Difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars or why does Christmas have two dates? How the Julian calendar differs from the Gregorian calendar

The calendar - the table of days, numbers, months, seasons, years, familiar to all of us, is the most ancient invention of mankind. It fixes the frequency natural phenomena, based on the laws of motion of heavenly bodies: the sun, moon, stars. Earth sweeps in its solar orbit, counting years and centuries. It makes one revolution around its axis per day, and around the Sun per year. Astronomical, or solar, year lasts 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds. Therefore, there is no whole number of days, this is where the difficulty arises in drawing up a calendar that should keep the correct time count. Since the days of Adam and Eve, people have used the "cycle" of the sun and moon to keep track of time. The lunar calendar used by the Romans and Greeks was simple and convenient. From one revival of the Moon to the next, about 30 days pass, or rather - 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. Therefore, according to the changes of the moon, it was possible to count days, and then months.

The lunar calendar first had 10 months, the first of which were dedicated to the Roman gods and supreme rulers. For example, the month of March was named after the god Mars (Martius), the month of May is dedicated to the goddess Maya, July is named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and August is named after the emperor Octavian Augustus. In the ancient world, from the 3rd century BC, according to the flesh, a calendar was used, which was based on a four-year lunisolar cycle, which gave a discrepancy with the magnitude of the solar year by 4 days in 4 years. In Egypt, a solar calendar was compiled from observations of Sirius and the Sun. The year in this calendar lasted 365 days, it had 12 months of 30 days, and at the end of the year 5 more days were added in honor of the “birth of the gods”.

In 46 BC, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar introduced an accurate solar calendar according to the Egyptian model - julian... 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. The Roman emperor Augustus introduced the Alexandrian calendar, in which one more day was added every 4 years: instead of 365 days - 366 days a year, that is, 6 extra hours per year. For 4 years, this was 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. This was essentially a refinement of the same Julian calendar.

For the Orthodox Church, the calendar was the basis of the annual cycle of worship, and therefore it was very important to establish the simultaneity of holidays throughout the Church. The question of the time of the celebration of Easter was discussed in the First Ecumenical. Cathedral *, as one of the main ones. The Paschalia established at the Council (the rules for calculating the day of Easter), along 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 - gregorian... The purpose of the reform was supposedly a more precise definition of the day of the celebration of Easter, so that the vernal equinox returned by March 21st. The Council of the Eastern Patriarchs in 1583 in Constantinople condemned the Gregorian calendar as violating the entire liturgical cycle and the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. It is important to note that the Gregorian calendar in some years violates one of the main church rules for the date of the celebration of Easter - it happens that Catholic Easter falls in time earlier than the Jewish one, which is not allowed by the canons of the Church; also sometimes "disappears" Petrov post. At the same time, such a great scientist astronomer as Copernicus (being a Catholic monk) did not consider the Gregorian calendar more accurate than the Julian one, and did not recognize it. The new style was introduced by the authority of the Pope instead of the Julian calendar, or the old style, and was gradually adopted in Catholic countries. By the way, modern astronomers use the Julian calendar in their calculations.

In Russia, starting from the X century, New Year celebrated on March 1, when, according to biblical tradition, God created the world. 5 centuries later, in 1492, in accordance with church tradition, the beginning of the year in Russia was postponed to September 1, and celebrated this way for over 200 years. The months were clean slavic names, the origin of which was associated with natural phenomena. The years were counted from the creation of the world.

December 19, 7208 ("from the creation of the world") Peter I signed a decree on the reform of the calendar. The calendar remained Julian, as before the reform, adopted by Russia from Byzantium along with baptism. A new beginning of the year was introduced - January 1 and the Christian chronology "from the Nativity of Christ". In the decree of the king it was prescribed: “The day after December 31, 7208 from the creation of the world (the Orthodox Church considers the date of the creation of the world - September 1, 5508 BC) to consider January 1, 1700 from the birth of Christ. The decree also ordered to celebrate this event with a special solemnity: “And as a sign of that good undertaking and a new centenary century, in joy to each other, to wish each other a Happy New Year ... , spruce and juniper ... repair shooting from small cannons and rifles, launch rockets, as many as happens, and light the fires. " The count of the years from the birth of Christ is adopted by the majority of the states of the world. With the spread of atheism among the intelligentsia and historians, they began to avoid mentioning the name of Christ and replace the countdown of centuries from His Christmas with the so-called "our era."

After the great October socialist 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. Initially in the 16th century, the value of 10 days later increases: in the 18th century - 11 days, in the 19th century - 12 days, in the 20th and XXI centuries - 13 days, in XXII - 14 days.
The Russian Orthodox Church, following the Ecumenical Councils, uses the Julian calendar, in contrast to the Catholics who use the Gregorian one.

At the same time, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by civil authorities led to some difficulties for Orthodox Christians. The New Year, which is celebrated by all civil society, has been moved to the Nativity Fast when it is not proper to have fun. Moreover, according to church calendar January 1 (December 19, old style) commemorates the memory of the holy martyr Boniface, who patronizes people who want to get rid of the abuse of alcoholic beverages - and our whole vast country greets this day with glasses in hand. Orthodox people celebrate the New Year "the old way" on January 14th.

Humanity has been using chronology since ancient times. Take, for example, the famous Mayan circle that made a lot of noise in 2012. By measuring day by day, calendar pages take weeks, months and years away. Almost all countries in the world today live according to the generally recognized gregorian calendar, however, for many years the state was julian... What is the difference between them, and why is the latter now used only by the Orthodox Church?

Julian calendar

The ancient Romans counted days by lunar phases. Such a simple calendar had 10 months named after the gods. The Egyptians had the usual modern chronology: 365 days, 12 months, 30 days each. In 46 BC. emperor Ancient Rome Gaius Julius Caesar ordered leading astronomers to create a new calendar. The solar year with its 365 days and 6 hours was taken as a model, and the starting date was January 1. The new way of calculating days was then, in fact, called the calendar, from the Roman word "kalenda" - that was the name of the first days of each month when interest was paid on debts. To the glory of the ancient Roman commander and politician, in order to perpetuate his name in the history of a grand invention, one of the months was named July.

After the assassination of the emperor, the Roman priests got a little confused and declared every coming third year a leap year in order to equalize the six-hour shift. The calendar was finally aligned under Emperor Octavian Augustus. And his contribution was recorded by the new name of the month - August.

Julian to Gregorian

Centuries after julian calendar the states lived. It was also used by Christians during the First Ecumenical Council, when the date for the celebration of Easter was approved. Interestingly, this day is celebrated differently each year depending on the first full moon after the vernal equinox and the Jewish Passover. This rule could be changed only on pain of anathema, but in 1582 the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, took a risk. The reform was successful: the new calendar, called the Gregorian, was more accurate and returned the equinox to March 21st. The hierarchs of the Orthodox Church condemned the innovation: it turned out that the Jewish Passover happened later than the Christian Passover. This was not allowed by the canons of the Eastern tradition, and another point appeared in the discrepancies between Catholics and Orthodox.

Chronology in Russia

In 1492, the New Year in Russia began to be celebrated according to the church tradition on September 1, although earlier the New Year began simultaneously with spring and was considered "from the creation of the world." Emperor Peter I established that he received from Byzantium julian calendar on the territory of the Russian Empire is valid, but the New Year was now celebrated without fail on January 1. The Bolsheviks transferred the country to gregorian calendar, on which the whole of Europe has lived for a long time. It is interesting that in this way the then February became the most in a short month in the history of chronology: February 1, 1918 turned into February 14.

FROM Julian to Gregorian calendar in 1924 Greece officially passed, followed by Turkey, and in 1928, Egypt. In our time, according to the Julian chronology, only some Orthodox churches live - Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Polish, Jerusalem, as well as eastern - Coptic, Ethiopian and Greek Catholic. Therefore, there are discrepancies in the celebration of Christmas: Catholics celebrate the birthday of Christ on December 25, and in orthodox tradition this holiday falls on January 7th. The same with secular holidays - embarrassing foreigners, is celebrated on January 14 as a tribute to the previous calendar. However, it doesn't matter who lives by which calendar: the main thing is not to waste precious days.

Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village

Welcome to the ! On January 6, 2019, the magic of Christmas Eve will envelop the entire park, and its visitors will find themselves in a real winter fairy tale!

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Christmas is the most fabulous, the most magical holiday. A holiday that promises a miracle. The most long-awaited holiday of the year. Christmas is more important than New Year. So it is in the West, and so it was in Russia before the revolution. It is Christmas that is the very warm family holiday with the obligatory Christmas tree and the expectation of gifts from Santa Claus or Santa Claus.

So why do Christians have two Christmases today? Why do Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, and Catholics and Protestants on December 25?

And the point here is not at all in religious discrepancies, but only in the calendar. The Julian calendar was originally in Europe. This calendar appeared before our era and was generally accepted until the 16th century. The Julian calendar was named after Julius Caesar, who introduced the calendar in 45 BC. instead of the outdated Roman calendar. The Julian calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sozigen. Sozigen is an Alexandrian scientist, a scientist from the very Alexandria, which was in the Egyptian lands. He was invited to Rome by Caesar to develop a calendar. He is also known for his philosophical treatises, for example, a commentary on Aristotle's "De Caelo". But his philosophical works have not survived to this day.

The Julian calendar was developed based on the ancient Egyptian knowledge of astronomy. In the Julian calendar, the year begins on January 1, since it was on this day that the newly elected consuls took office in ancient Rome. The year consisted of 365 days and was divided by 12 months. Once every four years there was a leap year, to which one day was added - February 29. But the calendar was not accurate enough. Every 128 years, one extra day accumulated. And Christmas, which in the Middle Ages was celebrated in Western Europe practically on the days of the winter solstice, it began to gradually move away closer and closer to spring. The day of the vernal equinox, which determined the date of Easter, was also shifted.

And then the popes came to understand that the calendar is not accurate and needs to be improved. Gregory XIII became the pope who carried out the calendar reform. It was in honor of him that the new calendar was named Gregorian. Before Gregory XIII, Pope Paul III and Pius IV made attempts to change the calendar, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The new Gregorian calendar was introduced on October 4, 1582. Astronomers Christopher Clavius \u200b\u200band Aloysius Lilius were involved in the development of the calendar on behalf of the Pope. After the introduction of the new calendar in 1582, the date of October 4, Thursday, was immediately followed by a new date - October 15, Friday. This is how the Julian calendar lagged behind the Gregorian by that time.

The Gregorian calendar consists of 365 days per year, the leap year has 366 days. But at the same time, the calculation of leap years has become more perfect. So a leap year is a year whose number is a multiple of 4. Years divisible by 100 are leap years if they are divided by 400. Thus, 2000 was a leap year, 1600 was a leap year, and 1800 or 1900, for example, were not leap years. An error in one day now accumulates over 10,000 years, in Julian - over 128 years.

With each century, the difference in days between the Gregorian and Julian calendar increases by exactly one day.

By 1582, the originally unified Christian church had already split into two parts - Orthodox and Catholic. In 1583, Pope Gregory XIII, the head of the Catholic Church, sent an embassy to the head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople, with a proposal to also switch to the Gregorian calendar, but he refused.

So it turned out that Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas on December 25 according to the new Gregorian calendar, and the Orthodox - Russian, Jerusalem, Serbian, Georgian Orthodox churches and Athos - according to the old Julian calendar and also December 25, but which is true in the modern Gregorian calendar falls on Jan. 7.

Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Cyprus, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek and some other Orthodox churches adopted the New Julian calendar, which is similar to the Gregorian calendar, and just like Catholics celebrate Christmas on December 25.

By the way, the Russian Orthodox Church also tried to switch to a New Julian calendar similar to the Gregorian. On October 15, 1923, he was introduced to the Russian Orthodox Church by Patriarch Tikhon. This innovation was accepted by the Moscow parishes, but within the Church itself it caused disagreements and on November 8, 1923, by order of Patriarch Tikhon, "it was temporarily postponed."

IN Russian Empire even in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the chronology, in contrast to Europe, was carried out according to the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was introduced only after the revolution in 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars. Then such names as "old style" - the Julian calendar and "new style" - the Gregorian calendar appeared. Christmas began to be celebrated after the New Year. And besides the New Year itself, the Old New Year also appeared, in general, the same New Year, but according to the old Julian calendar.

Here's a calendar story. Merry Christmas, and maybe Christmas and New Year or New Years. Happy Holidays!

In the days of ancient Rome, it was accepted that debtors pay interest in the first days of the months. This day had a special name - the day of calendars, and the Latin calendarium literally translates as "debt book". But the Greeks did not have such a date, so the Romans ironically said about inveterate debtors that they would return the loan before the Greek calendars, that is, never. This expression later became winged throughout the world. In our time, the Gregorian calendar is almost universally used to calculate large periods of time. What are its features and what is its principle of construction - this is exactly what will be discussed in our article.

How the Gregorian calendar came about

As you know, the tropical year is the basis for modern chronology. This is how astronomers call the time interval between the vernal equinox points. It is equal to 365.2422196 Earth average solar days. Before the modern Gregorian calendar appeared, the Julian calendar, which was invented in the 45th century BC, was in use all over the world. In the old system, proposed by Julius Caesar, one year in the range of 4 years averaged 365.25 days. This value is 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the duration of the tropical year. Therefore, over time, the error of the Julian calendar was constantly accumulating. Particular displeasure was caused by the constant shift of the day of the celebration of Easter, which was tied to the vernal equinox. Later, during the Council of Nicaea (325), a special decree was even adopted, which determined a single date for Easter for all Christians. Many suggestions have been made to improve the calendar. But only the recommendations of the astronomer Aloysius Lilia (Neapolitan astronomer) and Christopher Clavius \u200b\u200b(Bavarian Jesuit) were given the green light. It happened on February 24, 1582: the Pope, Gregory XIII, issued a special message, which introduced two significant additions to the Julian calendar. In order for March 21 to remain in the calendar as the date of the spring equinox, from 1582, starting from October 4, 10 days were immediately withdrawn and after it the 15th day followed. The second addition concerned the introduction of a leap year - it came every three years and differed from the usual in that it was divided by 400. Thus, the new improved chronology system began its countdown from 1582, it got its name in honor of the Pope, and among the people it became known as the new style.

Switching to the Gregorian calendar

It should be noted that not all countries immediately adopted such innovations. Spain, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Holland, France and Luxembourg (1582) were the first to switch to the new time counting system. Later they were joined by Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. In Denmark, Norway and Germany, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in the 17th century, in Finland, Sweden, Great Britain and the Northern Netherlands in the 18th century, in Japan in the 19th century. And at the beginning of the 20th century, they were joined by Bulgaria, China, Romania, Serbia, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. The Gregorian calendar in Russia came into force a year later, after the 1917 revolution. However, the Orthodox Russian Church decided to preserve the traditions and still lives according to the old style.

Perspectives

Despite the fact that the Gregorian calendar is very accurate, it is still not perfect and accumulates an error of 3 days in ten thousand years. In addition, it does not take into account the slowing down of our planet's rotation, which results in a lengthening of the day by 0.6 seconds every century. The variability of the number of weeks and days in semesters, quarters and months is another drawback. Today, new projects exist and are being developed. The first discussions on a new calendar took place back in 1954 at the UN level. However, then they could not come to a decision and this issue was postponed.

Gregorian calendar

This calculator allows you to convert the date from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, as well as calculate the date of Orthodox Easter in the old style

* to calculate Easter according to the new style, you must enter the date obtained according to the old style into the calculation form

(amendment + 13 days to the Julian calendar)

2019 year common

IN 2019 Orthodox Easter falls on April 15 (Julian calendar)

The calculation of the date of Orthodox Easter is carried out according to the algorithm of Karl Friedrich Gauss

Disadvantages of the Julian calendar

In 325 A.D. e. The Nicene Church Council took place. It adopted the Julian calendar for the entire Christian world, according to which at that time the vernal equinox fell on March 21. For the church, this was an important moment in determining the time for celebrating Easter - one of the most important religious holidays. Accepting the Julian calendar, the churchmen believed that it was perfectly accurate. However, as we know, an error of one day accumulates in it every 128 years.

An error in the Julian calendar led to the fact that the actual time of the vernal equinox ceased to coincide with the calendar. The moment of equality of day and night passed to earlier numbers: first on March 20, then on 19, 18, etc. By the second half of the 16th century. the error was 10 days: according to the Julian calendar, the equinox was supposed to occur on March 21, but in reality it was already on March 11.

History of the Gregorian Reform.

The inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was discovered in the first quarter of the 14th century. So, in 1324, the Byzantine scientist Nikifor Grigora drew the attention of Emperor Andronicus II to the fact that the vernal equinox no longer falls on March 21 and, therefore, Easter will gradually be postponed to a later time. Therefore, he considered it necessary to correct the calendar and, along with it, the calculation of the Easter. However, the emperor rejected Grigor's proposal, considering the reform to be practically impracticable due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement on this point between the individual Orthodox churches.

The inaccuracy of the Julian calendar was also pointed out by the Greek scientist Matthew Vlastar, who lived in Byzantium in the first half of the XIV century. However, he did not consider it necessary to make corrections, since he saw in this a certain "advantage", consisting in the fact that the delay of the Orthodox Easter saves it from coinciding with the Jewish Passover. Their simultaneous celebration was prohibited by the decrees of some "Ecumenical" councils and various church canons.

It is interesting to note that in 1373 the Byzantine scholar Isaac Argir, who more deeply understood the need to correct the Julian calendar and the rules for calculating the Paschal, considered such an event useless. The reason for this attitude to the calendar was explained by the fact that Argir was deeply convinced of the coming "end of the world" in 119 years and the end of the world, since 7000 years "from the day of the creation of the world" will be celebrated. Is it worth it to reform the calendar if there is so little time left for the life of all mankind!

Many representatives of the Catholic Church understood the need to reform the Julian calendar. In the XIV century. Pope Clement VI spoke out in favor of correcting the calendar.

In March 1414, the calendar issue was discussed at the initiative of Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. The shortcomings of the Julian calendar and the inaccuracy of the existing Paschal were the subject of discussion at Basel Cathedral in March 1437. Here, the outstanding philosopher and scientist of the Renaissance Nikolai of Cusa (1401-1464), one of Copernicus's predecessors, presented his project.

In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV began preparations to reform the calendar and correct the Passover. For this purpose, he invited the eminent German astronomer and mathematician Regiomontanus (1436-1476) to Rome. However, the unexpected death of the scientist forced the pope to postpone the implementation of his intention.

In the XVI century. two more "ecumenical" councils were involved in the reform of the calendar: the Lateran (1512-1517) and Trent (1545-1563). When in 1514 the Lateran Council created a commission for calendar reform, the Roman curia invited the then already famous in Europe Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) to come to Rome and take part in the work of the calendar commission. However, Copernicus avoided participating in the commission and pointed out the premature of such a reform, since, in his opinion, by this time the duration of the tropical year had not been established sufficiently accurately.

Gregorian reform. By the middle of the XVI century. the issue of calendar reform was so widespread and the importance of solving it was so necessary that it was considered undesirable to postpone this issue any further. That is why in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII created a special commission, into which he introduced Ignatius Danti (1536-1586) - the then famous professor of astronomy and mathematics Bologna University... This commission was charged with developing a draft of a new calendar system.

After reviewing all the proposed versions of the new calendar, the commission approved the project, the author of which was the Italian mathematician and physician Luigi Lilio (or Aloysius Lilius, 1520-1576), a professor of medicine at the University of Perugia. This project was published in 1576 by the scientist's brother, Antonio Lilio, who, during Luigi's lifetime, took an active part in the development of the new calendar.

Lilio's project was adopted by Pope Gregory XIII. On February 24, 1582, he issued a special bull (Fig. 11), according to which the counting of days was moved 10 days ahead and the day after Thursday, October 4, 1582, Friday was prescribed to be counted not 5, but 15 October. This immediately corrected the error that had accumulated since the time of the Nicene Council, and the vernal equinox again fell on March 21.

It was more difficult to resolve the issue of introducing an amendment into the calendar that would ensure for long periods of time coincidence of the calendar date of the vernal equinox with its actual date. To do this, one had to know the length of the tropical year.

By this time, astronomical tables, known as "Prussian tables", had already been published. They were compiled by the German astronomer and mathematician Erasmus Reingold (1511-1553) and published in 1551. The length of the year in them was taken equal to 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds, that is, the more true value of the tropical year by only 30 seconds. The length of the Julian calendar year differed from it by 10 minutes. 44 sec. per year, which gave an error per day for 135 years, and for 400 years - slightly more than three days.

Consequently, the Julian calendar goes forward by three days every 400 years. Therefore, in order to avoid new mistakes, it was decided to throw out 3 days from the account every 400 years. According to the Julian calendar, there should be 100 leap years in 400 years. To implement the reform, it was necessary to reduce their number to 97. Lilio proposed to consider as simple those secular years of the Julian calendar, in which the number of hundreds is not divisible by 4. Thus, in the new calendar, leap years include only those secular years, the number of centuries of which is divisible by 4 without the remainder. Such years are: 1600, 2000, 2400, 2800, etc. Years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, etc. will be simple.

The reformed calendar system was called the Gregorian or "new style".

Is the Gregorian calendar accurate? We already know that the Gregorian calendar is also not entirely accurate. Indeed, when correcting the calendar, they began to throw out three days in every 400 years, while such an error occurs only in 384 years. To determine the error of the Gregorian calendar, we calculate the average length of the year in it.

In a period of 400 years, there will be 303 years of 365 days and 97 years of 366 days. Total days in a four-century period will be 303 × 365 + 97 × 366 \u003d\u003d 110 595 + 35 502 \u003d 146 097. Divide this number by 400. Then we get 146097/400 \u003d 365.242500 accurate to six decimal places. This is the average length of a year in the Gregorian calendar. This value differs from the currently accepted value for the length of a tropical year by only 0.000305 average days, which gives a difference of one whole day over 3280 years.

The Gregorian calendar could be improved and made even more accurate. For this, it is enough to consider one leap year every 4000 years simple. Such years could be 4000, 8000, etc. Since the error of the Gregorian calendar is 0.000305 days per year, then for 4000 years it will be 1.22 days. If we correct the calendar for one more day in 4000 years, then an error of 0.22 days will remain. This error will increase to a whole day in only 18,200 years! But such accuracy is no longer of any practical interest.

When and where was the Gregorian calendar first introduced? The Gregorian calendar was not immediately generalized. In countries where the dominant religion was Catholicism (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, etc.), it was introduced in 1582 or a little later. Other countries recognized it only after tens and hundreds of years.

In states where Lutheranism was highly developed, for a long time they were guided by the saying that "it is better to part with the Sun than to get along with the Pope." The Orthodox Church opposed the new style even longer.

In a number of countries, the introduction of the Gregorian calendar had to overcome great difficulties. History knows the "calendar disturbances" that arose in 1584 in Riga and were directed against the decree of the Polish king Stefan Batory to introduce a new calendar not only in Poland, but also in the Duchy of Zadvin, which was at that time under Lithuanian-Polish rule. The struggle of the Latvian people against the Polish dominance and Catholicism continued for several years. The calendar disturbances ended only after the leaders of the uprising, Giese and Brinken, were arrested in 1589, brutally tortured and executed.

In England, the introduction of the new calendar was accompanied by the postponement of the beginning of the new year from March 25 to January 1. Thus, 1751 in England consisted of only 282 days. Lord Chesterfield, on whose initiative the calendar reform was carried out in England, was persecuted by the townspeople with shouts: "Give us our three months."

In the XIX century. Attempts were made to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia, but each time these attempts failed due to opposition from the church and government. Only in 1918, immediately after the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, a calendar reform was carried out.

The difference between the two calendaring systems. At the time of the reform of the calendar, the difference between the old and new styles was 10 days. This amendment remained the same in the 17th century, since 1600 was a leap year in both the new style and the old one. But in the XVIII century. the amendment increased to 11 days, in the 19th century. - up to 12 days and, finally, in the XX century. - up to 13 days.

How to set the date after which the amendment changes its value?

The reason for the change in the value of the amendment depends on the fact that in the Julian calendar 1700, 1800 and 1900 are leap years, that is, these years in February contain 29 days, and in the Gregorian they are not leap years and have only 28 days in February.

To translate the Julian date of any event that occurred after the reform of 1582 to a new style, you can use the table:

It can be seen from this table that the critical days, after which the amendment increases by one day, are February 29 according to the old style of those century years in which, according to the rules of the Gregorian reform, one day was thrown out of the account, i.e. years 1700, 1800, 1900 , 2100, 2200, etc. Therefore, starting from March 1 of these years, again according to the old style, the amendment is increased by one day.

A special place is occupied by the question of recounting the dates of events that took place before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Such a recount is also important when they are going to celebrate the anniversary of some historical event... So, in 1973, mankind celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. It is known that he was born on February 19, 1473 according to the old style. But we now live according to the Gregorian calendar and therefore it was necessary to recalculate the date of interest to us for a new style. How was this done?

Since in the XVI century. the difference between the two calendar systems was 10 days, then, knowing how fast it changes, you can set the value of this difference for different centuries preceding the reform of the calendar. It should be borne in mind that in 325 the Council of Nicaea adopted the Julian calendar and the vernal equinox then fell on March 21st. Considering all this, we can continue table. 1 in back side and get the following translated amendments:

From this table it can be seen that for the date February 19, 1473, the amendment will be +9 days. Consequently, the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus was celebrated on 19 + 9-28 February 1973.