from the Sumerians.
The years were counted from the beginning of the reign of the Babylonian (later Assyrian) kings. Over time, the Babylonian calendar spread to Assyria, the Persian Empire, and then to the Hellenistic states of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Calendar of Ancient Greece
Initially, various Greek centers had their own timekeeping systems, which led to considerable confusion. This was explained by the independent adjustment of the calendar in each policy. There were differences in defining the beginning of the calendar year.
The Athenian calendar is known, which consisted of twelve lunar months, the beginning of each of which approximately coincided with Neomenia. The length of the months varied between 29–30 days, and the calendar year consisted of 354 days.
Since the true lunar year includes 354.36 days, the phases of the Moon did not exactly correspond to the calendar dates to which they were assigned. Therefore, the Greeks distinguished between the calendar " new moon", i.e. the first day of the month and the actual new moon.
The names of the months in Greece were in most cases associated with certain holidays and only indirectly correlated with the seasons.
The Athenian year began in the month of Hecatombeon (July–August), associated with the summer solstice. To align the calendar year with the solar year, in special years the 13th (embolismic) month was inserted - the 2nd Poseideon - with a duration of 29-30 days.
In 432 BC. The Athenian astronomer Meton developed a new 19-year cycle with seven embolismic years: 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th. This order, called the “Metonian cycle,” ensured fairly high accuracy. The discrepancy of one day between solar and lunar years accumulated over 312 solar years.
Later, the Kalippus and Hipparchus cycles were developed, further clarifying the lunisolar calendar. However, in practice their amendments were almost never applied.
Up to the 2nd century. BC e. The 13th month was added as the need arose, and sometimes for political and other reasons.
The Greeks did not know a seven-day week and counted the days within a month by decades.
The dating of events in Athens was carried out by the names of officials - archons. From the 4th century BC e. The chronology of Olympiads, held once every four years, became generally accepted.
The first Olympiad, held in the summer of 776 BC, was considered the beginning of the era.
During the Hellenistic era in Greece, various eras were used: the era of Alexander, the era of the Seleucids, etc.
The official calendar, due to deviations from the solar year, was inconvenient for agriculture. Therefore, the Greeks often used a kind of agricultural calendar based on the visible movements of the stars and the changing seasons. He gave a detailed description of such a calendar in the form of advice to farmers back in the 8th century. BC e. Hellenic poet Hesiod.
This folk calendar was of great practical importance and was preserved along with the official timekeeping system for many centuries of Greek history.
Jewish calendar
In 568 BC. e. After the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian calendar and chronology were introduced in Judea. Before this, it was common among Jews complex system lunar time counting. The year consisted of 12 lunar months with 29 or 30 days each. The beginning of the month was determined by the direct observation of neomenia by two persons. As soon as the crescent moon appeared, the population of the country was notified by the sound of trumpets and the lighting of bonfires about the birth of a new month.
Initially, months were designated by numerals: second, third, fourth, etc. Only the first month, symbolizing the beginning of spring, was called Aviv, which means the month of ears.
Subsequently, the Babylonian names of the months were borrowed and a seven-day week independent of the lunar phases was established. Sunday was considered the first day of the week, and the day began at 6 pm.
The lunar year consisted of 354 days, so the official count of the moons was at odds with the religious ceremonies associated with both the new moon and the ripening of barley. The administration added an additional month to the year as necessary.
The replacement of the lunar calendar with the lunisolar calendar was completed only in the 5th century. n. e. Additional month since 499 AD e. began to be inserted into certain leap years of the 19-year cycle, familiar to us from the Greek calendar.
Years consisting of 12 months are usually called simple years, and leap years containing 13 months are called embolismic.
Religious regulations did not allow the beginning of the Jewish year to coincide with Sunday, Wednesday or Friday.
The Jewish calendar is based on the mythical date of the “creation of the world,” which is taken to be October 7, 3761 BC. This so-called “era from Adam” is officially accepted in modern Israel, although they use the Gregorian calendar.
Until the end of the 3rd century. BC e. The year of the ancient Jews began in the spring, and then the New Year was moved to autumn.
Muslim calendar
An example of a purely lunar reckoning of time is the Muslim calendar. Before the spread of Islam, lunisolar calendars were in use among the pagans of the Asian East.
In the 7th century n. e. with the emergence of a new Muslim religion - “Islam” - a new, purely lunar calendar was introduced for religious and political reasons.
Religious dogma (the Koran) prohibits believers from counting a year as lasting more than 12 lunar months.
Currently, the Muslim calendar is used by Arabs, Turks, Mohammedan Hindus and some other peoples of the globe.
The calendar consists of 12 lunar months of 30 and 29 days alternately.
Since the total number of days in a year was 354, and the astronomical lunar year was equal to 354 days 8 hours 12 minutes 36 seconds, then last month one day was periodically added either according to the “Turkish cycle” (3 times in 8 years) or according to the “Arab cycle” (11 times in 30 years).
The Muslim calendar lunar year (simple - 354 days, leap year - 355 days) is shorter than the solar year, consisting of 365 days (leap year of 366), by approximately 11 days. It “overtakes” the solar calendar by about 1/33 of the year (more precisely, 11/366). Therefore, 33 lunar years are equal to approximately 32 solar years.
The beginning of the year in translation to the European calendar is transitional. Therefore, in the lunar calendar there are no summer, winter or autumn months - all months are mobile relative to the seasons.
In the Muslim calendar, days are counted in seven-day weeks, with the beginning of the day being considered the time of sunset.
The Muslim era is called Hijra (flight). In September 622 AD. e. The founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, fled with a group of followers from Mecca to Medina, fleeing religious persecution. For Muslims this is significant event became the starting date of the new chronology. In 638, Caliph Omar introduced a new lunar calendar, the starting point of which was decided to be the 1st day of the first month (Muharram) of the year of Muhammad's flight. The astronomical new moon, which began Muharram 622, fell on July 15, Thursday according to the Julian calendar; however, the visible appearance of the lunar crescent (neomenia) occurred a day later, so July 16, 622 (Friday) is considered to be the starting point of Muslim time calculation.
Mayan calendar
The original time keeping systems were developed by the peoples of the New World. The most famous are the calendars of the Mayans, who created them in the 1st millennium AD. e. original culture in Central America. The Mayans made advances in astronomy related to the practical needs of agriculture.
The Mayans knew the length of the solar year and knew how to calculate the time of eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
Chronology issues had great value both religious and civil life Mayan. The priests used a short 260-day year called “Tzolkin” to calculate the rituals.
In addition to the short year, the Mayans knew 2 types of long years:
1) the tun year, lasting 360 days, had a special purpose and was rarely used.
2) the 365-day year of Haab, which consisted of 18 months of 20 days.
For each month, Maya had special images.
The priests knew the true length of the solar year and believed that counting haab years for 60 years gives an error of 15 days. The Mayan solar calendar was adopted by the Aztecs.
In Maya time-keeping, four-year cycles were important: thirteen 4-year cycles made up a period of 52 years, which was convenient because it made it possible to compare short and for many years together.
The dating of an event among the Mayans consisted of the day (or number) of the day within a 13-day week, the name of the day, the day of the month, and the name of the month.
The ancient Mayans had a lunar calendar with the duration of each month being 29 or 30 days and the numerical designation of days within the month. After six lunar months, the lunar half-year ended, then counting began again from the 1st month.
The ancient Mayan calendar was one of the most accurate in human history. The duration of the solar year, determined by them in ancient times, differed from that accepted in modern science by only 0.0002 and equaled 365.2420 days. With such accuracy, the error per day increased only in 5000 years.
Julian calendar
The modern solar calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, dates back to the ancient Roman account of time. Information about the first Roman calendar, which arose during the legendary period of the reign of Romulus (mid-8th century BC), is contained in the work of Censorinus (2nd century AD). The calendar was based on the so-called agricultural year of 304 days. The year, consisting of ten months of varying lengths, began on the first day of the first spring month. Initially, months were designated by ordinal numbers, but by the end of the 8th century. BC four of them received individual names.
In the 7th century BC calendar reform was carried out. Tradition connects it with the name of one of the semi-legendary kings of Rome, Numa Pompilius. The calendar became lunisolar. The year was extended to 355 days by adding two more months: Januarius, named after the two-faced god Janus, and Februarius, dedicated to the god underground kingdom Februus.
The unusual distribution of days across months is explained by the fact that the superstitious Romans considered even numbers unlucky and tried to avoid them.
A year of 355 days annually lagged behind the solar one by 10–11 days. For coordination, an additional month, Marcedonius, consisting of 22–23 days, was introduced once every two years.
An additional month was inserted after February 23. The remaining 5 days of February were added at the end of the year, so that the marcedonius actually consisted of 27 or 28 days.
The appointment of an additional month was the responsibility of the priests. Since the terms of office of major elected officials were measured by calendar year, political considerations often resulted in intercalations being appointed at the wrong time or not at all. As a result of such abuses, the Roman account of time, up to the reform of Caesar, diverged significantly from the solar year, and attempts to regulate the calendar were based more on the will of the priests than on the laws of astronomy.
In 46 BC. e. Gaius Julius Caesar, dictator and consul, begins to introduce new calendar. To align the months with the corresponding seasons, he had to add 90 days to the year. A group of astronomers from Alexandria, led by Sosigenes, participated in the development of the new calendar.
From January 1, 45 BC. e. A solar calendar with a year duration of 365 days, called the Julian calendar, began to operate.
The new calendar adopted a year length of 365 days. But since the astronomical year consisted of 365 days and 6 hours, in order to eliminate the difference, it was decided to add one day to every fourth year. For convenience, these days were assigned to years divisible by four.
Days began to be added to the shortest month - February. But for religious reasons, they did not dare to simply add them to the last day of February, but tried to “hide” them between the ordinary dates of this month.
Sosigenes retained the name of the months, but changed their duration, establishing a certain order of alternation of long odd and short even months. After the New Year was moved to January, the names of a number of months (numerals) began to not correspond to their place in the calendar. This discrepancy has been preserved in our calendar.
After the death of Caesar (44 BC), some changes occurred in the calendar.
The new calendar was adopted by the Christian Church (at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD) and was used through various eras.
Gregorian calendar
The Christian Church, in approving the Julian calendar, faced a difficult task. The main holiday of the new religion - Easter - was celebrated according to the lunar-solar calendar, on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. Such a full moon could occur only after the vernal equinox (March 21 according to the Julian calendar). To calculate the day of Easter, it was necessary to find agreement between the days of the week and the dates of the solar calendar and lunar phases. Scholar-bishops worked on this issue long before the Council of Nicaea. One of them, Eusebius of Caesarea, turned to the forgotten 19-year cycle of Meton and his proposal received the approval of the Council of Nicaea.
In the Byzantine, and later Old Russian chronology, there was an era from the “creation of the world”, which differed from our era (the era of the “Nativity of Christ”) by 5508 years. Here, the calculation of the serial number of the year in a 19-year cycle was carried out by direct division of the date in the “creation of the world” system by 19.
In the Julian calendar, the beginning and end of the year have the same day of the week. In 1981, according to the Julian calendar, January 1 and December 31 are Wednesdays. The starting point for calculating time using solar cycles was the “creation of the world.” Therefore, the definition of the circles of the sun for years expressed in the system from the “creation of the world” is given by direct division of the date by 28. Using the solar and lunar cycles, the Christian Church approved the so-called “Easter limits”, i.e. the framework in the Julian calendar system (March 22 –April 25), for which the day of Easter cannot fall. Since the order of alternating Easter days over a number of years is determined by the golden numbers and circles of the sun, it is possible to calculate the period after which the combinations of solar calendar numbers and lunar phases will repeat.
However, the rules for determining Easter approved by the Council of Nicaea soon ceased to correspond to the Julian calendar. Due to the inaccuracy of the calendar, the spring equinox gradually shifted to earlier dates, and the Easter holiday shifted accordingly. This happened because the average length of the year according to the Julian calendar is 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the tropical one, which leads to an error of 1 day in 128 years.
The fallacy of the Julian calendar was noticed a long time ago. There are attempts to transform it and make it more accurate. In the 11th century n. e. the famous Persian poet and scientist Omar Khayyam proposed to make adjustments to the calculation of time during 33-year cycles. Khayyam divided 33 years into 8 periods, of which 7 had 4 years each, and the eighth had 5 years. Each final year of the period was a leap year. According to Khayyam, in a 132-year period, leap years would fall on: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 66, 70, 74, 78 , 82, 86, 90, 94, 99, 103, 107, 111, 115, 119, 123, 127, 132.
As a result, in 132 years there were not 33 (as in the Julian calendar), but 32 leap years and the average length of the year was very close to the true one - 365, 2424 days. With such accuracy, an error per day would accumulate only over 4,500 years, therefore, this calendar was more accurate not only than the Julian, but also the Gregorian.
In 1582, under Pope Gregory XIII, a reform of the Julian calendar was carried out. The reform used the project of the Italian mathematician Luigi Lilio Garalli. The project was, firstly, to leave the decision of the Council of Nicea unshakable, and therefore return the beginning of spring to March 21, and secondly, to eliminate the possibility of the same discrepancy appearing in the future.
The first problem was solved by the pope's order: after October 4, 1582, it was proposed to count the next day not as October 5, but as October 15. To accomplish the second task, it was decided to remove the three days that had accumulated from the calendar every 400 years. The years at the end of the century were considered the most convenient for this. Of these, only those whose first two digits are divisible by 4 remain leap years.
New calendar style ( new style) turned out to be significantly more accurate than the Julian (old style). In it, the year lags behind the astronomical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy by a day can occur only after 3300 years. TO early XVII V. this calendar was adopted in Catholic countries of Europe, and in the 18th century. – Protestant, in the 19th – early 20th centuries. - in Japan and in a number of Orthodox countries in Europe, in the 20s of the 20th century. – in Greece, Turkey, Egypt. After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 26, 1918, a new calendar was introduced in Russia.
Currently it is considered international.
In the first years after the introduction of the Gregorian reform, objections arose to the new system of timekeeping. The French scientist, poet and publicist Joseph Scaliger opposed the Gregorian calendar. In 1583, he proposed using the day, i.e., the average solar day, as the main counting unit for chronological and astronomical calculations. In days you can express any time intervals between events recorded in different calendar systems and eras.
For such an account, Scaliger introduced the concept of the Julian period of 7980 years. The scientist proposed to consider the conditional date – January 1, 4713 BC – as the beginning of the countdown, i.e., the first day of the Julian period. e.
Counting the days of the Julian period eliminates the difficulty of accurately determining the time elapsed between any events recorded within the same calendar system.
French Republican calendar
During the Great French Revolution an attempt was made to create a calendar free from religious influences and based on strictly scientific data. Its prototype was the work “Almanac of Honest People,” published by S. Marechal at the end of 1787.
The new calendar was developed by a commission of leading French scientists headed by Gilbert Romm and introduced by decree of the Convention on October 5, 1793.
In it, instead of the era from the “Nativity of Christ,” a new era was established - the Republic, which began on the day of the proclamation of the Republic in France, which coincided with the autumn equinox - September 22, 1792 AD. The length of the year and the number of months in the year were left unchanged. However, now each month was equal to 30 days and new names were established for them. Each month was divided into decades. Days within decades were designated by ordinal numbers.
Since there were 360 days in 12 months, 5 were introduced for the equation with the astronomical year, and 6 additional days for the leap year.
During the French Revolution, an attempt was made, in accordance with the metric system introduced at that time, to divide a day into 10 hours, an hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds. However, the innovation was not widespread.
The French revolutionary calendar, which caused resistance from the church, lasted 13 years and was abolished by Napoleon on September 9, 1805. On the day of the Paris Commune, March 18, 1871. it was restored, but with the fall of the Commune on May 28, 1871, replaced by the Gregorian calendar.
One of the shortcomings of the Republican calendar was the lack of a clear system for introducing leap years, as well as the replacement of the usual seven-day week with decades.
Currently, the calendar of the French Revolution is not used; accurate dating of events marked in this time counting system is important for historians.
World Calendar Projects
Currently, new calendar systems are being created and old ones are being improved. In May 1923, at the Council of Orthodox Eastern Churches, the New Julian calendar, proposed by the Yugoslav astronomer Milanković, was approved. To reduce the discrepancy between the calendar and astronomical years, it was proposed to consider not all years that are divisible by 4 as leap years, but only those years ending centuries in which the number of hundreds when divided by 9 leaves a remainder of 2 or 6.
However, the New Julian calendar will remain virtually unchanged from the Gregorian calendar until 2800.
The Gregorian calendar, adopted almost throughout the world, records with sufficient accuracy the tropical year and the synodic month. But in the 19th century. and XX century Its shortcomings have been revealed, which complicate the work of financial and other economic matters: unequal number of days in months and quarters, discrepancies in numbers, months and days of the week in different years, etc.
In this regard, already in the first half of the 19th century. began to create projects for a calendar that would eliminate the noted shortcomings. In 1923, the International Committee for the Creation of a Unified World Calendar was formed, which published more than 200 projects. Since 1953, the United Nations has been dealing with this issue.
From the numerous number of projects, two of the most optimal ones can be identified.
According to the first of them, the year is divided into 13 months, each of which has 4 weeks of 7 days, and a total of 28 days. The main disadvantage of such a calendar is the inability to divide the year into half-years and quarters.
The second project proposes a calendar in which the year consists of 12 months, divided into 4 three-month quarters of 91 days. Each quarter contains 13 weeks. The first days of the year and quarter always fall on Sunday. Since such a calendar has 364 days, a day without a number is inserted in a normal and leap year.
Such a calendar has a number of advantages: it repeats the numbers of months and days from year to year, each month contains the same number of working days; it is divided into half-years and quarters.
However, disruption of the weekly count due to the presence of days without a number in the calendar will shift the holy days of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions.
Not all peoples of the world meet New Year January 1st. Jews and Ethiopians meet it earlier than us, and among the Tuvans and Chinese - later. This is due to the fact that in different ethnic groups and religious denominations different events and dates were chosen as the starting point of time. Jews count from the creation of the world, Christians - from the birth of Christ, Buddhists - from the date of the death of Buddha. True, in international use today only the Christian Gregorian calendar is used - this is dictated by considerations of practicality. The Islamic calendar is official only in Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states. Other Muslim countries use it only for religious needs.
There are more than twenty chronology systems in India, a little less in Nepal, but both Delhi and Kathmandu are still forced to rely on the calendar adopted by the rest of humanity. However, this chronology system, taken as a universal one, is quite arbitrary. After all, if you mentally imagine the 3.35 billion years that have passed since the formation of the Earth as one day, then the first signs of life on the planet were discovered around noon. Man, on this time scale, appeared four seconds before midnight, and the time studied by history (the last 6-7 thousand years) lasts only a quarter of a second.
Who is counting from where?
The Orthodox Church follows a calendar in which chronology is calculated from the creation of the world. Orthodox believe that this happened in 5508 BC. e. This year was accepted as the first, and March 1 was considered the day of the new year. According to this calendar, March 1, 2016 will be the year 7524.
According to the Jewish calendar, the creation of the world occurred almost 2 thousand years later than according to the Orthodox calendar. Therefore, the Jewish New Year, which has already arrived on September 16, has a serial number of 5777.
The Chinese date back to 2637 BC. e. It was then that the first calendar in human history was compiled. According to the Chinese lunisolar-Jupiter calendar, 2016 will begin on January 28 and will be the 4714th year. In addition, China has a cyclical chronology system: once every 60 years, each of the twelve animals of the lunar cycle is combined with one of the five elements (wood, fire, metal, water and earth). 2016 will be the year of the Fire Monkey.
The historian Timaeus introduced a calendar in Ancient Greece, in which chronology was carried out from the year of the first Olympic Games. The Olympics - the Greek year - lasted 1417 days (that is, every 4 years). If we follow the Timeus, the next year will begin on August 8, 2016, when the next Olympics starts in Rio de Janeiro. It will be the 699th.
The ancient Romans counted years from the founding of Rome. The next Roman year will be 2769.
Buddhists count down from the day of Buddha's death. According to their lunar calendar, the change of year will occur on January 29. For Buddhists this will be the year 2559.
The Christian (Gregorian) calendar counts from the birth of Christ. New Year - 2016th from the birth of Christ.
According to the Ethiopian calendar, the birth of Christ occurred 6 years and 8 months later than is customary in the rest of the Christian world. This is exactly how far behind the Gregorian calendar the Ethiopian calendar is. Therefore, the new year 2010 has already arrived in Ethiopia.
Muslims count years from the year of the migration of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. Under Caliph Omar I (634-644), this year was declared the beginning of the Muslim era. In order to convert the Muslim calendar to the Christian one, it is necessary to subtract 622 from the year according to the Christian calendar and multiply by a correction factor of 1.03069 (the Muslim year is 11 days shorter than the Christian year). So 2016 will be the 1436th year for Muslims.
It was introduced on November 24, 1793 and abolished on January 1, 1806 (years are counted from the establishment of the First French Republic). Then used during the Paris Commune in 1871. Each year according to this calendar begins on the day of the autumnal equinox (September 21 or 22). Accordingly, the 224th year could begin in France in September.
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For us it is a rectangular grid with days and weeks and the beginning of the year on January 1, but for other peoples the calendar looked different. This is what your custom calendar could look like if you were not born here and not in our time.
Calendars of different peoples of the world - from Egypt to China
- Egypt used both lunar and solar calendars. The Egyptians began using the lunar calendar back in the 4th millennium BC, and the solar calendar later, from about 1700 BC. e. The year lasted 365 days, and was divided into 12 months of 30 days. But there were not four seasons, as we are accustomed to, but three, which corresponded to the stages of sowing, harvesting and the flood season. At the end of the year there were 5 additional holidays in honor of the children of the earth god. Interestingly, the Egyptians kept count of the years from the moment the new pharaoh ascended the throne.
- The Chinese calendar is also called the Eastern calendar. Today it is still used to determine the dates of traditional Chinese holidays. This calendar became the basis for others - Vietnamese, Japanese, Tibetan and Korean. It consists of a 60-year cyclic system that combines two circles of cycles - the twelve-year cycle of the “earthly branches”, where each year has the name of an animal, and the ten-year cycle of the “heavenly branches”, after which each year belongs to one of the five elements - water , wood, fire, metal or earth.
- Everyone remembers the mythical end of the world on December 21, 2012, right? This “important” date comes from the Mayan calendar. In this calendar, all time was divided into cycles, or “suns.” The Mayans believed that at the end of each "sun" there would be a massive destruction of humanity. December 21, 2012 fell precisely at the end of the 5th cycle. The previous 4 cycles ended with earthquakes, hurricanes, rain of fire and floods, respectively. The sixth cycle in the calendar was empty, since the priests could not see the future after the end of the fifth “sun”.
Almost “modern” calendars of the peoples of the world
- At the beginning of the revolutionary era, the French decided to make their own calendar. It was introduced in 1793, but later, in 1806, Napoleon I abolished it. In principle, the calendar did not stand out in any way - the same 365 days, and 12 months - but 30 days each. The remaining 5 days (six for leap years) were not included in the month and had a special name. A feature of this calendar was the beginning of the year on the day of the autumn equinox - that is, every year there was a “new” New Year.
- It is impossible not to mention the Soviet revolutionary calendar! Although it didn’t catch on, it was quite interesting. The chronology was carried out as in the Gregorian calendar, but in the calendars themselves the year was indicated as “NN year of the socialist revolution.” There were also 12 months, 30 days each, and the days that remained were called “monthless holidays.” The week consisted of 5 days, and for each layer of workers the day off fell on a different day.
