Has a very long history. He is a representative of the lunar solar calendar. As in all calendars of this type, the length of its months is alternately 29 and 30 days, every three years a 13th month is added to the Jewish calendar. This month is called Veadar; it is customary to insert it before the month of Nisan every 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the 19-year cycle. Nisan is the first month of the Jewish calendar, and the countdown years is coming from the seventh month, called Tishri. Due to the periodic intercalation of the month Veadara, the spring equinox always falls on a lunation in the month of Nisan.
In the Hebrew calendar, there is an ordinary year, containing 12 months, and an embolismic year, the number of months in which is 13. In the embolismic year, out of the 30 days of the month of Veadara inserted before Nisan, one day is attributed to the sixth month of Adar (usually it contains 29 days), and the remaining 29 days make up the month of Veadar. In general, the Jewish calendar is a very complex calendar, like all lunisolar calendars.
Muslim calendar. Initially, the Arabs used a lunisolar calendar, which resembled the Jewish calendar. It is believed that errors in the old calendar forced the Prophet Muhammad to abandon the extra months and introduce moon calendar, whose first year was 622. The year in this calendar consists of 12 months, alternately containing 29 or 30 days. The average length of the year in this calendar is 354.37 days. It is impossible to add an additional 13th month to these 12 months or an additional day to individual months to match the length of the solar year, with the exception of one extra day in leap lunar years, then the number of days increases from 354 to 355 in order for the new moon to be closer to the first day of the month. It is customary to add this extra day to the last month of the year and then the number of days in it is 30. All lunar calendars have two periods: a period of 8 years is called the “Turkish cycle”, a period of 30 years is called the “Arabic cycle”. Some countries of the East - Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, simultaneously use calendars built on both cycles. It is impossible to add an additional 13th month to these 12 months or an additional day to individual months to coordinate with the length of the solar year, with the exception of one additional day in leap lunar years, when the number of days is increased from 354 to 355 so that the new moon is located close to the first day of the month. This extra day is included in the last month of the year and then the number of days in it is 30.
In the Muslim calendar, with time, the beginning of the year moves all the time. Therefore, in the lunar calendar there are no seasons and no division of months into summer, winter, autumn and spring, due to the fact that they all fall on different times of the year. There are special tables for converting Muslim chronology systems into European ones.
Egyptian calendar. The Egyptian calendar was originally lunar. However, since the whole life of the Egyptians was closely connected with the annual floods of the Nile, they created a different calendar, focusing on the appearance of the star Saturn (it appeared regularly during the summer solstice, and soon the Nile flooded). The Egyptian solar year contained 12 months of 30 days each, and at the end of the last month there were five additional days, so that the total was 365 days. However, over time it turned out that the calendar year was a quarter of a day shorter than the solar year, and over time the calendar diverged more and more from the seasons. Observing more closely the risings of Sirius, the Egyptians came to the conclusion that 1461 Egyptian years of 365 days is equal to 1460 solar years of 365.25 days. The mistake had to be corrected. However, Egyptian priests for a long time prevented any change in the calendar. And only in 238 BC. Ptolemy III issued a decree adding one day to every fourth year, i.e. introduced leap year. Thus, the modern solar calendar was born.
Prehistoric Chinese calendar was lunar. Emperor Yao around 2357 BC, was dissatisfied with the existing lunar calendar, inconvenient to maintain Agriculture, and therefore ordered astronomers to determine the dates of the equinoxes and create a seasonal calendar convenient for agriculture. It was necessary to somehow coordinate the 354-day lunar calendar with the 365-day astronomical year. To resolve this situation, Chinese astronomers proposed to add 7 intercalary months every 19 years, following detailed instructions. As a result, although the solar and lunar years were basically consistent, there were still certain differences that were corrected as they reached a noticeable difference. However, the calendar was still imperfect: the years did not have the same duration, and the equinoxes fell on different dates. The year in the Chinese calendar consisted of 24 crescents. The cycle of the Chinese calendar is 60 years, and has several internal periods. Interestingly, each year of the Chinese calendar has a rather funny name, for example, “year of the cow”, “year of the tiger”, “hare”, “dragon”, etc. These years repeat with a period of 12 years. In 1911, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted in the new Republic of China, and although the peasants continued to use the ancient lunar calendar, it was banned from 1930.
Mayan and Aztec calendars.
The ancient civilization of the Mayan tribe had a very perfect calendar containing 365 days, divided into 18 months of 20 days each, there were still 5 days that were not included in any month. There were 28 weeks in a year, each of which had 13 days; one day was too much. The Mayan calendar was much the same.
The calendar stone of the Aztecs, built on a basalt slab measuring 3.6 m, is very interesting. This stone was found in Mexico, a detachment of Cortes in 1519. In the center of the stone was depicted, surrounded by twenty days of the month, the Sun. Four large rectangles adjoined the sun, in which heads were depicted, symbolizing, apparently, the dates of the four previous world eras. heads and conventional signs in the rectangles of the next circle denote 20 days of the month. The large triangular figures represent the rays of the sun, and the two fiery serpents at the base of the outer circle represent the heat of the heavens.
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There are three types of the most common calendar systems: lunar, lunar-solar, solar.
Lunar calendars, without taking into account the change of seasons, among many peoples of the world preceded other time counting systems. They could be used in primitive era when neither agriculture nor cattle breeding were developed. With the development of productive forms of economy, lunar calendars gave way to lunisolar and solar calendars, which take into account the change of seasons.
According to lunar calendars, the duration of the months is associated only with the change in the phases of the moon; each month, starting with the new moon, lasts alternately 29 and 30 days: 12 months make up a lunar year, which is 354 days. Since the synodic month was longer than the calendar month (by 44 minutes 2.9 seconds), it was required to insert one additional day into the calendar year after a certain number of years. There are two methods by which the astronomical and calendar lunar years are brought into line. Both methods are based on the introduction of an additional day in the year of the lunar calendar. According to one of them, an eight-year period (“Turkish cycle”) was chosen, during which astronomical lunar years lagged behind simple lunar years by three days. In order to equalize the lunar calendar calendar with the lunar astronomical one, an additional day was inserted in the 2nd, 5th, 7th years of the calendar in every eight years. Another way is more accurate. He proceeds from the position that 30 simple lunar years are 11 days ahead of 30 astronomical years. To eliminate the gap, additional days were introduced in the following years of this period, called the Arabic cycle: 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th th, 26th and 29th. Since the year according to the lunar calendar lasted 354 (sometimes 355) days, its beginning was ahead of the year of the solar calendar each time by 11 days. Consequently, the beginning of the year and its parts did not coincide with the seasons, but moved systematically from one season to another.
If at some point the beginning of the year coincided with the beginning of spring, then after about 9 years it marked the beginning of winter, and after the same period it opened autumn. It was impossible to make forecasts of agricultural work according to such a calendar.
Until now, the lunar calendar has been preserved (for religious reasons) in some Muslim countries.
Solar calendars are based on the apparent annual movement of the Sun. The length of a year of twelve months is 365 or 365 1/4 days. Observations of the Sun associated with religion (the cult of the Sun) have been carried out since ancient times among many peoples of the world, but the official calculation of time according to the solar calendar was rare. The most famous is the ancient Egyptian calendar. Solar is the modern international calendar.
In many countries of antiquity there were lunisolar calendars. They took into account both the change in the phases of the moon and the annual movement of the sun. To do this, an additional (thirteenth) month was periodically introduced into the account system. Complex lunisolar calendars were used in ancient times in China, Babylonia, Judea, Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome. Until now, it has been preserved in Israel.
Ancient Egypt calendar
The life of the ancient Egyptian society was closely connected with the Nile. Great importance what mattered to the Egyptians was that the rise of the water in the lower reaches of the river always coincided with the summer solstice.
The constant repetition of these phenomena was a convenient standard for measuring time: from flood to flood, from solstice to solstice. At the turn of IV and III millennia BC. during the solstice and, consequently, the flood of the river, the first morning appearance of Sirius, his first heliactic sunrise, also took place. The first appearance of Sirius in the rays of the morning gave rise to the flood of the Nile, the future harvest, the beginning of a new agricultural year.
Arising in the 4th millennium BC, one of the oldest in the world, the Egyptian calendar belonged to the solar type. The year in it consisted of three seasons, each of which included four thirty-day months.
The calendar length of the year of 365 days (365 + 5) was quite accurate for the era of Herodotus, but differing from the tropical one by 0.25 days, it gave an error of 1 day every four years. Therefore, the original New Year (1st Thoth) slowly shifted relative to the seasons. The visible evidence of such a shift for the Egyptians was the "delay" of the first (heliactic) rising of Sirius. As the error accumulated, the calendar year began earlier and earlier, shifting to spring, winter, autumn. In 1460 tropical years (365x4=1460), or in 1461 according to the ancient Egyptian calendar, the New Year again coincided with the first appearance of Sirius and the beginning of the flood of the Nile. This period of 1460 years, called the "period of Sothis", played important role in Egyptian chronology.
In Egypt, they knew about the discrepancy between the length of the calendar year and the movement of the Sun. IN Hellenistic Egypt an attempt was made to improve the calendar. In 1866, a slab with an inscription of Ptolemy III Euergetes, one of the kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was found in the Nile Delta. The text of this so-called Canopic Decree.
The date of this monument is 238 BC. e. It outlined the system of the high school. However, judging by the following sources, the reform of Euergetes did not take root, and only much later, in 26 BC. Augustus introduced the Julian calendar system to Egypt.
After the reform, the Egyptian calendar retained basically its structure and the names of the months, but acquired a fixed New Year (August 29 according to the Julian calendar) and leap years. Leap years were considered those years, the absolute number of which, when divided by 4, gave a remainder of three. For example, in our calendar it would be 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, not 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984.
The account of years in Ancient Egypt was originally carried out according to the years of the reign of the pharaohs (I-XXX dynasties), and in the Hellenistic era the “era of Nabonassar” was used, the beginning of which, according to the Julian calendar, dates back to February 26, 747 BC. e. At the end of the III century. AD Diocletian introduced in Egypt dating according to the consular year, which began on January 1, and a new "era of Diocletian", its beginning according to the Julian calendar - 284 AD. The era took root, but the beginning of the year returned again to August 29th. The era of Diocletian has survived to this day in the church calendar of Coptic Christians, direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians.
Chinese ancient calendar
The origins of the lunisolar Chinese calendar go back to the 3rd millennium BC. e., in the Bronze Age.
China - classical country agriculture, and here the close connection between nature and society, the fertility of the earth and royal power is especially clearly seen. Issues of time counting were of great importance and were sometimes introduced into the rank of state policy.
Emperors of the Zhou era (XI-III centuries BC) once every five years were required to travel around the country, adhering to a strict ritual. In the spring, at the beginning of the year, the emperor and his retinue in green clothes went to the eastern part of the empire, in the summer they moved south in red clothes, in the fall, changing the color of the dress to white, they went west and completed the journey in winter, going around the northern regions of the country in black robes .
Over the next four years, the emperor symbolically made such a journey every year in a special "hall of fate" - a kind of model of the universe. There he made a yearly circle, turning alternately facing east (spring), south (summer), west (autumn) and north (winter), thus solemnly opening the beginning of months and seasons. In the third summer month, the emperor, dressed in yellow, sat on a throne in the center of the "hall of fate", symbolizing the middle of the year.
A complex ritual was subordinated to the idea that the empire should be governed in accordance with the movement of the universe.
At the same time, good social governance was a necessary condition for maintaining order in nature.
Many features of these ancient rites existed in China until the abolition of the monarchy in 1911. The Chinese calendar, associated with such traditions, is just as stable. Twelve lunar months of 29 and 30 days alternately made up a year of 354 days. The months corresponded to the twelve zodiac constellations and were grouped by three in each season. Months did not have names and were designated by ordinal numbers, the days within the month were counted by decades. Originally, every third and fifth year a month was added if the Sun was found to be in the same sign at the end of the month as at the beginning. Then a more precise 19-year cycle began to be applied. During each cycle, seven additional months were introduced: in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 19th years. The thirteenth month was always placed after the winter solstice, and the beginning of the year fell on the new moon in the middle of the period between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox.
In the III century. BC. a seasonal calendar was used in the country, according to which the year was divided into 24 seasons, each season had a name, for example: “awakening of insects”, “earing of bread”, “cold dew”, etc.
The calendar helped the population to plan and carry out agricultural work.
Simultaneously in China and neighboring countries(Mongolia, Korea, Japan) there was a system of counting time according to 60-year cycles. The years were grouped into cycles of sixty years. The beginning of this original reckoning was conditionally considered 2397 BC.
The number of the year in the 60-year cycle was indicated by the sign of one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each of the elements acted in two states: a tree - a plant and a tree - a building material, natural fire and hearth fire, metal in nature and metal in a product, wild land and cultivated land, flowing water and stagnant water. The elements in two qualities made up ten so-called "celestial branches": five odd and five even. At the same time, the cycle was divided into 12 periods - the so-called "earthly branches", indicated by the name of the animal: mouse, cow, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig.
To designate the year within the cycle, the signs of the heavenly and earthly branches were called: for example, the 1st year is a tree and a mouse, the 2nd is a tree and a cow, the 3rd is fire and a tiger, the 10th is water and a chicken, etc. . Tab. 1 allows you to quickly determine the position of the year within the cycle. Thus, the third year of the 60-year cycle is designated by the cyclic sign of the earth branch and is called the tiger. Under the sign of the tiger in the cycle, in addition to the third, there are also years 15, 27, 39 and 51. To indicate which of the years of the tiger in question, a specific year is also indicated by the sign of the celestial branch. In this case, the third year will be the year of "fire and tiger", the 15th "earth and tiger", the 27th "metal and tiger", etc.
To date current events, it was enough to indicate the sign of the "earth branch", that is, to name the corresponding animal. The relationship of the date to the "celestial branches" is often not indicated, as it is determined by circumstantial circumstances. The transition from one year to the next in the table is traced diagonally from top to bottom and from left to right.
To translate dates modern calendar for cyclic, in addition to using the table, it is necessary to know in which years of our chronology the beginning of 60-year cycles fell.
Since 1949, the international Gregorian calendar has been officially introduced in China, but in everyday life the cyclic calendar still retains its significance both in China and in a number of neighboring countries.
Indian calendars
Ethnic diversity, linguistic and political disunity of the tribes and nationalities of India led to the creation of many calendar systems, led to the existence of numerous eras. Most of the Indian calendars belonged to the lunisolar type, but there were also lunar and solar calendars.
A year lasting 365–366 days was divided into 12 months with the number of days from 29 to 32. In lunisolar systems, an additional 13th month was inserted once every three years to match the length of the solar year.
In addition, the year was divided into 6 seasons associated with natural phenomena: spring (vasant), hot season (grishma), rainy season (varsha), autumn (sharat), winter (hemanta), cold season (shishira). The New Year was timed to coincide with various days, but most often with the points of the spring or autumn equinoxes.
On March 22, 1957, India introduced the Unified National Calendar, developed on the basis of the systems most common in the country. The years are counted according to the Saka era, the beginning of which, according to our reckoning, dates back to 78 AD. e. The beginning of the year is the day following the vernal equinox.
Leap years are defined in the same way as in the modern Gregorian calendar. The Indian year is divided into 12 months.
Calendar of Ancient Mesopotamia
Also in III millennium BC. The priests of ancient Mesopotamia, through regular scientific observations of the starry sky, accumulated a lot of astronomical information. Already at that time, multi-storey towers, ziggurats up to 20 meters high, were built for observation at temples. To the original deified celestial bodies - the Sun, the Moon and
Venus - the deified Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter soon join. It was established that all the planets keep near the "path of the Sun", that is, the ecliptic; here the first maps of the starry sky, lists of constellations, etc. were compiled.
Particular attention was paid to the moon. Not surprisingly, the first city-state calendars were lunar. However, under Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who united Mesopotamia under the auspices of Babylon, the lunisolar calendar of the city of Ur was recognized as official. The written decrees of Hammurabi conveyed to us evidence of such transformations: “Since the year has a shortage, let the month that is now beginning be called the second ululu, and therefore Babylon is due not on the 25th of the Tashrit, but on the 25th of the second ululu ".
This method of arbitrary insertions of an additional month was kept in Babylon from the era of Hammurabi to the 6th century. BC e., when they switched to a system of periodic or cyclic calculation. At the same time, from the beginning of the VI to the end of the IV century. BC e. the addition of the 13th month was carried out regularly three times in eight years, and from the end of the 4th century. BC e. - 7 times in 19 years.
According to the Babylonian calendar, the year consisted of 12 months.
Each month consisted of 29 or 30 days. The beginning of the year was considered the day of the vernal equinox.
The Babylonians adopted the seven-day week from the Sumerians.
Years were counted from the dates of the beginning of the reign of the Babylonian (later Assyrian) kings. The action of the Babylonian calendar over time spread to Assyria, the Persian state, and then to the Hellenistic states of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Calendar of Ancient Greece
Initially, various Greek centers had their own time counting systems, which led to considerable confusion. This was due to the independent adjustment of the calendar in each policy. There were differences in the definition of the beginning of the calendar year.
The Athenian calendar is known, which consisted of twelve lunar months, the beginning of each of which approximately coincided with neomenia. The duration of the months varied within 29–30 days, and the calendar year consisted of 354 days.
Since the true lunar year includes 354.36 days, the phases of the moon did not exactly correspond to the calendar dates to which they were attributed. Therefore, the Greeks distinguished between the calendar "new moon", that is, the first day of the month and the actual new moon.
The names of the months in Greece were in most cases associated with certain holidays and only indirectly correlated with the seasons.
The beginning of the Athenian year fell on the month of Hecatombeon (July-August), associated with the summer solstice. To align the calendar year with the solar year, the 13th (embolismic) month, the 2nd Poseideon, was inserted in special years, lasting 29-30 days.
In 432 BC Athenian astronomer Meton developed a new 19-year cycle with seven embolismic years: 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th. This order, called the "Metonic cycle", provided a fairly high accuracy. The daily discrepancy between solar and lunar years accumulated over 312 solar years.
Later, the cycles of Calippus and Hipparchus were developed, which further refined the lunisolar calendar. However, in practice, their amendments were almost never applied.
Up to the II century. BC e. The 13th month was added as the need arose, and sometimes for political and other reasons.
The Greeks did not know the seven-day week and counted the days within a month by decades.
The dating of the events in Athens was carried out by the names of the officials - archons. From the 4th century BC e. The chronology according to the Olympiads, which were held once every four years, became generally accepted.
The beginning of the era was considered the first Olympiad, held in the summer of 776 BC.
In the Hellenistic era in Greece, various eras were used: the era of Alexander, the era of the Seleucids, etc.
The official calendar, due to deviations from the solar year, was inconvenient for agriculture. Therefore, the Greeks often used a kind of agricultural calendar based on the apparent movements of the stars, on the change of seasons. A detailed description of such a calendar in the form of advice to the farmer was given back in the 8th century. BC e. Hellenic poet Hesiod.
Such a folk calendar was of great practical importance and was preserved along with the official account of time throughout many centuries of Greek history.
Jewish calendar
In 568 BC. e. After the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian calendar and chronology were introduced in Judea. Prior to this, the Jews had a complex system of lunar time counting. The year consisted of 12 lunar months with 29 or 30 days each. The beginning of the month was determined by the direct observation of neomenia by two persons. As soon as the crescent of the moon appeared, the population of the country was notified by the sounds of trumpets and kindling fires about the birth of a new month.
Initially, the months were designated by numerals: the second, third, fourth, etc. Only the first month, which symbolized the beginning of spring, was called Aviv, which means the month of ears.
Subsequently, the Babylonian names of the months were borrowed and a seven-day week independent of the lunar phases was established. Sunday was considered the first day of the week, and the day began at 6 pm.
The lunar year consisted of 354 days, so the official count of the moons diverged from the religious ceremonies associated simultaneously with the new moon and with the ripening of barley. The administration added an extra month to the year as needed.
The replacement of the lunar calendar by the lunar-solar one was completed only in the 5th century BC. n. e. Extra month from 499 CE e. began to be inserted into certain leap years of the 19-year cycle, familiar to us from the Greek calendar.
Years of 12 months are usually called simple, and leap years containing 13 months are called embolismic.
Religious regulations did not allow combining the beginning of the Jewish year with Sunday, Wednesday or Friday.
The Jewish chronology is based on the mythical date of the "creation of the world", which is taken as October 7, 3761 BC. This so-called "age from Adam" is officially accepted in modern Israel, although the Gregorian calendar is used there.
Until the end of the III century. BC e. the year of the ancient Jews began in the spring, and then the New Year was moved to the fall.
Muslim calendar
An example of a purely lunar account of time is the Muslim calendar. Before the spread of Islam, the pagans of the Asian East used calendars of the lunisolar type.
In the 7th century n. e. with the emergence of a new Muslim religion - "Islam" - for religious and political reasons, a new, purely lunar calendar was introduced.
Religious dogma (Koran) forbids believers to consider a year with a duration of more than 12 lunar months.
At present, the Muslim calendar is used by Arabs, Turks, Mohammedans-Indians and some other peoples of the globe.
The calendar consists of 12 lunar months of 30 and 29 days alternately.
Because total number there were 354 days in a year, and the astronomical lunar year was 354 days 8 hours 12 minutes 36 seconds, then by last month one day was periodically added either according to the "Turkish cycle" (3 times in 8 years) or according to the "Arab cycle" (11 times in 30 years).
The Muslim calendar lunar year (simple - 354 days, leap year - 355 days) is shorter than the solar year, consisting of 365 days (leap year of 366), by about 11 days. He "overtakes" the solar calendar by about 1/33 of the year (more precisely, by 11/366). Therefore, 33 lunar years equal approximately 32 solar years.
The beginning of the year in translation into the European calendar is transitional. Therefore, there are no summer, winter or autumn months in the lunar calendar - all months are mobile relative to the seasons.
In the Muslim calendar, days are counted by seven-day weeks, and the beginning of the day is considered to be the time of sunset.
The Muslim era is called Hijra (flight). In September 622 A.D. e. The founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, fled with a group of followers from Mecca to Medina, fleeing religious persecution. For Muslims this significant event became the starting date of the new chronology. In 638, Caliph Omar introduced a new lunar calendar, the starting point of which was decided to be the 1st day of the first month (Muharram) of the year of Muhammad's flight. The astronomical new moon that began Muharram 622 was July 15, a Thursday in the Julian calendar; however, the visible appearance of the lunar crescent (neomenia) occurred a day later, therefore, July 16, 622 (Friday) is considered to be the starting point of the Muslim account of time.
Mayan calendar
The original time counting systems were developed by the peoples of the New World. The most famous are the calendars of the Mayan Indians, who created in the 1st millennium BC. e. original culture in Central America. The Maya made progress in astronomy related to the practical needs of agriculture.
The Maya knew the duration of the solar year, they knew how to calculate the time of the onset of eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
Questions of chronology were of great importance both in religious and in civil life Mayan. The priests used a short 260-day year, called the tzolkin, to calculate the rites.
Except short year Maya knew 2 types of long years:
1) the year of tun, lasting 360 days, had a special purpose and was rarely used.
2) 365-day year haab, which consisted of 18 months of 20 days.
Maya had special images for each month.
The priests knew the true duration of the solar year and believed that counting the years of haab for 60 years gives an error of 15 days. The Mayan solar calendar was adopted by the Aztecs.
In Maya time counting, four years were important: thirteen 4-year cycles made up a period of 52 years, which was convenient in that it made it possible to compare short and long years together.
Mayan dating of an event consisted of the number (or number) of the day within the 13-day week, the name of the day, the day of the month, and the name of the month.
The ancient Maya had a lunar calendar with a duration of each month of 29 or 30 days and a numerical designation of the days within the month. After six lunar months, the lunar half-year ended, then the counting began again from the 1st month.
The Mayan calendar was one of the most accurate in human history. The duration of the solar year, determined by them in antiquity, differed from that adopted in modern science only by 0.0002 and equaled 365.2420 days. With such accuracy, the error per day accumulated only for 5000 years.
Julian calendar
The modern solar calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, goes back to the ancient Roman account of time. Information about the first Roman calendar, which arose back in the legendary period of the reign of Romulus (mid-VIII century BC), is contained in the work of Censorinus (II century AD). The calendar was based on the so-called agrarian year of 304 days. The year, consisting of ten months of different lengths, began on the first day of the first spring month. Initially, the months were denoted by ordinal numbers, but by the end of the 8th century. BC. four of them received individual names.
In the 7th century BC. calendar reform was carried out. Tradition connects her with the name of one of the semi-legendary kings of Rome, Numa Pompilius. The calendar became lunisolar. The year was extended to 355 days by adding two more months: Januarius, named after the two-faced god Janus, and Februarius, dedicated to Februus, the god of the underworld.
The unusual distribution of days over months is explained by the fact that the superstitious Romans considered even numbers to be unlucky and sought to avoid them.
A year of 355 days annually lagged behind the solar one by 10–11 days. For coordination, an additional month of marcedonius was introduced once every two years, consisting of 22–23 days.
An additional month was inserted after 23 February. The remaining 5 days of February were added at the end of the year, so that in fact marcedonius consisted of 27 or 28 days.
The appointment of an additional month was the responsibility of the priests. Since the term of office of the main elected officials was measured by the calendar year, often for political reasons, intercalations were appointed at the wrong time or not appointed at all. As a result of such abuses, the Roman account of time, up to the reform of Caesar, diverged significantly from the solar year, and attempts to regulate the calendar were based more on the will of the priests than on the laws of astronomy.
In 46 BC. e. Gaius Julius Caesar, dictator and consul, begins to introduce a new calendar. To align the months with the corresponding seasons, he had to add 90 days to the year. A group of astronomers from Alexandria, led by Sosigen, participated in the development of the new calendar.
From January 1, 45 BC. e. The solar calendar began to operate with a year duration of 365 days, called the Julian.
The new calendar adopted a year of 365 days. But since the astronomical year consisted of 365 days and 6 hours, in order to eliminate the difference, it was decided to add one day to every fourth year. For convenience, these days were assigned to years divisible by four.
Days began to be added to the shortest month - February. But for religious reasons, they did not dare to simply add them to the last February day, but tried to “hide” them between the ordinary days of this month.
Sosigene retained the name of the months, but changed their duration, establishing a certain order of alternation of long odd and short even months. After the transfer of the New Year to January, the names of a number of months (numerals) began to not correspond to their place in the calendar. This discrepancy has been preserved in our calendar.
After the death of Caesar (44 BC), some changes took place in the calendar.
The new calendar was adopted by the Christian Church (at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD) and applied with various eras.
Gregorian calendar
The Christian Church, in adopting the Julian calendar, faced a difficult task. Main holiday new religion- Easter - celebrated according to the lunisolar calendar, on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. Such a full moon could only occur after the vernal equinox (March 21 according to the Julian calendar). To calculate the day of Easter, it was necessary to find an agreement between the days of the week with the dates of the solar calendar and the lunar phases. Bishop scholars had been working on this issue long before the Council of Nicaea. One of them, Eusebius of Caesarea, turned to the forgotten 19-year Metonic cycle and his proposal was approved by the Council of Nicaea.
In the Byzantine, and later in the Old Russian chronology, there was an era from the “creation of the world”, which differed from our era (the era of the “nativity of Christ”) by 5508 years. Here is the calculation serial number years in the 19-year cycle was carried out by direct division of the date in the "creation of the world" system by 19.
In the Julian calendar, the same day of the week falls at the beginning and end of the year. In 1981, according to the Julian calendar, January 1 and December 31 are Wednesdays. The starting point for counting time by solar cycles was the "creation of the world." Therefore, the definition of the circles of the sun for years, expressed in the system from the "creation of the world", is given by direct division of the date by 28. Using the solar and lunar cycles Christian church approved the so-called "Easter limits", that is, the framework in the Julian calendar system (March 22–April 25), beyond which Easter day cannot go. Since the order of the alternation of Easter days over a number of years is determined by the golden numbers and the circles of the sun, it is possible to calculate the period after which the combinations of the numbers of the solar calendar and the lunar phases will be repeated.
However, the rules for determining Easter, approved by the Council of Nicaea, soon ceased to correspond to the Julian calendar. Due to the inaccuracy of the calendar, the spring equinox gradually shifted to earlier dates, and the Easter holiday also shifted accordingly. This happened because average duration The Julian year is 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the tropical year, resulting in an error of 1 day in 128 years.
The error of the Julian calendar was noticed long ago. There are known attempts to transform it, to make it more accurate. In the XI century. n. e. the well-known Persian poet and scholar Omar Khayyam proposed to correct the counting of time over 33-year cycles. Khayyam divided 33 years into 8 periods, of which 7 had 4 years each, and the eighth had 5 years. Each end year of the period was a leap year. According to Khayyam, in a 132-year period, leap years would fall on: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 66, 70, 74, 78 , 82, 86, 90, 94, 99, 103, 107, 111, 115, 119, 123, 127, 132 years.
As a result, 132 years turned out to be not 33 (as in the Julian calendar), but 32 leap years, and the average length of the year turned out to be very close to the true one - 365, 2424 days. With such accuracy, the error per day would accumulate only over 4500 years, therefore, this calendar was more accurate not only than the Julian, but also the Gregorian.
In 1582, under Pope Gregory XIII, the reform of the Julian calendar was carried out. The reform used the project of the Italian mathematician Luigi Lilio Garalli. The project was, firstly, to leave unshakable the decision of the Nicaean Council, and therefore return the beginning of spring to March 21, and secondly, to eliminate the possibility of the same discrepancy in the future.
The first task was solved by the prescription of the pope: after October 4, 1582, it was proposed to count the next day not on October 5, but on October 15. To accomplish the second task, it was decided every 400 years to throw out of the calendar three days that had come running. The most convenient for this were recognized the years that complete the century. The only leap years left are those whose first two digits are divisible by 4.
New calendar style ( a new style) turned out to be much more accurate than the Julian (old style). In it, the year lags behind the astronomical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy by a day can occur only after 3300 years. By the beginning of the XVII century. this calendar was adopted in the Catholic countries of Europe, and in the XVIII century. - Protestant, in the XIX - early XX centuries. - in Japan and in a number of Orthodox countries in Europe, in the 20s of the XX century. in Greece, Turkey, Egypt. After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a new calendar was introduced in Russia by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 26, 1918.
It is currently considered international.
In the first years after the introduction of the Gregorian reform, there were objections to the new system of counting time. The French scientist, poet and publicist Joseph Scaliger spoke out against the Gregorian calendar. In 1583, he proposed to use the day, that is, the average solar day, as the main unit of account for chronological and astronomical calculations. In days, you can express any intervals of time between events recorded in different calendar systems, eras.
For such an account, Scaliger introduced the concept of a Julian period lasting 7980 years. The starting point, that is, the first day of the Julian period, the scientist proposed to consider a conditional date - January 1, 4713 BC. e.
Accounting for the days of the Julian period eliminates the difficulty of accurately determining the time elapsed between any events recorded within the same calendar system.
French Republican calendar
During the years of the French Revolution, an attempt was made to create a calendar free from religious influences and based on strictly scientific data. Its prototype was the work "The Almanac of Honest People", published by S. Marechal at the end of 1787.
The new calendar was developed by a commission of leading French scientists headed by Gilbert Romm and introduced by decree of the Convention on October 5, 1793.
In it, instead of the era from the "Christmas" was established new era-Republic, which began on the day of the proclamation of the Republic in France, which coincided with the day of the autumn equinox - September 22, 1792 AD. The length of the year and the number of months in the year remained unchanged. However, now each month was equal to 30 days and new names were established for them. Each month was divided into decades. Days within decades were denoted by an ordinal number.
Since there were 360 days in 12 months, 5 extra days were introduced for the equation with the astronomical year, and 6 additional days for the leap year.
During the years of the French Revolution, an attempt was made, in accordance with the metric system introduced at that time, to divide the day into 10 hours, the hour into 100 minutes, the minute into 100 seconds. However, the innovation did not catch on.
The French revolutionary calendar, which provoked resistance from the church, lasted 13 years and was canceled by Napoleon on September 9, 1805. On the day of the Paris Commune, March 18, 1871. it was restored, but with the fall of the Commune on May 28, 1871, it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar.
One of the shortcomings of the Republican calendar was the lack of a clear system for introducing leap years, as well as replacing the usual seven-day week with decades.
Currently, the calendar of the French Revolution is not used; for historians, the exact dating of the events noted in this time counting system is important.
World Calendar Projects
New ones are being created and old ones are being improved. calendar systems. In May 1923, the New Julian calendar, proposed by the Yugoslav astronomer Milanković, was approved at the Council of Eastern Orthodox Churches. In order to reduce the discrepancy between the calendar and astronomical years, it was proposed to consider as leap years not all years that are divisible by 4, but only those of the years that complete the century, in which the number of hundreds when divided by 9 gives a remainder of 2 or 6.
However, the New Julian calendar will remain virtually unchanged from the Gregorian until 2800.
The Gregorian calendar, accepted almost all over the world, fixes with sufficient accuracy the tropical year and the synodic month. But in the 19th century and XX century. its shortcomings were revealed that complicate the work of financial and other economic ones: the unequal number of days in months and quarters, the mismatch of numbers, months and days of the week in different years and so on.
In this regard, already in the first half of the XIX century. began to create projects of such a calendar that would eliminate the noted shortcomings. In 1923, the International Committee for the Creation of a Unified World Calendar was formed, which printed more than 200 projects. Since 1953, the United Nations has dealt with this issue.
Of the many projects, two of the most optimal can be distinguished.
According to the first of them, the year is divided into 13 months, each of which has 4 weeks of 7 days, and a total of 28 days. The main disadvantage of such a calendar is the inability to divide the year into semesters and quarters.
The second project proposes a calendar in which the year consists of 12 months, divided into 4 three-month quarters of 91 days. Each quarter contains 13 weeks. The first days of the year and quarter always fall on a Sunday. Since there are 364 days in such a calendar, a day without a number is inserted in the ordinary and leap years.
Such a calendar has a number of advantages: it repeats the number of months and days from year to year, each month contains the same number of working days; it is divided into semesters and quarters.
However, a violation of the weekly count due to the presence of days without a number in the calendar will shift the holy days of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions.
Types of calendars
The calendar is a reference publication containing a sequential list of numbers, days of the week and months of the year, often with other information and illustrations.
For a whole year, he stands before your eyes, helping you plan your time correctly and achieve new successes. Perhaps there is no other subject that, with the same functional task, would be represented by such diverse solutions. Let's take a look at the motley variety of types of calendars together and take a closer look at each of them.
tear-off calendar- a pocket or wall calendar-book with loose-leaf sheets, where one sheet contains information on this day(rarely a week or a month). Often used as a wall calendar.
The tear-off wall calendar came into use more than a century ago, namely in 1885. Ivan Sytin, the owner of a large Moscow printing house, became its publisher. A publication that differed from all existing analogues affordable price and practicality, instantly gained popularity. Already the second issue of such polygraphy totaled over 8 million copies, and their production was put on stream. The tear-off calendar reached its peak of popularity in Soviet times, being an alternative to a book, which was not so easy to acquire, a prototype of an organizer and a means of political propaganda. These publications published helpful tips, cooking recipes, Interesting Facts and much more.
As a rule, they were of a thematic nature and everyone, depending on their interests and inclinations, could purchase products of one or another content. In Europe, there was also an analogue of the domestic tear-off calendar, which throughout the 19th century served as visual advertising and served as a pocket diary.
Flip calendar- a desktop or wall calendar-book, in which, after a specified period (day, week or month), pages are flipped (for example, on a "spring"). By the beginning of the 21st century, it gained more popularity than tear-off.
Flip calendars are the most expensive kind of calendars. Often such calendars are called image calendars. The flip calendar will never get bored of its owner - after all, each page of such a calendar has a separate image. Quite often, a flip calendar functions as a mini-catalogue, with information about products and services corresponding to each month. Attaches a wall-mounted flip calendar, typically with a 5/16-inch spring with a metal pin for wall mounting.
Tambel calendar-- calendar in the form of a table, can be both pocket and wall or desktop.
Like other types of calendars, the timesheet calendar helps to plan time. First of all, this species calendars needed by accountants. After all, they calculate working hours, hours of missed days, vacation or sick leave. Timesheet calendars truly help them in this. For ordinary people, the report card is the most reliable source of work and rest days in the coming year.
Externally, timesheet calendars are small A4 calendars. It used to be thought that these were desk calendars. Accountants put them on the table under a sheet of plexiglass and worked, looking at the calendar if necessary. Now the calendar is often hung on the wall next to the workplace. In general, everyone arranges this calendar in the way that is convenient for him.
The time sheet is compiled in accordance with the Labor Code Russian Federation and government decrees on the postponement of working days.
pocket calendar-- a small-format printed calendar of such a size that it can be put in a pocket (that is, no larger than a postcard). It is issued in the form of a table (one thick sheet) or a book (tear-off pocket calendar).
IN European countries pocket calendars have been known since early XIX century.
In 1885, Zemstvos received the right to issue calendars, and at the same time, the widespread production of cheap calendars, including small-format, pocket ones, began in Russia. Since calendars are issued for the next year, the year 1886 is considered the year of the beginning of the history of the domestic pocket calendar.
Pocket calendars were seen as the cheapest means of advertising as soon as they appeared, and as such were already in use in Europe throughout the 19th century. When good design and skillfully presented information, the calendar, unlike booklets, also has a utilitarian meaning, it is not thrown away immediately upon receipt by a potential client, but is stored for at least a year, thereby multiplying its advertising opportunities.
The first known Russian pocket calendars are the calendar issued as an appendix to the "Picturesque Everyday Calendar" for 1886 by I. N. Kushnarev and Co. and the calendar of the company "P. Van Dyck Successors, Technical Office and Warehouse of Agricultural Machines, Tools and Artificial fertilizers in Riga", printed by the M. Schulz printing house in Riga.
Pocket calendars of pre-revolutionary Russia are usually divided into three main categories: trade advertising calendars, business calendars (they are distinguished by strict information content and the absence of drawings), calendars for public education (issued by Sytin's publishing house).
Material for pocket calendars is used the most diverse. Calendars are printed on paper and cardboard, on tin, silk and leather. In the second decade of the 20th century, calendars appeared on aluminum, a metal that was just beginning to enter everyday life at that time.
poster calendar- This is the simplest type of wall calendar. It is a regular poster, on which, in addition to the image, there is also a calendar grid. Since these calendars are ordinary posters with a specific image, they fully possess all the properties of posters.
House calendars- This the new kind desktop calendars. When unfolded, the calendar is an A4 sheet with full-color printing on one side. However, when assembled, it turns into a triangular prism. In this form, the format of its two main sides is approximately 210 by 100 mm. Also, this calendar can have a spring and flip pages.
Since this type of calendar is volumetric figure, it attracts increased attention, in addition, many will like the process of its assembly.
Calendar - "pyramid". This calendar, just like the house calendar, after assembly is a three-dimensional figure, but not a prism, but a pyramid. This calendar looks more impressive than the house calendar, but because of the triangular edges, it will not be able to accommodate much information.
Calendar "hut". Imagine a house calendar or a pyramid calendar. And mentally make a bunch of holes in them. What you get will be a calendar-hut. This is the most original calendar, but also, like the pyramid calendar, somewhat of little functionality.
calendar-- a reference publication in the form of a medium-sized book in a thick cover, containing, in addition to the actual calendar pages, many other useful information, which may be needed at any time: a calendar for several years ahead, address pages, phone codes cities and countries, a table of public holidays of their country and foreign countries, vacation planning calendar table, time zone table, calculation units, world currencies, world maps and much more. It is an indispensable accessory and component of any planning of working time and fixing all the necessary useful information.
Meets all the requirements of its purpose for every day: convenient at work, on a trip, when used on weight, in limited time conditions, on the street, in a car, etc.
Bryusov calendar-- The calendar is named after Yakov Bruce, a well-known Russian scientist and military leader, associate of Peter I. The full title of the first edition is "Christian calendar or calendar. According to the old style or calculus for the summer from the incarnation of God the Word 1710. From the universe 7217 . Printed in Moscow, the summer of the Lord 1709. December a day". The calendar, which became the model for all later publications with predictions, was first engraved in 1709 on copper and consisted of six separate sheets. The only complete copy of this calendar is kept in the Hermitage (in the collection of engravings and maps); an incomplete copy is in the public library.
For about 200 years, the calendar has been a desktop reference book for Russian farmers. Also contained astrological "omens of action for each day along the course of the Moon and the Earth"
organizer(eng. organizer) - originally a small book containing a calendar, address book and notepad, used to organize information about personal contacts and events. With development information technologies the book began to be replaced first by electronic organizers, then by pocket personal computers, computer programs and online organizers with additional functions: a reminder of upcoming events, protection and synchronization of information.
", as well as custom-made calendars for various firms and companies.
Well now about calendars.
Everyone knows that the main purpose of the calendar is a countdown, help in planning things. However, in Lately the advertising function of the calendar has been activated. Calendars are increasingly used for gift purposes, and unusual, souvenir calendars (for example, calendars - magnets) are also popular. Primary and very milestone, is design development. If customers produce a corporate calendar, sometimes they want to have an image that reflects the specifics of their activities. In such a situation, we can offer you the services of a photo studio. If you just want to see some nice image on the calendar, look at the large assortment of ready-made calendars, or choose an image from our photo bank. Designers of our company will always help you with this.
The most common and inexpensive (after pocket) type of calendars is wall. Sometimes such calendars are called. Most sheet wall calendar occupies an image, at the bottom of the calendar there is a calendar grid for the whole year. Such calendars are produced in any size, the most common are A2 and A3. Images for such calendars are selected as attractive as possible. As a rule, these are images of nature, flowers, symbols of the year, children and animals. For use high-quality coated paper weighing 130-150 g/m2. A well-read calendar grid is of great importance, since sometimes we have to view such a calendar from a fairly distant distance. To make the calendar more attractive, as well as to give additional protective properties (protection from dirt, wetting, abrasion, fading, etc.), we always carry out either or UV varnishing. If you are a manufacturer, then we will provide you with such services as selective UV varnishing, printing with metallic inks for silver or gold, figured cutting, etc. .
Another type of wall calendar is. As a rule, such calendars consist of a cover, a cardboard substrate and a block of 12 or 6 sheets. A 6-sheet calendar is an opportunity to save on the production of this type of calendar by saving paper. Desk calendars are most often used as gifts and therefore the design and finish of these calendars is given the most great attention. In this type of calendar, each month corresponds to a separate image. Such a calendar is quite expensive for the customer, so they present such calendars most often to business partners or important clients, be sure to put the details of their company on the calendar. Such calendars are most likely to be placed in the partner's office. Although competition is growing every year, it is becoming increasingly difficult for designers to satisfy the wishes of customers. For ease of mounting on the wall, a hole is made and a crossbar is inserted. For calendars of this type, wewe use paper 170-200 g/m2, the cover can be thicker, the backing is cardboard. At wholesale prices, we offer 6-sheet calendars with images of cats and rabbits, nature, flowers, church calendars, calendars with views of Moscow, etc. Calendar covers are laminated. Calendar formats - A2 and A3. You can already see on our website and purchase flip calendars with images of the symbols of the year - rabbits and cats, nature, flowers, as well as church flip calendars. On an individual order, we will produce calendars of any shape and size for you, vertically arranged calendars are more popular now, calendars of bright colors are also in fashion.
The third type, the most functional of all types of wall calendars, is in which three months are visible at once. This type of calendar is the most convenient for scheduling cases. And if you embed a clock in the calendar header, it will become not only even more functional, but also an original calendar. Such a calendar can be presented as a New Year's souvenir to a business partner. In order to save money, you can use ready-made calendar blocks. Designers develop them very carefully and, as a rule, they are no worse than custom-designed calendar blocks. And you can order a calendar header according to your individual design. The quarterly calendar has a lot of space for advertising and is a convenient advertising medium. We can also purchase quarterly calendars in our office, both at wholesale prices and on order. All calendars are made with high quality, printed in a printing house in an offset way. For ease of use, the calendars are equipped with a cursor. A metal ring - a piccolo - is inserted into the upper part of the calendar for easy fastening to the wall.
One of the most convenient and loved by many types of calendar. by the most popular view similar calendars is "calendar-house". very comfortable and functional, besides it will enliven and decorate your workplace. The house calendar can be of two types: the most common and cheapest type of house calendar has a calendar grid on one side and an image on the other. You can also purchase house calendars of this type from our company at wholesale prices, but their design is still in development. The calendars will be made of one-sided coated cardboard. Calendars will be laminated or UV varnished. Another version of the calendar-house is a desktop analogue of the flip calendar. In such a calendar, a separate image will correspond to each month. The sheets of the block are made somewhat smaller than the size of the substrate, so that the information placed on the substrate will be visible. There is also a variant of the desktop calendar-pyramid. The calendar grid is placed, as a rule, on the sides of the pyramid, 4 months on each. To order, we will produce for you desktop calendars of any shape and size that can serve as original gift. At the same time, we use any of the most complex finishing operations; from embossing to cutting complex shapes.
The pocket calendar is the cheapest of all types of calendars, but at the same time it is very convenient, functional, attractive and very effective as an advertising medium. standard format pocket calendar, which is only 7x10 cm, allows you to always carry it with you and use it at any time. actively used as a handout in various promotions and exhibitions. As a rule, people willingly take handed out calendar cards, and they are not threatened with the fate of being thrown into the trash, because they can always come in handy. Calendars are made of heavy coated paper 300 g/m2 or thin cardboard and must be laminated on both sides. We usually round the corners of calendars. This is done both in order to reduce the bending of corners, and in order to make the calendar cards more attractive. However, on request, we will produce for you pocket calendars of a rectangular shape or any other, the same applies to the size. Custom made pocket calendars very often have original shape. Depending on the profile of the company, we were ordered pocket calendars in the shape of an apple, pizza, car. Pocket calendars at wholesale prices are already available on our website and you can view and purchase these calendars.
Instruction
The calendar allows you to fix dates and measure time intervals. This is necessary to log events in chronological order. Since ancient times, calendars have been used to appoint church holidays- including those that do not have an exact date, as in the case of Easter. IN secular life wage, interest payments and other liabilities are also tied to time intervals.
The main types of calendars are solar, lunar and lunisolar. The length of a day is determined by the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The lunar month is tied to the revolution of the moon around the earth. The solar year is given by the rotation of the Earth around the Sun.
The ancient Egyptians, Mayans, and most modern countries follow the solar calendar. It is tied to the length of the solar year, which has 365.2422 days. The civil calendar has been corrected for the integer 365, and the missing fractional part is taken into account by adding one day to the leap year.
IN lunisolar calendar an attempt was made to match the duration of the solar year with the lunar months by means of fittings. This is the official Jewish calendar in Israel.
in different historical periods attempts have been made to improve timing. The problem is that both the solar year and the lunar month contain fractional parts that can be taken into account in different ways. This is done with the help of amendments with a certain frequency.
Greek calendar. The year consisted of 354 days. Every 8 years, 90 days were added to it, divided by three months.
The Roman calendar consisted of 10 months, then two more were added. Around 451 BC. the beginning of the year was moved to January 1 and the sequence of months was brought to the current form.
Julian calendar. At first, the dates did not coincide with the natural seasons. After the reform of Julius Caesar, a leap year appeared. The Julian calendar is called the "old style".
August calendar. When Caesar died, a leap month was added not every four years, but every three. This mistake was corrected by Emperor Augustus. He also changed the length of some months. As a result, the current system has emerged.
Chinese calendar. For several millennia BC. Emperor Yao ordered the creation of a calendar suitable for agricultural work. Until 1930, the peasants used the ancient calendar, then it was banned.
Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory XIII added to the Julian calendar, and March 21 became the day of the vernal equinox. Since 1582, the so-called new style appeared. The correction of dates introduced confusion, because Gregory XIII ordered that corrections be made to past dates. Now the Gregorian calendar is used in Russia, the USA and other countries. The Gregorian calendar is consistent with natural phenomena, but it also has flaws. There is talk of improving and reforming the calendar.
Edwards' perpetual calendar is divided into quarters. Every week starts on Monday, which is convenient for business. Friday does not fall on the 13th. In the United States, they even submitted a bill to the House of Representatives to switch to this calendar.
