The introduction of the new chronology happened in. The history of the introduction in Russia of the reckoning from the birth of Christ

Citizens of the Soviet country, having gone to bed on January 31, 1918, woke up on February 14. Entered into force "Decree on the introduction of Russian Republic Western European calendar". Bolshevik Russia switched to the so-called new, or civil, style of calculating time, which coincided with the church Gregorian calendar used in Europe. These changes did not affect our Church: she continued to celebrate her holidays in the old way, julian calendar.

The calendar split between Western and Eastern Christians (believers began to celebrate the main holidays at different times) occurred in the 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform that replaced the Julian style with the Gregorian one. The purpose of the reform was to correct the growing difference between the astronomical year and the calendar year.

Obsessed with the idea of ​​world revolution and internationalism, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not care about the Pope and his calendar. As stated in the decree, the transition to the Western, Gregorian style was made "in order to establish in Russia the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples" .... At one of the first meetings of the young Soviet government in early 1918, two draft reforms of time were considered "The first proposed a gradual transition to the Gregorian calendar, each year dropping 24 hours. This would take 13 years. The second provided for doing it in one fell swoop. It was he who liked the leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who surpassed the current ideologist of multiculturalism Angela Merkel in globalist projects.

Competently

Historian of religion Alexei Yudin - about how christian churches celebrate Christmas:

First, let's make it clear right away: to say that someone celebrates on December 25, and someone on January 7 is incorrect. Everyone celebrates Christmas on the 25th, but according to different calendars. In the next hundred years, from my point of view, no unification of the celebration of Christmas is to be expected.

The old Julian calendar, adopted under Julius Caesar, lagged behind astronomical time. The reform of Pope Gregory XIII, which from the very beginning was called papist, was perceived extremely negatively in Europe, especially in Protestant countries, where the reformation was already firmly established. The Protestants were opposed primarily because "it was conceived in Rome." And this city in the XVI century was no longer the center of Christian Europe.

Red Army soldiers take out church property from the Simonov Monastery on a subbotnik (1925). A photo: wikipedia.org

The reform of the calendar, if desired, can, of course, be called a split, bearing in mind that the Christian world has already split not only along the East-West principle, but also within the West.

Therefore, the Gregorian calendar was perceived as Roman, papist, and therefore unsuitable. Gradually, however, the Protestant countries accepted it, but the process of transition took centuries. This is how things were in the West. The East paid no attention to the reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

The Soviet Republic switched to a new style, but this, unfortunately, was due to the revolutionary events in Russia, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not think about any Pope Gregory XIII, they simply considered the new style to be the most adequate to their worldview. And the Russian Orthodox Church has an additional trauma.

In 1923, at the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of Orthodox churches was held, at which a decision was made to correct the Julian calendar.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, were unable to travel abroad. But Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the "New Julian" calendar. However, this caused protests among believers, and the decision was quickly canceled.

You can see that there were several stages of searching for a match on a calendar basis. But this did not lead to the final result. So far, this issue has not been included in a serious church discussion at all.

Is the Church afraid of another schism? Undoubtedly, some ultra-conservative groups within the Church will say: "The sacred time has been betrayed." Any Church is a very conservative institution, especially when it comes to everyday life and liturgical practices. And they rest against the calendar. And the church-administrative resource in such matters is ineffective.

Every Christmas, the theme of switching to the Gregorian calendar pops up. But this is politics, profitable media presentation, PR, whatever you want. The Church itself does not participate in this and is reluctant to comment on these issues.

Why does the Russian Orthodox Church use the Julian calendar?

Father Vladimir (Vigilyansky), rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University:

Orthodox churches can be roughly divided into three categories: those that serve all church holidays according to the new (Gregorian) calendar, those that serve only according to the old (Julian) calendar, and those that mix styles: for example, in Greece, Easter is celebrated according to old calendar, and all other holidays - in a new way. Our churches (Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Athos monasteries) have never changed church calendar and they did not mix it with Gregorian, so that there would be no confusion in the holidays. We have a single calendar system, which is tied to Easter. If we switch to celebrating, say, Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, then two weeks are "eaten up" (remember how in 1918 after January 31, February 14 came), each day of which carries for Orthodox person special semantic significance.

The church lives according to its own order, and in it many significant things may not coincide with secular priorities. For example, in church life there is a clear system of progression of time, which is tied to the Gospel. Every day, excerpts from this book are read, in which there is a logic associated with the gospel story and the earthly life of Jesus Christ. All this lays down a certain spiritual rhythm in the life of an Orthodox person. And those who use this calendar do not want and will not violate it.

A believer has a very ascetic life. The world can change, we see how before our very eyes fellow citizens have a lot of opportunities, for example, for recreation during the secular New Year holidays. But the Church, as one of our rock singers sang, "will not bend under the changing world." We will not make our church life dependent on the ski resort.

The Bolsheviks introduced a new calendar "in order to calculate the same time with almost all cultural peoples." A photo: Publishing project of Vladimir Lisin "Days of 1917 100 years ago"

The modern system of chronology has a little more than two thousand years after the birth of Jesus Christ and several hundred centuries before this event. However, before the advent of the Christian chronology, different peoples had their own ways of measuring time. Slavic tribes are no exception. Long before the advent of Christianity, they had their own calendar.

Origin of the word "calendar"

According to the official version, the term "calendar" comes from Latin. In ancient Rome, debt interest was paid on the first days of each month, and data about them was recorded in a debt book called calendarium. Later, it was from the title of the book that the word “calendar” came from, which came to the Slavs with Christianity.

Some scientists believe that this term comes from the phrase "Kolyadin Dar" (Kolyada's gift), which was called the chronology. Slavic origin researchers consider quite possible. Some of them are sure that the Romans borrowed the word "calendar" from the Slavs, and not vice versa. Judge for yourself: there is no translation of the word calendarium, as well as an explanation of how it is connected with debts and books. After all, in Latin debt is debitum, and book is libellus.

The chronology from the Nativity of Christ

Today, our era from the birth of Christ is more than 2000 years old. However, the tradition of counting the year in this way has been used for about a thousand years, because even with the recognition of Christianity official religion Roman Empire, years continued to be counted from important secular dates. For the Romans, this was the year of the founding of Rome, for the Jews, the year of the destruction of Jerusalem, for the Slavs, the year of the creation of the world in the Star Temple.

But once the Roman monk Dionysius, compiling Easter tables, got confused among various systems chronology. Then he came up with universal system, Starting point which will be the year of the birth of Christ. Dionysius calculated the approximate date of this event and henceforth used the chronology called "from the Nativity of Christ."

This system became widespread after 200 years thanks to the monk Bede the Venerable, who used it in his historical work on the Anglo-Sanson tribes. Thanks to this book, the British nobility gradually switched to the Christian calendar, and after it the Europeans did it. But it took the church authorities another 200 years to start using the Christian chronology system.

The transition to the Christian chronology among the Slavs

AT Russian Empire, which at that time included many native Slavic lands of Belarus, Poland, Ukraine and other countries, the transition to the Christian calendar took place from January 1, 1700 to Many believe that Tsar Peter hated and tried to eradicate everything Slavic, including calendar, therefore introduced the Christian time system. However, it is most likely that the king was simply trying to put such a confusing chronology in order. Slavic rejection here, most likely, does not play a role.

The fact is that with the advent of Christianity to the Slavs, the priests actively tried to transfer the pagans to the Roman calendar. The people resisted and secretly adhered to the old calendar. Therefore, in Russia, in fact, there were 2 calendars: Roman and Slavic.

However, confusion soon began in the annals. After all, the Greek chroniclers used the Roman calendar, and the pupils of the monasteries of Kievan Rus used the Slavic calendar. At the same time, both calendars differed from the chronology of Dionysius adopted in Europe. To solve this problem, Peter I ordered the forcible transfer of the entire empire subject to him to the system of chronology dating from the birth of Christ. As practice showed, it was also imperfect, and in 1918 the country was transferred to a modern accounting system.

Sources of information about the Old Slavic calendar

Today there is no reliable data on how the real Old Slavic calendar looked like. The now popular "Krugolet Chislobog" was reconstructed on the basis of information from various historical sources of later periods. When reconstructing the Old Slavic calendar, the following sources were used:

• East Slavic folk ritual calendar. Written evidence of him dates back to the XVII-XVIII centuries. Despite such a "young" age, this calendar has retained a lot of information about the life of the Slavs during the time of pagan Russia.
• Church calendar "Months". In the process of Christianization of Russia, church authorities often celebrated Christian holidays on important pagan holidays. Comparing the dates of holidays from the Monthly Book with dates from other calendars, as well as from folklore sources, it is possible to calculate the time of important ancient Slavic holidays.
• In the 19th century, about 400 gold plates with inscriptions were found on the site of the Vedic temple in Romania, later called “Santii Dacov”. Some of them are over 2000 years old. This find not only testifies to the presence of writing among the ancient Slavs, but also is a source of information about the eras of ancient Slavic history.
• Chronicles.
• archaeological finds. Most often, these are ritual clay vessels depicting calendar symbols. The most informative are the clay vases of the Chernyakhov Slavic culture (III-IV centuries AD).

Epochs of the ancient Slavs

According to the information contained in the "Santia Dacians", the history of the ancient Slavs has 14 eras. The most important event that served as the starting point for the calendar was the approach of the solar and two other planetary systems, as a result of which earthlings observed three suns in the sky at once. This epoch was called the "Time of the Three Suns" and was dated 604387 (in relation to 2016).

• In 460531, aliens from the constellation Ursa Minor arrived on Earth. They were called Da'Aryans, and this era was called the "Time of Gifts."
• In 273910, aliens again arrived on Earth, but this time from the constellation Orion. They were called Kh'aryans, and in honor of them the era is called the "Time of Kh'Arr".
• In 211699, the next visit of extraterrestrial beings took place, marking the beginning of the "Svag Time".
• In 185779, the rise of one of the four most important cities of the Daaria continent, Tula, began. This city was famous for its skilled craftsmen and flourished for almost 20,000 years. This period of time was called "Thule Time".
• In 165,043, Perun's daughter, the goddess Tara, brought many seeds to the Slavs, from which numerous forests subsequently grew - this is how the "Time of Tara" began.
• In 153349, a grandiose war of Light and Darkness took place. As a result, one of Lutitia's satellites was destroyed, and its fragments became an asteroid ring - this is the Assa Dei era.
• In 143,003, earthlings, with the help of scientific achievements, were able to drag a satellite from another planet, and the Earth, which already had two satellites at that time, had three of them. In honor of this momentous event, the new era is called the “Period of Three Moons”.
• In 111 819, one of the three moons was destroyed and its fragments fell to Earth, sinking the ancient continent of Daaria. However, its inhabitants escape - the era of the "Great Migration from Daaria" began.
• In 106791, the city of the Gods Asgard of Iri was founded on the Irtysh River, and new system chronology was conducted from the year of its foundation.
• In 44560, all the Slavic-Aryan clans united to live together on the same territory. From that moment, the era of the "Creation of the Great Kolo Rasseniya" began.
• In 40017, Perun arrived on Earth and shared his knowledge with the priests, because of which there was a grand leap in the development of human technologies. Thus began the era of the "Third Arrival of the Whiteman Perun".
• In 13021, another satellite of the Earth was destroyed and its fragments, having fallen on the planet, affected the tilt of the axis. As a result, the continents broke apart and icing began, called the era of the "Great Cooling" (Cold). By the way, in terms of time frame, this period coincides with the last ice age of the Cenozoic era.

Modern humanity lives in an era that began counting years from the creation of the world in the Star Temple. The age of this era today is more than 7.5 thousand years.

George the Victorious and the era of the creation of the world in the Star Temple

As you know, the word "world" has several meanings. Thus, the name of the modern era is often interpreted as the time of the creation of the Universe. However, "peace" also means reconciliation between warring parties. In this regard, the name "Creation of the World in the Star Temple" has a completely different interpretation.

Shortly before the first year "from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple" was marked, a war broke out between the Slavic tribes and the Chinese. With huge losses, the Slavs managed to win, and on the day of the autumn equinox, peace was concluded between the two peoples. To mark this important event, it was made the starting point of a new era. Subsequently, in many works of art, this victory was allegorically depicted in the form of a knight (Slavs) and a slaying dragon (Chinese).

This symbol was so popular that with the advent of Christianity it could not be eradicated. From the time of Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise, the knight who defeated the dragon was officially named George (Yuri) the Victorious. Its significance for the Slavs is also evidenced by the fact that the cult of George the Victorious was very common among all Slavic tribes. In addition, at different times, Kyiv, Moscow, and many other ancient Slavic cities were depicted on the coat of arms of this saint. Interestingly, the story of St. George is popular not only among Orthodox and Catholics, but also among Muslims.

The structure of the Old Slavic calendar

The Old Slavic calendar refers to one complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun not as a year, but as a summer. It consists of three seasons: autumn (autumn), winter and spring. Each season included 3 months of 40-41 days each. A week in those days consisted of 9 days, and a day - of 16 hours. The Slavs did not have minutes and seconds, but there were parts, fractions, moments, moments, whitefish and santigs. It is difficult to even imagine what level the technology should have been if there were names for such short periods of time.

Years in this system were measured not in decades and centuries, as today, but in 144-year cycles: 16 years for each of the 9 constellations of the Svarog Circle.

Each ordinary year from the creation of the world consisted of 365 days. But the leap year 16 had as many as 369 days (each month in it consisted of 41 days).

New Year among the ancient Slavs

Unlike the modern calendar, which New Year comes in the middle of winter, the Slavic chronology considered autumn to be the beginning of the year. Although the opinions of historians differ on this issue. Most scientists believe that the New Year was originally on the day of the autumn equinox, which helped to more accurately adjust the calendar for the Slavs from the creation of the world in the Star Temple. However, according to Byzantine tradition, they tried to postpone the beginning of the new year to the first month of spring. As a result, there were not only two calendars in parallel, but also two traditions to celebrate the New Year: in March (like the Romans) and in September (like in Byzantium and the Slavs).

Months of the ancient Slavs

The first month of the ancient Slavic nine-month calendar was called Ramhat (beginning September 20-23), followed by the winter months Aylet (October 31 - November 3), Beylet (December 10-13) and Gaylet (January 20-23).

The spring months were called Daylet (March 1-4), Ailet (April 11-14) and Veylet (May 21-24). After that, autumn began, consisting of the months of Haylet (July 1-4) and Taylet (August 10-13). And the next, autumn month of Ramhat was the beginning of the New Year.

With the adoption of Christianity instead of Roman, Slavic names were given to the months. With the establishment of a new calendar by Peter I, Latin names were returned to the months. They remained in the modern Russian language, while the fraternal peoples retained or returned the familiar Slavic names of the months.

It is not known for certain what they were called with the advent of Christianity before the reform of Peter I, however, there are several options reconstructed thanks to the folklore of various Slavic peoples.

Week with the Slavs

The question of the number of days in a week before the reform of Peter I remains controversial to this day. Many argue that there were 7 of them - hence the surviving names in all

However, if you think about the words from The Little Humpbacked Horse, it becomes surprising how the text of 1834 mentions such a day of the week as the “eight”, which precedes another day - the “week”.

It turns out that the memories of the nine-day week remained in the memory of the Slavs, which means that initially there were only 9 days.

How to calculate the year according to the Old Slavic calendar?

Today, many Slavs are trying to return to the traditions of their ancestors, including their calendar.

But modern world living according to the Christian calendar requires a person to be able to navigate in this reference system of years. Therefore, anyone using Slavic chronology(from the creation of the world), how to transfer years from it to the Christian system, must know. Despite the obvious differences between both systems of reckoning, this is easy to do. It is necessary to add the number 5508 (the difference in years between systems) to any date of the Christian calendar, and it will be possible to translate the date into the Slavic chronology. What year is it now according to this system can be determined by the following formula: 2016 + 5508 = 7525. However, it should be borne in mind that modern year begins in January, and among the Slavs - from September, so for more accurate calculations, you can use the online calculator.

More than three hundred years have passed since the inhabitants of the Russian Empire stopped using the Slavic calendar. Despite its accuracy, today it is only history, but it should be remembered, since it not only included the wisdom of the ancestors, but was also part of the Slavic culture, which, despite the opinion of Peter I, was not only not inferior to European, but also in surpassed her in some things.

The modern chronology by the world community is conducted according to the Gregorian calendar, which keeps track of the years from the birth of Christ. Prior to that, each significant territorial-ethnic group had its own accounting of dates, there is also a Slavic calendar from the creation of the world, which was in use in Russia in pre-Petrine times.

The Nativity of Christ was considered the main event that determined the course of world history, it was from him that the countdown of the new era began. What we now call the "old style" of reckoning is just old version of the same Christian calendar, or Julian, which was in use on the territory of Russia until 1918. Every year we remember the date according to the “old style” when we celebrate the “old” New Year. The dates of church holidays in Orthodoxy are also determined according to the Julian calendar.

And we also follow the change of years according to the Japanese, Chinese, Thai calendars. This is the heritage of our common human culture and this must be remembered. But why was the chronology and calendar of the Slavs so quickly forgotten?

How was the chronology of the ancient Slavs

The most ancient tradition of the chronology of the Slavic peoples is the Daarisky Krugolet Chislobog, which was in use in Russia not so long ago. The transition to the new calendar was carried out by the great Russian reformer Peter I, who by decree introduced the beginning of a new calculation starting from January 1, 1700, ordering the introduction of a secular celebration of the New Year. The old calendar was forced out of circulation by force, now it is used only by the Old Believers, who profess the traditions of Ynglism, which is considered the most ancient Slavic-Aryan faith.

The transition to the "European" calendar was beneficial in terms of integration into the European community. But Peter I was a decisive reformer, to speed up the process he used tough measures, decisively cutting off everything that is now commonly called "remnants of the past." Together with the remnants, five and a half thousand years of our history went into almost oblivion.

That year in Russia it was Summer 7208 from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple. ‘’But you need to clearly understand that the Slavic calendar from the creation of the world is not from the mythical or supposed creation of the world by God or the Creator. We are talking about a very real event that took place in the year 5508 BC. In that year, the year of the “Star Temple” according to Krugolet Chisloborg, a peace treaty (“The World was Created”) was signed after the victory of the Power of the Great Race (the territory of modern Russia) over the empire of the Great Dragon (China). ''

Since those ancient and glorious times, we have inherited a symbol - a rider on a white horse, striking a dragon with a spear, one of the most revered symbols in Russia. In the Christian tradition, this symbol is associated with the name of St. George the Victorious.

What event is the reckoning from?

A change in the way of reckoning always begins from a significant epochal event. This was the signing of a peace treaty between the two great powers. And how was the reckoning before that? From other early significant events, indicating this event. So, when the third millennium of the New Era began quite recently, then by other references it can be determined as dates, for example:

• 2004 A.D.;
• 7512 years from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple;
• 13012 summer from the Great Cooling;
• 111810 summer from the Great Migration from Daria;
• 142994 summer from the period of the Three Moons;
• 604378 years from the Time of the Three Suns.

With reference to modern chronology and the official historical period, these dates look truly fantastic. But we must remember that the ancient cultural heritage The earth has written and material monuments, including the Slavic-Aryan Vedas, which mention even longer historical periods of time.

To take them literally or to try to recalculate them for today's chronology, taking into account the (possible) change in the period of revolution of the Earth or the tilt of its axis, is a matter of archaeological and paleo-astronomical research.

What is the role of Cyril and Methodius

Keeping a calendar, quite obviously, is possible only in writing. Otherwise, it is impossible to transfer such a voluminous array of information. Writing in Russia, of course, also existed in pre-Petrine times, and Peter, shortly after the reform of the calendar, undertook a reform of writing. But we are interested in writing before the period of Cyril and Methodius. The role of the Greek monks in this case is very likely somewhat overestimated. Their task was to simplify and universalize the distribution of biblical texts, they coped with this by reworking the ancient Slavic alphabet, removing unique diphthongs and adding ancient Greek characters.

As for the calendar, in the Slavic chronology, letters were used to write numbers. ‘’ Now most Slavic peoples have their own nuances in the spelling and pronunciation of symbols, but the “birthday of Slavic writing”, associated with the annual days of “Cyril and Methodius”, would be more correct to call it differently. After all, Slavic writing existed even before, and their merit, as reformers, was rather in an attempt to unite the Slavic peoples that had been separated by that time. ''

Old Slavic calculus in modern times

History, as you know, does not accept the subjunctive mood. It is impossible to talk about what happened, and how the circle would have turned, if Peter had not decisively cut off all the age-old Slavic traditions and destroyed the ancient calendar of the Slavs. There is an opinion that the calculation of events that occurred before 1700 should be carried out according to the system of calculation in which they occurred.

Or indicating additional date, as, for example, is still used when dating events before 1918 (reform to switch to the Gregorian calendar). At least, this could be indicated in the history books or specialized literature. Some significant dates for example:

• The battle on the ice on Lake Peipsi took place in 1242, and in Russia at that time the summer of 6759 was going on;
• The baptism of Kyiv is attributed to the year 988 AD, while the summer of 6496 was going on.

This does not mean at all that all dates should be recalculated in the era from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple, but you need to remember your cultural heritage and be proud of it.

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One of the main inventions of human civilization is the calendar. All modern calendars have their origins in ancient Egypt. Man has long begun to think about how to fix the phenomena occurring in the world around him. This primarily concerned the important events in Everyday life, for example, determining the time of the flood of the Nile, which was the main source of the crop. The ancient Egyptians took the sunrise in the evening sky of the brightest star in the northern hemisphere, Sirius, as a landmark.

The history of the calendar

Modern calendars are based on the Roman solar calendar with the division of the year into months, weeks and days. It is clear that the basis for the daytime period is the alternation of daylight and darkness, which reflects the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The basis for the division of the year into months and weeks was the Moon, which revolves around the Earth in a synodic month equal to 29-odd days, while changing its phases. Different peoples and civilizations had their own calendar with different starting dates for counting. As in their time in Egypt, so in ancient Rome, the Egyptian priests played a great role in the development of the calendar. The year in all solar calendars was considered according to the time of revolution of the Earth around the Sun. This is the length of the tropical year, it is 365.2522 days. The fundamental problems of all calendars were that the whole number of days did not fit into the length of the year. This introduced errors into all calendars and led to the need for constant revisions.

Introduction to the Julian calendar

The first global reformist step in improving the calendar was taken in ancient Rome during the reign of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e. He visited Egypt and studied the calendar that existed there, in which the duration of the tropical year was set at 365.25 days. But since there can only be an integer number of days in a calendar year, the alternation of three years with 365 days was proposed, and the fourth with 366 - in February it had 29 days and was called a leap year. On average, the duration of the year was 365 days and 6 hours. The year in the new calendar began on January 1st. The names of the months were introduced even before Julius Caesar. However, as a sign of his great merits, one of the months of Quintilis was renamed Julius. Now we know it as July. Another month is named after the outstanding Roman emperor and public figure Octavian Augustus, in the Roman abbreviation Augustus. He has come down to our days as Augustus. The beginning of the era began to be considered from the foundation of Rome. Since then, attempts have been repeatedly made to change the name of the months in honor of different emperors, but they did not take root, and the names of the months have survived unchanged to this day.

The introduction of a new chronology in Russia

With the development of civilization, it became very inconvenient to have different calendars in different countries. Trade, navigation, travel expanded contacts between peoples who were not favored by the presence of different chronologies. In the era of Peter in Russia there was a Byzantine calendar. Its structure was the same as that of the Roman Julian with division into months, weeks and days, the new year fell on September 1, and the beginning of the chronology was considered from the creation of the world. Peter I made changes: the beginning of the new year moved to January 1, and the chronology began to be conducted from the Nativity of Christ. This event took place in 1700, although according to the Byzantine calendar it was 7208 from the creation of the world. Thus, Peter brought Russia closer to European civilization.

Background and introduction of the Gregorian calendar

A great influence on the reform of the calendar had Catholic Church due to the fact that the main church holidays fell on certain calendar dates. Since the Julian calendar was 365.25 days long and the tropical year was 365.2422 days long, the difference was 11 minutes and 14 seconds. The Julian calendar adopted for that period was late by this amount every year. One day late accumulated over 128 years. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, the main creeds were adopted, and church holidays such as Easter were established. The problem arising from the inaccuracy of the calendar affected the correct determination of the date of the Easter holiday. This date is closely associated with such celestial events as the spring equinox and full moon. Easter was usually celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring equinox and the first full moon following it. In the year of the council, the vernal equinox was March 21. But, due to the difference in the duration of the Julian and tropical years, by the sixteenth century an error of 10 days had accumulated. The day of equality of day and night has smoothly moved to March 11. This was the impetus for the fact that Pope Gregory XIII, with the help of the scientist Luigi Luio, carried out a reform of the Julian calendar. The main postulates of the introduction of the new chronology were as follows:
The day of the spring equinox was again postponed to March 21, i.e. gone 10 days.
From a span of 400 years out of 100 leap years 3 are removed, and there are 97 left.
The introduction of the new chronology took place in 1582, and many Catholic powers switched to the new chronology. The rest of the countries have been transitioning for several decades, and some for hundreds of years. Not in all countries the introduction of the new chronology went smoothly. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Riga led to a popular uprising that lasted more than one year until the instigators were convicted and executed. In Russia, the transition to the Gregorian calendar occurred after the October Revolution. By government decree, after January 31, 1918, the arrival of February 14 began to be considered. This removed the accumulated difference of 13 days. Before the Bolsheviks came to power, the Orthodox Church prevented the introduction of a new chronology in Russia. And in monarchical Russia, the degree of influence of the church on power was very high. To date, almost all countries of the world have switched to a new chronology. The exceptions are countries such as Thailand and Ethiopia. Orthodox Church also uses the old Julian calendar. How important it is to use the same chronology in neighboring countries can be seen in the following example. There is a scientific study regarding the battle of Austerlitz when Napoleon won. Some scientists argue that it was the use of different calendars in the Russian and Austrian armies that caused inconsistent actions on the battlefield, which led to the defeat. To date, the accuracy of the Gregorian calendar is quite high. In the past few years, projects have been put forward to revise the current calendar. This concerned mainly the change in the number of days in months, but these proposals remain only projects.

Since by this time the difference between the old and new styles was 13 days, the decree ordered that after January 31, 1918, not February 1, but February 14 be counted. By the same decree, until July 1, 1918, after the number of each day according to the new style, in brackets, write the number according to the old style: February 14 (1), February 15 (2), etc.

From the history of chronology in Russia.

The ancient Slavs, like many other peoples, initially based their calendar on a period of change lunar phases. But already by the time of the adoption of Christianity, that is, by the end of the tenth century. n. e., Ancient Russia used the lunisolar calendar.

Calendar of the ancient Slavs. It was not finally possible to establish what the calendar of the ancient Slavs was. It is only known that initially time was counted according to the seasons. Probably, at the same time, a 12-month moon calendar. In later times, the Slavs switched to the lunisolar calendar, in which an additional 13th month was inserted seven times every 19 years.

The oldest monuments of Russian writing show that the months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was closely connected with natural phenomena. At the same time, the same months, depending on the climate of those places in which different tribes lived, received different names. So, January was called where the cross section (the time of deforestation), where it was blue (after the winter cloudiness, a blue sky appeared), where it was jelly (because it became cold, cold), etc .; February - cut, snow or fierce (severe frosts); March - berezosol (there are several interpretations here: birch begins to bloom; they took sap from birches; burned birch on coal), dry (the poorest in precipitation in ancient Kievan Rus, in some places the earth was already drying up, sokovik (a reminder of birch sap); April - pollen (flowering gardens), birch (beginning of birch flowering), oak tree, oak tree, etc.; May - grass (grass turns green), summer, pollen; June - worm (cherries turn red), isok (grasshoppers chirp - “isoki ”), milky; July - Lipets (linden blossom), worm (in the north, where phenological phenomena are late), sickle (from the word “sickle”, indicating harvest time); August - sickle, stubble, glow (from the verb “roar "- the roar of deer, or from the word "glow" - cold dawns, and possibly from "pazors" - polar lights); September - veresen (heather bloom); ruen (from the Slavic root of the word meaning tree, giving yellow paint); october - leaf fall, "pazdernik" or "kastrychnik" (pazders - hemp bonfires, the name for the south of Russia); November - breast (from the word "pile" - a frozen rut on the road), leaf fall (in the south of Russia); December - jelly, breast, blueberry.

The year began on March 1, and from about that time they started agricultural work.

Many of the ancient names of the months later moved to the series Slavic languages and are largely retained in some modern languages, in particular in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish.

At the end of the tenth century Ancient Russia adopted Christianity. At the same time, the chronology used by the Romans passed to us - the Julian calendar (based on the solar year), with the Roman names of the months and the seven-day week. The account of years in it was conducted from the "creation of the world", which allegedly occurred 5508 years before our reckoning. This date - one of the many options for eras from the "creation of the world" - was adopted in the 7th century. in Greece and has long been used by the Orthodox Church.

For many centuries, March 1 was considered the beginning of the year, but in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year was officially moved to September 1 and was celebrated this way for more than two hundred years. However, a few months after the Muscovites celebrated their regular New Year on September 1, 7208, they had to repeat the celebration. This happened because on December 19, 7208, a personal decree of Peter I was signed and promulgated on the reform of the calendar in Russia, according to which a new beginning of the year was introduced - from January 1 and a new era - the Christian chronology (from the "Christmas").

Petrovsky's decree was called: "On writing henceforth Genvar from the 1st of 1700 in all papers of the summer from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world." Therefore, the decree ordered the day after December 31, 7208 from the "creation of the world" to be considered January 1, 1700 from the "Christmas". In order for the reform to be adopted without complications, the decree ended with a prudent clause: “And if anyone wants to write both those years, from the creation of the world and from the Nativity of Christ, in a row freely.”

Meeting of the first civil New Year in Moscow. The day after the announcement on Red Square in Moscow of the decree of Peter I on the reform of the calendar, that is, on December 20, 7208, a new decree of the tsar was announced - "On the celebration of the New Year." Considering that January 1, 1700 is not only the beginning of a new year, but also the beginning of a new century (Here a significant mistake was made in the decree: 1700 is the last year of the 17th century, and not the first year of the 18th century. New Age came on January 1, 1701. A mistake that is sometimes repeated even today.), the decree prescribed to celebrate this event with particular solemnity. It gave detailed instructions on how to organize a holiday in Moscow. On New Year's Eve, Peter I himself lit the first rocket on Red Square, thus signaling the opening of the holiday. The streets were illuminated with illumination. The ringing of bells and cannon fire began, the sounds of trumpets and timpani were heard. The king congratulated the population of the capital on the New Year, the festivities continued all night. Multi-colored rockets flew up from the courtyards into the dark winter sky, and “along the large streets, where there is space”, fires burned - bonfires and tar barrels attached to poles.

The houses of the inhabitants of the wooden capital were dressed up in needles “from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper”. For a whole week the houses stood decorated, and at nightfall the lights were lit. Shooting "from small cannons and from muskets or other small weapons", as well as launching "rockets" were entrusted to people "who do not count gold." And the “meager people” were offered “everyone, at least a tree or a branch on the gate or over his temple.” Since that time, the custom has been established in our country every year on January 1 to celebrate New Year's Day.

After 1918, there were more calendar reforms in the USSR. In the period from 1929 to 1940, calendar reforms were carried out in our country three times, caused by production needs. So, on August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR", in which it was recognized as necessary from the 1929-1930 financial year to begin a systematic and consistent transfer of enterprises and institutions to continuous production. In the autumn of 1929, a gradual transition to "continuous work" began, which ended in the spring of 1930 after the publication of a resolution by a special government commission under the Council of Labor and Defense. This resolution introduced a single production time sheet-calendar. The calendar year provided for 360 days, i.e. 72 five-day periods. It was decided to consider the remaining 5 days as holidays. Unlike the ancient Egyptian calendar, they were not located all together at the end of the year, but were timed to coincide with Soviet memorable days and revolutionary holidays: January 22, May 1 and 2, and November 7 and 8.

The employees of each enterprise and institution were divided into 5 groups, and each group was given a day of rest every five days for the whole year. This meant that after four days of work there was a day of rest. After the introduction of the "continuity" there was no need for a seven-day week, since days off could fall not only on different days of the month, but also on different days of the week.

However, this calendar did not last long. Already on November 21, 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the Intermittent Production Week in Institutions", which allowed the people's commissariats and other institutions to switch to a six-day interrupted production week. For them, regular days off were set on the following dates of the month: 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30. At the end of February, the day off fell on the last day of the month or was postponed to March 1. In those months that contained but 31 days, the last day of the month was considered a full month and paid separately. The decree on the transition to a discontinuous six-day week came into force on December 1, 1931.

Both the five-day and six-day days completely broke the traditional seven-day week with a common day off on Sunday. The six-day week was used for about nine years. June 26, 1940 only Presidium Supreme Council The USSR issued a decree "On the transition to an eight-hour working day, to a seven-day working week and on the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from enterprises and institutions”, In the development of this decree, on June 27, 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution in which it established that “beyond Sundays non-working days are also:

January 22, May 1 and 2, November 7 and 8, December 5. The same decree abolished the existing rural areas six special days recreation and non-working days March 12 (Day of the overthrow of the autocracy) and March 18 (Day of the Paris Commune).

On March 7, 1967, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions adopted a resolution "On the transfer of workers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations to a five-day work week with two days off", but this reform did not in any way affect the structure of the modern calendar.

But the most interesting thing is that the passions do not subside. The next round happens already in our new time. Sergey Baburin, Viktor Alksnis, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko submitted a bill to the State Duma in 2007 - on the transition of Russia from January 1, 2008 to the Julian calendar. AT explanatory note the deputies noted that "the world calendar does not exist" and proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when within 13 days the chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to two calendars at once. Only four deputies took part in the voting. Three are against, one is for. There were no abstentions. The rest of the elect ignored the vote.