Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Conversion of dates according to the Gregorian, Julian calendar and from the founding of Rome

16.10.2019

The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. It was supposedly developed by Egyptian astronomers (Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigenes), but they named it exactly in his honor.
It acquired its final form in 8 AD.
The year began on January 1, since it was on this day that the elected consuls took office, and then everything is as we know - 12 months, 365 days, sometimes 366.

It is precisely this “sometimes” that distinguishes it from the Gregorian calendar.

Actually, the problem is that the Earth completes a full revolution around the sun - a tropical year - in 365.24219878 days. In a calendar, the number of days is an integer. It turns out that if there are 365 days in a year, then every year the calendar will go astray - it will go ahead by almost a quarter of a day.
In the Julian calendar, they did it simply - to correct the discrepancy, they assumed that every fourth year would be a leap year ( annus bissextus), and will have 366 days. Thus, the average length of the year in the Julian calendar is 365.25, already much closer to the real tropical year.

But not close enough - now the calendar is lagging behind every year by 11 minutes 14 seconds. In 128 years it will be already a day. This causes some dates associated with astronomical phenomena, such as the astronomical spring equinox, to begin to shift toward the beginning of the calendar year.

The discrepancy between the astronomical spring equinox and the calendar one, recorded on March 21, became increasingly obvious, and since the Easter holiday was tied to the spring equinox, many in Catholic Europe believed that something had to be done about the problem.

Finally, Pope Gregory XIII got his act together and reformed the calendar, resulting in what we now know as the Gregorian calendar. The project was developed by Luigi Lilio, and according to it, in the future only those century years were to be considered leap years, the number of hundreds of years of which is divisible by 4 without a remainder (1600, 2000, 2400), while others would be considered simple. The error of 10 days accumulated since 8 AD was also eliminated, and according to the pope’s decree of February 24, 1582, it was established that October 4, 1582 should be immediately followed by October 15.

In the new calendar, the average length of the year was 365.2425 days. The error was only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy per day had been accumulating for about 3,300 years.

As they say, “well, or rather, we don’t need it.” Or, let’s put it this way, these will be the problems of our distant descendants. In principle, it would be possible to declare that every year divisible by 4000 is not a leap year, and then the average value of the year would be 365.24225, with an even smaller error.

Catholic countries switched to the new calendar almost immediately (you can’t argue against the pope), Protestant countries with difficulty, one of the last was Great Britain, in 1752, and only Orthodox Greece, which adopted the Gregorian calendar only in 1929, held out until the very end.

Now only some Orthodox churches adhere to the Julian calendar, for example, the Russian and Serbian.
The Julian calendar continues to lag behind the Gregorian calendar - by one day every hundred years (if the century year is not divisible by 4 without a remainder), or by three days every 400 years. By the 20th century, this difference had reached 13 days.

The calculator below converts a date from the Gregorian calendar to the Julian calendar and vice versa.
How to use it - enter the date, the “Julian calendar” field displays the Julian calendar date, as if the entered date belonged to the Gregorian calendar, and the “Gregorian calendar” field displays the Gregorian calendar date, as if the entered date belonged to the Julian calendar.

I also note that before October 15, 1582, the Gregorian calendar did not exist in principle, so it is pointless to talk about Gregorian dates corresponding to earlier Julian dates, although they can be extrapolated into the past.

There are no problems with measuring certain quantities. When it comes to length, volume, weight - no one has any disagreements. But as soon as you touch the dimension of time, you will immediately come across different points of view. Special attention should be paid to what the Julian and Gregorian calendars are; the difference between them really changed the world.

Difference between Catholic and Orthodox holidays

It's no secret that Catholics celebrate Christmas not on January 7, like the Orthodox, but on December 25. The situation is the same with other Christian holidays.

A whole series of questions arises:

  • Where did these 13 days difference come from?
  • Why can't we celebrate the same event on the same day?
  • Will the 13 day difference ever change?
  • Maybe it will shrink over time and disappear altogether?
  • At least find out what it's all about?

To answer these questions we will have to mentally travel to pre-Christian Europe. However, there was no talk of any kind of integral Europe at that time; civilized Rome was surrounded by many disparate barbarian tribes. Subsequently, they were all captured and became part of the Empire, but that's another conversation.

However, history is written by the victors, and we will never know to what extent “ barbaric"were neighbors of Rome. It's no secret that great rulers have a hand in all events in the state. Julius Caesar was no exception when I decided to introduce a new calendar - Julian .

What calendars did you use and for how long?

The ruler cannot be denied modesty, but he made too much of a contribution to the history of the whole world to be criticized over trifles. His proposed calendar:

  1. It was much more accurate than previous versions.
  2. All years consisted of 365 days.
  3. Every fourth year there was 1 more day.
  4. The calendar was consistent with astronomical data known at that time.
  5. For one and a half thousand years, not a single worthy analogue has been proposed.

But nothing stands still; at the end of the 14th century, a new calendar was introduced, and the then pope, Gregory XIII, contributed to this. This version of the countdown boiled down to the fact that:

  • A normal year has 365 days. A leap year contains the same 366.
  • But now not every fourth year was considered a leap year. Now if the year ends with two zeros, and at the same time divisible by both 4 and 100, it is not a leap year.
  • For a simple example, 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be leap years. Unlike 2400.

Why was it necessary to change something, was it really impossible to leave everything as it was? The fact is that, according to astronomers, The Julian calendar is not entirely accurate.

The error is only 1/128 of a day, but over 128 years a whole day accumulates, and over five centuries - almost four full days.

How does the Julian calendar differ from the Gregorian calendar?

Fundamental differences between the two calendars are that:

  • Julian was adopted much earlier.
  • It lasted 1000 years longer than the Gregorian.
  • Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar is now almost never used anywhere.
  • The Julian calendar is used only for calculating Orthodox holidays.
  • The Gregorian calendar is more accurate and avoids minor errors.
  • The calendar adopted by Gregory XIII is presented as the final version, an absolutely correct frame of reference that will not change in the future.
  • In the Julian calendar, every 4th year is a leap year.
  • In Gregorian, years that end in 00 and are not divisible by 4 are not leap years.
  • Almost every century ends with the difference between the two calendars increasing by another day.
  • The exception is centuries divisible by four.
  • According to the Gregorian calendar, almost all Christians in the world celebrate church holidays - Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans.
  • According to Julian Orthodox Christians celebrate, guided by apostolic instructions.

What could an error of several days lead to?

But is it really so important to maintain this precision; maybe it’s better to pay tribute to traditions? What terrible thing will happen if in five centuries the calendar shifts by 4 days, is it noticeable?

In addition, those who decide to make changes will certainly not live to see the time when “ wrong“The calculation option will differ by at least a day.

Just imagine that already in February the weather warms up and the first flowering begins. But despite all this, the ancestors describe February as a harsh and frosty winter month.

At this point there may already be a slight misunderstanding about what is happening to nature and the planet? Especially if in November there are snowdrifts instead of fallen leaves. And in October, the variegated foliage on the trees is not pleasing to the eye, because all of it has been rotting on the ground for a long time. This seems insignificant at first glance, when the error is only 24 hours in 128 years.

But calendars regulate, among other things, the most important events in the life of many civilizations - sowing and harvesting. The more accurately all adjustments are made, the more O Larger food supplies will be available next year.

Of course, now this is not so important, in an era of rapid development of scientific and technological progress. But once upon a time it was a matter of life and death for millions of people.

Significant differences between calendars

Distinguishing between the two calendars:

  1. More accurate measurement using Gregorian.
  2. The irrelevance of the Julian calendar: besides the Orthodox Church, almost no one uses it.
  3. The universal use of the Gregorian calendar.
  4. By removing the 10 day lag and introducing a new rule - all years ending in 00 and not divisible by 4 are now not leap years.
  5. Thanks to this, the difference between calendars is steadily increasing. For 3 days every 400 years.
  6. Julian was adopted by Julius Caesar, still 2 thousand years ago.
  7. Gregorian is more “young”, it is not even five hundred years old. And Pope Gregory XIII introduced it.

What the Julian and Gregorian calendars are, the difference between them and the reasons for their introduction can be known for general development. In real life, this information will never be useful. Unless you want to impress someone with your erudition.

Video about the differences between Gregorian and Julian

In this video, Priest Andrei Shchukin will talk about the main differences between these two calendars from the point of view of religion and mathematics:

January 13 is the last day of the year according to the Julian calendar. Congratulations to you! It's time to figure out the reasons for the temporary cretinism that has been afflicting the residents of Russia for centuries.

How it all started

The ancient Roman Julian calendar was introduced in Rome as a result of a reform initiated by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. In Kievan Rus, the Julian calendar appeared during the time of Vladimir Svyatoslavovich almost immediately with the beginning of the introduction of Christianity. Thus, the Tale of Bygone Years uses the Julian calendar with Roman names of months and the Byzantine era. The calendar was calculated from the Creation of the world, taking 5508 BC as a basis. - Byzantine version of this date. And they decided to count the beginning of the new year from March 1 - in accordance with the ancient Slavic calendar.

Double calendar

To put it mildly, the people did not experience obvious delight from the innovation, managing to live according to two calendars. A sufficient number of samples of wooden folk calendars have been preserved, on which one can find the simultaneous designation of church holidays according to the Julian calendar, and local events based on the pagan folk calendar.

The Julian calendar was used primarily in cases where it was necessary to find out the date of church holidays.

The old calendar, based on the lunar phases, the solar cycle and the change of seasons, reported the dates of vital matters, primarily the beginning or completion of field work. In modern life, for example, such pagan holidays as Maslenitsa, associated with the lunar cycle, or “solar” celebrations - Kolyada and Kupala - have been preserved.

Trying is torture

For almost 500 years, Rus' tried to live according to the Julian calendar. In addition to the large number of discrepancies, the problem was also caused by the confusion that arose in the chronicles: Russian chroniclers relied on dating according to the Slavic calendar, and the invited Greeks used the dates of the new calendar.

No prohibitions of the old calendar, even the execution of its especially zealous adherents, helped.

The reigning Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III tried to “settle” the discrepancies. In the Summer of 7000 from the Creation of the World, that is, in 1492, the Moscow Church Council approved the transfer of the beginning of the year from March 1 to September 1 (a decision that is still in effect in the Russian Orthodox Church to this day).

The shortest year

Another attempt to transform the chronology was made by Peter I. By his decree of 1699, he moved the beginning of the year from September 1 to January 1. Thus, the year 1699 lasted only 4 months: September, October, November and December. The year was also shortened by the Soviet government, which on January 24, 1918 corrected the 13-day error of the Julian calendar by introducing the Gregorian calendar, according to which Catholic Europe had lived since 1582. After January 31, 1918, it was not February 1, but the 14th.

Everyone is walking!

Fearing that he would once again be misunderstood, Peter I made an attempt to “disguise” the introduction of a new chronology with grandiose festivities.

The “Reigning City” was ordered to be decorated “from the trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper” and to organize “fiery fun”: the launch of “missiles, as many as possible” and shooting from cannons, muskets and “other small guns.”

On New Year's Eve, the king personally gave the signal to begin the celebrations. In addition to the spectacles, Peter offered the people “various food and vats of wine and beer” - the treat was organized in front of the palace and at the three triumphal gates. According to the royal decree, the honest people walked for a week, and when they came to their senses after the noisy undertakings, “a rather significant murmur arose throughout Moscow.” Many were surprised: “How could the king change the solar current?”

Many of those who were firmly convinced that “God created the light in the month of September” still lived according to the old calendar.

Peter decided not to captivate the people, making a reservation in the decree: “And if anyone wants to write both those years, from the creation of the world and from the birth of Christ, freely.”

Old style

Today, according to the Julian calendar, there are only four Orthodox churches: Russian, Jerusalem, Georgian and Serbian. An attempt to replace the calendar was made by Patriarch Tikhon on October 15, 1923.

True, the “new style” lived in the Church for only 24 days, since already on November 8, 1923, the Patriarch ordered “the universal and mandatory introduction of the new style into church use to be temporarily postponed.”

The modern Orthodox church calendar (Paschalia) consists of two parts: the fixed Monthly Book, associated with the solar cycle, and the movable Paschalia, based on the Lunar calendar. The Julian calendar, which differs from the Gregorian calendar by 13 days, forms the basis of the fixed part - it includes immutable Orthodox holidays and days of remembrance of saints. Paschalia determines the date of Easter, which changes annually, and at the same time the moving holidays that depend on it.

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

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 about religious differences, but just about the calendar. Initially, Europe used the Julian calendar. This calendar appeared before our era and was generally accepted until the 16th century. The Julian calendar was named after Julius Caesar, who introduced this calendar in 45 BC. to replace the outdated Roman calendar. The Julian calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigenes. Sosigenes is an Alexandrian scientist, a scientist from the very same Alexandria, which was located on 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 treatise De Caelo. But his philosophical works have not survived to this day.

The Julian calendar was developed based on ancient Egyptian knowledge of astronomy. In the Julian calendar, the year begins on January 1, since it was on this day that newly elected consuls took office in Ancient Rome. The year consisted of 365 days and was divided into 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 almost on the days of the winter solstice, gradually began to move closer and closer to spring. The day of the vernal equinox, by which the date of Easter was determined, also shifted.

And then the Popes came to the understanding that the calendar was not accurate and needed 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, attempts to change the calendar were made by Popes Paul III and Pius IV, but their attempts were not successful. The new Gregorian calendar was introduced on October 4, 1582. The development of the calendar on behalf of the pope was carried out by astronomers Christopher Clavius ​​and Aloysius Lilius. After the introduction of the new calendar in 1582, the date 4 October Thursday was immediately followed by a new date - 15 October Friday. This is exactly how far behind the Gregorian calendar the Julian calendar was by that time.

The Gregorian calendar consists of 365 days per year; a leap year has 366 days. But at the same time, the calculation of leap years has become more advanced. So a leap year is a year whose number is a multiple of 4. Years divisible by 100 are leap years provided 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 the Julian - over 128 years.

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

By 1582, the initially united 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 - the Russian, Jerusalem, Serbian, Georgian Orthodox churches and Mount Athos - according to the old Julian calendar and also on December 25, but which, however, in the modern Gregorian calendar falls on January 7.

The 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, in the Russian Orthodox Church there were also attempts to switch to the New Julian calendar, similar to the Gregorian one. On October 15, 1923, it was introduced into the Russian Orthodox Church by Patriarch Tikhon. This innovation was accepted by Moscow parishes, but it caused disagreements within the Church itself and on November 8, 1923, by decree of Patriarch Tikhon, “it was temporarily postponed.”

In the Russian Empire, even in the 19th and early 20th centuries, chronology, unlike in Europe, was carried out according to the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was introduced only after the revolution in 1918 by decree of the Council of People's Commissars. Then such names as the “old style” - the Julian calendar and the “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, basically the same New Year, but according to the old Julian calendar.

This is the calendar story. Merry Christmas, and perhaps Christmas, New Year, or New Years. Happy holidays to you!

For all of us, the calendar is a familiar and even mundane thing. This ancient human invention records days, numbers, months, seasons, and the periodicity of natural phenomena, which are based on the system of movement of the celestial bodies: the Moon, the Sun, and the stars. The Earth rushes through the solar orbit, leaving years and centuries behind.

Lunar calendar

In one day, the Earth makes one complete revolution around its own axis. It passes around the Sun once per year. Solar or lasts three hundred sixty-five days five hours forty-eight minutes forty-six seconds. Therefore, there is no integer number of days. Hence the difficulty in drawing up an accurate calendar for the correct counting of time.

The ancient Romans and Greeks used a convenient and simple calendar. The rebirth of the Moon occurs at intervals of 30 days, or to be precise, at twenty-nine days, twelve hours and 44 minutes. That is why days and then months could be counted by changes in the Moon.

In the beginning, this calendar had ten months, which were named after the Roman gods. From the third century BC, the ancient world used an analogue based on the four-year lunisolar cycle, which gave an error in the solar year by one day.

In Egypt they used a solar calendar based on observations of the Sun and Sirius. The year according to it was three hundred sixty-five days. It consisted of twelve months of thirty days. After it expired, another five days were added. This was formulated as “in honor of the birth of the gods.”

History of the Julian calendar

Further changes occurred in the forty-sixth year BC. e. The Emperor of Ancient Rome, Julius Caesar, introduced the Julian calendar based on the Egyptian model. In it, the solar year was taken as the size of the year, which was slightly larger than the astronomical one and amounted to three hundred sixty-five days and six hours. The first of January marked the beginning of the year. According to the Julian calendar, Christmas began to be celebrated on January 7th. This is how the transition to a new calendar took place.

In gratitude for the reform, the Senate of Rome renamed the month of Quintilis, when Caesar was born, to Julius (now July). A year later, the emperor was killed, and the Roman priests, either out of ignorance or deliberately, again began to confuse the calendar and began to declare every third year a leap year. As a result, from forty-four to nine BC. e. Instead of nine, twelve leap years were declared.

Emperor Octivian Augustus saved the situation. By his order, there were no leap years for the next sixteen years, and the rhythm of the calendar was restored. In his honor, the month Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August).

For the Orthodox Church, the simultaneity of church holidays was very important. The date of Easter was discussed at First and this issue became one of the main ones. The rules for the exact calculation of this celebration established at this Council cannot be changed under pain of anathema.

Gregorian calendar

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, approved and introduced a new calendar in 1582. It was called "Gregorian". It would seem that everyone was happy with the Julian calendar, according to which Europe lived for more than sixteen centuries. However, Gregory the Thirteenth considered that the reform was necessary to determine a more accurate date for the celebration of Easter, as well as to ensure that the day returned to the twenty-first of March.

In 1583, the Council of Eastern Patriarchs in Constantinople condemned the adoption of the Gregorian calendar as violating the liturgical cycle and calling into question the canons of the Ecumenical Councils. Indeed, in some years he breaks the basic rule of celebrating Easter. It happens that Catholic Bright Sunday falls earlier than Jewish Easter, and this is not allowed by the canons of the church.

Calculation of chronology in Rus'

In our country, starting from the tenth century, the New Year was celebrated on the first of March. Five centuries later, in 1492, in Russia the beginning of the year was moved, according to church traditions, to the first of September. This went on for more than two hundred years.

On December nineteenth, seven thousand two hundred and eight, Tsar Peter the Great issued a decree that the Julian calendar in Russia, adopted from Byzantium along with baptism, was still in force. The start date of the year has changed. It was officially approved in the country. The New Year according to the Julian calendar was to be celebrated on the first of January “from the Nativity of Christ.”

After the revolution on February fourteenth, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen, new rules were introduced in our country. The Gregorian calendar excluded three within each four hundred years. It was this that they began to adhere to.

How are the Julian and Gregorian calendars different? The difference between is in the calculation of leap years. It increases over time. If in the sixteenth century it was ten days, then in the seventeenth it increased to eleven, in the eighteenth century it was already equal to twelve days, thirteen in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and by the twenty-second century this figure will reach fourteen days.

The Orthodox Church of Russia uses the Julian calendar, following the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, and Catholics use the Gregorian calendar.

You can often hear the question of why the whole world celebrates Christmas on the twenty-fifth of December, and we celebrate the seventh of January. The answer is completely obvious. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas according to the Julian calendar. This also applies to other major church holidays.

Today the Julian calendar in Russia is called the “old style”. Currently, its scope is very limited. It is used by some Orthodox Churches - Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Russian. In addition, the Julian calendar is used in some Orthodox monasteries in Europe and the USA.

in Russia

In our country, the issue of calendar reform has been raised more than once. In 1830 it was staged by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prince K.A. Lieven, who served as Minister of Education at the time, considered this proposal untimely. Only after the revolution the issue was brought to a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation. Already on January 24, Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar.

Features of the transition to the Gregorian calendar

For Orthodox Christians, the introduction of a new style by the authorities caused certain difficulties. The New Year turned out to be shifted to a time when any fun is not welcome. Moreover, January 1 is the day of remembrance of St. Boniface, the patron saint of everyone who wants to give up drunkenness, and our country celebrates this day with a glass in hand.

Gregorian and Julian calendar: differences and similarities

Both of them consist of three hundred sixty-five days in a normal year and three hundred sixty-six in a leap year, have 12 months, 4 of which are 30 days and 7 of 31 days, February - either 28 or 29. The difference lies only in the frequency of leap days years.

According to the Julian calendar, a leap year occurs every three years. In this case, it turns out that the calendar year is 11 minutes longer than the astronomical year. In other words, after 128 years there is an extra day. The Gregorian calendar also recognizes that the fourth year is a leap year. The exceptions are those years that are multiples of 100, as well as those that can be divided by 400. Based on this, extra days appear only after 3200 years.

What awaits us in the future

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar is simpler for chronology, but it is ahead of the astronomical year. The basis of the first became the second. According to the Orthodox Church, the Gregorian calendar violates the order of many biblical events.

Due to the fact that the Julian and Gregorian calendars increase the difference in dates over time, Orthodox churches that use the first of them will celebrate Christmas from 2101 not on January 7, as it happens now, but on January 8, but from nine thousand In the year nine hundred and one, the celebration will take place on March 8th. In the liturgical calendar, the date will still correspond to the twenty-fifth of December.

In countries where the Julian calendar was used by the beginning of the twentieth century, for example in Greece, the dates of all historical events that occurred after the fifteenth of October one thousand five hundred and eighty-two are nominally celebrated on the same dates on which they occurred.

Consequences of calendar reforms

Currently, the Gregorian calendar is quite accurate. According to many experts, it does not need changes, but the issue of its reform has been discussed for several decades. This is not about introducing a new calendar or any new methods for accounting for leap years. This is about rearranging the days of the year so that the beginning of each year falls on one day, such as Sunday.

Today, calendar months range from 28 to 31 days, the length of a quarter ranges from ninety to ninety-two days, with the first half of the year being 3-4 days shorter than the second. This complicates the work of financial and planning authorities.

What new calendar projects exist?

Various projects have been proposed over the past one hundred and sixty years. In 1923, a calendar reform committee was created at the League of Nations. After the end of the Second World War, this issue was transferred to the Economic and Social Committee of the UN.

Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of them, preference is given to two options - the 13-month calendar of the French philosopher Auguste Comte and the proposal of the French astronomer G. Armelin.

In the first option, the month always begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. One day in the year has no name at all and is inserted at the end of the last thirteenth month. In a leap year, such a day appears in the sixth month. According to experts, this calendar has many significant shortcomings, so more attention is paid to the project of Gustave Armelin, according to which the year consists of twelve months and four quarters of ninety-one days.

The first month of the quarter has thirty-one days, the next two - thirty. The first day of each year and quarter begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. In a normal year, one additional day is added after the thirtieth of December, and in a leap year - after the 30th of June. This project was approved by France, India, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and some other countries. For a long time, the General Assembly delayed approval of the project, and recently this work at the UN has ceased.

Will Russia return to the “old style”

It is quite difficult for foreigners to explain what the concept of “Old New Year” means and why we celebrate Christmas later than Europeans. Today there are people who want to make the transition to the Julian calendar in Russia. Moreover, the initiative comes from well-deserved and respected people. In their opinion, 70% of Russian Orthodox Russians have the right to live according to the calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church.