How are the Julian and Gregorian calendars different? Old and new style in historical dates.

This decree, in their opinion, should have contributed to the establishment of closer ties with Western Europe. In the distant past 1582 year, throughout civilized Europe, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, and this was condoned by famous astronomers of that time.
Since then, the Russian calendar has had slight differences from the Western one 13 days.

This initiative came from the Pope himself. However, the Russian Orthodox hierarchs were very cool towards their Catholic partners, so for Russia everything remained the same.
This is how citizens of different countries with different calendars lived for almost three hundred years.
For example, when Western Europe celebrates the New Year, in Russia it is only 19 December.
Soviet Russia began to live and count days in a new way with 1 February 1918 of the year.

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

It should be noted that the arrival of spring in the central part of Russia became completely unnoticeable. Still, it is worth recognizing that it was not for nothing that our ancestors did not want to change their calendar. After all, 1 March, more reminiscent of mid-February. Surely many have noticed that it really starts to smell like spring only from mid-March or the first days of March according to the old style.

Needless to say, not everyone liked the new style.

Even in the bastion of Western democracy - England, even with great prejudices, they adopted the new calendar in 1752, Sweden followed this example a year later

What is the Julian calendar?

How is the Gregorian calendar different from the Julian calendar?

Before the transition to the Gregorian calendar, which occurred at different times in different countries, the Julian calendar was widely used. It is named after the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, who is believed to have carried out a calendar reform in 46 BC.

The Julian calendar appears to be based on the Egyptian solar calendar. A Julian year was 365.25 days. But there can only be an integer number of days in a year. Therefore, it was supposed: three years should be considered equal to 365 days, and the fourth year following them equal to 366 days. This year with an extra day.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a bull ordering “the return of the vernal equinox to March 21.” By that time it had moved away from the designated date by ten days, which were removed from that year 1582. And to prevent the error from accumulating in the future, it was prescribed to eliminate three days from every 400 years. Years whose numbers are divisible by 100, but not divisible by 400, are not leap years.

The Pope threatened with excommunication anyone who did not switch to the Gregorian calendar. Almost immediately Catholic countries switched to it. After some time, Protestant states followed their example. In Orthodox Russia and Greece, the Julian calendar was followed until the first half of the 20th century.

Which calendar is more accurate?

The debate about which calendar is Gregorian or Julian, or rather, does not subside to this day. On the one hand, the year of the Gregorian calendar is closer to the so-called tropical year - the period during which the Earth makes a full revolution around the Sun. According to modern data, the tropical year is 365.2422 days. On the other hand, scientists still use the Julian calendar for astronomical calculations.

The goal of the calendar reform of Gregory XIII was not to bring the length of the calendar year closer to the length of the tropical year. In his time, there was no such thing as a tropical year. The purpose of the reform was to comply with the decisions of ancient Christian councils on the timing of Easter celebrations. However, the problem was not completely solved.

The widespread belief that the Gregorian calendar is “more correct” and “advanced” than the Julian calendar is just a propaganda cliche. The Gregorian calendar, according to a number of scientists, is not astronomically justified and is a distortion of the Julian calendar.

Since 46 BC, most countries in the world have used the Julian calendar. However, in 1582, by the decision of Pope Gregory XIII, it was replaced by Gregorian. That year, the next day after the fourth of October was not the fifth, but the fifteenth of October. Now the Gregorian calendar is officially adopted in all countries except Thailand and Ethiopia.

Reasons for adopting the Gregorian calendar

The main reason for the introduction of a new chronology system was the movement of the vernal equinox, depending on which the date of the celebration of Christian Easter was determined. Due to discrepancies between the Julian and tropical calendars (the tropical year is the period of time during which the sun completes one cycle of changing seasons), the day of the vernal equinox gradually shifted to earlier dates. At the time of the introduction of the Julian calendar, it fell on March 21, both according to the accepted calendar system and in fact. But by the 16th century, the difference between the tropical and Julian calendars was already about ten days. As a result, the vernal equinox no longer fell on March 21, but on March 11.

Scientists paid attention to the above problem long before the adoption of the Gregorian chronology system. Back in the 14th century, Nikephoros Grigora, a scientist from Byzantium, reported this to Emperor Andronicus II. According to Grigora, it was necessary to revise the calendar system that existed at that time, since otherwise the date of Easter would continue to shift to a later and later time. However, the emperor did not take any action to eliminate this problem, fearing protest from the church.

Subsequently, other scientists from Byzantium also spoke about the need to switch to a new calendar system. But the calendar continued to remain unchanged. And not only because of the rulers’ fear of causing indignation among the clergy, but also because the further the Christian Easter moved away, the less chance it had of coinciding with the Jewish Passover. This was unacceptable according to church canons.

By the 16th century, the problem had become so urgent that the need to solve it was no longer in doubt. As a result, Pope Gregory XIII assembled a commission, which was tasked with carrying out all the necessary research and creating a new calendar system. The results obtained were displayed in the bullet “Among the most important”. It was she who became the document with which the adoption of the new calendar system began.

The main disadvantage of the Julian calendar is its lack of accuracy in relation to the tropical calendar. In the Julian calendar, all years that are divisible by 100 without a remainder are considered leap years. As a result, the difference with the tropical calendar increases every year. Approximately every century and a half it increases by 1 day.

The Gregorian calendar is much more accurate. It has fewer leap years. In this chronology system, leap years are considered to be years that:

1. divisible by 400 without remainder;
2. divisible by 4 without a remainder, but not divisible by 100 without a remainder.

Thus, 1100 or 1700 years in the Julian calendar are considered leap years, since they are divisible by 4 without a remainder. In the Gregorian calendar, from those that have already passed since its adoption, 1600 and 2000 are considered leap years.

Immediately after the introduction of the new system, it was possible to eliminate the difference between the tropical and calendar years, which at that time was already 10 days. Otherwise, due to errors in calculations, an extra year would accumulate every 128 years. In the Gregorian calendar, an extra day occurs only every 10,000 years.

Not all modern states adopted the new chronology system immediately. The Catholic states were the first to switch to it. In these countries, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted either in 1582 or shortly after the decree of Pope Gregory XIII.

In a number of states, the transition to a new calendar system was associated with popular unrest. The most serious of them took place in Riga. They lasted for five whole years - from 1584 to 1589.

There were also some funny situations. So, for example, in Holland and Belgium, due to the official adoption of the new calendar, after December 21, 1582, January 1, 1583 came. As a result, the inhabitants of these countries were left without Christmas in 1582.

Russia was one of the last to adopt the Gregorian calendar. The new system was officially introduced on the territory of the RSFSR on January 26, 1918 by decree of the Council of People's Commissars. In accordance with this document, immediately after January 31 of that year, February 14 came on the territory of the state.

Later than in Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced only in a few countries, including Greece, Turkey and China.

After the official adoption of the new chronology system, Pope Gregory XIII sent a proposal to Constantinople to switch to a new calendar. However, she was met with refusal. Its main reason was the inconsistency of the calendar with the canons of celebrating Easter. However, later most Orthodox churches switched to the Gregorian calendar.

Today, only four Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar: Russian, Serbian, Georgian and Jerusalem.

Rules for specifying dates

In accordance with the generally accepted rule, dates falling between 1582 and the moment the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the country are indicated in both the old and new styles. In this case, the new style is indicated in quotation marks. Earlier dates are indicated according to the proleptic calendar (i.e., a calendar used to indicate dates earlier than the date the calendar appeared). In countries where the Julian calendar was adopted, dates before 46 BC. e. are indicated according to the proleptic Julian calendar, and where there was none - according to the proleptic Gregorian calendar.

Julian calendar In Ancient Rome from the 7th century. BC e. A lunisolar calendar was used, which had 355 days, divided into 12 months. The superstitious Romans were afraid of even numbers, so each month consisted of 29 or 31 days. The New Year began on March 1st.

In order to bring the year as close as possible to the tropical one (365 and ¼ days), once every two years they began to introduce an additional month - marcedonia (from the Latin "marces" - payment), initially equal to 20 days. This month should have been the end of all cash payments for the past year. However, this measure failed to eliminate the discrepancy between the Roman and tropical years. Therefore, in the 5th century. BC e. Marcedonium began to be administered twice every four years, alternating 22 and 23 additional days. Thus, the average year in this 4-year cycle was equal to 366 days and became longer than the tropical year by approximately ¾ days. Using their right to introduce additional days and months into the calendar, the Roman priests - pontiffs (one of the priestly colleges) confused the calendar so much that in the 1st century. BC e. There is an urgent need for its reform.

Such a reform was carried out in 46 BC. e. on the initiative of Julius Caesar. The reformed calendar became known as the Julian calendar in his honor. The Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes was invited to create a new calendar. The reformers faced the same task - to bring the Roman year as close as possible to the tropical one and thereby maintain constant correspondence of certain days of the calendar with the same seasons.

The Egyptian year of 365 days was taken as a basis, but it was decided to introduce an additional day every four years. Thus, the average year in a 4-year cycle became equal to 365 days and 6 hours. The number of months and their names remained the same, but the length of the months was increased to 30 and 31 days. An additional day began to be added to February, which had 28 days, and was inserted between the 23rd and 24th, where marcedonium had previously been inserted. As a result, in such an extended year a second 24th day appeared, and since the Romans counted the day in an original way, determining how many days remained until a certain date of each month, this additional day turned out to be the second sixth before the March calendars (before March 1). In Latin, such a day was called "bis sectus" - the second sixth ("bis" - twice, also "sexto" - six). In Slavic pronunciation, this term sounded slightly different, and the word “leap year” appeared in Russian, and the elongated year began to be called a leap year.

In Ancient Rome, in addition to the calends, special names were given to the fifth days of each short (30 day) month or the seventh of a long (31 day) month - nones and the thirteenths of a short or fifteenth long month - ides.

January 1 began to be considered the beginning of the new year, since on this day the consuls and other Roman magistrates began to perform their duties. Subsequently, the names of some months were changed: in 44 BC. e. Quintilis (fifth month) began to be called July in honor of Julius Caesar in 8 BC. e. Sextilis (sixth month) - August in honor of Emperor Octavian Augustus. Due to the change in the beginning of the year, the ordinal names of some months lost their meaning, for example, the tenth month (“December” - December) became the twelfth.

The new Julian calendar took on the following form: January (“Januaris” - named after the two-faced god Janus); February (“februarius” – month of purification); March (“martius” – named after the god of war Mars); April (“Aprilis” – probably got its name from the word “Apricus” – warmed by the sun); May (“Mayus” – named after the goddess Maya); June (“Junius” – named after the goddess Juno); July (“Julius” – named after Julius Caesar); August (“Augustus” – named after Emperor Augustus); September (“September” – seventh); October (“October” – eighth); November (“November” – ninth); December (“december” – tenth).

So, in the Julian calendar, the year became longer than the tropical one, but by an amount significantly less than the Egyptian year, and was shorter than the tropical year. If the Egyptian year was ahead of the tropical year by one day every four years, then the Julian year was behind the tropical one by one day every 128 years.

In 325, the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea decided to consider this calendar mandatory for all Christian countries. The Julian calendar is the basis of the calendar system that most countries in the world now use.

In practice, a leap year in the Julian calendar is determined by the divisibility of the last two digits of the year by four. Leap years in this calendar are also years whose designations have zeros as the last two digits. For example, among the years 1900, 1919, 1945 and 1956, 1900 and 1956 were leap years.

Gregorian calendar In the Julian calendar, the average length of the year was 365 days 6 hours, therefore, it was longer than the tropical year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds) by 11 minutes 14 seconds. This difference, accumulating annually, led after 128 years to an error of one day, and after 1280 years to 10 days. As a result, the spring equinox (March 21) at the end of the 16th century. fell on March 11, and this threatened in the future, provided that the equinox on March 21 was preserved, by moving the main holiday of the Christian church, Easter, from spring to summer. According to church rules, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, which falls between March 21 and April 18. Again the need arose for calendar reform. The Catholic Church carried out a new reform in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the new calendar received its name.

A special commission of clergy and astronomers was created. The author of the project was the Italian scientist - doctor, mathematician and astronomer Aloysius Lilio. The reform was supposed to solve two main problems: firstly, to eliminate the accumulated difference of 10 days between the calendar and tropical years, and secondly, to bring the calendar year as close as possible to the tropical one, so that in the future the difference between them would not be noticeable.

The first task was solved administratively: a special papal bull ordered October 5, 1582 to be counted as October 15. Thus, the spring equinox returned to March 21.

The second problem was solved by reducing the number of leap years in order to reduce the average length of the Julian calendar year. Every 400 years, 3 leap years were thrown out of the calendar, namely those that ended centuries, provided that the first two digits of the year designation were not evenly divisible by four. Thus, 1600 remained a leap year in the new calendar, and 1700, 1800 and 1900. became simple, since 17, 18 and 19 are not divisible by four without a remainder.

The new Gregorian calendar created was much more advanced than the Julian calendar. Each year now lagged behind the tropical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy between them in one day accumulated after 3323 years.

Since different textbooks give different figures characterizing the discrepancy of one day between the Gregorian and tropical years, the corresponding calculations can be given. A day contains 86,400 seconds. The difference between the Julian and tropical calendars of three days accumulates after 384 years and amounts to 259,200 seconds (86400*3=259,200). Every 400 years, three days are removed from the Gregorian calendar, i.e., we can consider that the year in the Gregorian calendar decreases by 648 seconds (259200:400=648) or 10 minutes 48 seconds. The average length of the Gregorian year is thus 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds (365 days 6 hours - 10 minutes 48 seconds = 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 12 seconds), which is only 26 seconds longer than the tropical year (365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds – 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds = 26 seconds). With such a difference, the discrepancy between the Gregorian calendar and the tropical years in one day will occur only after 3323 years, since 86400:26 = 3323.

The Gregorian calendar was initially introduced in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Southern Netherlands, then in Poland, Austria, the Catholic states of Germany and in several other European countries. In those states where the Orthodox Christian Church dominated, the Julian calendar was used for a long time. For example, in Bulgaria a new calendar was introduced only in 1916, in Serbia in 1919. In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918. In the 20th century. the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars had already reached 13 days, so in 1918 it was prescribed to count the day following January 31 not as February 1, but as February 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 calendar.. 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 the Julian calendar was introduced, this day was considered 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 chronology were named - old and new style of calendar.

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 by 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.