Many times we heard: “old style”, “new style”, “date according to the old style”, “old new year”, and such phrases are found quite often. How to understand what is the essence of why this happened? This article analyzes the new calendar that we use today, how it came about, who invented it, which of the popes carried out the reform of the calendar.
Briefly about calendars
There is a hypothesis that the Mayan calendar was the most accurate, but modern scientists have not yet been able to fully decipher and understand it. The ancient Egyptians carefully watched the sun and kept a solar calendar: one sunny year they contained 365 days, 12 months, and each month - exactly thirty days. Five missing days accumulated during the year; they were added at the end of the year “at the behest of the gods”.
The ancient Romans used the lunar calendar, the months were named after the names of the Roman gods, in the year there were 10 months. Later Caesar introduced the Julian calendar by analogy with the Egyptian one: set the beginning of the year on the first of January, and made the months 30, 31, 28 days, 29 in the leap year. The Julian calendar began to count from the day of the founding of Rome - from 753 BC. e., invented by his ancient Roman astronomers taking into account the movement of the sun, stars and the moon. It is commonly called the "old calendar" in Russia.
Which of the popes carried out a calendar reform
The Julian calendar made errors, overtook astronomical time, so 11 extra minutes accumulated every year. The time for the adoption of the Gregorian calendar is ripe: by the sixteenth century the day of the vernal equinox, when day and night of the same length - March 21, according to which Easter was counted, moved eleven days in advance. The Catholic Church needed a new calendar, they had to calculate the day of Easter so that it fell on Sunday around the day of the vernal equinox. The question arises as to which of the popes carried out the reform of the calendar. It is known that the new calendar was developed by the Italian astronomer Luigi Lilio. A thousand years after Julius Caesar, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar and named it after himself - Gregorian.
Many European countries immediately followed suit, but there were also those that joined much later: for example, in 1752 - Great Britain, and Greece, Turkey, Egypt - in 1924-1928. There is no connection with the moon and stars in the Gregorian calendar; it is more complex than the Julian one.
The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars
The Julian calendar is built on the basis of the movement of the sun, stars and the moon, and the Gregorian calendar is only based on the sun, so the sunny year is also called tropical. Every fourth year in the Julian terms is a leap year (29 days in February and 366 days a year), the new method is similar, but there is an exception: if the year is not divisible by 400 and ends with two zeros (for example, 2300, 2200, 2100, 1900, 1800 , 1700), then it is not a leap. For four centuries, the difference between the old and the new style increases by 3 days. Christmas at the beginning coincided with the winter solstice - December 21, but gradually the beginning is shifting to spring, in the XX-XXI centuries Catholics celebrate December 25 according to the old style, Orthodox Christians - 13 days later, from 2101 the dates of the holidays will be December 26 and January 8 respectively.
Calendars in Russia
Until the 10th century in Russia, New Year came in March (March style), then Russia switched to the Byzantine calendar, the beginning of the year was transferred to September 1 (September style). The Russians began to celebrate New Year twice a year - March 1 and September 1.
Peter I, imitating the Europeans, moved the new year to January 1, the reckoning began to count from the Nativity of Christ. The emperor ordered everyone to wish each other a Happy New Year, to give gifts and decorate the house with coniferous trees.
The approval of the Gregorian calendar is Soviet. V.I. Lenin signed a decree on this on January 24, 1918.
But the Russian Orthodox Church did not agree to it, all church holidays are on the Julian calendar to this day. We have two New Year holidays - January 1 (according to the Gregorian style) and January 13 (according to the Julian calendar), Russian people traditionally like to duplicate the New Year holidays. According to church canons, Christmas should arrive earlier than the New Year, believers observe the fast on January 1, fun and food excesses are prohibited, fasting ends on January 7 - the day of Orthodox Christmas. New Year's Eve without festive dishes and a cheerful mood is boring, so it is logically correct to celebrate it on January 13th.
Calendars today
Some Asian and Arab countries, Muslims and Buddhists use their calendars. Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Laos, Myanmar live on the Buddhist calendar, in Ethiopia the calendar is 8 years behind. Pakistan, Iran use only the Islamic calendar. In India, different tribes use different times. In Japan, China, Israel they live according to the Gregorian style, and they use their calendars for religious holidays. The vast majority of countries use the Gregorian calendar, and which of the popes carried out the reform, few are interested. The Julian style is used by the Orthodox churches of Jerusalem, Serbia, Georgia, Russia, and the Gregorian new is used by the Catholic and Protestant churches. The secular world lives on the Gregorian calendar. It is hoped that the Gregorian style will continue and there will be no more confusion with calendars.