Where did the modern calendar come from? Calendar history, names of months and days

Here, they puzzled my boy, dug and found it. now I think how to explain this to an 8-year-old boy, so that he could retell coherently

JULIAN AND GRIGORIAN CALENDARS

The calendar - the familiar table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years - is the oldest invention of mankind. It fixes the frequency natural phenomena, based on the laws of motion of celestial bodies: the sun, moon, stars. The Earth rushes in its solar orbit, counting years and centuries. It makes one revolution around its axis per day, and around the Sun per year. Astronomical, or solar, year lasts 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Therefore, there is no whole number of days, this is where the difficulty arises in drawing up a calendar that should keep the correct time count. Since the days of Adam and Eve, people have used the "cycle" of the sun and moon to keep track of time. The lunar calendar used by the Romans and Greeks was simple and convenient. From one revival of the Moon to the next, about 30 days pass, or rather - 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. Therefore, according to the changes of the moon, it was possible to keep track of 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 Maya, July is named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and August is named after the emperor Octavian Augustus. V ancient world from the 3rd century BC, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year lunisolar cycle, which gave a discrepancy with the magnitude of the solar year by 4 days in 4 years. In Egypt, a solar calendar was compiled from observations of Sirius and the Sun. The year in this calendar lasted 365 days, it had 12 months of 30 days, and at the end of the year 5 more days were added in honor of the “birth of the gods”.

In 46 BC, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar introduced the exact solar calendar, the Julian calendar, based on the Egyptian model. The value of the calendar year was taken sunny year, which was slightly more astronomical - 365 days 6 hours. January 1 was legalized as the beginning of the year.

In 26 BC. NS. The Roman emperor Augustus introduced the Alexandrian calendar, in which one more day was added every 4 years: instead of 365 days - 366 days a year, that is, 6 extra hours per year. For 4 years, this amounted to a whole day, which was added once every 4 years, and the year in which one day was added in February was called a leap year. This was essentially a refinement 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 the time of the celebration of Easter was dealt with in the First Ecumenical. Cathedral *, as one of the main ones. The Paschalia established at the Council (the rules for calculating the day of Easter), 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 new style calendar - Gregorian. The goal of the reform was supposedly more precise definition the day of the celebration of Easter so that the vernal equinox returns by March 21st. The Council of the 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 the Gregorian calendar in some years violates one of the main church rules dates of the celebration of Easter - it happens that Catholic Easter falls in time earlier than the Jewish one, which is not allowed by the canons of the Church; also sometimes "disappears" Petrov post. At the same time, such a great scientist 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 instead 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 Russia, starting from the 10th century, the New Year was celebrated on March 1, when, according to biblical tradition, God created the world. 5 centuries later, in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year in Russia was postponed to September 1, and celebrated in 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, Peter I signed a decree on the reform of the calendar. 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". In the decree of the king it was 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 - September 1, 5508 BC) to consider January 1, 1700 from the birth of Christ. The decree also ordered to celebrate this event especially solemnly: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and a new centenary century in joy, congratulate each other on the New Year ... and juniper ... fix the shooting from small cannons and rifles, fire rockets, as many as it happens, and light the fires. " The count of the years from the birth of Christ is adopted by the majority of the states of the world. With the spread of atheism among the intelligentsia and historians, they began to avoid mentioning the name of Christ and replace the countdown from His Christmas with the so-called "our era."

After the October coup, the so-called new style (Gregorian) was introduced in our country on February 14, 1918.

The Gregorian calendar excluded three leap years within each 400th anniversary. Over time, the difference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendar increases. Initially, in the 16th century, the value of 10 days subsequently increases: in the 18th century - 11 days, in the 19th century - 12 days, in the 20th and XXI centuries- 13 days, in XXII - 14 days.
The Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar, unlike Catholics who use the Gregorian one.

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 all civil society, has been moved to the Nativity Fast, when it is not proper to have fun. Moreover, according to church calendar January 1 (December 19, old style) commemorates the memory of the holy martyr Boniface, who patronizes people who want to get rid of the abuse of alcoholic beverages - and our whole vast country greets this day with glasses in hand. Orthodox people celebrate the New Year "in the old way", January 14. ("Orthodox Encyclopedia")

And this is "kup de grasse"

Linguistically, the combination of leap year and the word leap year are still of interest.
There are etymologies that are far from scientific. In accordance with folk etymology, it was argued that the leap was formed from the temple and bone. Science excludes such an interpretation. The great Russian linguist I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay at one time justly criticized such etymologies - myths.
The word leap is only older in education (from leap - leap with the suffix -n- = -n-), but goes back to the Greek bisextox (from the Latin addition bissextus -bis "twice" and sextus "sixth").
The leap year was named for an additional 366 days. The Romans had such a day on February 24, which "according to their account (from the first day of the next month in reverse order) was the sixth."
The words leap - leap in the meaning of leap year are reflected in the monuments of the 13th century. So, in the Ipatiev Chronicle it is said: "On the fourth summer (year) comes the day we call the visokost".
The word leap and more ancient viscost are not used in modern Russian. In dictionaries of the 19th century, we meet leap, which is outdated for modern Russian spelling.
Leap, unlike most adjectives, is combined only with the word year. The word leap has entered the lexicon of the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and other languages.
They often make mistakes, falsely associating leap in the words high and bone - they write or pronounce high or high.

If someone knows another explanation for the name of the year "leap", then I'm waiting, really, really looking forward to options. I didn't know myself.

This is a little story about a lot - about the history of the calendar, about idas and calendars, about the names of months and days of the week in different languages.

Calendar history

Now all the peoples of the world use the calendar inherited from the ancient Romans.
But the calendar and counting of days among the ancient Romans were rather confusing and strange at first ...

Voltaire said on this occasion:
Roman generals always won, but they never knew what day it happened ...)))

The rest of the days were indicated by indicating the number of days, remaining until the next major day; wherein the account included both the day that was indicated and the next main day: ante diem nonum Kalendas Septembres - nine days before the September calendars, i.e. 24 August, it was usually written in abbreviated form a. d. IX Kal. Sept.
……………
The calendar of the ancient Romans.

The first Roman year consisted of 10 months, which were designated serial numbers: first, second, third, etc.
The year began in spring- a period close to the vernal equinox.
Later, the first four months were renamed:

First(spring!) month of the year was named after god of spring shoots, agriculture and cattle breeding, and this god was among the Romans ... Mars! It was only later that he became, like Ares, the god of war.
And the month was named martius(martius) - in honor Mars.

Second month got its name aprilis ( aprilis), which comes from the Latin aperire - "to open", as this month buds open on the trees, or from the word apricus - "warmed by the Sun". It was dedicated to the goddess of beauty Venus.

Third month in honor of the goddess of the earth May and began to be called mayus(majus).
Fourth month has been renamed to junius(junius) and dedicated to the goddess of the sky Juno, patroness of women, wife of Jupiter.

The remaining six months of the year continued to retain their numerical names:

Quintilis - fifth; sextilis (sextilis) - the sixth;

September (September) - seventh; october - eighth;

November (november) - the ninth; december (december) - tenth.

Four months of the year ( martius, mayus, quintilis and oktober) each had 31 days and the rest of the months consisted of 30 days.

Therefore, the original Roman calendar the year had 304 days.

In the VII century. BC. the Romans reformed your calendar and added to the year another 2 months - the eleventh and twelfth.

The first of these months is Januarius- was named after the two-faced god Janus which was considered god of the firmament who opened the gates to the Sun at the beginning of the day and closed them at the end. He was god of entry and exit, of all undertakings... The Romans depicted him with two faces: one, facing forward, God sees the future, the second, facing back, contemplates the past.

Second added month - febrarius- was dedicated to the god of the underworld Februus... Its very name comes from the word februare - "cleanse", and is associated with the ritual of purification.

Year in the calendar of the Romans after the reform began to consist out of 355 days, and in connection with the addition 51 days (why not 61?) had to change the length of the months.

But still the Roman year was more than 10 days shorter than the tropical year.

To keep the beginning of the year close to one season, we did insert extra days... At the same time, the Romans in every second year between February 24 and 25, 22 or 23 days were "wedged" alternately.

As a result, the number of days in the Roman calendar alternated in the following order: 355 days; 377 (355 + 22) days; 355 days; 378 (355 + 23) days. The plug-in days got their name the month of Mercedonia, sometimes referred to simply as the interim month - intercalary(intercalis).
Word " mercedony " comes from "merces edis" - "payment for labor": then the tenants were settled with the owners of the property.

The average length of a year in such a four-year period was 366,25 days, that is, a day more than in reality.

A drawing engraved on an ancient stone calendar of the Romans. The top row shows the gods to whom the days of the week are dedicated: Saturn - Saturday, Sun - Sunday, Moon - Monday, Mars - Tuesday, Mercury - Wednesday, Jupiter - Thursday, Venus - Friday. In the center of the calendar is the Roman zodiac, to the right and left of it are the Latin designations of the numbers of the month.

The reform of Julius Caesar.

The randomness of the Roman calendar became significant, and urgent reform was needed. And the reform was carried out in 46 BC Julius Caesar(100 - 44 BC). Developed new calendar a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sozigen.

The basis of the calendar,namedJulian, the solar cycle is set, the duration of which was taken equal to 365, 25 days.

They counted in three out of every four years 365 days, in the fourth - 366 days.

As before the month of Mercedonia, so now this extra day was "hidden" between 24 and 25 February. Caesar decided to add to February second sixth ( bis sextus) the day before the March calendars, that is second day 24 February... February was chosen as the last month of the Roman year. The augmented year began to be called annusbissextus, where did our word come from leap. The first leap year was 45 BC. NS.

Caesar ordered number of days in months according to the principle: an odd month has 31 days, an even month has 30. February in a simple year should have 29 days, and in a leap year - 30 days.

Moreover, Caesar decided to start the count of days in the new year from the new moon, which just fell on the first of January.

The new calendar for each day of the year indicated which star or constellation had its first morning sunrise or sunset after a period of invisibility. For example, in November it was noted: the 2nd - the arrival of Arcturus, the 7th - the entry of the Pleiades and Orion, etc. The calendar was closely associated with the annual movement of the Sun along the ecliptic and with the cycle of agricultural work.

The Julian calendar began on January 1st, 45 BC. On this day, from which, already starting from 153 BC, the newly elected Roman consuls took office, and the beginning of the year was postponed.
Julius Caesar is the author of the tradition start counting the new year from January 1st.

In gratitude for the reform, and given the military merit of Julius Caesar, the Roman Senate renamed the month of Quinitilis(this month Caesar was born) in Julius.

And a year later, in the same Senate, Caesar was killed ...

Calendar changes there were also later.

The Roman priests confused the calendar again, declaring every third (not fourth) year of the calendar a leap year. As a result, from 44 to 9 years. BC. 12 leap years were introduced instead of 9.

This mistake was corrected by Emperor Augustus.(63 BC - 14 AD): over 16 years - from 9 BC to 8 AD - there were no leap years. Along the way, he contributed to the spread in the Roman Empire seven day week which replaced the previously used nine-day cycles - nundids.

In this regard, the Senate renamed the month sextilis in the month of Augustus... But the length of this month was 30 days... The Romans found it inconvenient to have fewer days in the month dedicated to Augustus than the month dedicated to Caesar. Then took away one more day from February and added it to Augustus... So February stayed with 28 or 29 days.

Now it turned out that Julius, Augustus and Septeber contain for 31 days. So that there were no three months in a row for 31 days, one day of the september was transmitted oktoberu... At the same time, one day of the november was moved to december... Thus, the correct alternation of long and short months, introduced by Caesar, was violated, and the first half of the year in a simple year turned out to be four days shorter than the second.

The Roman calendar system spread widely in Western Europe and was used up to the 16th century... With the adoption of Christianity in Russia they also began to use the Julian calendar, which gradually replaced the Old Russian.

In the 6th century, the Roman monk Dionysius Small proposed to introduce new christian era which starts from Nativity of Christ, not from the creation of the world, and not from the founding of Rome.

Dionysius substantiated the date from the birth of Christ. According to his calculations, she fell in the 754th year from the founding of Rome or in the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Augustus.
Era from the Nativity of Christ firmly established in Western Europe only in VIII century. And in Russia for several centuries they continued to count the years from the creation of the world.

Reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

At the end of the III century. AD the vernal equinox accounted for on March 21. Cathedral of nicaea held in 325 in the city of Nicaea (now it is Izvik in Turkey) fixed this date, deciding that the vernal equinox will always fall on this number.

However, the average length of a year in the Julian calendar is 0.0078 days or 11 min 14 s longer than the tropical year... As a result every 128 years, an error accumulated for a whole day: the moment the sun passes through the point vernal equinox during this time moved one day ago - from March to February. By the end of the XVI century vernal equinox moved back 10 days and accounted for 11th of March.

The calendar reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII based on a project of an Italian doctor and mathematician Luigi Lilio.

Gregory XIII in his bull prescribed that after October 4, 1582 the year is 15, not 5 October. So the vernal equinox was moved to March 21, to its original place. And so that the error does not accumulate, it was decided out of every 400 years, throw out three days.
It is considered to be simple those centuries, the number of hundreds of which is not evenly divisible by 4. By virtue of this, there were not leap 1700, 1800 and 1900, and 2000 was a leap year. The discrepancy in one day of the Gregorian calendar with astronomical time is accumulating not in 128 years, but in 3323.

Such a calendar system received the name Gregorian or "new style". In contrast to it, the name of the" old style "was consolidated behind the Julian calendar.

Countries where positions were strong catholic church, almost immediately switched to a new style, and in Protestant countries the reform was carried out with a delay of 50 - 100 years.

England waited before 1751 g., and then "killed two birds with one stone": corrected the calendar and postponed beginning of 1752 from March 25 to January 1... Some of the British took the reform as a robbery: no joke, three whole months of life have disappeared!)))

Using different calendars caused a lot of inconvenience, and sometimes just curious cases... When we read that in Spain in 1616 on April 23 he died Cervantes, and in England on April 23, 1616 he died Shakespeare, one might think that two great writers passed away on the same day.
Actually the difference was 10 days! Shakespeare died in Protestant England, which still lived according to the Julian calendar, and Cervantes in Catholic Spain, where the Gregorian calendar (new style) had already been introduced.

One of last countries which adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1928, became Egypt.

In the 10th century, with the adoption of Christianity, chronology came to Russia used by the Romans and Byzantines: Julian calendar, Roman month names, seven-day week... But the years were kept from the creation of the world which happened over 5508 years before the birth of Christ. The year began on March 1, and at the end of the 15th century, the beginning of the year was postponed to September 1.

The calendar from the "creation of the world" in effect in Russia was replaced by Julian Peter I from January 1, 1700 (the difference between the two chronological systems is 5508 years).

Reforming the calendar system Of Russia was heavily detained. Orthodox Church refused to accept it, although back in 1583 at the Council of Constantinople she recognized the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar.

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR from January 25, 1918 g., in Russia was introduced Gregorian calendar. By this time, the difference between the old and the new style was 13 days. Prescribed in 1918, after January 31, count not February 1, but the 14th.

Now the Gregorian calendar has become international.
…………
Now about the Slavic names of the months.
12 months - favorite fairy tale

Month- a period of time close to the period of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, although the modern Gregorian calendar is not consistent with the change in the phases of the Moon.

Since ancient times, segments of the year have been associated with certain natural phenomena or with economic activities.

Not exactly on the topic. From the legend: among the Slavs, the month was the king of the night, the husband of the Sun. He fell in love with the Morning Star, and as punishment the other gods split him in half ...

Names of months

January... Slavic name "Prosinets" - from the blue sky appearing in January.

February- "Szechen", "Lute". Széchen - because it was time to cut trees to clear the land for arable land.

March
"Dry" from the spring warmth, drying moisture, in the south - "Berezozol", from the action of the spring sun on the birch, which at this time begins to fill up with juice and buds. "Protalnik" - it is clear why.
April
Old Russian names of April: "Berezen", "Snegogon". In the Ukrainian language, the month is called "kuten" (blossoming).

May- the names "Grass", "Grass" - nature turns green and blooms.
June.
Izok. Izok is a grasshopper, there were especially many of them in June. Another name is "Cherven".

July.

"Cherven" - the name - from the fruits and berries, which in July are distinguished by their reddishness (scarlet, red). Also called "Lipets" - linden blooms in July. "Groznik" - from severe thunderstorms... And simply - "Top of the summer". "Stradnik" - from the painful summer work.
August
And the Slavs are still suffering - "Serpen", "Stubble" - time to mow the wheat. In the north, August was also called "Zarev", "Zornichnik" - from the glow of lightning.
September
The Russian name for the month was "Ruyin", Howler - from the roar of autumn winds and animals, especially deer. "Hmuren" - the weather began to deteriorate. In Ukrainian, the month is "Veresen" (from flowering honey plant - heather).

October
Wonderful Slavic name - "Listopad". Otherwise - "Dirty", from the autumn rains and abyss. And also "Svadebnik" - at this time the main agricultural work was coming to an end, it is not a sin to celebrate a wedding, especially after the holiday of the Intercession.

November- "Breast", from piles of frozen earth with snow.

December- "Jelly" - it's cold!

Tablet of Slavic names of months

Week and days of the week.

A week is a period of 7 days, existing in most of the world's calendar systems. The custom of measuring time in a seven-day week came to us from Ancient Babylon and is associated with a change in the phases of the moon.
Where did the names of the days of the week come from?

Ancient Babylonian astronomers discovered that, in addition to fixed stars, the sky is visible and seven movable luminaries which were later named planets(from the Greek "wandering"). It was believed that these luminaries revolve around the Earth and that their distances from it increase in the following order: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Babylonian astrologers believed that every hour of the day is under the auspices of a certain planet, which "controls" it.
Hours started on Saturday: its first hour was "ruled" by Saturn, the second - by Jupiter, the third - by Mars, etc., the seventh - by the Moon. Then the whole cycle was repeated again.

Eventually it turned out that in the first hour next day, sundays, "ruled" The sun, the first hour of the third day was received To the moon, the fourth day to Mars, the fifth to Mercury, the sixth to Jupiter and the seventh to Venus.

The planet that ruled the first hour of the day patronized the entire day, and the day received its name.

This system was adopted by the Romans - the names of the planets were identified with the names of the gods... They ruled by the days of the week that got their names... Roman names migrated to the calendars of many peoples of Western Europe.

"Planetary" names for the days of the week in both English and Scandinavian languages, but the names in them are produced on behalf of the pagan gods of Germanic-Scandinavian mythology.

The day of Saturn was considered unlucky for the Babylonians; on this day it was ordered not to do business, and he himself received the name " Shabbat "- rest... However, it was postponed at the end of the week. The name passed into Hebrew, Arabic, Slavic (Saturday), some Western European languages.

The Slavs called Sunday "week"," a day on which nothing do not do"(not doing business). And Monday is the" day after the week ", Tuesday is the" second day after the week ", etc.
That's what not sharing ...)))

Days of the week

We see the personification of the days of the week in the names preserved in English, German, French.

Monday- Monday echoes By the moon- Moon, even clearer Lundi (fr.),

Tuesday- in the name of Tuesday Mardi (French), el Martes (Spanish), Martedi (Italian) we recognize the planet Mars... In Tuesday, Dienstag, the name of the belligerent ancient German god Tiu, an analogue of Mars.

Wednesday- guessed Mercury in le Mercredi (French), Mercoledi (Italian), el Miercoles (Spanish).

Wednesday(English) comes from Wodensday, meaning Woden day(Wotan, Odin). The same god is hidden in Onstag (sw.), Woenstag (head), Onsdag (dat.).

Woden- an unusual god, he is depicted as a tall old man in a black cloak. This character became famous for the invention of the runic alphabet, which draws a parallel with the patron god of written and oral speech- Mercury. According to legend, Woden sacrificed one eye for knowledge.

In Slavic Wednesday, Wednesday", and also in Mittwoch (German), Keskeviikko (Fin.) the idea of ​​the middle of the week is laid

Thursday- Latin Dies Jovis, Day Jupiter, gave rise to Jeudi (French), Jueves (Spanish), Giovedi (Italian).

And here Thursday(English), Torstai (Fin.), Torsdag (Sw.), Donnerstag (German), and others have a direct connection with the ancient god of thunder Thor, analogue of Jupiter. In Hindi, Thursday is Jupiter Day.

Friday- Venus is clearly visible in Vendredi (French), Venerdi (Italian).
English Friday, Fredag ​​(Swiss), Freitag (German) on behalf of the Scandinavian goddess of fertility and love Freya (Frigge), an analogue of Aphrodite and Venus. In Hindi, Friday is Venus Day.

Saturday- face Saturn can be seen in Saturday (English) and Saturni (Latin).
Russian name « Saturday”, El Sabado (Spanish), Sabato (Italian) and Samedi (French) go back to the Hebrew“ Shabbat ”meaning“ rest, rest ”.
Lauantai (Fin.), Lördag (Sw.), Loverdag (Dat.) Are similar to the ancient German Laugardagr and mean "the day of ablution". In Hindi, Saturday is Saturn Day.

Sunday - Sun Day in Latin, English and German, in many languages ​​this day is indicated various variations the words "Sun / Son".
Domingo(Spanish), Dimanche (French), Domenica (Italian) in translation mean " Day of the lord"and are the stratification brought to Europe along with Christianity.

Russian " Sunday"appeared in the same way, replacing the old name of this day" Week ", preserved in other Slavic languages ​​- Week (Bol.), Nedilya (Ukrainian), Nedele (Czech.). In Hindi, Sunday is the Day of the Sun.
……………

And finally, about days and hours.

Day- a unit of any calendar, the allocation of which is based on the alternation of day and night. This division of the day originated in Ancient Babylon, the priests of which believed that day and night consisted of twelve hours. Officially dividing the day by 24 hours introduced by the Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the II century. AD

The first hour began at dawn, noon was always six o'clock, and sunset was always twelfth. And the length of the hour was a variable, depended on the length of daylight hours.

For a successful study of history, you need to know well what a calendar is, how it appeared, and what calendars exist.

Calendar is called a system of time reckoning, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of the Sun and the Moon.

The first calendar in history appeared in Ancient Babylon. It was a lunar calendar - a time measurement system associated with a change appearance Moon (phases of the moon). The time between the same phases is called month. Unfortunately, the lunar calendar does not reflect the changing seasons, and over time, people began to use solar motion-based calendar

Suns across the sky. According to this system, time is divided into years and days (days). To facilitate the calculation of time, the days were conventionally combined into weeks and months.

The oldest calendar was created around 2500 BC. NS. in Mesopotamia. It consisted of twelve months and was solar-lunar, but since it lagged behind the solar calendar, several days had to be regularly added to it so that the calendar did not diverge from the seasons of field work.

The reckoning of time in antiquity was different from the modern one. For the ancient Greeks, the day began at dawn, and for the Germans, at night. The peoples, who often fought, divided the day into "guards". The Babylonians and Jews had three guards for a day, and the Romans had four. The day was divided into night and day, which lasted 12 hours. Since the length of the day during the year was not constant, the hours had different durations.

V lunar calendars the length of months is the same - 30 days, but these calendars do not accurately measure the length of the year.

At the end of the year, the Egyptians began to add 5 days so that it was 365 days, there was no division into weeks. The Egyptians divided the year into seasons of field work, the names of which were associated with natural phenomena: the season of flooding, the season of the return of the river to the coast, and the season of low water. All major seasons lasted four months.

Chronology of the calendars:Material from the site

1. Initial ancient roman calendar(the time of occurrence is not known for certain).
2. Julian calendar(introduced around 45 BC by Julius Caesar; this calendar is still used by the Orthodox Church).
3. Gregorian calendar(introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII; still in use).

In Ukraine and Russia, the Gregorian calendar has been in effect since January 31, 1918. After February 1, February 14 came. Since that time, the concepts “ old style"And" new style ". The difference between them is 13 days. Therefore, in addition to the New Year, we also celebrate the Old New Year, which comes on the night of January 14th.

The dates of the celebration of Christmas for Catholics (on the night of December 25) and Orthodox Christians (on the night of January 7) differ by the same number of days.

On this page material on topics:

Let's talk about what a calendar is, what it is. Throughout its history, this word has had different meanings... The term itself comes from the Latin calendae. This is the first day of the month in Ancient Rome... Later, the word calendarium appeared - a debt book, in which on every day of the new month the creditors entered obligations and interest on them. But in the Middle Ages, the word has already acquired a modern meaning.

Calendar: definition and short classification

So what is a calendar in our understanding? This is a kind of frame of reference for long periods of time with their division into more short periods(year, month, week, day). The need to coordinate with each other and the day led to the emergence of several calendar systems, or rather three:

• solar calendar,
• lunar,
• lunar-solar.

The solar calendar was based on the rotation of the Sun, while agreeing
day and year. Lunar - on the movement of the Moon, coordinating the day with the lunar
month. In the lunisolar calendar, an attempt was made to connect all these time intervals.

From the history of the calendar

And now let's make another small excursion into history. Calendar showing the day, day of the week, month and allowing you to count how much time is left until some important event, first created in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians needed it to calculate the number of days left before the flood of the Nile. They had to prepare for this date in advance: clean the canals, repair the dams. It was extremely important for them. If they had not kept the water, it would have simply gone into the sea, and the harvest would have been lost without moisture. The priests noticed that a very bright star appears in the sky at dawn. Now they call her Sirius. It was on this day that the Nile began to flood. Then the Egyptians calculated that this star appears once every 365 days. They divided these days into 12 intervals, each of which consisted of 30 days (now we call them months). They placed the last 5 days at the very end of the year. This is what the "progenitor" of our modern calendar had.

Over time, the Egyptians realized that they had made a mistake in their calculations. Indeed, after 4 years, Sirius was late for a whole day. And after eight years for one more ... They found out that the year has 365 days and 6 more hours. The difference seems to us quite small, but in 4 years, the whole day runs up. The Egyptians did not change their calendar. And only in 46 BC. NS. changes in their time system were made by the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. After that, the calendar was called Julian. According to it, each of the months of the year consisted of a different number of days (31, 30, and February - 28). To the shortest (February), one day was added once every 4 years. Now we call this a leap year. As you know, it has 366 days.

The modern calendar is slightly different from the ancient Egyptian and Julian ones, has its own nuances ... More careful calculations made it possible to determine the length of the year up to seconds. It would seem what a trifle all these minutes and seconds. But for 400 years they ran over for three days. Consequently, the calendar was again inaccurate. And again it was necessary to make adjustments.

In 1582, Gregory XII made his own changes and called the calendar
Gregorian. Time passed. For many years, the discrepancy between the Julian and amounted to as much as 13 days. Europe switched to the time reckoning proposed by the Pope. But Russia has long preferred the Julian. In 1918, when switching to a new calendar, 13 days had to be removed at once. It was January 31 in Russia, and February 14 immediately came. And until now, when describing the events of a century ago, many sources often indicate not one, but two dates - the old and the new style. It should be noted that the current calendar, to which we are all accustomed, is also imperfect and contains its own errors. We are talking about an error of one day, which accumulates over 3300 years.

Varieties of calendars

It should be noted that at present the calendar is not just a means of determining the day, year, month. It has a wider application, which means that there should be several varieties of it. We've all heard, for example, about children's calendars. And there is also church, astrological, meteorological, etc. Let us briefly dwell on each of them. And let's start with the childish one.

For the little ones

So, let's figure out what a calendar for children is, discuss what its purpose and distinctive features are.

The children's development calendar helps parents monitor the growth and developmental changes of the baby: has he gained enough weight? How tall is it? Is there any progress in motor development, psychoemotional? How to deal with a child correctly, what are the first toys to offer him? Each baby is individual, and therefore develops at its own pace, and his achievements may not coincide with generally accepted norms. The task of calendars for children in this case is precisely to help parents navigate in the necessary parameters.

We monitor the weather

It would be unfair in the course of our conversation to ignore such varieties as astrological, religious, weather calendars. The first two types are well known to us. But the question of weather calendars should be studied more closely. The very history of their origin is interesting. So let's take a look at what a weather calendar is and what it is for.

Its appearance is due to the first need for people to systematize
their observations of weather phenomena. The calendar entered information about meteorological conditions on different days of the year, months, seasons. By analogy with astrological, weather predicted the future state of nature. Such calendars were still in ancient Rome. The peak of their enthusiasm falls on the Middle Ages. In those days, even the "Book of Nature" (1340) was published.

It is not hard to imagine how difficult it is to calculate long-term forecasts.
To serve them only on the basis of conventional signs is simply naive. But many weather calendars have been drawn up this way. And people believed in them. One of these was the centenary calendar. And it arose in the following way. Abbot Mauritius Knauer lived in the 17th century. After a hard war between Protestants and Catholics
the lands were devastated and devastated. Agriculture has fallen into disrepair. Abbot Knauer was very concerned about this. The weather did not please him either. Snow and late frosts in spring interfered with sowing, the crops soaked from the rainstorms, drought in summer ruined the harvest. Abbot Knauer began to keep a diary of observations of the weather. Of course, he did not have any meteorological instruments. He simply wrote down his observations, gave subjective assessments. The Holy Father mistakenly believed that the weather depends on bright lights. He tried to find patterns. The abbot made his observations for 7 years. According to his calculations, the weather was to be repeated in the next seven years (according to the number of celestial bodies known at that time). However, he later became convinced that his predictions did not come true. Having failed, the abbot stopped keeping his observation diary. However, on their basis, he nevertheless published a book-guide for monasteries on farming.

Years passed, and the records of the abbot got to the astrologer-physician Helvig. And he, using them, published a weather calendar for a hundred years, the so-called centenary calendar. He was, of course, unscientific. But it was used throughout Germany. And in translations it spread throughout Europe. The scope of its application was quite wide, sometimes the forecasts even coincided. And people quickly forgot about unjustified "predictions" ...

Well, we examined what a calendar is, how it appeared, remembered what kinds of it exist today. We hope the information was useful to you, and you learned a lot of new and interesting things for yourself.

Before the discovery of America and the beginning of its conquest by Europeans, the territories of present-day Mexico, Guatemala and some other countries were occupied by the Aztec empire, which created a very original calendar. The year consisted of 18 months, 20 days in each, and the “remaining” 5 days were considered “unlucky”. This calendar was carved into a huge stone. It had the shape of a circle, with a diameter of about 4 meters. Each day was marked on it with its own symbol.

Creating a modern, generally accepted calendar
Now there are many different calendar systems created by different peoples and priests of different religions. Some of them are still in limited use. Most of the calendars were calculated on the basis of the revealed astronomical patterns, first of all, the movement of heavenly bodies. These systems could differ significantly from each other. Additional confusion was introduced by the difference between the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, as well as the fact that the duration of the period of the Earth's revolution around the Sun (year) is not a multiple of the period of the Earth's revolution around its own axis (days). As a result, with a sufficiently long use of each specific calendar, errors necessarily accumulated, gradually becoming more and more noticeable. This caused the need for calendar reforms.
Such reforms have been carried out several times. For example, the calendar was reformed by the Roman emperors: Caesar, Octavian (Augustus) and others. The most famous is the reform carried out by Pope Gregory XIII, when the "Gregorian" calendar was created, which is now accepted as the main one in most countries and the UN.

Gregorian calendar
In our country, this current calendar is also called the "new style". The fact is that the outdated Julian calendar continued to operate in Russia until October 1917. The transition to the "new style" took place only after the RCP (b) came to power.

In Catholic countries, the "Gregorian" calendar came into effect on 15. 10. 1582. Its introduction was due to errors accumulated since the time of the previous calendar reform (I Ecumenical Council in 325 AD). The reform consisted of two main parts:
- The error, which has reached 10 days since 325, has been eliminated. Thus, the date of "Easter Friday" was returned and strictly tied to the day of the vernal equinox (21.03). Paschal rules, established by the Council of Nicaea, began to be fulfilled again.
- To prevent the accumulation of errors in the future, an innovation was adopted that provides a more accurate binding of the calendar to astronomical laws. It consists in the fact that during every 4 centuries, three leap years are converted into ordinary ones. For this, a rule was established according to which a year with a number ending in two zeros is considered a leap year only if the number made up by its first two digits is also a multiple of the 4th. For example, 2000 was a leap year. But in 2100, there will be no February 29. For years, the ordinal numbers of which do not end with two zeros, the leap rule has been preserved. If the year number is a multiple of 4, the year is considered a leap year.

The introduction of this amendment significantly slowed down the accumulation of the error in the discrepancy between the calendar year and the astronomical standard. Now the error will accumulate in one day for 3333 years. The described amendment constituted the main difference between the "Gregorian" calendar and the Julian style adopted before its introduction.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles is gradually but steadily increasing: in the XVI-XVII centuries. it was 10 days, in the XVIII century. - 11, in the XIX century. - 12, and in the XX-XXI centuries. reached 13 days. From 15.03.2100 the difference between the styles will be already 14 days. Although the Gregorian calendar provides for the duration of February at 28, or 29 (in a leap year) days, it happened that in some years in some countries (for example, Sweden, 1712) February lasted 30 days.

Chronology in Russia
Reforms of chronology also took place in Russia. One of the most famous is the calendar reform carried out by Peter I, but there were others.
For quite a long time, the date of the new "secular" year was March 1, while the religious year began on September 1. And the date of the "creation of the world" was considered the starting point of the chronology. Later, and "secular" New Year postponed to September 1st. Approximately 200 years later, Peter I carried out his famous reform. Its main goal was to harmonize the Russian calendar and chronology with those adopted in Europe. The date of the coming of the new year was set on January 1, and the starting point of the chronology was the Nativity of Christ. As a result, 01. 01. 7208 was transformed into 01. 01. 1700, and the calendar year preceding the reform (1699) was reduced to 4 months: from September to December. It was the shortest calendar year in the history of our country.

The creation of the first printed calendar in Russia was led by the famous alchemist and scientist J. Bruce. This calendar was scientific work consisting of a set of complex astronomical drawings and graphs. Even specialists cannot understand the calendar (named after its creator, "Bryusovy").

The transition to the modern Gregorian calendar took place on 02/14/1918, shortly after the RCP (b) came to power. However, from 1930 to 1940. the USSR had its own "revolutionary" calendar. But from 1940 on, the country again began to adhere to the "Gregorian" style.

Failed global reform
At the beginning of the twentieth century. there was an initiative for a global calendar reform. The draft of the new calendar, developed then, provided for the division of the year into 13 months of the same duration, 28 days each. "Extra" day, as well as "additional" in leap years it was planned to be isolated and declared festive. Among the advantages of this system was the strict binding of calendar numbers to certain days weeks (all months consisted of exactly 4 weeks) and the possibility of accurate comparison by month of numerous economic and statistical indicators. However, the strict binding of the number to the day of the week was perceived by many (especially superstitious) people as a disadvantage, since Friday would always coincide with the 13th of the month. True, this problem could be solved if the beginning of the week was taken not on Sunday (as, for example, in the USA), but on Monday (as is customary for us).

This project was considered by the League of Nations, but was rejected by it in 1937. Interestingly, one of its ardent supporters, the founder and CEO of Kodak, D. Eastman, introduced this system for internal use in his company back in 1928, where it was used until 1989.

So, I told you about how the calendar came about, what interesting moments were when creating this or that calendar, and, probably, each of you understood that this article is dedicated to the fact that after some 14 days a new one will come 2017 year - year fire rooster and of course I can't help but tell you about the nuances of the new calendar for 2017, in general the "Calendar555" service (https://calendar555.ru/) will do it best of all, and this is just a small part of what you can find out on this site: Calendar 2017 on this service will tell you about holidays and weekends, about all official holidays, as well as about a variety of other holidays celebrated both in our country and abroad. In 2017, there are fourteen official holidays in the Russian Federation. 3 days have been moved to weekdays, which will give us the opportunity to relax at home longer. And a huge number of professional, folk and religious holidays.