When did they switch to the Gregorian calendar? What does "New" and "Old" calendar style mean?
07.12.2015
The Gregorian calendar is a modern calculation system based on astronomical phenomena, namely the cyclic revolution of our planet around the Sun. The length of the year in this system is 365 days, with every fourth year becoming a leap year and equal to 364 days.
History of origin
The date of approval of the Gregorian calendar is October 4, 1582. This calendar replaced the Julian calendar in force until that time. Most modern countries live according to the new calendar: look at any calendar and you will get a clear idea of the Gregorian system. According to the Gregorian Calculus, the year is divided into 12 months, the duration of which is 28, 29, 30 and 31 days. The calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII.
The transition to a new calculation entailed the following changes:
- At the time of adoption, the Gregorian calendar immediately shifted the current date by 10 days and corrected the errors accumulated by the previous system;
- In the new calculus, a more correct rule for determining a leap year began to apply;
- The rules for calculating the day of Christian Easter have been modified.
In the year the new system was adopted, Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal joined the chronology, and a couple of years later other European countries joined them. In Russia, the transition to the Gregorian calendar took place only in the 20th century - in 1918. In the territory that was by that time under the control of Soviet power, it was announced that after January 31, 1918, February 14 would immediately follow. For a long time, citizens of the new country could not get used to the new system: the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Russia caused confusion in documents and minds. In official papers, dates of birth and other significant events have long been indicated in the strict and new style.
By the way, the Orthodox Church still lives according to the Julian calendar (unlike the Catholic calendar), so the days of church holidays (Easter, Christmas) in Catholic countries do not coincide with Russian ones. According to the highest clergy of the Orthodox Church, the transition to the Gregorian system will lead to canonical violations: the rules of the Apostles do not allow the celebration of Holy Easter to begin on the same day as the Jewish pagan holiday.
China was the last to switch to the new timekeeping system. This happened in 1949 after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. In the same year, the world-accepted calculation of years was established in China - from the Nativity of Christ.
At the time of approval of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between the two calculation systems was 10 days. By now, due to the different number of leap years, the discrepancy has increased to 13 days. By March 1, 2100, the difference will already reach 14 days.
Compared to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar is more accurate from an astronomical point of view: it is as close as possible to the tropical year. The reason for the change in systems was the gradual shift of the day of the equinox in the Julian calendar: this caused a discrepancy between the Easter full moons and the astronomical ones.
All modern calendars have a familiar appearance to us precisely thanks to the transition of the leadership of the Catholic Church to a new time calculation. If the Julian calendar continued to function, the discrepancies between the real (astronomical) equinoxes and Easter holidays would increase even more, which would introduce confusion into the very principle of determining church holidays.
By the way, the Gregorian calendar itself is not 100% accurate from an astronomical point of view, but the error in it, according to astronomers, will accumulate only after 10,000 years of use.
People have continued to successfully use the new time system for more than 400 years. A calendar is still a useful and functional thing that everyone needs to coordinate dates, plan business and personal life.
Modern printing production has achieved unprecedented technological development. Any commercial or public organization can order calendars with their own symbols from the printing house: they will be produced promptly, with high quality, and at an adequate price.
The Roman calendar was one of the least accurate. At first, it generally had 304 days and included only 10 months, starting from the first month of spring (Martius) and ending with the onset of winter (December - the “tenth” month); In winter there was simply no keeping track of time. King Numa Pompilius is credited with introducing two winter months (Januarius and Februarius). The additional month - Mercedonius - was inserted by the pontiffs at their own discretion, quite arbitrarily and in accordance with various momentary interests. In 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar carried out a calendar reform, based on the developments of the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, taking the Egyptian solar calendar as a basis.
In order to correct the accumulated errors, he, with his power as the great pontiff, inserted in the transitional year, in addition to Mercedonia, two additional months between November and December; and from January 1, 45, a Julian year of 365 days was established, with leap years every 4 years. In this case, an extra day was inserted between February 23 and 24, as before Mercedonia; and since, according to the Roman calculation system, the day of February 24 was called “the sixth (sextus) from the Kalends of March,” then the intercalary day was called “twice the sixth (bis sextus) from the Kalends of March” and the year, accordingly, annus bissextus - hence, through the Greek language, our word "leap year". At the same time, the month of Quintilius was renamed in honor of Caesar (to Julius).
In the 4th-6th centuries, in most Christian countries, unified Easter tables were established, based on the Julian calendar; Thus, the Julian calendar spread to the entire Christian world. In these tables, March 21 was taken as the day of the vernal equinox.
However, as the error accumulated (1 day in 128 years), the discrepancy between the astronomical vernal equinox and the calendar one became increasingly obvious, and many in Catholic Europe believed that it could no longer be ignored. This was noted by the 13th-century Castilian king Alfonso X the Wise; in the next century, the Byzantine scientist Nikephoros Gregoras even proposed a calendar reform. In reality, such a reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, based on the project of the mathematician and physician Luigi Lilio. in 1582: the next day after October 4th came October 15th. Secondly, a new, more precise rule about leap years began to apply.
Julian calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigenes and introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. uh..
The Julian calendar was based on the chronology culture of Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Rus', the calendar was known as the “Peacemaking Circle”, “Church Circle” and “Great Indiction”.
The year according to the Julian calendar begins on January 1, since it was on this day from 153 BC. e. the newly elected consuls took office. In the Julian calendar, a normal year consists of 365 days and is divided into 12 months. Once every 4 years, a leap year is declared, to which one day is added - February 29 (previously, a similar system was adopted in the zodiac calendar according to Dionysius). Thus, the Julian year has an average length of 365.25 days, which differs by 11 minutes from the tropical year.
The Julian calendar is usually called the old style.
The calendar was based on static monthly holidays. The first holiday with which the month began was the Kalends. The next holiday, falling on the 7th (in March, May, July and October) and on the 5th of other months, was Nones. The third holiday, falling on the 15th (in March, May, July and October) and the 13th of other months, was the Ides.
Replacement by the Gregorian calendar
In Catholic countries, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582 by decree of Pope Gregory XIII: the next day after October 4 was October 15. Protestant countries abandoned the Julian calendar gradually, throughout the 17th-18th centuries (the last were Great Britain from 1752 and Sweden). In Russia, the Gregorian calendar has been used since 1918 (it is usually called the new style), in Orthodox Greece - since 1923.
In the Julian calendar, a year was a leap year if it ended in 00.325 AD. The Council of Nicaea established this calendar for all Christian countries. 325 g day of the vernal equinox.
Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII on October 4, 1582 to replace the old Julian calendar: the next day after Thursday, October 4, became Friday, October 15 (there are no days from October 5 to October 14, 1582 in the Gregorian calendar).
In the Gregorian calendar, the length of the tropical year is taken to be 365.2425 days. The duration of a non-leap year is 365 days, a leap year is 366.
Story
The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the shift in the day of the vernal equinox, by which the date of Easter was determined. Before Gregory XIII, Popes Paul III and Pius IV tried to implement the project, but they did not achieve success. The preparation of the reform, at the direction of Gregory XIII, was carried out by astronomers Christopher Clavius and Luigi Lilio (aka Aloysius Lilius). The results of their work were recorded in a papal bull, named after the first line of the Latin. Inter gravissimas (“Among the most important”).
Firstly, the new calendar immediately at the time of adoption shifted the current date by 10 days due to accumulated errors.
Secondly, a new, more precise rule about leap years began to apply.
A year is a leap year, that is, it contains 366 days if:
Its number is divisible by 4 and not divisible by 100 or
His number is divisible by 400.
Thus, over time, the Julian and Gregorian calendars diverge more and more: by 1 day per century, if the number of the previous century is not divisible by 4. The Gregorian calendar reflects the true state of affairs much more accurately than the Julian. It gives a much better approximation of the tropical year.
In 1583, Gregory XIII sent an embassy to Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople with a proposal to switch to a new calendar. At the end of 1583, at a council in Constantinople, the proposal was rejected as not complying with the canonical rules for celebrating Easter.
In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, according to which in 1918 January 31 was followed by February 14.
Since 1923, most local Orthodox churches, with the exception of the Russian, Jerusalem, Georgian, Serbian and Athos, have adopted the New Julian calendar, similar to the Gregorian, which coincides with it until the year 2800. It was also formally introduced by Patriarch Tikhon for use in the Russian Orthodox Church on October 15, 1923. However, this innovation, although it was accepted by almost all Moscow parishes, generally caused disagreement in the Church, so already on November 8, 1923, Patriarch Tikhon ordered “the universal and mandatory introduction of the new style into church use to be temporarily postponed.” Thus, the new style was in effect in the Russian Orthodox Church for only 24 days.
In 1948, at the Moscow Conference of Orthodox Churches, it was decided that Easter, as well as all movable holidays, should be calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschal (Julian calendar), and non-movable ones according to the calendar according to which the Local Church lives. The Finnish Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Gregorian calendar.
Why doesn't the Orthodox Church switch to the Gregorian calendar? Many are sincerely convinced that there are two Christmases - Catholic on December 25 and Orthodox on January 7. Wouldn't switching to the Gregorian calendar save a person from having to once again make a choice between truth and deceit? My friend’s mother is a sincere believer, and all the years that I have known her, for her the New Year is a contradiction between fasting and a general holiday. We live in a secular state with its own rules and norms, which in recent years has taken many steps towards the Church. Let these steps correct past mistakes, but if you meet each other halfway, you can meet much faster than by waiting for a meeting and not moving yourself.
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
The calendar problem is incomparably more serious than the question of which table we will sit at once a year on New Year’s Eve: fast or fast. The calendar concerns the sacred times of the people, their holidays. The calendar determines the order and rhythm of religious life. Therefore, the issue of calendar changes seriously affects the spiritual foundations of society.
The world exists in time. God the Creator established a certain periodicity in the movement of the luminaries so that man could measure and organize time. And God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.(Gen.1:14). Systems for counting large periods of time, based on the visible movements of celestial bodies, are usually called calendars (from calendae - the first day of each month among the Romans). The cyclic movement of such astronomical bodies as the Earth, Sun and Moon is of primary importance for the construction of calendars. The need to organize time appears already at the dawn of human history. Without this, the social and economic-practical life of any people is unthinkable. However, not only these reasons made the calendar necessary. Without a calendar, the religious life of no people is possible. In the worldview of ancient man, the calendar was a visible and impressive expression of the triumph of Divine order over chaos. The majestic constancy in the movement of the heavenly bodies, the mysterious and irreversible movement of time suggested an intelligent structure of the world.
By the time of the birth of Christian statehood, humanity already had a fairly diverse calendar experience. There were calendars: Jewish, Chaldean, Egyptian, Chinese, Hindu and others. However, according to Divine Providence, the Julian calendar, developed in 46 and coming from January 1, 45 BC, became the calendar of the Christian era. to replace the imperfect lunar Roman calendar. It was developed by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes on behalf of Julius Caesar, who then combined the power of dictator and consul with the title pontifex maximus (high priest). Therefore, the calendar began to be called Julian. The period of the Earth's complete revolution around the Sun was taken as the astronomical year, and the calendar year was determined to be 365 days in length. There was a difference with the astronomical year, which was slightly longer - 365.2425 days (5 hours 48 minutes 47 seconds). To eliminate this discrepancy, a leap year (annus bissextilis) was introduced: every four years in February one day was added. The new calendar also found a place for its outstanding initiator: the Roman month of Quintilius was renamed July (from the name of Julius).
The fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, held in 325 in Nicaea, determined to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon, which falls after the spring equinox. At that time, according to the Julian calendar, the spring equinox fell on March 21. The Holy Fathers of the Council, based on the Gospel sequence of events associated with the Death on the Cross and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, took care that the New Testament Easter, while maintaining its historical connection with the Old Testament Easter (which is always celebrated on the 14th of Nisan), would be independent of it and was always celebrated later. If a coincidence occurs, the rules dictate moving to the full moon of the next month. This was so significant for the fathers of the Council that they decided to make this main Christian holiday movable. At the same time, the solar calendar was combined with the lunar calendar: the movement of the Moon with the change of its phases was introduced into the Julian calendar, strictly oriented towards the Sun. To calculate the phases of the Moon, so-called lunar cycles were used, i.e. periods after which the phases of the Moon returned to approximately the same days of the Julian year. There are several cycles. The Roman Church used the 84-year cycle almost until the 6th century. Since the 3rd century, the Alexandrian Church used the most accurate 19-year cycle, discovered by the Athenian mathematician of the 5th century BC. Meton. In the 6th century, the Roman Church adopted the Alexandrian Paschal. This was a fundamentally important event. All Christians began to celebrate Easter on the same day. This unity continued until the 16th century, when the unity of Western and Eastern Christians in the celebration of Holy Easter and other holidays was broken. Pope Gregory XIII initiated calendar reform. Its preparation was entrusted to a commission headed by the Jesuit Chrisophus Claudius. The new calendar was developed by a teacher at the University of Perugia, Luigi Lilio (1520-1576). Only astronomical considerations were taken into account, not religious ones. Since the day of the vernal equinox, which during the Council of Nicaea was March 21, shifted by ten days (by the second half of the 16th century, according to the Julian calendar, the moment of the equinox occurred on March 11), the dates of the month shifted 10 days forward: immediately after the 4th the date should not have been the 5th, as usual, but October 15, 1582. The length of the Gregorian year became equal to 365.24250 days of the tropical year, i.e. more by 26 seconds (0.00030 days).
Although the calendar year as a result of the reform has become closer to the tropical year, the Gregorian calendar has a number of significant shortcomings. Keeping track of large periods using the Gregorian calendar is more difficult than using the Julian calendar. The length of calendar months varies and ranges from 28 to 31 days. Months of different lengths alternate randomly. The length of the quarters varies (from 90 to 92 days). The first half of the year is always shorter than the second (by three days in a simple year and by two days in a leap year). The days of the week do not coincide with any fixed dates. Therefore, not only years, but also months begin on different days of the week. Most months have "split weeks". All this creates considerable difficulties for the work of planning and financial bodies (they complicate wage calculations, make it difficult to compare the results of work for different months, etc.). The Gregorian calendar could not keep the day of the vernal equinox beyond the 21st of March. The shift of the equinox, discovered in the 2nd century. BC by the Greek scientist Hipparchus, in astronomy called precession. It is caused by the fact that the Earth has the shape not of a sphere, but of a spheroid, flattened at the poles. The gravitational forces from the Sun and Moon act differently on different parts of the spheroidal Earth. As a result, with the simultaneous rotation of the Earth and its movement around the Sun, the Earth's rotation axis describes a cone near the perpendicular to the orbital plane. Due to precession, the point of the vernal equinox moves along the ecliptic to the west, i.e., towards the apparent movement of the Sun.
The imperfections of the Gregorian calendar caused dissatisfaction as early as the 19th century. Even then, proposals began to be put forward to carry out a new calendar reform. Professor of Dorpat (now Tartu) University I.G. Mädler (1794-1874) proposed in 1864, instead of the Gregorian style, to use a more accurate counting system, with thirty-one leap years every 128 years. American astronomer, founder and first president of the American Astronomical Society Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) advocated a return to the Julian calendar. Thanks to the proposal of the Russian Astronomical Society in 1899, a special Commission was formed under it on the issue of calendar reform in Russia. This Commission met from May 3, 1899 to February 21, 1900. The outstanding church researcher Professor V.V. Bolotov took part in the work. He strongly advocated the preservation of the Julian calendar: “If it is believed that Russia should abandon the Julian style, then the reform of the calendar, without sinning against logic, should be expressed in the following:
a) uneven months should be replaced by uniform ones;
b) according to the standard of the solar tropical year, it should reduce all years of the conventionally accepted chronology;
c) the Medler amendment should be preferred to the Gregorian one, as it is more accurate.
But I myself find the abolition of the Julian style in Russia completely undesirable. I remain a strong admirer of the Julian calendar. Its extreme simplicity constitutes its scientific advantage over all corrected calendars. I think that Russia’s cultural mission on this issue is to keep the Julian calendar alive for a few more centuries and thereby make it easier for Western peoples to return from the Gregorian reform, which no one needs, to the unspoiled old style.” In 1923, the Church of Constantinople introduced New Julian calendar. The calendar was developed by the Yugoslav astronomer, professor of mathematics and celestial mechanics at the University of Belgrade, Milutin Milanković (1879 - 1956). This calendar, which is based on a 900-year cycle, will coincide completely with the Gregorian calendar for the next 800 years (until 2800). The 11 Local Orthodox Churches, which switched to the New Julian calendar, retained the Alexandrian Paschal, based on the Julian calendar, and immutable holidays began to be celebrated according to Gregorian dates.
First of all, the transition to the Gregorian calendar (this is what is discussed in the letter) means the destruction of that Paschal, which is the great achievement of the holy fathers of the 4th century. Our domestic scientist-astronomer Professor E.A. Predtechensky wrote: “This collective work, in all likelihood by many unknown authors, was carried out in such a way that it still remains unsurpassed. The later Roman Easter, now accepted by the Western Church, is, in comparison with the Alexandrian one, so ponderous and clumsy that it resembles a popular print next to an artistic depiction of the same object. Despite all this, this terribly complex and clumsy machine does not even achieve its intended goal.” (Predtechensky E. “Church time: reckoning and critical review of existing rules for determining Easter.” St. Petersburg, 1892, pp. 3-4).
The transition to the Gregorian calendar will also lead to serious canonical violations, because Apostolic Rules They are not allowed to celebrate Holy Passover earlier than the Jewish Passover and on the same day as the Jews: If anyone, a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, celebrates the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox with the Jews: let him be deposed from the sacred rank(rule 7). The Gregorian calendar leads Catholics to break this rule. They celebrated the Passover before the Jews in 1864, 1872, 1883, 1891, together with the Jews in 1805, 1825, 1903, 1927 and 1981. Since the transition to the Gregorian calendar would add 13 days, Peter’s Fast would be reduced by the same number of days, since it ends annually on the same day - June 29 / July 12. In some years, the Petrovsky post would simply disappear. We are talking about those years when there is a late Easter. We also need to think about the fact that the Lord God performs His Sign at the Holy Sepulcher (the descent of the Holy Fire) on Holy Saturday according to the Julian calendar.
Calendar- the table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years familiar to all of us - the oldest invention of mankind. It records the periodicity of natural phenomena based on the pattern of movement of celestial bodies: the Sun, Moon, stars. The Earth rushes along its solar orbit, counting down the years and centuries. It makes one revolution around its axis per day, and around the Sun per year. The astronomical, or solar, year lasts 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Therefore, there is no whole number of days, which is where the difficulty arises in drawing up a calendar, which must keep the correct time count. Since the time of Adam and Eve, people have used the "cycle" of the Sun and Moon to keep time. The lunar calendar used by the Romans and Greeks was simple and convenient. From one rebirth of the Moon to the next, about 30 days pass, or rather, 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. Therefore, by changes in the Moon it was possible to count days, and then months.
The lunar calendar initially had 10 months, the first of which were dedicated to the Roman gods and supreme rulers. For example, the month of March was named after the god Mars (Martius), the month of May is dedicated to the goddess Maia, July is named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and August is named after the emperor Octavian Augustus. In the ancient world, from the 3rd century BC, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year lunar-solar cycle, which differed from the solar year by 4 days in 4 years. In Egypt, based on observations of Sirius and the Sun, a solar calendar was compiled. The year in this calendar lasted 365 days, it had 12 months of 30 days, and at the end of the year another 5 days were added in honor of the “birth of the gods.”
In 46 BC, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar introduced an accurate solar calendar based on the Egyptian model - Julian. The solar year was taken as the size of the calendar year, which was slightly larger than the astronomical one - 365 days 6 hours. January 1 was legalized as the beginning of the year.
In 26 BC. e. The Roman Emperor Augustus introduced the Alexandrian calendar, in which 1 more day was added every 4 years: instead of 365 days - 366 days a year, that is, 6 extra hours annually. Over 4 years, this amounted to a whole day, which was added every 4 years, and the year in which one day was added in February was called a leap year. Essentially this was a clarification of the same Julian calendar.
For the Orthodox Church, the calendar was the basis of the annual cycle of worship, and therefore it was very important to establish the simultaneity of holidays throughout the Church. The question of when to celebrate Easter was discussed at the First Ecumenical Council. Cathedral*, as one of the main ones. The Paschalia (rules for calculating the day of Easter) established at the Council, together with its basis - the Julian calendar - cannot be changed under pain of anathema - excommunication and rejection from the Church.
In 1582, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, introduced a new style of calendar - Gregorian. The purpose of the reform was supposedly to more accurately determine the day of Easter, so that the spring equinox would return to March 21. The Council of Eastern Patriarchs in 1583 in Constantinople condemned the Gregorian calendar as violating the entire liturgical cycle and the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. It is important to note that in some years the Gregorian calendar violates one of the basic church rules for the date of celebration of Easter - it happens that the Catholic Easter falls earlier than the Jewish one, which is not allowed by the canons of the Church; Petrov’s fast also sometimes “disappears.” At the same time, such a great learned astronomer as Copernicus (being a Catholic monk) did not consider the Gregorian calendar more accurate than the Julian calendar and did not recognize it. The new style was introduced by the authority of the Pope in place of the Julian calendar, or the old style, and was gradually adopted in Catholic countries. By the way, modern astronomers also use the Julian calendar in their calculations.
In Rus' Since the 10th century, the New Year has been celebrated on March 1, when, according to biblical legend, God created the world. 5 centuries later, in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year in Russia was moved to September 1, and was celebrated this way for more than 200 years. The months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was associated with natural phenomena. The years were counted from the creation of the world.
On December 19, 7208 (“from the creation of the world”) Peter I signed a decree on calendar reform. The calendar remained Julian, as before the reform, adopted by Russia from Byzantium along with baptism. A new beginning of the year was introduced - January 1 and the Christian chronology "from the Nativity of Christ." The tsar’s decree prescribed: “The day after December 31, 7208 from the creation of the world (the Orthodox Church considers the date of the creation of the world to be September 1, 5508 BC) should be considered January 1, 1700 from the Nativity of Christ. The decree also ordered that this event be celebrated with particular solemnity: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and the new century, in joy, congratulate each other on the New Year... Along noble and thoroughfares, at the gates and houses, make some decorations from trees and pine branches , spruce and juniper trees... to fire small cannons and rifles, fire rockets, as many as anyone can, and light fires.” The counting of years from the birth of Christ is accepted by most countries of the world. With the spread of godlessness among the intelligentsia and historians, they began to avoid mentioning the name of Christ and replace the counting of centuries from His Nativity with the so-called “our era.”
After the great October socialist revolution, the so-called new style (Gregorian) was introduced in our country on February 14, 1918.
The Gregorian calendar eliminated three leap years within each 400th anniversary. Over time, the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendar increases. The initial value of 10 days in the 16th century subsequently increases: in the 18th century - 11 days, in the 19th century - 12 days, in the 20th and 21st centuries - 13 days, in the 22nd - 14 days.
The Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar - unlike Catholics, who use the Gregorian.
At the same time, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by civil authorities led to some difficulties for Orthodox Christians. The New Year, which is celebrated by the entire civil society, was moved to the Nativity Fast, when it is not appropriate to have fun. In addition, according to the church calendar, on January 1 (December 19, old style), the memory of the holy martyr Boniface is celebrated, who patronizes people who want to get rid of alcohol abuse - and our entire huge country celebrates this day with glasses in hand. Orthodox people celebrate the New Year “in the old way,” on January 14.
We have been using a calendar all our lives. This seemingly simple table of numbers with the days of the week has a very ancient and rich history. The civilizations known to us already knew how to divide the year into months and days. For example, in ancient Egypt, based on the pattern of movement of the Moon and Sirius, a calendar was created. A year was approximately 365 days and was divided into twelve months, which in turn were divided into thirty days.
Innovator Julius Caesar
Around 46 BC. e. there was a transformation of chronology. The Roman Emperor Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar. It was slightly different from the Egyptian one: the fact is that, instead of the Moon and Sirius, the sun was taken as a basis. The year was now 365 days and six hours. The first of January was considered the beginning of the new time, and Christmas began to be celebrated on January 7.
In connection with this reform, the Senate decided to thank the emperor by naming one month in his honor, which we know as “July.” After the death of Julius Caesar, the priests began to confuse the months, the number of days - in a word, the old calendar no longer resembled the new one. Every third year was considered a leap year. From 44 to 9 BC there were 12 leap years, which was not true.
After Emperor Octavian Augustus came to power, there were no leap years for sixteen years, so everything returned to normal, and the situation with chronology was corrected. In honor of Emperor Octavian, the eighth month was renamed from Sextilis to Augustus.
When the question arose about the purpose of celebrating Easter, disagreements began. It was this issue that was resolved at the Ecumenical Council. No one has the right to change the rules that were established at this Council to this day.
Innovator Gregory XIII
In 1582, Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian one.. The movement of the vernal equinox was the main reason for the changes. It was according to this that the day of Easter was calculated. At the time when the Julian calendar was introduced, this day was considered to be March 21, but around the 16th century the difference between the tropical and Julian calendars was about 10 days, therefore, March 21 changed to 11.
In 1853 in Constantinople, the Council of Patriarchs criticized and condemned the Gregorian calendar, according to which the Catholic Holy Sunday was celebrated before the Jewish Passover, which ran counter to the established rules of the Ecumenical Councils.
Differences between old and new style
So, how does the Julian calendar differ from the Gregorian calendar?
- Unlike Gregorian, Julian was adopted much earlier, and it is 1 thousand years older.
- At the moment, the old style (Julian) is used to calculate the celebration of Easter among Orthodox Christians.
- The chronology created by Gregory is much more accurate than the previous one and will not be subject to changes in the future.
- A leap year according to the old style is every fourth year.
- In Gregorian, years that are divisible by four and end in two zeros are not leap years.
- All church holidays are celebrated according to the new style.
As we can see, the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar is obvious not only in terms of calculations, but also in popularity.
This raises an interesting question. What calendar do we live by now?
The Russian Orthodox Church uses Julian, which was adopted during the Ecumenical Council, while Catholics use Gregorian. Hence the difference in the dates of celebrating the Nativity of Christ and Easter. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, following the decision of the Ecumenical Council, and Catholics celebrate December 25.
These two calendars were named - old and new calendar styles.
The area where the old style is used is not very large: the Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem Orthodox Churches.
As we see, after the introduction of the new style, the life of Christians around the world changed. Many happily accepted the changes and began to live according to it. But there are also those Christians who are faithful to the old style and live according to it even now, albeit in very small quantities.
There will always be disagreements between Orthodox and Catholics, and this has nothing to do with the old or new style of chronology. The Julian and Gregorian calendars - the difference is not in faith, but in the desire to use one or another calendar.
