People have always wanted to remember their past. With the advent of writing, it became necessary to keep a chronology.
The very first and natural unit of measurement was the earth day. Observation of the moon helped to establish that one lunar phase lasts an average of 30 days. And after 12 lunar phases, the repetition of the first begins. Calendars based on the observation of the moon appeared among many nationalities, and although they were inaccurate, they allowed chronology to be kept.
It remains to understand from what point to start the countdown. Most often, some important event in the era of the people was taken as the beginning of the chronology. Such intervals became known as eras. For example, the beginning of the reign of a new leader (the Seleucid era - among the inhabitants of the Seleucid state during the accession to the throne of Seleucus), the founding of a new city (the era from the founding of Rome - among the Romans) or simply a significant event (the era from the first Olympic Games - among the Greeks).
Another way of reckoning was a sequence of events. It can be represented as follows: ruler X ascended the throne 3 years after the failure of the wheat harvest; 5 years after the beginning of the reign of X, the state was raided by barbarians, etc.
Almost every state had its own chronology. With the development of trade and science in Europe, it became necessary to create a single calendar for Christian countries. In 525, the Roman abbot Dionysius the Small proposed a new system of reckoning from the Nativity of Christ. At first, the ideas of the abbot were not popular, and each country continued to keep the chronology in its own way, but centuries later, at the end of the 10th century, many European countries began to switch to the calendar proposed by Dionysius. Now any date began to be written with an addition “from the Nativity of Christ” or “from R.Kh.). The final ordering of the calendar occurred during the Renaissance, when the term "before the birth of Christ" was introduced. This greatly facilitated and systematized the chronology of world events. Already closer to the 20th century, the religious phrase "from the birth of Christ" was replaced by the phrase "our era" and the chronology acquired a modern version.
It turns out that modern humanity is reckoning by era, that is, it uses the same methods used by our distant ancestors. Only now we have a more accurate astronomical calendar, and the reference point of the chronology is the same for all countries.
This is interesting: in Russia, the transition to the chronology "from R.Kh." happened by historical standards quite recently - in 1700 by decree of PeterI. Prior to this, the chronology of events was conducted according to the Constantinople era, which began its countdown from 5509 BC. It turns out that according to the Old Believer calendar now (for 2015) the year is 7524. According to the results of the last census, there are 400,000 Old Believers in Russia.
- a number system for long periods of time, based on the periodicity of the visible movements of celestial bodies.
The most common solar calendar is based on the solar (tropical) year - the time interval between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox.
A tropical year is approximately 365.2422 mean solar days.
The solar calendar includes the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and some others.
The modern calendar is called the Gregorian (new style) and was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and replaced the Julian calendar (old style) that had been in use since the 45th century BC.
The Gregorian calendar is a further refinement of the Julian calendar.
In the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, the average length of the year in the interval of four years was 365.25 days, which is 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the tropical year. Over time, the onset of seasonal phenomena according to the Julian calendar fell on ever earlier dates. Particularly strong discontent was caused by the constant shift in the date of Easter, associated with the spring equinox. In 325, the Nicene Council issued a decree on a single date for Easter for the entire Christian church.
© Public Domain
© Public Domain
In the following centuries, many proposals were made to improve the calendar. The proposals of the Neapolitan astronomer and physician Aloysius Lilius (Luigi Lilio Giraldi) and the Bavarian Jesuit Christopher Clavius were approved by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a bull (message) introducing two important additions to the Julian calendar: 10 days were removed from the 1582 calendar - after October 4, October 15 immediately followed. This measure made it possible to keep March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox. In addition, three out of every four century years were to be considered ordinary and only those divisible by 400 were leap years.
1582 was the first year of the Gregorian calendar, called the new style.
The Gregorian calendar was introduced at different times in different countries. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Holland and Luxembourg were the first to adopt the new style in 1582. Then in the 1580s it was introduced in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary. In the XVIII century, the Gregorian calendar began to be used in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden and Finland, in the XIX century - in Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in China, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Turkey and Egypt.
In Rus', along with the adoption of Christianity (X century), the Julian calendar was established. Since the new religion was borrowed from Byzantium, the years were counted according to the Constantinople era "from the creation of the world" (for 5508 BC). By decree of Peter I in 1700, the European chronology was introduced in Russia - "from the Nativity of Christ."
December 19, 7208 from the creation of the world, when the reformation decree was issued, in Europe corresponded to December 29, 1699 from the birth of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar.
At the same time, the Julian calendar was preserved in Russia. The Gregorian calendar was introduced after the October Revolution of 1917 - from February 14, 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church, preserving traditions, lives according to the Julian calendar.
The difference between the old and new styles is 11 days for the 18th century, 12 days for the 19th century, 13 days for the 20th and 21st centuries, 14 days for the 22nd century.
Although the Gregorian calendar is quite consistent with natural phenomena, it is also not completely accurate. The length of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds longer than the tropical year and accumulates an error of 0.0003 days per year, which is three days in 10 thousand years. The Gregorian calendar also does not take into account the slowing of the Earth's rotation, which lengthens the day by 0.6 seconds per 100 years.
The modern structure of the Gregorian calendar also does not fully meet the needs of public life. Chief among its shortcomings is the variability of the number of days and weeks in months, quarters and half-years.
There are four main problems with the Gregorian calendar:
- Theoretically, the civil (calendar) year should have the same duration as the astronomical (tropical) year. However, this is impossible because the tropical year does not contain an integer number of days. Because of the need to add extra days to the year from time to time, there are two types of years - ordinary and leap years. Since a year can start on any day of the week, this gives seven types of common years and seven types of leap years, for a total of 14 types of years. For their full reproduction, you need to wait 28 years.
— The length of the months is different: they can contain from 28 to 31 days, and this unevenness leads to certain difficulties in economic calculations and statistics.|
Neither regular nor leap years contain an integer number of weeks. Half-years, quarters and months also do not contain a whole and equal number of weeks.
- From week to week, from month to month and from year to year, the correspondence of dates and days of the week changes, so it is difficult to establish the moments of various events.
In 1954 and 1956, the drafts of the new calendar were discussed at the sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), but the final decision on the issue was postponed.
In Russia, the State Duma was proposing to return the Julian calendar to the country from January 1, 2008. Deputies Victor Alksnis, Sergey Baburin, Irina Savelyeva and Alexander Fomenko proposed to establish a transitional period from December 31, 2007, when the chronology will be carried out simultaneously according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars for 13 days. In April 2008, the bill was voted down by a majority vote.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
The modern chronology by the world community is conducted according to the Gregorian calendar, which keeps track of the years from the birth of Christ. Prior to that, each significant territorial-ethnic group had its own accounting of dates, there is also a Slavic calendar from the creation of the world, which was in use in Rus' in pre-Petrine times.
The Nativity of Christ was considered the main event that determined the course of world history, it was from him that the countdown of the new era began. What we now call the "old style" of chronology is just an old version of the same Christian calendar, or Julian, which was in use in Russia until 1918. Every year we remember the date according to the “old style” when we celebrate the “old” New Year. The dates of church holidays in Orthodoxy are also determined according to the Julian calendar.
And we also follow the change of years according to the Japanese, Chinese, Thai calendars. This is the heritage of our common human culture and this must be remembered. But why was the chronology and calendar of the Slavs so quickly forgotten?
How was the chronology of the ancient Slavs
The most ancient tradition of the chronology of the Slavic peoples is the Daarisky Krugolet Chislobog, which was in use in Rus' not so long ago. The transition to the new calendar was carried out by the great Russian reformer Peter I, who by decree introduced the beginning of a new calculation starting from January 1, 1700, ordering the introduction of a secular celebration of the New Year. The old calendar was forced out of circulation by force, now it is used only by the Old Believers, who profess the traditions of Ynglism, which is considered the most ancient Slavic-Aryan faith.
The transition to the "European" calendar was beneficial in terms of integration into the European community. But Peter I was a decisive reformer, to speed up the process, he used tough measures, decisively cutting off everything that is now commonly called "remnants of the past." Together with the remnants, five and a half thousand years of our history went into almost oblivion.
That year in Rus' it was Summer 7208 from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple. ‘’But you need to clearly understand that the Slavic calendar from the creation of the world is not from the mythical or supposed creation of the world by God or the Creator. We are talking about a very real event that took place in the year 5508 BC. In that year, the year of the “Star Temple” according to Krugolet Chisloborg, a peace treaty was signed (“The World was Created”) after the victory of the Power of the Great Race (the territory of modern Russia) over the Empire of the Great Dragon (China). ''
Since those ancient and glorious times, we have inherited a symbol - a rider on a white horse, striking a dragon with a spear, one of the most revered symbols in Rus'. In the Christian tradition, this symbol is associated with the name of St. George the Victorious.
What event is the reckoning from?
A change in the way of reckoning always begins from a significant epochal event. This was the signing of a peace treaty between the two great powers. And how was the reckoning before that? From other early significant events, indicating this event. So, when the third millennium of the New Era began quite recently, then by other references it can be determined as dates, for example:
- 2004 A.D.;
- 7512 years from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple;
- 13012 summer from the Great Cooling;
- 111810 summer from the Great Migration from Daria;
- 142994 summer from the period of the Three Moons;
- 604378 years from the Time of the Three Suns.
With reference to modern chronology and the official historical period, these dates look truly fantastic. But it must be remembered that the ancient cultural heritage of the Earth has written and material monuments, including the Slavic-Aryan Vedas, which mention even longer historical periods of time.
To take them literally or to try to recalculate them for today's chronology, taking into account the (possible) change in the period of the Earth's revolution or the tilt of its axis, is a matter of archaeological and paleo-astronomical research.
What is the role of Cyril and Methodius
Keeping a calendar, quite obviously, is possible only in writing. Otherwise, it is impossible to transfer such a voluminous array of information. Writing in Rus', of course, also existed in pre-Petrine times, and Peter, shortly after the reform of the calendar, undertook a reform of writing. But we are interested in writing before the period of Cyril and Methodius. The role of the Greek monks in this case is very likely somewhat overestimated. Their task was to simplify and universalize the distribution of biblical texts, they coped with this by reworking the ancient Slavic alphabet, removing unique diphthongs and adding ancient Greek characters.
As for the calendar, in the Slavic chronology, letters were used to write numbers. ‘’ Now most Slavic peoples have their own nuances in the spelling and pronunciation of symbols, but the “birthday of Slavic writing”, associated with the annual days of “Cyril and Methodius”, would be more correct to call it differently. After all, Slavic writing existed even before, and their merit, as reformers, was rather in an attempt to unite the Slavic peoples that had been separated by that time. ''
Old Slavic calculus in modern times
History, as you know, does not accept the subjunctive mood. It is impossible to talk about what happened, and how the circle would have turned, if Peter had not cut off decisively all the age-old Slavic traditions and destroyed the ancient calendar of the Slavs. There is an opinion that the calculation of events that occurred before 1700 should be carried out according to the system of calculation in which they occurred.
Or with an additional date, as, for example, is still used when dating events before 1918 (reform to switch to the Gregorian calendar). At least, this could be indicated in the history books or specialized literature. Some significant dates for example:
- The battle on the ice on Lake Peipsi took place in 1242, and in Rus' at that time the summer of 6759 was going on;
- The baptism of Kyiv is attributed to the year 988 AD, while the summer of 6496 was going on.
This does not mean at all that all dates should be recalculated in the era from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple, but you need to remember your cultural heritage and be proud of it.
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Citizens of the Soviet country, having gone to bed on January 31, 1918, woke up on February 14. The "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic" came into force. Bolshevik Russia switched to the so-called new, or civil, style of timekeeping, which coincided with the church Gregorian calendar used in Europe. These changes did not affect our Church: she continued to celebrate her holidays according to the old, Julian calendar.
The calendar split between Western and Eastern Christians (believers began to celebrate the main holidays at different times) occurred in the 16th century, when Pope Gregory XIII undertook another reform that replaced the Julian style with the Gregorian one. The purpose of the reform was to correct the growing difference between the astronomical year and the calendar year.
Obsessed with the idea of world revolution and internationalism, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not care about the Pope and his calendar. As stated in the decree, the transition to the Western, Gregorian style was made "in order to establish in Russia the same time calculation with almost all cultural peoples" .... At one of the first meetings of the young Soviet government in early 1918, two draft reforms of time were considered "The first proposed a gradual transition to the Gregorian calendar, each year dropping 24 hours. This would take 13 years. The second provided for doing it in one fell swoop. It was he who liked the leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who surpassed the current ideologist of multiculturalism Angela Merkel in globalist projects.
Competently
Religious historian Alexei Yudin on how Christian churches celebrate Christmas:
First, let's make it clear right away: to say that someone celebrates on December 25, and someone on January 7 is incorrect. Everyone celebrates Christmas on the 25th, but according to different calendars. In the next hundred years, from my point of view, no unification of the celebration of Christmas is to be expected.
The old Julian calendar, adopted under Julius Caesar, lagged behind astronomical time. The reform of Pope Gregory XIII, which from the very beginning was called papist, was perceived extremely negatively in Europe, especially in Protestant countries, where the reformation had already firmly established itself. The Protestants were opposed primarily because "it was conceived in Rome." And this city in the XVI century was no longer the center of Christian Europe.
Red Army soldiers take out church property from the Simonov Monastery on a subbotnik (1925). Photo: wikipedia.org
The reform of the calendar, if desired, can, of course, be called a split, bearing in mind that the Christian world has already split not only along the East-West principle, but also within the West.
Therefore, the Gregorian calendar was perceived as Roman, papist, and therefore unsuitable. Gradually, however, the Protestant countries accepted it, but the process of transition took centuries. This is how things were in the West. The East paid no attention to the reform of Pope Gregory XIII.
The Soviet Republic switched to a new style, but this, unfortunately, was due to the revolutionary events in Russia, the Bolsheviks, of course, did not think about any Pope Gregory XIII, they simply considered the new style to be the most adequate to their worldview. And the Russian Orthodox Church has an additional trauma.
In 1923, at the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of Orthodox churches was held, at which a decision was made to correct the Julian calendar.
Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, were unable to travel abroad. But Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the "New Julian" calendar. However, this caused protests among believers, and the decision was quickly canceled.
You can see that there were several stages of searching for a match on a calendar basis. But this did not lead to the final result. So far, this issue has not been included in a serious church discussion at all.
Is the Church afraid of another schism? Undoubtedly, some ultra-conservative groups within the Church will say: "The sacred time has been betrayed." Any Church is a very conservative institution, especially when it comes to everyday life and liturgical practices. And they rest against the calendar. And the church-administrative resource in such matters is ineffective.
Every Christmas, the theme of switching to the Gregorian calendar pops up. But this is politics, profitable media presentation, PR, whatever you want. The Church itself does not participate in this and is reluctant to comment on these issues.
Why does the Russian Orthodox Church use the Julian calendar?
Father Vladimir (Vigilyansky), rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University:
Orthodox churches can be roughly divided into three categories: those that serve all church holidays according to the new (Gregorian) calendar, those that serve only according to the old (Julian) calendar, and those that mix styles: for example, in Greece, Easter is celebrated according to old calendar, and all other holidays - in a new way. Our churches (Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem, Serbian and Athos monasteries) never changed the church calendar and did not mix it with the Gregorian, so that there would be no confusion in the holidays. We have a single calendar system, which is tied to Easter. If we switch to celebrating, say, Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, then two weeks are “eaten up” (remember how in 1918, after January 31, February 14 came), each day of which carries a special semantic significance for an Orthodox person.
The church lives in its own order, and in it many significant things may not coincide with secular priorities. For example, in church life there is a clear system of progression of time, which is tied to the Gospel. Every day, excerpts from this book are read, in which there is a logic associated with the gospel story and the earthly life of Jesus Christ. All this lays down a certain spiritual rhythm in the life of an Orthodox person. And those who use this calendar do not want and will not violate it.
A believer has a very ascetic life. The world can change, we see how before our very eyes fellow citizens have a lot of opportunities, for example, for recreation during the secular New Year holidays. But the Church, as one of our rock singers sang, "will not bend under the changing world." We will not make our church life dependent on the ski resort.
The Bolsheviks introduced a new calendar "in order to calculate the same time with almost all cultural peoples." Photo: Publishing project of Vladimir Lisin "Days of 1917 100 years ago"
One of the most famous reformers of Russia - Tsar Peter 1 in 1699 issued a decree on the abolition of the old chronology that existed at that time in Rus', and instead introduces a new one brought from Western Europe. In addition to this, he approved a decree that from January 1, 1700, it is necessary to introduce the celebration of the New Year everywhere. This is public information found in many history books. But I want to tell you about the calendar that was canceled, for me personally it turned out to be a discovery.
It turns out that at the time Peter introduced a new chronology with a reference point from the Nativity of Christ in Rus', the chronology was conducted from the Creation of the World in the Star Temple, according to which the year was 5508. Many "competent" people believe that the introduction of the new calendar was a progress for Russia, introducing it to European culture. But after all, with this, Tsar Peter I did not just change one calendar for another, he stole five and a half thousand years of his native ancient history from the Slavic peoples of Russia.
The calendar in force before the reform was called Kolyada Dar (shown in the figure). With its help, it was possible to use the Ancient Slavic chronology system of Krugolet Chislobog built on the ancient hexadecimal system. 16 Years of the Circle pass through nine Elements, creating the Circle of Life, which has 144 Years. In the modern sense, the analogue of the Circle of Life (a period of 144 years) is a century (a period of 100 years).
The beginning of Years of the Circum-Golet falls on the day of the autumnal equinox. On this day, the great ancient holiday of Ramha-Ita (New Year) began. The full Solar Circle, from Ramha-Ita to Ramha-Ita, was divided into three periods of time - Autumn, Winter and Spring, and, united together, they gave - Summer. From this definition, such concepts as Chronicles, Chronology, etc. appeared. Each period of time of Summer was divided into three parts, which were called - a month: Ramhat, Aylet, Beylet, Gaylet, Daylet, Elet, Veylet, Heylet, Tailet, each of which carries a figurative meaning corresponding to the season of Summer. The even months of Summer have 40 days, and the odd months have 41 days. The ancient calendar instead of 12 month tablets contains only two tablets - an odd and an even month. Since in any Summer all odd months begin on the same day of the week, even months begin on a different day of the week. In addition, there was an even finer division of the month into Weeks, which contained nine days each. Each day of the Week, except for the last, corresponded to a numeral name: Monday, Tuesday, triteynik, chetvertik (Thursday), Friday, sixth, seven, octal, and the Week itself, the day on which they do nothing, but rest from the labors of the righteous.
The day is divided into 16 hours (the old hour is equal to 1½ of the new one) and starts at 19:00 in the evening (for Summer Time). An hour lasts 144 parts. Part - 1296 shares (1 part = 37.56 sec). Share = 72 moments (1sec = 34.5 shares). Instant \u003d 760 instants (1 sec. \u003d 2484.34 instants). Flash = 160 sigs (1s = 1888102.236 flashes). One second contains 302096358 sig, and 1 sig is approximately equal to 30 oscillations of the electromagnetic wave of the cesium atom, taken as the basis for modern atomic clocks.
There is also a difference in the time frame: according to the modern calendar, a day begins at midnight (24:00 or 00:00), and alternates: night, morning, day, evening. A day according to the Slavic calendar begins in the Evening (18:00 or 19:00 when switching to summer time), and alternates: evening, night, morning, day.
In modern reckoning, the celebration of the New Year (New Year) falls on the first 20th of September, on the day of the autumn equinox, an important astrological event. For example, in this year 2009 it will fall on September 20th.
Each of the 16 Years had its own name (the modern analogue of the Zodiac symbols): 1 - Wanderer (Way); 2 - Priest; 3 - Virgo (Priestess); 4 - World (Reality); 5 - Scroll; 6 - Phoenix; 7 - Fox (Nav); 8 - Dragon; 9 - Serpent; 10 - Eagle; 11 - Dolphin; 12 - Horse; 13 - Dog; 14 - Tour (Cow); 15 - Mansions (House); 16 - Temple (Temple).
As mentioned above, every summer passed through 9 elements: 1 - Earth; 2 - Star; 3 - Fire; 4 - Sun; 5 - Tree; 6 - Svaga; 7 - Ocean; 8 - Moon; 9 - God.
Thus, there were 144 different variants of the name Years. For example, 2009 is the Summer of the Moon Dog.
Now about the main thing, the beginning of the modern chronology is the Nativity of Christ, the event is quite understandable to the overwhelming majority of modern people. But what kind of event marked the beginning of the Ancient Slavic chronology, what is the Creation of the World in the Star Temple. It turns out that in the modern sense this means the conclusion of a peace treaty in such and such a year. A few sources claim that the "peace treaty" was concluded between two countries: Arimia (modern descendant of China) and Rusenia (modern descendant of Russia). This event is immortalized in ancient history. The white horseman slaying the Dragon with a spear has survived to this day in the story known as "George the Victorious slaying the Dragon with a spear."
For all who are interested in the content of the article, you can understand the Ancient Slavic chronology in more detail here.
