What is a historical calendar. Calendar

The name "calendar" comes from the Latin "calendarium", which translates as "debt book". With the help of the calendar, long time periods are counted, the calculation of which is based on the movement of space objects observed from the Earth, for example, the Moon, the Sun, and, of course, the Earth.

In the calendar currently in use, a week is defined as a period of time consisting of 7 days. But earlier, some calendars provided for the division not into weeks, but into decades. This construction was adopted in Egypt and France. The ancient Mayan calendar provided for weeks that consisted of 13 or 20 days.

The Gregorian calendar currently adopted in Europe originated from the Roman one by improving it first into the Julian, and then into the one familiar to us today. The first Roman calendar was inaccurate, as it was based only on the movement of the Moon and the Sun, and the chronology began from the date of the founding of Rome.

The Romans measured time by "consuls". The beginning of the year corresponded to the modern March 1, and the duration was determined by 304 days or 10 months. The peculiarity of this calendar was that it had an unnumbered and uncountable period that fell on winter. It began at the end of 304 days and lasted until the first day of spring. This period was controlled by special priests-pontiffs. In fact, they made serious mistakes, partly due to lack of education, and partly because they pursued their own selfish interests. This consisted in the fact that on the day of the "calend" it was customary to repay debts and pay interest. This is where the name “calendarium” comes from.

The Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar was engaged in bringing the calendar into a strict framework. He reformed the calendar into the so-called "Julian". According to the new calendar, the year consisted of 365.25 days. However, it was also inaccurate: for 128 years, the error was 1 day. Also, to improve accuracy, the calendar once every 4 years provided for a leap year equal to 366 days, which was 1 day more than a normal year. For these and other merits in the field of military art and politics, the month of July was named after the above-mentioned great emperor.

The next time the calendar was improved after the spread of Christianity around the world. In the new calendar, the date of the birth of Jesus Christ was taken as the starting point. This event, as well as the resurrection of the Lord, entered the Gregorian calendar with selected dates.

This calendar was calculated so that the date of the equinox always coincided with March 21 (the date of the equinox in 325, at the time of the Council of Nicaea).

The modern Gregorian calendar is used by most of the world's population. It was put into effect by decree of Pope Gregory in February 1582. At the same time, a pass of 10 days was provided for in the period from October 4 to October 15, 1582. All countries professing the Catholic religion have adopted this calendar.

Timekeeping in Russia

Since then, when Prince Vladimir ruled in Rus', the Byzantine system of chronology was used on the territory of the principalities. Time was counted from the day of the creation of Adam, namely from March 1 of the year of creation. Subsequently, the countdown of the new year began to be conducted from September 1. This decision is attributed to Tsar Ivan III.

For more than 2 centuries, the inhabitants of Rus' celebrated the New Year on September 1. Peter I brought our calendar to the same chronology with Europe. His decree ordered to calculate the year from January 1, and recognize the year 7208 “from the creation of the world”, 1700 from the birth of Christ. The complete transition of our country to the Gregorian calendar happened only in 1918 and was secured by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars.

Let's talk about what a calendar is, what it is. This word has had different meanings throughout its history. 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 each day of the new month, obligations and interest on them were entered by creditors. But in the Middle Ages, the word has already acquired a modern meaning.

Calendar: definition and brief classification

So what is a calendar in our understanding? This is a kind of reference system for long periods of time with their division into shorter 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,
• lunisolar.

The solar calendar was based on the rotation of the Sun, while coordinating
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 periods of time.

From the history of the calendar

And now we will make one more small digression into history. A calendar that shows the date, day of the week, month and allows you to calculate how much time is left before some important event was first created in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians needed it to count the number of days left before the Nile flooded. By this date, they had to prepare in advance: clean the canals, repair the dams. For them it was extremely important. If they had not retained water, it would simply have gone into the sea, and the harvest would have been lost without moisture. The priests noticed that a very bright star appeared in the firmament at dawn. Now it is called 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). The last 5 days they placed at the very end of the year. This is how the "progenitor" of our modern calendar looked like.

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

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

In 1582, Gregory XII made his own changes and named the calendar
Gregorian. Time passed. For many years, the discrepancies between the Julian and amounted to as much as 13 days. Europe switched to the time reckoning proposed by the Pope. But Russia for a long time preferred the Julian. In 1918, when switching to a new calendar, 13 days had to be removed at once. In Russia it was January 31st, and immediately came February 14th. And until now, when describing the events of a hundred years 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 accumulate 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 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 a child.

For the little ones

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

The baby development calendar helps parents to monitor the growth and changes in the development of the baby: has he gained enough weight? What is his height? Is there any progress in motor development, psycho-emotional? How to properly engage with a child, what first toys to offer him? Each baby is individual, and therefore develops at its own pace, and its achievements may not coincide with generally accepted standards. The task of calendars for children in this case is precisely to help parents navigate the necessary parameters.

We follow 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 carefully. The history of their origin is interesting. So, let's look at what a weather calendar is and what it is for.

Its appearance is due to the first need of people to systematize
their observations of the weather. The calendar entered information about weather 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 passion for them falls on the Middle Ages. In those days, even the "Book of Nature" (1340) was published.

It is easy to imagine how difficult it is to calculate long-term forecasts.
Serving them only on the basis of ordinary signs is simply naive. But many weather calendars have been compiled in 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 fell into decline. Abbot Knauer was very concerned about this. The weather did not please him either. Snow and late frosts in the spring prevented sowing, crops were soaked from the rains, and drought in the summer ruined the crop. Abbot Knauer began to keep a diary of weather observations. 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 the bright stars. He tried to find patterns. The abbot made his observations for 7 years. According to his calculations, the weather was to repeat itself in the next seven years (according to the number of celestial bodies known at that time). However, later he became convinced that his predictions did not materialize. Having failed, the abbot stopped keeping his diary of observations. However, on their basis, he nevertheless published a book-guide for monasteries on farming.

Years passed, and the abbot's notes came to the astrologer-physician Helwig. And he, using them, published a weather calendar for a hundred years, the so-called centenary calendar. Of course, he was anti-scientific. 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 have examined what a calendar is, how it appeared, and remembered what varieties of it exist today. We hope that the information was useful to you, and you learned a lot of new and interesting things for yourself.

Introduction

In the classes of the "Fundamentals of project activity" circle, while working on the "History of one thing" meta-theme, we became interested in: how the chronology was conducted earlier, how the calendar was created, according to which time is counted at the present time. Therefore, the theme of our study is called "History of the calendar."

Target: see the history of the creation of the calendar

Tasks:

• find and select the necessary material on the topic of the project;
• describe the essential features of calendars of different times;
• introduce modern types of calendars and their purpose;
• reveal the concept of new and old styles in the calendar;
• determine which years in the calendar are leap years, and learn how to determine them;
• identify problems when creating calendars;
• describe the content of the perpetual calendar;
• make a presentation on the topic of the project.

An object: calendar

Item: use of calendars in reckoning

Methods: description, analysis, questioning, study of the theoretical foundations of the project topic.

Theoretical significance: study the history of the calendar, expand knowledge on the topic.

Practical significance: use of different calendars, based on their content.

1. The history of the creation of calendars

2.1. Etymology of the word "calendar"

The word "calendar" came to us from the ancient Romans. It comes from the Latin words "caleo" - to proclaim and "calendarium" - debt book. At the beginning of the year, it was customary for the Romans to pay off their debts. The debt book in Rome was called "calendarium". Later, the meaning of this word was transferred to the entire time counting system.

2.2. First calendar

The progenitor of the Gregorian and Julian calendars is the ancient Egyptian solar calendar, which appeared as early as the 3rd millennium BC. Astronomical priests noticed that when the star Sothis (Sirius) begins to appear in the night sky, the Nile floods. This sign was the basis of the Egyptian calendar. The calendar consisted of 365 days, which were divided into 3 seasons: the Nile flood season, the Nile water recession season, and the drought season. The Egyptian calendar was quite convenient, but over time, the priests noticed that their calendar was starting to get ahead. This gap was small: about 6 hours each year, but over time the error began to accumulate in the calendar. The calendar needed fixing. This correction, or amendment, was proposed by the Egyptian king Ptolemy III Euergetes (c. 284-221 BC; king in 246-221 BC). Its essence was to insert 1 additional day into the calendar every 4 years, which would compensate for the tearing out. However, the priests opposed the adoption of the amendment, so the calendar in Egypt was wandering for a long time.

2.3. Roman calendar

Rome used the lunar calendar for a long time. However, the lunar month (or synodic month, i.e. the period between two identical lunar phases) is only 29.5 days, so after 10 months (304 days) the counting of time stopped and they waited for the onset of spring according to natural signs.

When, according to natural signs, spring came, they waited for the first spring full moon and on this day announced the beginning of the new year. The year, as noted above, consisted of 10 months: Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December. "Secrets of reckoning" were in the hands of priests-pontifices (pontificies).

Often the priests abused their position, which brought confusion to the calendar. So, for example, with the beginning of the new year in Rome, it was customary to pay off debts. But, for a certain amount of money paid to the priests as a bribe, the onset of the new year could be accelerated or slowed down.

The Roman king Numa Pompilius (NumaPompilius 715-673 BC) introduced February (Februarius) and January (Januarius) between December and March, thereby increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. In 450 BC February was moved to its present position between January and March.

To compensate for the lack of days in the year, an additional month "Mercedonius" (Mercedonius or Intercalans) was introduced, which consisted of 22 or 23 days. This month takes its name from the verb mercere, to fade. The right to determine the duration is granted to the priests-pontiffs. So the Roman calendar turned into a lunisolar, and now it was believed that its duration was 365.25 days.

Time was kept in eight-year periods: a total of 2930 days were obtained. It turned out that on average there were 366.25 days in a year (2930/8), which is more than it actually is. To prevent the calendar from jumping ahead, 7 days were skipped after each eight-year cycle. Thus, the average length of the year was 365.375 days.

Unfortunately, all this was only in theory. In practice, the pontiffs, using their uncontrolled power, often manipulated the length of the year, introducing confusion and confusion, until Gaius Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 45 BC.

Conclusion: The Roman calendar was created on the basis of natural signs of spring. The use of such a calendar was convenient for the authorities.

2.4. Julian calendar

The time of the Incarnation and the founding of the Church has approached. Some of the participants in the events described by the evangelists were already walking on the land of Palestine. From January 1, 45 BC, a new calendar was introduced in the Roman Empire by order of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44). This calendar, now called the Julian, was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers headed by Sosigenes. From then until the 16th century, Europe lived according to the Julian calendar.

With the coming to power of Octavian Augustus, minor changes were made to it. First, the beginning of the new year was moved to January 1st. The names of the months remained unchanged. Secondly, the senate renamed the sextile after Augustus and named it Augustus. Thirdly, one day was taken away from February and added to August. And so that three months in a row did not have 31 days each, one day was taken from September and moved to October; then one day was taken away from November and moved to December. So the calendar became similar to the one we use today.

The Julian calendar eventually spread throughout Europe and lasted for more than 1600 years before an attempt was made to replace it with a new, more accurate calendar. In the Julian calendar, a day is taken as 24 hours, and a year is equal to 365.25 days. The Julian calendar is compiled precisely taking into account the three main astronomical objects - the Sun, Moon and stars. This gives reason to consider it a truly biblical calendar. For all its merits, the Julian calendar was never used anywhere until the 1st century BC. BC

More careful calculations showed that if we take a day equal to 24 hours (in fact, they are equal to 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, and 24 hours are taken for simplicity), then 1 year will be equal to 365.26 days, that is, by 0.01 more days than the Julian calendar. Therefore, the Julian calendar began to lag behind by about 1 day every 128 years, which gave rise to the introduction of a new calendar - the Gregorian.

Conclusion: The Julian calendar is based on three main astronomical objects - the Sun, Moon and stars. According to this calendar, one day was lost every 128 years.

2.5. Gregorian calendar

The reason for the adoption of the new calendar was the gradual shift in relation to the Julian calendar of the day of the vernal equinox, according to which the date of Easter was determined, and the mismatch of the Easter full moons with astronomical ones. Before Gregory XIII, Popes Paul III and Pius IV tried to implement the project, but they did not achieve success. The preparation of the reform at the direction of Gregory XIII was carried out by the astronomers Christopher Clavius ​​and Luigi Lilio (aka Aloysius Lily). The results of their work were as follows: firstly, the new calendar immediately at the time of adoption shifted the current date by 10 days due to accumulated errors, secondly, a new, more accurate rule about leap years began to operate in it, thirdly, rules for calculating Christian Easter corresponding to the canonical rules for celebrating Easter. In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, according to which, in 1918, January 31 was followed by February 14.

In October 1582, the Gregorian calendar appeared in a number of European countries (named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it by issuing a corresponding bull). This calendar was introduced in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, France. In these countries, October 4 immediately followed October 15, because at that time the Julian calendar was 10 days behind the Gregorian.

Today, the Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian; this difference will persist until 2100, after which it will reach 14 days. The Gregorian calendar has spread throughout the world over time.

Conclusion: Unlike the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar takes into account only one object - the Sun. It is drawn up in such a way that the vernal equinox (when the lengths of day and night are equal) would deviate as slowly as possible from the date of March 21. At the same time, the connection of the calendar with the moon and stars was destroyed; in addition, the calendar became more complicated and lost its rhythm (compared to the Julian). In order to equalize the 6 hour lag per year, a leap year was introduced.

2.6 Modern types of calendars

All types of calendars are based on the Gregorian calendar (except for the Orthodox calendar).

We managed to find calendars with a variety of names: “Family”, “Youth”, “Sports”, “Cookery and preparations”, “Bless, my soul, Lord” (Patriarchal Orthodox calendar), etc.

Conclusion: Types of calendars in modern society are compiled based on their content and are based on the Gregorian calendar.

1. old and new style

In 1948, at the Moscow Conference of the Orthodox Churches, it was decided that Easter, like all passing holidays, should be calculated according to the Alexandrian Paschalia (Julian calendar), and non-passing according to the calendar according to which the Local Church lives. The Finnish Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Gregorian calendar. Hence, such an unusual holiday as the Old New Year arose (January 1, according to the Julian style, is January 14, according to the Gregorian style). Of course, the Gregorian calendar is not absolutely accurate, but an error of 1 day will accumulate in it only after 3300 years. However, until 2800, it completely coincides with the Gregorian calendar. (Information taken from the missionary Orthodox portal - www.dishupravoslaviem.ru).

In the Orthodox calendar, the old and new style of reckoning is indicated. It indicates church holidays, fasts; dictionary of names, lives of saints, list of troparia; prayers and gospel readings for every day; directory of temples and monasteries in Russia

Conclusion: The old calendar style is based on the Julian calendar, while the new style is based on the Gregorian.

1. Leap yearsyears in calendars

Due to the fact that for a complete revolution around the Sun, the Earth rotates around its axis not the full number of times. That is, there is an incomplete number of days in a year, and this happens 365 times, which actually corresponds to the number of days in a year. In fact - a little more: 365, 25, that is, in a year it runs extra 6 hours, and to be completely accurate, then extra 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 14 seconds. In order to equalize the six-hour offset, a leap year was introduced. Three years were counted as 365 days, and in each year, a multiple of four, one additional day was added in February. There are 97 leap years in a 400-year cycle.

We were interested in what students in schools know about the leap year. For this purpose, a survey was conducted.

The survey showed that 82% of school students know the number of days in a leap year, 68% of students know how to determine a leap year.

A leap year can be defined as follows: every year whose number is a multiple of 4 is a leap year. However, every year that is a multiple of 100 is not a leap year. However, every year that is a multiple of 400 is still a leap year 1600, 2000, etc.

Conclusion: In order to equalize the six-hour offset, a leap year was introduced. Three years were counted as 365 days, and in each fourth year - 366 days. A leap year is a multiple of four.

1. Problems creating calendars

In order to better understand the aesthetics and logic of the calendar, you need to know the problems when creating it. Building a calendar includes two fairly independent procedures. The first is empirical in nature: it is necessary to measure the duration of astronomical cycles as accurately as possible. The second procedure is already purely theoretical: on the basis of the observations made, to create such a system for measuring time, which, on the one hand, would deviate as little as possible from the chosen space landmarks, and on the other hand, would not be very cumbersome and complex.

Conclusion: When creating calendars, scientists must rely on accurate astronomical data and use a simple system of time measurement.

How much extra time you have to spend on drawing up quarterly and monthly plans, on calculating vacations and wages of workers and employees. How many tons of paper is spent every year on publishing calendars just because one year is not like another? Well, how could it be otherwise? Maybe. This unusual calendar has 364 days and two additional days without a number and a name (one for a normal year, the other for a leap year). Each year starts on a Sunday and each date has a fixed day of the week. True, there is no such calendar in any country yet. This is just a project proposed by the UN. It must be approved by representatives of all countries of the world. And then…

There are several versions of the Perpetual Calendar, we liked one of the options (Appendix No. 1).

Conclusion: The perpetual calendar proposed by the UN is a project, but it is convenient to use and will free people from unnecessary paperwork.

1. Conclusion

The chosen theme of the project "History of the calendar" allowed solving the problem: how the calendar was created, according to which the chronology was and is being kept. We consider our study to have taken place, since the set goal has been achieved and the planned tasks have been solved. We have found, selected and studied material about calendars used earlier and at the present time. We have revealed the concepts of the old and new styles in the calendar.

In modern Russia, an Orthodox Christian lives according to two calendars at once: the church (Julian, also called the old style) and the civil (Gregorian, new style), introduced in 1918, according to which almost the whole world lives. The difference between these calendars over the past hundred years is 13 days, and in the XXII century it will increase by another day.

As a result of working on the project, we learned that due to the fact that for a complete revolution around the Sun, the Earth rotates around its axis not the full number of times. That is, there is an incomplete number of days in a year, and this happens 365 times, which actually corresponds to the number of days in a year. In fact - a little more: 365, 25, that is, in a year it runs extra 6 hours, and to be completely accurate, then extra 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 14 seconds. In order to equalize the six-hour offset, a leap year was introduced. It can be determined if any year is divisible by 4. At a certain time, calendars were created by the long labor of man, taking into account astronomical cycles and convenient measurement of time. Interesting information was received about the creation of the Perpetual Calendar, which will unload people from paperwork.

Conclusions: The first calendars appeared a very long time ago, so it is impossible to determine the exact date of their appearance. In 1584, the Belarusian lands switched to the new Gregorian calendar. Currently, there are various types of calendars that differ in content, but are based on the Gregorian calendar (except for the Orthodox one).
Whatever the calendars, their functions and purposes are similar: they help a person to properly organize time, plan business, meetings, allow you not to forget the birthdays of relatives, holidays, and noteworthy dates.

1. Literature

1. Bikerman E. Chronology of the ancient world. M., 1975
2. Butkevich A.V., Zelikson M.S. Perpetual calendars. M., 1984
3. Volodomonov N.V. Calendar: past, present, future. M., 1987
4. Klimishin I.A. Calendar and chronology. M., 1990
5. Kulikov S. The thread of times: a small encyclopedia of the calendar. M., 1991

Internet resources:
www.abc-people.com/event/calendar.htm http://biblioteka.agava.ru/vi/zametki_o_nash.htm http://www.bibl.ru/vi/zametki_o_nash.htmhttp://biblioteka.agava. ru/vi/zametki_o_nash.htm http://www.bibl.ru/vi/zametki_o_nash.htm http://www.chat.ru/~fatus/easter.html ftp://login.dknet.dk/pub/ ct/calendar.faq http://hbar.phys.msu.su/gorm/chrono/christ0.htm http://www.britannica.com. http://www.webexhibits.com/calendarshttp://www.webexhibits.com/calendars http://petals.newmail.ru http://anime.ru/Articles/calendar.htm.http://www. astrolab.ruhttp://www.astrolab.ru http://pi.zen.ru/arhiv/2003/010/calendar.shtml https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B8 %D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4
http://www.net4lady.ru/kalendar-visokosnyx-let/
http://vseproson.com/news.php?k=visokosnyiy-2016-god-%96-primetyi-i-sueveriya&readmore=101
http://rusevik.ru/blog/1444

Application No. 1

Option 1 - from 1901 to 2096

• In order to find out the day of the week for a specific day, you need:
  1. Find in the first table the number corresponding to the specified year and month;
  2. Add this number to the number of the day;
  3. Find the resulting number in the second table and see what day of the week it corresponds to.
• Example: you want to determine what day of the week it was February 22 2007.
  1. The number corresponding February (f) 2007 in table 1 is equal to 3 .
  2. 22+3=25 .
  3. The number 25 in table 2 corresponds to Thursday This is the desired day of the week.
• Table. Note: Leap years are highlighted in grey. The months are indicated by the first letters of their names.

Calendar- a number system for long periods of time, based on the periodicity of the movement of celestial bodies.

In order to somehow coordinate the day, month and year, many calendars were created by different peoples in different eras. All of them can be divided into three main types: lunar(which were based on the periodicity of the movement of the moon), solar(respectively, on the periodicity of the motion of the Sun) and lunisolar(which were based on the periods of motion of the Moon and the Sun).

Word "calendar" derived from Latin calendarium - this was the name of the promissory note in ancient Rome: debtors paid interest on the day of calends, the first days of the month.

His home is Babylon. In this calendar, the year consisted of 12 lunar months, each having 29 or 30 days. The Muslim lunar calendar still exists today in some Arab countries. The number of days in the months in this calendar changes so that the first of the month begins with a new moon. The duration of the year is 354 or 355 mean solar days. Thus, it is shorter than the solar year by 10 days.

solar calendar

The first solar calendars appeared in Ancient Egypt several millennia BC. For them, a year was the interval between two successive heliacal risings of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. They noticed that the pre-dawn sunrises of Sirius approximately coincided with the beginning of the flood of the Nile, and their harvest depended on this. Observations of the appearance of Sirius made it possible to determine the length of the year - 360, and then 365 days. Based on these observations, a solar calendar was created: the year was divided into 12 months of 30 days each. The year was also divided into 3 seasons of 4 months each: the time of the flood of the Nile, the time of sowing, the time of harvest. After specifying the duration of the solar year, an additional 5 days were added at the end of the year.

And the solar calendar, which is now used by almost all countries of the world, originated with the ancient Romans. Already from the middle of the eighth century. BC. they used a calendar in which the year consisted of 10 months and contained 304 days. In the 7th century BC. its reform was carried out: another 2 months were added to the calendar year, and the number of days was increased to 355. But it did not correspond to the phenomena of nature, and therefore an additional month was inserted every 2 years, which alternately contained 22, then 23 days. Thus, every 4 years consisted of two years of 355 days and two extended years of 377 and 378 days.

But this introduced a fair amount of confusion, because it was the duty of the priests to change the continuation of the months, who sometimes abused their power and arbitrarily lengthened or shortened the year.

In 46 BC A new reform of the Roman calendar was carried out by Julius Caesar, a Roman statesman and commander. Hence the name julian calendar. Counting began on January 1, 45 BC. In 325 the Julian calendar was adopted by Byzantium.

But the spring equinox every 128 years according to the Julian calendar receded by 1 day, in the 16th century it was already 10 days behind, which complicated the calculations of church holidays. Therefore, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, convened a commission to create a calendar according to which the day of the vernal equinox would return to March 21 and no longer deviate from this date. The new system was called Gregorian calendar, or new style. In Russia, the new style was adopted only in 1918, although in most European countries it was introduced in the 16th-17th centuries.

This is a more perfect calendar, in which the lunar months approximately agree with the solar year. The first such calendars appeared in ancient Greece in the 1st millennium BC. The year according to this calendar was divided into 12 months, starting with the new moon. For connection with the seasons (solar year), an additional 13th month was inserted. This system has survived to the present day in the Jewish calendar.

Story

Each nation used its own methods of dating historical events. Some tried to count the years from the creation of the world: the Jews dated it to 3761 BC. e., Alexandrian chronology considered this date May 25, 5493 BC. e. The Romans began counting from the legendary founding of Rome (753 BC). The Parthians, Bithynians, and others counted the years from the accession to the throne of the first king, the Egyptians - from the beginning of the reign of each subsequent dynasty. Each world religion founded its own calendar: according to the Byzantine calendar, it is 7521 years from the Creation of the World, in Islam - 1433 Hijri, according to the Buddhist calendar it is 2555 years of the era of Nirvana, according to the Baha'i calendar - 168 years.

Translation from one chronology to another presents difficulties because of the different length of the year and because of the different date of the beginning of the year in different systems.

How about in Russia?

In ancient Rus', time was counted according to the four seasons of the year. The lunisolar calendar was also used, in which every 19 years included seven additional months. There was a seven-day week (week).

After the establishment of Christianity in 988, the years began to be counted according to the Julian calendar from the "creation of the world", more precisely, from the "creation of Adam" - from Friday 1 March, accepting the Byzantine version of this date - 5508 BC, but with some deviations. In Byzantium, the year began on September 1st. In Rus', according to ancient tradition, spring was considered the beginning of the year, so the year began on March 1.

During the time of Ivan III in 1492 (in 7000 from the "creation of the world") the beginning of the year was moved on September 1. The first printed church calendar in Russia was made on May 5, 1581. Ivan Fedorov.

Peter I replaced the chronology from the “creation of the world” in force in Russia with the chronology from the Nativity of Christ from January 1, 1700 (the difference between the two chronology systems is 5508 years). By decree of the emperor of December 19 (29), 1699, January 1 (11) 1700 of the year "... and the future of Genvar from the 1st of the new year of 1700 will come, together with a new centenary age ...". On December 28, 1708, the first civil calendar was issued.

The difference between the old and new styles was 10 days in the 16th-17th centuries, 11 days in the 18th century, 12 days in the 19th century, and 13 days in the 20th-21st centuries.

As mentioned earlier, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Soviet Russia on February 14, 1918. From 1930 to 1940, the Soviet revolutionary calendar was used.

During the operation of the Soviet revolutionary calendar, the Gregorian calendar was used in parallel in some cases. On August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR" recognized the need to start a systematic and consistent transfer of enterprises and institutions to continuous production from the 1929-1930 financial year. The transition to "continuous work", which began in the autumn of 1929, was consolidated in the spring of 1930. A single production time sheet was introduced. The calendar year provided for 360 days and, accordingly, 72 five-day periods. It was decided to consider the remaining 5 days as holidays.

The picture shows a timesheet calendar for 1939. In fact, this is a calendar for any year, the only difference is the presence or absence of February 29th. Therefore, on the one hand, this calendar can be called permanent. However, six-day periods (that is, weeks) were not continuous, since the thirty-first days of the months were not included in six-day periods. It is also interesting that after the fourth day of the six-day period - February 28 - the first day of the six-day period immediately follows - March 1.

The week in the USSR in 1929-1930 consisted of five days, while all workers were divided into five groups named by color (yellow, pink, red, purple, green), and each group had its own day off (non-working) day on week (the so-called "continuity"). Despite the fact that there were more days off (one per five days, instead of one per seven days earlier), this reform was unpopular, as it significantly complicated personal, social and family life due to the mismatch of days off for different members of society.

Despite the fact that the chronology continued according to the Gregorian calendar, in some cases the date was indicated as "NN year of the socialist revolution", with a starting point from November 7, 1917. The phrase "NN year of the socialist revolution" was present in tear-off and loose-leaf calendars until 1991 inclusive - until the collapse of the USSR. As an artistic device, the countdown of years from the October Revolution is present in the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The White Guard".

But…

The beginning of the calendar year is a relative concept. At different times in different countries, the new year began on March 25 and December 25, as well as on other days. 12 months in a year and 7 days in a week is also a conditional concept, although it has an astronomical justification.

The establishment of an era is also conditional. There were over 200 different eras associated with various real or religious events.

The system of counting years from the Nativity of Christ is now accepted by most states and is called our era(or new era).

Here, they puzzled my little one, dug around and found it. now I’m thinking how to explain this to an 8-year-old boy so that he can retell it coherently

JULIAN AND GRIGORIAN CALENDARS

The calendar - a table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years familiar to all of us - is the oldest invention of mankind. It fixes the periodicity of natural phenomena, based on the patterns of movement of celestial bodies: the Sun, Moon, stars. The earth rushes along its solar orbit, counting the years and centuries. In a day, it makes one revolution around its axis, and in a year - around the Sun. The astronomical or solar year lasts 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Therefore, there is no whole number of days, which is where the difficulty arises in compiling a calendar that should keep a correct count of time. Since the time of Adam and Eve, people have used the "circle" 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 count the days, and then the months.

In the lunar calendar, at first there were 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. In the ancient world, from the 3rd century BC, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year luni-solar cycle, which gave a discrepancy with the value 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, following the Egyptian model. The solar year was taken as the value of the calendar year, which was slightly more than the astronomical one - 365 days 6 hours. January 1 was legalized as the beginning of the year.

In 26 BC. e. Roman emperor Augustus introduced the Alexandrian calendar, in which 1 more day was added every 4 years: instead of 365 days - 366 days a year, that is, 6 extra hours annually. For 4 years, this amounted to a whole day, which was added every 4 years, and the year in which one day was added in February was called a leap year. In essence, this was a refinement of the same Julian calendar.

For the Orthodox Church, the calendar was the basis of the yearly 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 discussed at the First Ecumenical. Cathedral *, as one of the main ones. Paschalia (the rules for calculating the day of Easter) established at the Council, together with its basis - the Julian calendar - cannot be changed under pain of anathema - excommunication and rejection from the Church.

In 1582, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, introduced a new calendar style - the Gregorian. The purpose of the reform was allegedly to more accurately determine the day of the celebration of Easter, so that the spring equinox would return by March 21. The Council of the Eastern Patriarchs of 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 basic church rules for the date of Easter celebration - it happens that the Catholic Easter falls 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 learned astronomer as Copernicus (being a Catholic monk) did not consider the Gregorian calendar more accurate than the Julian, and did not recognize it. The new style was introduced by the authority of the Pope in place of the Julian calendar, or old style, and was gradually adopted in the Catholic countries. By the way, modern astronomers also use the Julian calendar in their calculations.

In Rus', 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 moved to September 1, and they celebrated this way for more than 200 years. The months had purely Slavic names, the origin of which was associated with natural phenomena. Years were counted from the creation of the world.

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." The decree of the king 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 be considered January 1, 1700 from the birth of Christ. The decree also ordered to celebrate this event with particular solemnity: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and the new centenary century, in fun, congratulate each other on the New Year ... On the noble and passable streets at the gates and houses, make some decoration from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper ... repair shooting from small cannons and guns, launch rockets, as many as anyone happens to, and light fires. The account of years from the Nativity of Christ is accepted by most states of the world. With the spread of godlessness among the intelligentsia and historians, they began to avoid mentioning the name of Christ and replace the countdown of the centuries from His Nativity to the so-called "our era."

After the October Revolution, 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. The initial value of 10 days in the 16th century subsequently increases: in the 18th century - 11 days, in the 19th century - 12 days, in the 20th and 21st centuries - 13 days, in the XXII - 14 days.
The Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar - unlike the Catholics, who use the Gregorian.

At the same time, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by the civil authorities led to some difficulties for Orthodox Christians. The New Year, which is celebrated by all civil society, has been moved to Advent, when it is inappropriate to have fun. In addition, according to the church calendar, January 1 (December 19, old style) commemorates the holy martyr Boniface, who patronizes people who want to get rid of alcohol abuse - and our entire vast country celebrates this day with glasses in their hands. Orthodox people celebrate the New Year "in the old way", January 14. ("Orthodox Encyclopedia")

And this is "coupe de grasse"

Linguistically, the combination of leap year and the word leap year is of interest even now.
Etymologies far from scientific are known. In accordance with folk etymology, it was claimed that the leap year was formed from the temple and the bone. Science excludes such an interpretation. The great Russian linguist I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay at one time rightly criticized such etymologies - myths.
The word leap year is only ancient in education (from vysokost - vysokos with the help of the suffix -н- = -н-), but goes back to the Greek bisextox (from the Latin addition bissextus -bis "twice" and sextus "sixth").
The leap year was named after 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 vysokost - vysokos are reflected in the meaning of a leap year in the monuments of the 13th century. So, in the Ipatiev Chronicle it is said: “On the fourth summer (year), the day comes, we call the high cost.”
The word visokos and the more ancient viskos are not used in modern Russian. In the dictionaries of the 19th century, we meet leap years, outdated for modern Russian orthography.
Leap year, unlike most adjectives, is combined only with the word year. The word leap year has entered the lexicon of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and other languages.
They often make mistakes, falsely associating leap according to the words high and bone - they write or pronounce high or high.

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