Not all peoples of the world celebrate the New Year on 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 Ancient Greece a calendar 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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Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus
Belorussian state university
Faculty of History
Department of Source Studies
Area of specialty: Documentation (documentation support for management)
TYPES AND KINDS OF CALENDARS
Completed by: 3rd year student
correspondence shortened form of study
Nalivaiko Olga Olegovna
Teacher: Dean of History
Faculty Khodin S.N.
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. TYPES OF CALENDARS AND PRINCIPLES OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION
CHAPTER 2. THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CALENDAR SYSTEMS
Ancient Egypt calendar
Ancient calendar China
Indian calendars
Calendar of Ancient Mesopotamia
Calendar of Ancient Greece
Jewish calendar
Muslim calendar
Mayan calendar
Julian calendar
Gregorian calendar
French Republican calendar
World Calendar Projects
CONCLUSION
LIST OF USED SOURCES OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
The units of time given by nature - the day, month and year - formed the basis of the most ancient calendars.
Calendars are time reckoning systems based on the periodicity of natural phenomena, visibly represented by the movement of celestial bodies. The need to create such systems first arose with the advent of productive forms of economy in the Early Neolithic. Agriculture and cattle breeding are closely related to seasonal natural phenomena. Identical forms of economic life and common initial units of time notation led to the formation of similar calendar systems.
The first compilers of calendars encountered great difficulties, since the units of time were incommensurable: the synodic month did not consist of an equal number of days, and the astronomical year could not be divided into an equal number of months and days. This forced people to look for ways to harmonize these units, which gave rise to several calendar systems. The most common of them are: lunar, where the day is consistent with the month; lunisolar, in which the day and month are consistent with the year; solar, when the year and day are consistent.
CHAPTER 1. Types of calendars and principles of their construction
As mentioned above, three types of the most common calendar systems can be distinguished: 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 each time 11 days ahead of the year of the solar calendar. 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.
CHAPTER 2. The most significant calendar systems
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 Julian calendar system in Egypt.
After the reform, the Egyptian calendar retained mainly its structure and names of the months, but acquired a fixed New Year (August 29 to 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 according to 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 been preserved to this day in the church calendar of 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 counting time 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 annually symbolically made a similar journey 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: tree - plant and tree - 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 lasting 365-366 days was divided into 12 months with the number of days from 29 to 32. In the lunisolar systems, to coordinate with the length of the solar year, an additional, 13th month was inserted once every three years.
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.
Special attention was given 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. The Babylonian calendar spread over time 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 determining 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. Detailed description He gave such a calendar in the form of advice to the farmer 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. 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 diverged from 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 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 questions 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:
) the tun year, lasting 360 days, had a special purpose and was rarely used.
) 365-day haab year, 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 Mayan 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 calculation 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. Because 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, until 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 a 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.
New calendar was adopted by the Christian church (at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD) and has been used since various eras.
Gregorian calendar
lunar time 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 approval from 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 the 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 Wednesday. 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 throw out 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 conventional 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 difficulties precise definition 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 honest people", issued by S. Maréchal 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”, it was established new era-Republic, which began on the day of the proclamation of the Republic in France, which coincided with the autumnal 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 regular 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, a violation 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.
CONCLUSION
Primitive people already at the early stages of development they perceived the passage of time, distinguished between the changes of day and night, seasons, the period of rains and ripening of fruits, but they did not count time, since this was not necessary. Their memory of the past did not extend beyond one or two generations. People began to count time only with the development of agriculture, cattle breeding, exchange and navigation.
As the working life of the people develops, higher forms of production and economic life are created. There is a need to calculate long periods of time.
For agricultural tribes, it is important to take into account the time of year - the annual period, because when engaged in agriculture it is extremely important to foresee the timing of certain agricultural work that required collective labor for its implementation. All the most important festivals of agricultural tribes were associated with agricultural work and were timed to coincide with them.
In hot countries, where the scorching rays of the Sun forced daytime work to be transferred to the night, it was necessary to take into account the lunar phases - the monthly period of one revolution of the Moon.
The initial recording of time was of a primitive nature. It was carried out according to changes in nature - the change of seasons, floods of large rivers, alternation of winds, etc.
Subsequently, the needs of economic and social life made it necessary to clarify the rough and uncertain natural year and its divisions. The need to study the starry sky, study the movement of the Sun and Moon to keep track of time was realized very early.
The first time counting systems date back to 4 - 3 thousand BC.
LIST OF REFERENCES USED
1. Berezhko, N.G. Chronology of Russian chronology. Problems of source study / N.G. Berezhko - 1958.
Bickerman, E. Chronology of the ancient world / E. Bickerman M. - 1975.
Ermolaev, I.P. Historical chronology / I.P. Ermolaev - Kazan, 1980.
Kamentseva, E.I. Chronology / E.I. Kamentseva - M., 1982.
Klimishin, I.A. Calendar and chronology / I.A. Klimishin - M., 1985
6. Pronshtein, A.P. Questions of theory and methods of historical research / A.P. Pronshtein, I.N. Danilevsky - M., 1986. S. 63 - 112.
Pronshtein, A.P. Methodology of historical source study / A.P. Pronstein - Rostov-on-Don, 1976. pp. 186 - 205.
Pronshtein, A.P. Methodology for working on historical sources/ A.P. Pronshtein, A.G. Zadera - M., 1977.
Pronshtein, A.P. Chronology / A.P. Pronshtein, V.Ya. Kiyashko - M., 1981.
Racer, S.A. Fundamentals of textual criticism / S.A. Racer - M., 1978. S. 73 - 82.
11. Chronology Russian history: encyclopedic reference book - M., 1994.
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For a long time, people have tried to organize their lives and used various methods of chronology to do this. In ancient times, the measure was the movement of celestial bodies, on the basis of which calendars were compiled. But the problem was that different tribes interpreted in their own way the principles by which time must be counted, therefore, in order to answer the question of what a calendar is, we will find out how it appeared and what it was like different nations.
The concept of "calendar"
The calendar is a number system for large periods of time, depending on the periodicity of the movement of various celestial bodies, such as the Sun or the Moon.
The concept itself arose thanks to debt books, on the basis of which people had to pay. Debt repayment was usually scheduled at the beginning of the month. These days were called Kalends. This is where the word calendarium comes from.
But different peoples considered completely different events to begin counting time. So, for the ancient Romans, the starting point was the founding of Rome, and for the Egyptians - the date of the emergence of a new ruling dynasty.
Types of calendars
To understand what a calendar is, you need to know what underlies it. Until now, many peoples have different concepts of the year, and the starting point of chronology creates confusion. Let's turn to history.
The ancient Greek calendar included 354 days. It represented an attempt to harmonize the length of the lunar month and the solar year. Because of this, every eight years an extra 90 days were added to the year. Because too large quantity days they were divided into several months.
The ancient Roman calendar began on March 1 and contained 304 days, which were divided into 10 equal parts. It was constantly reformed, and in the end the starting point was January 1. Two more months were also added.
Julius Caesar, observing natural phenomena, identified a certain periodicity in them. This is how the Julian calendar appeared, which was calculated with mathematical precision. It consisted of 365.25 days. It was Caesar who introduced the concept of “leap year.” Its length increased by exactly one day. Observing the movement of the Sun made it possible to avoid inaccuracies and the appearance of extra days in the year.
Gregorian calendar
During the time of Pope Gregory XIII, a new style of chronology was introduced. Its main goal was to fix the date of the vernal equinox, which was constantly shifting. It was on March 21 that day equaled night, and this is as close as possible to the tropical year, where the difference is only 26 seconds. For this period to equal a day would take about 3,300 years. The Gregorian calendar has such incredible accuracy.
Beginning in 1918, a new style was approved in Russia and the Gregorian calendar was introduced, which was 13 days ahead of the old one. This is why many people celebrate the Old New Year, which would fall on January 13th.
Moon as a measure of time
When a lunar calendar is compiled for the year, the change in phases of the earth's satellite is taken as a basis. Thus, the month is 29.53 days. But the resulting “tail” after the decimal point is not displayed in the calendar, and therefore, over 30 years, another 11 extra days gradually accumulate. But there are adherents and followers of such a calculation of time. A striking example serve Muslim countries.
Based on the lunar calendar, recommendations are developed, following which you can attract good luck and achieve success. Many gardeners check the satellite phases to begin certain land work. Creativity, money matters and personal relationships are also associated with the influence of the Moon. Some even take its position into account when making a haircut.
Reversible option
Until recently, many families often used a desk calendar. But even now this type quite popular. However appearance it has changed somewhat. Manufacturers add a convenient plastic stand and colorfully design each page.
Every day a page on the calendar must be torn off. You can also simply open a new page. Along with the name of the month, day of the week and date, a variety of interesting information associated with this day. It is very convenient to use such a calendar in offices. They are often used as a corporate gift.
Wall calendar
Many people are accustomed to hanging a calendar on the wall or refrigerator door. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that the whole year is visible. It is immediately clear when holidays or weekends occur. After all, they are highlighted in color.
As a rule, wall calendars are made of glossy paper. There are also more expensive plastic options. The popularity of wall calendars is explained by ease of use, beautiful appearance and obtaining maximum information in a rather limited area.
Holiday calendar
If there is a need to find out which holiday will occur on a particular day, a wall view will not be a good help. To do this, you will need a special holiday calendar, which is easy to find in electronic form on the Internet. You can also purchase it there. On such a calendar, next to each date, absolutely all the holidays that occur on that day will be listed, even little-known ones.
Pocket calendar
A convenient option when you need to always have a calendar at hand is a pocket version. It is a small card with dates and some kind of drawing on it. back side. Companies often leave their advertising images on such calendars and hand them out to visitors. With their help, it is convenient to track holidays and mark important dates. Pocket calendars are often used as bookmarks. They are easy to carry with you at all times.
Church chronology
Many people, coming to the temple, are faced with a completely different calendar. The fact is that the Orthodox calendar adheres to the Julian style, so there is a discrepancy. After all, over the millennia of existence, it gradually began to lag behind real time, and now the difference is two weeks.
Catholic countries took into account this fact and came to the Gregorian calendar. But Orthodox people did not take into account the new style and adhere to the old calendar. However, the Orthodox calendar of some countries has changed. It was called New Julian, which now coincides with Gregorian.
At all church calendars have their own characteristics. Therefore, when understanding what a calendar is, it is important to take into account the country of its origin and the religion of its people. So, there are Vedic, Buddhist, Islamic, Coptic chronology systems. In this case, different measures are used: the Moon, the Sun, the stars, the emergence of a dynasty. Therefore, their times differ from those officially accepted in European countries Oh.
Work and rest schedule
An indispensable assistant in work is a production calendar. It is especially useful for accountants. The production calendar not only helps in calculating working hours, but also facilitates the calculation of sick leave and vacation pay. In addition, the number of days that are officially considered working days varies from year to year due to holidays and the transfer of days that fall on weekends. The production calendar is an official document where all days are distributed by decree of the Government of the Russian Federation.
The document is important not only for accounting, but also necessary for personnel officers. With its help, wages and bonuses are calculated based on official working hours and an accurate schedule of working days is drawn up. In addition, a production calendar is necessary for timely submission of reports to various official structures and for calculating sick leave and vacations.
Depending on whether official holidays fall on weekdays or weekends, they are transferred. Every year their order is announced and enshrined in legislative acts. Thus, a calendar is developed for the year with holidays and weekends. It takes into account all the requirements of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
In anticipation New Year's holidays Many people are concerned about the calendar for December, but unlike the first month of the year, there are usually no special changes. It often happens that on December 31, when everyone is preparing for the New Year, you have to go to work. The December calendar can only please you if the 31st falls on a weekend, but then the January holidays may be shortened.
Conclusion
When studying the question of what a calendar is, it is important to take into account the method of chronology and the place of its use. So, in Russia there are still two types in use. The public lives according to the Gregorian calendar. But the church adheres to the old style.
Now there are several types of calendars. But differing in some content, they all have the same basis. Their functions and purpose are generally similar. They are necessary for planning time and accurately organizing all events.
Astronomy and calendar
When using the calendar, hardly anyone thinks that astronomers have been struggling with its compilation for centuries.
It seems that you count the day by the change of day and night, which is easier. But, in reality, the problem of measuring very long periods of time, in other words, creating a calendar, is extremely difficult. And without observing celestial bodies it cannot be solved.
If people and then scientists simply agreed on some units of measurement (meter, kilogram), and many others are derived from them, then nature gave the units of measurement of time. A day is the duration of one rotation of the Earth around its axis. Lunar month is the time during which the full cycle of lunar phase changes occurs. A year is the duration of one revolution of the Earth around the Sun. Everything seems to be simple. So what's the problem?
But the fact is that all three units depend on completely different natural phenomena and do not fit into one another an integer number of times.
Lunar calendar
The beginning of a new day and a new year is difficult to determine. But the beginning of the lunar month is simple, just look at the Moon. The beginning of a new month was determined by the ancients from observations of the first appearance of a narrow sickle after the new moon. Therefore, ancient civilizations used the lunar month as the main unit of measurement for long periods of time.
The true length of the lunar month is on average 29 and a half days. Lunar months were adopted of different lengths: they alternated between 29 and 30 days. The whole number of lunar months (12 months) totaled 354 days, and the duration of the solar year was a full 365 days. The lunar year turned out to be 11 days shorter than the solar year, and they had to be brought into line. If this is not done, then the beginning of the year according to the lunar calendar will move through the seasons over time. (winter, autumn, summer, spring). It is impossible to link either seasonal work or ritual events associated with the solar annual cycle to such a calendar.
At different times this problem was solved in different ways. But the approach to solving the problem was the same: in certain years an additional month was inserted into the lunar calendar. The best convergence of the lunar and solar calendars is provided by a 19-year cycle, in which during 19 solar years, according to a certain system, 7 additional lunar months are added to the lunar calendar. The duration of 19 solar years differs from the duration of 235 lunar months by only 2 hours.
For practical use, the lunar calendar is not very convenient. But in Muslim countries it is still accepted today.
Solar calendar
The solar calendar appeared later than the lunar one, in Ancient Egypt, where the annual floods of the Nile were very regular. The Egyptians noticed that the beginning of the Nile floods closely coincided with the appearance of the brightest star above the horizon - Sirius, or Sothis in Egyptian. Observing Sothis, the Egyptians determined the length of the solar year to be equal to 365 full days. They divided the year into 12 equal months of 30 days each. And five extra days of each year were declared holidays in honor of the gods.
But the exact length of the solar year is 365.24…. days. Every 4 years, the unaccounted for 0.24 days accumulated into almost a full day. Each period of four years came a day earlier than the previous one. The priests knew how to correct the calendar, but did not do it. They considered it a blessing that the Rising of Sothis occurs alternately throughout the 12 months. The beginning of the solar year, determined by the rising of the star Sothis, and the beginning of the calendar year coincided after 1460 years. Such a day and such a year were solemnly celebrated.
Calendar in ancient Rome
In ancient Rome, the calendar was extremely confusing. All months in this calendar, with the exception of the last one, februarius, contained a lucky odd number of days - either 29 or 31. There were 28 days in februarius. In total, there were 355 days in the calendar year, 10 days less than it should have been. Such a calendar needed constant corrections, which was the responsibility of the college of pontiffs, members of the supreme caste of priests. The pontiffs eliminated discrepancies in the calendar with their power, adding additional days to the calendar at their own discretion. The decisions of the pontiffs were brought to general information heralds who announced the appearance of additional months and the beginning of new years. Calendar dates were associated with the payment of taxes and interest on loans, the assumption of office as consuls and tribunes, holiday dates and other events. By making changes to the calendar in one way or another, the pontiffs could speed up or delay such events.
Introduction of the Julian calendar
Julius Caesar put an end to the arbitrariness of the pontiffs. On the advice of the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, he reformed the calendar, giving it the very form in which the calendar has survived to this day. The new Roman calendar was called the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar began to operate on January 1, 45 BC. The year according to the Julian calendar contained 365 days, every fourth year was a leap year. In such years, an extra day was added to February. Thus, the average length of the Julian year was 365 days and 6 hours. This is close to the length of the astronomical year (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46.1..... seconds), but still differs by 11 minutes from it.
Adoption of the Julian calendar by the Christian world
In 325, the first Ecumenical (Nicene) Council of the Christian Church took place, which approved the Julian calendar for use throughout the Christian world. At the same time, the movement of the Moon with the change of its phases was introduced into the Julian calendar, which was strictly oriented towards the Sun, that is, the solar calendar was organically combined with the lunar calendar. The year of proclamation of Diocletian as Roman emperor, 284 according to the currently accepted chronology, was taken as the beginning of chronology. According to the accepted calendar, the vernal equinox fell on March 21. The date of the main Christian holiday, Easter, is calculated from this day.
Introduction of chronology from the birth of Christ
In the year 248 of the era of Diocletian, the abbot of the Roman monastery Dionysius the Lesser raised the question of why Christians date from the reign of the furious persecutor of Christians. Somehow he determined that the year 248 of the era of Diocletian corresponds to the year 532 from the birth of Christ. The proposal to count the years from the birth of Christ did not initially attract attention. Only in the 17th century did the introduction of such chronology begin throughout the Catholic world. Finally, in the 18th century, scientists adopted the Dionysian chronology, and its use became widespread. The years began to be counted from the birth of Christ. This is “our era”.
Gregorian calendar
The Julian year is 11 minutes longer than the solar astronomical year. For 128 years, the Julian calendar is one day behind nature. In the 16th century, during the period since the Council of Nicaea, the day of the vernal equinox retreated to March 11. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII approved the calendar reform project. In 400 years, 3 leap years are skipped. Of the “century” years with two zeros at the end, only those whose first digits are divisible by 4 should be considered leap years. Therefore, 2000 is a leap year, but 2100 will not be considered a leap year. The new calendar was called the Gregorian calendar. According to the decree of Gregory XIII, after October 4, 1582, October 15 came immediately. In 1583, the vernal equinox again fell on March 21st. The Gregorian calendar or the new style also has an error. The Gregorian year is 26 seconds longer than it should be. But a shift of one day will accumulate only over 3000 years.
What calendars did people live by in Russia?
In Rus', in pre-Petrine times, the Julian calendar was adopted, counting years according to the Byzantine model “from the creation of the world.” Peter 1 introduced the old style in Russia, the Julian calendar with the counting of years “from the birth of Christ.” The new style or Gregorian calendar was introduced in our country only in 1918. Moreover, after January 31, February 14 came immediately. Only from this time on did the dates of events according to the Russian calendar and the calendar of Western countries begin to coincide.
A calendar is a number system for large periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies. Calendars already existed 6,000 years ago. The word “calendar” itself comes from Ancient Rome. This was the name of the debt books where moneylenders entered monthly interest. This happened on the first day of the month, which used to be called “Kalends”.
Different peoples in different times created and used three types of calendars: solar, lunar and solar-lunar. The most common is the solar calendar, which is based on the movement of the Sun, which allows the day and year to be coordinated. Currently, residents of most countries use this type of calendar.
One of the first creators of calendars were residents Ancient Sumer(located in Iraq). They used a lunar calendar based on observing the movement of the Moon. With its help, you can coordinate the day and the lunar month. The ancient Sumerian year had 354 days, and it consisted of 12 months of 29 and 30 days. Later, when the Babylonian priest-astronomers determined that the year consists of 365.6 days, the previous calendar was reworked and it became lunisolar.
Even in those days, when the first Persian states were just beginning to form, the ancient farmers already had their own calendar and knew: there is a day in the year when the shortest day is replaced by the longest night. This day of the longest night and shortest day is called the winter solstice and, according to the modern calendar, falls on December 22. Many centuries ago on this day, ancient farmers celebrated the birth of the Sun God - Mithras. The festive event included many obligatory rituals, with the help of which people helped Mithra to be born and defeat the villainess Winter, ensuring the arrival of Spring and the beginning of agricultural work. All this was a very serious matter for our ancestors, because their very lives depended on the timely arrival of spring.
Later, the god Mithras came from Persia to the Romans and became one of the gods they revered. In the Roman Empire, months had different lengths(sometimes the length of the month could be changed for a bribe), but the New Year invariably fell on January 1 - the date of change of consuls. When the Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity and it turned out that the new, one God Jesus Christ was born on December 25, this further strengthened the traditions of celebrating the winter solstice and became a convenient time for New Year's festivities.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, who was not only a commander, but also a high priest, using the calculations of the scientist Sosigenes, moved to simple forms of the Egyptian solar year and introduced a calendar called the Julian. This reform was necessary because existing calendar strongly diverged from nature, and by the time of the reform this lag from the natural change of seasons was already 90 days. This calendar was based on the annual movement of the Sun through the 12 zodiac constellations. According to the imperial reform, the year began on January 1. The first month of the year was named after the god Janus, who represents the beginning of everything. The average length of the year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year, and this temporary inaccuracy began to creep in again.
In Ancient Greece, the beginning of summer fell on the longest day of the year - June 22. And the Greeks calculated chronology from the famous Olympic Games, which were held in honor of the legendary Hercules.
The second significant reform of the calendar was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. This calendar was called the Gregorian (new style) and it replaced the Julian calendar (old style). The need for changes was determined by the fact that the Julian calendar lagged behind the natural one. The vernal equinox, very important for determining the dates of religious holidays, shifted and became earlier every year. The introduced Gregorian calendar became more accurate. The date of the vernal equinox was fixed to March 21, leap years falling on recent years centuries: 1600, 1700, 1800, etc. - therefore there are fewer leap years introduced to eliminate the discrepancy between the calendar and the counting of tropical years.
The Gregorian calendar was immediately adopted by many European countries, and at the beginning of the 20th century it established itself in China, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt.
In Rus', the chronology invented by the Romans was used, and the Julian calendar with Roman names of months and a seven-day week was in effect. Before the decree of Peter I (1700), Russians kept their calendar “from the creation of the world,” which, according to Christian teaching, occurred 5506 BC, and the beginning of the New Year was celebrated in September, after the harvest, and in March. on the day of the spring solstice. The royal decree brought our calendar into line with the European one and ordered us to celebrate the New Year in winter - on January 1.
Until October 1917, Russia lived according to the Julian calendar, “lagging” behind European countries by 13 days. When the Bolsheviks came to power, they reformed the calendar. On February 1, 1918, a decree was issued declaring this day the 14th. This year turned out to be the shortest, consisting of 352 days, since according to the calendar reform, January 31 of the previous year immediately followed... February 14.
There was a danger of continuing to reform the Russian calendar in the spirit of revolutionary ideology. Thus, in the 1930s it was proposed to introduce “five-day weeks” instead of weeks. And in 1939, the “Union of Militant Atheists” took the initiative to assign other names to the generally accepted names of the months. It was proposed to call them this way (we list them from January to December, respectively): Lenin, Marx, Revolution, Sverdlov, May (agreed to leave), Soviet Constitution, Harvest, Peace, Comintern, Engels, Great Revolution, Stalin. However, sensible heads were found, and the reform was rejected.
Proposals as amended current system chronologies continue to appear. The last attempt to reform the calendar was made in 1954. A project was proposed for consideration by the UN, approved by many countries, including Soviet Union. The essence of the proposed changes was that all the first days of the quarters would begin on Sunday, with the first month of the quarter containing 31 days, and the remaining two months - 30 each. This option for changing the calendar was considered and preliminarily approved by the UN Council as convenient for “service maintenance” "and was recommended for approval by the UN General Assembly, but was rejected under pressure from the United States and other countries. There is no information about new projects to change the calendar yet.
A number of Muslim countries still use a lunar calendar, in which the beginning of calendar months corresponds to the moments of new moons. The lunar month (synodic) is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds. 12 such months make up a lunar year of 354 days, which is 11 days shorter than the tropical year. In a number of countries in Southeast Asia, Iran, and Israel, there are varieties of the lunisolar calendar, in which the change in the phases of the Moon is consistent with the beginning of the astronomical year. In such calendars, a period of 19 solar years equal to 235 lunar months (the so-called Metonic cycle) plays an important role. The lunisolar calendar is used by Jews who profess Judaism to calculate the dates of religious holidays.
