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Calendar - history and modernity

Initially, the calendar served as a system for numbering the days of the year and was based on the periodic change of movements of celestial bodies. However, in different historical periods, different cultures interpreted differently the principles that should underlie the creation of a calendar, hence the variety of types of calendars, as well as numerous disputes that continue to this day. In this article we will talk about different types of calendars and how to create a calendar yourself using special software.

What is a calendar

According to Wikipedia's definition, Calendarium is a debt book, the calculation of which was made on the days of the Kalends, that is, on the first days of the month. Different peoples used their own methods of dating historical events, for example, the Romans counted from the founding of Rome, and the ancient Egyptians from the beginning of the new dynasty.

Types of calendars

Converting from one chronology system to another sometimes causes significant difficulties due to the different lengths of the year, as well as the unequal start date of the year in different systems.

IN Ancient Greek calendar the year contained 354 days. However, due to the discrepancy with the solar year by 11.25 days, every eight years ninety additional days were added to the year, divided into three equal months.

Initially Ancient Roman calendar consisted of 304 days divided into 10 months, and the first month of the year was considered to be the first of March. Subsequently, the Roman calendar underwent numerous reforms, in particular, two more months were added, and the date of the new year was changed from the first of March to the first of January.

Introduction Julian calendar was also associated with the name of Julius Caesar, who sought to link calendar dates with seasonal natural phenomena. Julius set the length of the year to 365.25 days. According to the Julian calendar, a leap year occurs every four years, the duration of which is 366 solar days. Focus on the solar cycle made it possible to avoid unnecessary “insertions” into the calendar (with the exception of leap years), as well as to bring calendar dates closer to the natural cycle.

Gregorian calendar was introduced under Pope Gregory XIII and designated as the “new style” to replace the “old style” (Julian calendar). The purpose of introducing the Gregorian calendar was to return the real date of the vernal equinox - March 21, established during the Council of Nicaea, which approved Easter. The Gregorian calendar is as close as possible to the tropical year, the difference is only 26 seconds. This difference will reach a day in 3333 years, but to compensate for this error, a special rule was introduced in the Gregorian calendar based on the fact that out of every 400 years three leap years should be excluded. This could correct the calendar so much that an error of one day would occur only after a hundred thousand years. The Gregorian calendar was introduced in Russia only in 1918; the difference between the new and old styles in the 21st century was 13 days.

Other classifications

There are other types of calendars that are based on different chronology systems: Egyptian, Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, etc.

The basis of any calendar, with rare exceptions, is the cyclicity of two main celestial bodies - the moon and the sun. In this regard, there are three main types of calendars.

1. Lunar calendar. It is based on the cyclic change of lunar phases during a synodic month equal to 29.53 days. Thus, the lunar year contains 354.37 days. The main disadvantage of this calendar is that it does not take into account the fractional part, and for every 30 years an extra 11 days accumulate. A typical example of a lunar calendar is the Muslim calendar.

2. Solar calendar is based on the annual solar cycle and has a duration of 365.24 days. To eliminate the resulting error, a special leap year is introduced every four years, containing an extra day. The main dates that such a calendar is oriented towards are the days of the equinox and solar solstice. The Gregorian calendar is solar.

3. Lunar-solar calendar. As the name suggests, this is an attempt to combine two types of calendars and, accordingly, harmonize two cycles - lunar and solar. Quite complicated both in calculations and in application. For example, to eliminate discrepancies, add an additional thirteenth month every two or three years. An example is the Jewish calendar.

How to make a calendar on a computer?

Thus, from time immemorial, the calendar served not only as a means of measuring time intervals, but also helped organize people’s lives and their work activities. The calendar has not lost its functions to this day. It is difficult to manage without a calendar both at home and at work. Using the calendar, we plan upcoming trips, determine the number of working days in a year, and clarify the dates of public or church holidays. On store shelves you can find a huge number of calendars of the most varied designs.

But a much more pleasant and original solution will be a calendar that you make yourself. Using the editor "Calendar Design" from AMS Software, you can prepare a beautiful one with photos in just a few minutes! All you have to do is choose a calendar style, add a photo and your stylish calendar is ready! This calendar will be a successful addition to your image and a great gift for any occasion.

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus

Belarusian State University

History department

Department of Source Studies

Area of ​​specialty: Documentation (documentation support for management)

Test

TYPES AND KINDS OF CALENDARS

Completed by: 3rd year student

correspondence shortened form of study

Nalivaiko Olga Olegovna

Teacher: Dean of History

Faculty Khodin S.N.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. TYPES OF CALENDARS AND PRINCIPLES OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER 2. THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CALENDAR SYSTEMS

Ancient Egypt calendar

Ancient calendar of China

Indian calendars

Calendar of Ancient Mesopotamia

Calendar of Ancient Greece

Jewish calendar

Muslim calendar

Mayan calendar

Julian calendar

Gregorian calendar

French Republican calendar

World Calendar Projects

CONCLUSION

LIST OF USED SOURCES OF LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

The units of time given by nature - the day, month and year - formed the basis of the most ancient calendars.

Calendars are time reckoning systems based on the periodicity of natural phenomena, visibly represented by the movement of celestial bodies. The need to create such systems first arose with the advent of productive forms of economy in the Early Neolithic. Agriculture and cattle breeding are closely related to seasonal natural phenomena. Identical forms of economic life and common initial units of time notation led to the formation of similar calendar systems.

The first compilers of calendars faced great difficulties, since the units of time were incommensurable: the synodic month did not consist of an equal number of days, and the astronomical year could not be divided into an equal number of months and days. This forced people to look for ways to harmonize these units, which gave rise to several calendar systems. The most common of them are: lunar, where the day is consistent with the month; lunisolar, in which the day and month are consistent with the year; solar, when the year and day are consistent.

CHAPTER 1. Types of calendars and principles of their construction

As mentioned above, three types of the most common calendar systems can be distinguished: lunar, lunisolar, solar.

Lunar calendars without taking into account the change of seasons among many peoples of the world preceded other time counting systems. They could have been used in the primitive era, when neither agriculture nor cattle breeding were developed. As productive forms of economy developed, lunar calendars gave way to lunisolar and solar calendars, which take into account the changing seasons.

According to lunar calendars, the length of months is associated only with changes in the phases of the Moon; Each month, starting with the new moon, lasts alternately 29 and 30 days: 12 months make up a lunar year, which is equal to 354 days. Since the synodic month was longer than the calendar month (by 44 minutes 2.9 seconds), it was necessary to insert one additional day into the calendar year after a certain number of years. There are two known ways to harmonize astronomical and calendar lunar years. Both methods are based on the introduction of an additional day per year of the lunar calendar. According to one of them, an eight-year period (“Turkish cycle”) was selected, during which astronomical lunar years lagged behind simple lunar years by three days. In order to equalize the lunar calendar with the lunar astronomical, an additional day was inserted into the 2nd, 5th, 7th years of the calendar in every eighth year. Another method is more accurate. He proceeds from the position that 30 simple lunar years are ahead of 30 astronomical years by 11 days. To bridge the gap, additional days were introduced in the following years of this period, called the Arab cycle: 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th th, 26th and 29th. Since the year according to the lunar calendar lasted 354 (sometimes 355) days, its beginning was 11 days ahead of the year of the solar calendar each time. Consequently, the beginning of the year and its parts did not coincide with the seasons, but systematically moved from one season to another.

If at some point the beginning of the year coincided with the beginning of spring, then after about 9 years it marked the beginning of winter, and after the same period it ushered in autumn. It was impossible to make forecasts for agricultural work using such a calendar.

To this day, the lunar calendar has been preserved (for religious reasons) in some Muslim countries.

Solar calendars are based on the apparent annual movement of the Sun. The length of a year of twelve months is 365 or 365 1/4 days. Observations of the Sun associated with religion (the cult of the Sun) have been carried out since ancient times among many peoples of the world, but official calculation of time according to the solar calendar was rare. The most famous is the ancient Egyptian calendar. The modern international calendar is solar.

In many ancient countries there were lunar-solar calendars. They took into account the changing phases of the Moon and the annual movement of the Sun. For this purpose, an additional (thirteenth) month was periodically introduced into the accounting system. Complex lunisolar calendars were used in ancient times in China, Babylonia, Judea, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. It has survived to this day in Israel.

CHAPTER 2. The most significant calendar systems

Ancient Egypt calendar

The life of ancient Egyptian society was closely connected with the Nile. Of great importance to the Egyptians was the fact that the rise of water in the lower reaches of the river always coincided with the summer solstice.

The constant repetition of these phenomena was a convenient standard for measuring time: from flood to flood, from solstice to solstice. At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. During the solstice and, consequently, the flood of the river, the first morning appearance of Sirius, his first heliactic rising, took place. The first appearance of Sirius in the morning light gave rise to the flood of the Nile, the future harvest, and the beginning of a new agricultural year.

Originating in the 4th millennium BC, one of the oldest in the world, the Egyptian calendar was of the solar type. Its year consisted of three seasons, each of which included four thirty-day months.

The calendar length of the year of 365 days (365 + 5) was quite accurate for the era of Herodotus, but differing from the tropical one by 0.25 days, it gave an error of 1 day every four years. Therefore, the original New Year (1st Tota) slowly shifted relative to the seasons. Visible evidence of such a shift for the Egyptians was the “delay” of the first (heliac) rising of Sirius. As the error accumulated, the calendar year began earlier and earlier, shifting to spring, winter, and autumn. After 1460 tropical years (365x4=1460), or after 1461 according to the ancient Egyptian calendar, the New Year again coincided with the first appearance of Sirius and the beginning of the Nile flood. This period of 1460 years, called the "Sothis period", played an important role in Egyptian chronology.

In Egypt they knew about the discrepancy between the length of the calendar year and the movement of the Sun. In Hellenistic Egypt, an attempt was made to improve the calendar. In 1866, a slab with the inscription of Ptolemy III Euergetes, one of the kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was found in the Nile Delta. The text of this so-called Canopic decree.

The date of this monument is 238 BC. e. It outlined the leap year system. However, judging by the following sources, Euergetes’ reform did not take root, and only much later, in 26 BC. BC, Augustus introduced the Julian calendar system in Egypt.

After the reform, the Egyptian calendar largely retained its structure and month names, but gained a fixed New Year (August 29 in the Julian calendar) and leap years. Leap years were considered to be those years whose absolute number, when divided by 4, gave a remainder of three. For example, in our calendar it would be 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, and not 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984.

The counting of years in Ancient Egypt was initially carried out according to the years of the reign of the pharaohs (I-XXX dynasties), and in the Hellenistic era the “era of Nabonassar” was used, the beginning of which, according to the Julian calendar, is dated February 26, 747 BC. e. At the end of the 3rd century. AD Diocletian introduced dating in Egypt according to the consular year, which began on January 1, and a new “era of Diocletian”, its beginning according to the Julian calendar - 284 AD. The era took root, but the beginning of the year returned to August 29. The era of Diocletian has been preserved to this day in the church calendar of Coptic Christians, direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians.

Ancient calendar of China

The origins of the lunisolar Chinese calendar go back to the 3rd millennium BC. e., in the Bronze Age.

China is a classical country of agriculture, and here the close connection between nature and society, the fertility of the land and royal power is especially clearly visible. Issues of time counting were important and were sometimes introduced into the rank of state policy.

Emperors of the Zhou era (XI-III centuries BC) were required to travel around the country every five years, adhering to a strict ritual. In the spring, at the beginning of the year, the emperor and his retinue in green clothes went to the eastern part of the empire, in the summer in red clothes they moved to the south, in the fall, having changed the color of their dress to white, they went west and completed the trip in the winter, traveling around the northern regions of the country in black clothes. .

Over the next four years, the emperor annually symbolically made a similar journey in a special “hall of fate” - a kind of model of the Universe. There he made a yearly circle, alternately facing the east (spring), south (summer), west (autumn) and north (winter), thus solemnly opening the beginning of the months and seasons. In the third month of summer, the emperor, dressed in yellow, sat on a throne in the center of the "hall of fate", symbolizing the middle of the year.

The complex ritual was subordinated to the idea that the empire should be governed in accordance with the movement of the Universe.

At the same time, good management of society was a necessary condition for maintaining order in nature.

Many features of these ancient rituals existed in China until the abolition of the monarchy in 1911. The Chinese calendar, associated with similar traditions, is equally stable. Twelve lunar months of 29 and 30 days alternately made up a year of 354 days. The months corresponded to the twelve zodiacal constellations and were grouped into three in each season. The months had no names and were designated by ordinal numbers; the days within the month were counted by decades. Originally, a month was added in every third and fifth year if the Sun was found to be in the same sign at the end of the month as at the beginning. Then they began to use a more accurate 19-year cycle. During each cycle, seven additional months were introduced: in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 19th years. The thirteenth month was always placed after the winter solstice, and the beginning of the year was at the new moon in the middle of the period between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

In the 3rd century. BC. The country used a seasonal calendar, according to which the year was divided into 24 seasons, each season had a name, for example: “awakening of insects”, “earing of grain”, “cold dew”, etc.

The calendar helped the population plan and carry out agricultural work.

At the same time, in China and neighboring countries (Mongolia, Korea, Japan) there was a system of counting time in 60-year cycles. The years were grouped into cycles of sixty years. The beginning of this original chronology was conventionally considered to be 2397 BC.

The year number in the 60-year cycle was indicated by the sign of one of the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each of the elements appeared in two states: wood - a plant and wood - a building material, natural fire and hearth fire, metal in nature and metal in a product, wild land and cultivated land, flowing water and standing water. The elements in two qualities made up ten so-called “heavenly branches”: five odd and five even. At the same time, the cycle was divided into 12 periods - the so-called “earthly branches”, designated by the name of the animal: mouse, cow, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig.

To designate the year within the cycle, the signs of the heavenly and earthly branches were called: so, 1st year - tree and mouse, 2nd - tree and cow, 3rd - fire and tiger, 10th - water and chicken, etc. . Table 1 allows you to quickly determine the position of the year within the cycle. Thus, the third year of the 60-year cycle is designated by the cyclic sign of the earthly branch and is called the tiger. In addition to the third, the cycle also includes the 15th, 27th, 39th and 51st years under the sign of the tiger. To indicate which particular year of the tiger we are talking about, a specific year is also indicated by the sign of the heavenly branch. In this case, the third year will be the year of “fire and tiger”, the 15th “earth and tiger”, the 27th “metal and tiger”, etc.

To date current events, it was enough to indicate the sign of the “earthly branch,” that is, name the corresponding animal. The relationship of the date to the “heavenly branches” is often not indicated, as it is determined by indirect circumstances. The transition from one year to the next in the table is traced diagonally from top to bottom and from left to right.

To convert the dates of a modern calendar to a cyclic one, in addition to using a table, you need to know which years of our chronology the beginning of 60-year cycles occurred.

Since 1949, the international Gregorian calendar has been officially introduced in China, but in everyday life the cyclic calendar still retains its significance both in China and in a number of its neighboring countries.

Indian calendars

The ethnic diversity, linguistic and political disunity of the tribes and nationalities of India led to the creation of many calendar systems and determined the existence of numerous eras. Most Indian calendars were of the lunisolar type, but there were also lunar and solar calendars.

A year lasting 365-366 days was divided into 12 months with the number of days from 29 to 32. In the lunisolar systems, to coordinate with the length of the solar year, an additional, 13th month was inserted once every three years.

In addition, the year was divided into 6 seasons associated with natural phenomena: spring (vasant), hot season (grishma), rainy season (varsha), autumn (sharat), winter (hemanta), cold season (shishira). New Year's Eve was dedicated to various days, but most often to the points of the spring or autumn equinoxes.

On March 22, 1957, India introduced a Unified National Calendar, developed on the basis of the most common systems in the country. The years are counted in it according to the Saka era, the beginning of which, according to our chronology, dates back to 78 AD. e. The beginning of the year is considered to be the day following the vernal equinox.

Leap years are defined in the same way as in the modern Gregorian calendar. The Indian year is divided into 12 months.

Calendar of Ancient Mesopotamia

Back in the 3rd millennium BC. The priests of Ancient Mesopotamia, through regular scientific observations of the starry sky, accumulated a lot of astronomical information. Already at that time, multi-story towers - ziggurats up to 20 meters high - were built at temples for observations. To the original deified heavenly bodies - the Sun, Moon and

Venus is soon joined by the deified Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. It was found that all the planets stay near the “path of the Sun,” i.e., the ecliptic; here the first maps of the starry sky, lists of constellations, etc. were compiled.

Particular attention was paid to the Moon. It is not surprising that the first city-state calendars were lunar. However, under Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who united Mesopotamia under the auspices of Babylon, the lunisolar calendar of the city of Ur is recognized as official. The written decrees of Hammurabi brought to us evidence of such transformations: “Since the year has a deficiency, let the month that now begins receive the name of the second ululu, and therefore the tax due to Babylon is not due on the 25th of Tashrit, but on the 25th of the second ululu "

This method of arbitrarily inserting an additional month was maintained in Babylon from the era of Hammurabi until the 6th century. BC e., when they switched to a system of periodic or cyclic calculations. Moreover, from the beginning of the 6th to the end of the 4th century. BC e. the addition of the 13th month was carried out regularly three times in eight years, and from the end of the 4th century. BC e. - 7 times every 19 years.

According to the Babylonian calendar, the year consisted of 12 months.

Each month consisted of 29 or 30 days. The beginning of the year was considered the day of the spring equinox.

The Babylonians borrowed a seven-day week from the Sumerians.

The years were counted from the beginning of the reign of the Babylonian (later Assyrian) kings. The Babylonian calendar spread over time to Assyria, the Persian Empire, and then to the Hellenistic states of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Calendar of Ancient Greece

Initially, various Greek centers had their own timekeeping systems, which led to considerable confusion. This was explained by the independent adjustment of the calendar in each policy. There were differences in defining the beginning of the calendar year.

The Athenian calendar is known, which consisted of twelve lunar months, the beginning of each of which approximately coincided with Neomenia. The length of the months varied between 29-30 days, and the calendar year consisted of 354 days.

Since the true lunar year includes 354.36 days, the phases of the Moon did not exactly correspond to the calendar dates to which they were assigned. Therefore, the Greeks distinguished between the calendar “new moon,” i.e., the first day of the month and the actual new moon.

The names of the months in Greece were in most cases associated with certain holidays and only indirectly correlated with the seasons.

The Athenian year began in the month of Hecatombeon (July-August), associated with the summer solstice. To align the calendar year with the solar year, in special years the 13th (embolismic) month was inserted - the 2nd Poseideon - with a duration of 29-30 days.

In 432 BC. The Athenian astronomer Meton developed a new 19-year cycle with seven embolismic years: 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th. This order, called the “Metonian cycle,” ensured fairly high accuracy. The discrepancy of one day between solar and lunar years accumulated over 312 solar years.

Later, the Kalippus and Hipparchus cycles were developed, further clarifying the lunisolar calendar. However, in practice their amendments were almost never applied.

Up to the 2nd century. BC e. The 13th month was added as the need arose, and sometimes for political and other reasons.

The Greeks did not know a seven-day week and counted the days within a month by decades.

The dating of events in Athens was carried out by the names of officials - archons. From the 4th century BC e. The chronology of Olympiads, held once every four years, became generally accepted.

The first Olympiad, held in the summer of 776 BC, was considered the beginning of the era.

During the Hellenistic era in Greece, various eras were used: the era of Alexander, the era of the Seleucids, etc.

The official calendar, due to deviations from the solar year, was inconvenient for agriculture. Therefore, the Greeks often used a kind of agricultural calendar based on the visible movements of the stars and the changing seasons. He gave a detailed description of such a calendar in the form of advice to farmers back in the 8th century. BC e. Hellenic poet Hesiod.

Such a folk calendar was of great practical importance and was preserved along with the official timekeeping system for many centuries of Greek history.

Jewish calendar

In 568 BC. e. After the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian calendar and chronology were introduced in Judea. Before this, the Jews had a complex system of lunar time keeping in use. The year consisted of 12 lunar months with 29 or 30 days each. The beginning of the month was determined by the direct observation of neomenia by two persons. As soon as the crescent moon appeared, the population of the country was notified by the sound of trumpets and the lighting of bonfires about the birth of a new month.

Initially, months were designated by numerals: second, third, fourth, etc. Only the first month, symbolizing the beginning of spring, was called Aviv, which means the month of ears.

Subsequently, the Babylonian names of the months were borrowed and a seven-day week independent of the lunar phases was established. Sunday was considered the first day of the week, and the day began at 6 pm.

The lunar year consisted of 354 days, so the official count of the moons was at odds with the religious ceremonies associated with both the new moon and the ripening of barley. The administration added an additional month to the year as necessary.

The replacement of the lunar calendar with the lunisolar calendar was completed only in the 5th century. n. e. Additional month since 499 AD e. began to be inserted into certain leap years of the 19-year cycle, familiar to us from the Greek calendar.

Years consisting of 12 months are usually called simple years, and leap years containing 13 months are called embolismic.

Religious regulations did not allow the beginning of the Jewish year to coincide with Sunday, Wednesday or Friday.

The Jewish calendar is based on the mythical date of the “creation of the world,” which is taken to be October 7, 3761 BC. This so-called “era from Adam” is officially accepted in modern Israel, although they use the Gregorian calendar.

Until the end of the 3rd century. BC e. The year of the ancient Jews began in the spring, and then the New Year was moved to autumn.

Muslim calendar

An example of a purely lunar reckoning of time is the Muslim calendar. Before the spread of Islam, lunisolar calendars were in use among the pagans of the Asian East.

In the 7th century n. e. with the emergence of a new Muslim religion - “Islam” - a new, purely lunar calendar was introduced for religious and political reasons.

Religious dogma (the Koran) prohibits believers from counting a year as lasting more than 12 lunar months.

Currently, the Muslim calendar is used by Arabs, Turks, Mohammedan Hindus and some other peoples of the globe.

The calendar consists of 12 lunar months of 30 and 29 days alternately.

Since the total number of days in the year was 354, and the astronomical lunar year was equal to 354 days 8 hours 12 minutes 36 seconds, one day was periodically added to the last month either according to the “Turkish cycle” (3 times in 8 years) or according to the “Arabic cycle” cycle" (11 times in 30 years).

The Muslim calendar lunar year (simple - 354 days, leap year - 355 days) is shorter than the solar year, consisting of 365 days (leap year of 366), by approximately 11 days. It “overtakes” the solar calendar by about 1/33 of the year (more precisely, 11/366). Therefore, 33 lunar years are equal to approximately 32 solar years.

The beginning of the year in translation to the European calendar is transitional. Therefore, in the lunar calendar there are no summer, winter or autumn months - all months are mobile relative to the seasons.

In the Muslim calendar, days are counted in seven-day weeks, with the beginning of the day being considered the time of sunset.

The Muslim era is called Hijra (flight). In September 622 AD. e. The founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, fled with a group of followers from Mecca to Medina, fleeing religious persecution. For Muslims, this significant event became the starting date of a new calendar. In 638, Caliph Omar introduced a new lunar calendar, the starting point of which was decided to be the 1st day of the first month (Muharram) of the year of Muhammad's flight. The astronomical new moon, which began Muharram 622, fell on July 15, Thursday according to the Julian calendar; however, the visible appearance of the lunar crescent (neomenia) occurred a day later, so July 16, 622 (Friday) is considered to be the starting point of Muslim time calculation.

Mayan calendar

The original time keeping systems were developed by the peoples of the New World. The most famous are the calendars of the Mayans, who created them in the 1st millennium AD. e. distinctive culture in Central America. The Mayans made advances in astronomy related to the practical needs of agriculture.

The Mayans knew the length of the solar year and knew how to calculate the time of eclipses of the Sun and Moon.

Questions of chronology were of great importance in both the religious and civil life of the Maya. The priests used a short 260-day year called “Tzolkin” to calculate the rituals.

In addition to the short year, the Mayans knew 2 types of long years:

) the tun year, lasting 360 days, had a special purpose and was rarely used.

) 365-day haab year, which consisted of 18 months of 20 days.

For each month, Maya had special images.

The priests knew the true length of the solar year and believed that counting haab years for 60 years gives an error of 15 days. The Mayan solar calendar was adopted by the Aztecs.

In Maya timekeeping, quadrennial periods were important: thirteen 4-year cycles made up a period of 52 years, which was convenient because it made it possible to compare short and long years together.

The dating of an event among the Mayans consisted of the day (or number) of the day within a 13-day week, the name of the day, the day of the month, and the name of the month.

The ancient Mayans had a lunar calendar with the duration of each month being 29 or 30 days and the numerical designation of days within the month. After six lunar months, the lunar half-year ended, then counting began again from the 1st month.

The ancient Mayan calendar was one of the most accurate in human history. The duration of the solar year, determined by them in ancient times, differed from that accepted in modern science by only 0.0002 and was equal to 365.2420 days. With such accuracy, the error per day increased only in 5000 years.

Julian calendar

The modern solar calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, dates back to the ancient Roman account of time. Information about the first Roman calendar, which arose during the legendary period of the reign of Romulus (mid-8th century BC), is contained in the work of Censorinus (2nd century AD). The calendar was based on the so-called agricultural year of 304 days. The year, consisting of ten months of varying lengths, began on the first day of the first spring month. Initially, months were designated by ordinal numbers, but by the end of the 8th century. BC. four of them received individual names.

In the 7th century BC. calendar reform was carried out. Tradition connects it with the name of one of the semi-legendary kings of Rome, Numa Pompilius. The calendar became lunisolar. The year was extended to 355 days by adding two more months: Januarius, named after the two-faced god Janus, and Februarius, dedicated to the god of the underworld Februus.

The unusual distribution of days across months is explained by the fact that the superstitious Romans considered even numbers unlucky and tried to avoid them.

A year of 355 days annually lagged behind the solar one by 10-11 days. For coordination, an additional month, Marcedonius, consisting of 22-23 days, was introduced once every two years.

An additional month was inserted after February 23. The remaining 5 days of February were added at the end of the year, so that the marcedonius actually consisted of 27 or 28 days.

The appointment of an additional month was the responsibility of the priests. Since the terms of office of major elected officials were measured by calendar year, political considerations often resulted in intercalations being appointed at the wrong time or not at all. As a result of such abuses, the Roman account of time, up to the reform of Caesar, diverged significantly from the solar year, and attempts to regulate the calendar were based more on the will of the priests than on the laws of astronomy.

In 46 BC. e. Gaius Julius Caesar, dictator and consul, begins to introduce a new calendar. To align the months with the corresponding seasons, he had to add 90 days to the year. A group of astronomers from Alexandria, led by Sosigenes, participated in the development of the new calendar.

From January 1, 45 BC. e. A solar calendar with a year duration of 365 days, called the Julian calendar, began to operate.

The new calendar adopted a year length of 365 days. But since the astronomical year consisted of 365 days and 6 hours, in order to eliminate the difference, it was decided to add one day to every fourth year. For convenience, these days were assigned to years divisible by four.

Days began to be added to the shortest month - February. But for religious reasons, they did not dare to simply add them to the last day of February, but tried to “hide” them between the ordinary dates of this month.

Sosigenes retained the name of the months, but changed their duration, establishing a certain order of alternation of long odd and short even months. After the New Year was moved to January, the names of a number of months (numerals) began to not correspond to their place in the calendar. This discrepancy has been preserved in our calendar.

After the death of Caesar (44 BC), some changes occurred in the calendar.

The new calendar was adopted by the Christian church (at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD) and was used through various eras.

Gregorian calendar

lunar time Gregorian calendar

The Christian Church, in approving the Julian calendar, faced a difficult task. The main holiday of the new religion - Easter - was celebrated according to the lunar-solar calendar, on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. Such a full moon could occur only after the vernal equinox (March 21 according to the Julian calendar). To calculate the day of Easter, it was necessary to find agreement between the days of the week and the dates of the solar calendar and lunar phases. Scholar-bishops worked on this issue long before the Council of Nicaea. One of them, Eusebius of Caesarea, turned to the forgotten 19-year cycle of Meton and his proposal received approval from the Council of Nicaea.

In the Byzantine, and later Old Russian chronology, there was an era from the “creation of the world”, which differed from our era (the era of the “Nativity of Christ”) by 5508 years. Here, the calculation of the serial number of the year in the 19-year cycle was carried out by direct division of the date in the “creation of the world” system by 19.

In the Julian calendar, the beginning and end of the year have the same day of the week. In 1981, according to the Julian calendar, January 1 and December 31 are Wednesday. The starting point for calculating time using solar cycles was the “creation of the world.” Therefore, the definition of the circles of the sun for years expressed in the system from the “creation of the world” is given by direct division of the date by 28. Using the solar and lunar cycles, the Christian Church approved the so-called “Easter limits,” i.e., the framework in the Julian calendar system (March 22 -April 25), for which the day of Easter cannot fall. Since the order of alternating Easter days over a number of years is determined by the golden numbers and circles of the sun, it is possible to calculate the period after which the combinations of solar calendar numbers and lunar phases will repeat.

However, the rules for determining Easter approved by the Council of Nicaea soon ceased to correspond to the Julian calendar. Due to the inaccuracy of the calendar, the spring equinox gradually shifted to earlier dates, and the Easter holiday shifted accordingly. This happened because the average length of the year according to the Julian calendar is 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the tropical one, which leads to an error of 1 day in 128 years.

The fallacy of the Julian calendar was noticed a long time ago. There are attempts to transform it and make it more accurate. In the 11th century n. e. the famous Persian poet and scientist Omar Khayyam proposed to make adjustments to the calculation of time during 33-year cycles. Khayyam divided 33 years into 8 periods, of which 7 had 4 years each, and the eighth had 5 years. Each final year of the period was a leap year. According to Khayyam, in a 132-year period, leap years would fall on: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 66, 70, 74, 78 , 82, 86, 90, 94, 99, 103, 107, 111, 115, 119, 123, 127, 132.

As a result, in 132 years there were not 33 (as in the Julian calendar), but 32 leap years and the average length of the year was very close to the true one - 365.2424 days. With such accuracy, an error per day would accumulate only over 4,500 years, therefore, this calendar was more accurate not only than the Julian, but also the Gregorian.

In 1582, under Pope Gregory XIII, a reform of the Julian calendar was carried out. The reform used the project of the Italian mathematician Luigi Lilio Garalli. The project was, firstly, to leave the decision of the Council of Nicea unshakable, and therefore return the beginning of spring to March 21, and secondly, to eliminate the possibility of the same discrepancy appearing in the future.

The first problem was solved by the pope's order: after October 4, 1582, it was proposed to count the next day not as October 5, but as October 15. To accomplish the second task, it was decided to remove the three days that had accumulated from the calendar every 400 years. The years at the end of the century were considered the most convenient for this. Of these, only those whose first two digits are divisible by 4 remain leap years.

The new calendar style (new style) turned out to be much more accurate than the Julian (old style). In it, the year lags behind the astronomical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy by a day can occur only after 3300 years. By the beginning of the 17th century. this calendar was adopted in Catholic countries of Europe, and in the 18th century. - Protestant, in the 19th - early 20th centuries. - in Japan and in a number of Orthodox countries in Europe, in the 20s of the 20th century. - in Greece, Turkey, Egypt. After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 26, 1918, a new calendar was introduced in Russia.

Currently it is considered international.

In the first years after the introduction of the Gregorian reform, objections arose to the new system of timekeeping. The French scientist, poet and publicist Joseph Scaliger opposed the Gregorian calendar. In 1583, he proposed using the day, i.e., the average solar day, as the main counting unit for chronological and astronomical calculations. In days you can express any time intervals between events recorded in different calendar systems and eras.

For such an account, Scaliger introduced the concept of the Julian period of 7980 years. The scientist proposed to consider the conventional date January 1, 4713 BC as the beginning of the countdown, i.e., the first day of the Julian period. e.

Counting the days of the Julian period eliminates the difficulty of accurately determining the time elapsed between any events recorded within the same calendar system.

French Republican calendar

During the French Revolution, an attempt was made to create a calendar free from religious influences and based on strictly scientific data. Its prototype was the work “Almanac of Honest People,” published by S. Marechal at the end of 1787.

The new calendar was developed by a commission of leading French scientists headed by Gilbert Romm and introduced by decree of the Convention on October 5, 1793.

In it, instead of the era from the “Nativity of Christ,” a new era of the Republic was established, which began on the day of the proclamation of the Republic in France, which coincided with the autumn equinox - September 22, 1792 AD. The length of the year and the number of months in the year were left unchanged. However, now each month was equal to 30 days and new names were established for them. Each month was divided into decades. Days within decades were designated by ordinal numbers.

Since there were 360 ​​days in 12 months, 5 were introduced for the equation with the astronomical year, and 6 additional days for the leap year.

During the years of the French Revolution, an attempt was made, in accordance with the metric system introduced at that time, to divide a day into 10 hours, an hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds. However, the innovation was not widespread.

The French revolutionary calendar, which caused resistance from the church, lasted 13 years and was abolished by Napoleon on September 9, 1805. On the day of the Paris Commune, March 18, 1871. it was restored, but with the fall of the Commune on May 28, 1871, replaced by the Gregorian calendar.

One of the shortcomings of the Republican calendar was the lack of a clear system for introducing leap years, as well as the replacement of the usual seven-day week with decades.

Currently, the calendar of the French Revolution is not used; accurate dating of events marked in this time counting system is important for historians.

World Calendar Projects

Currently, new calendar systems are being created and old ones are being improved. In May 1923, at the Council of Orthodox Eastern Churches, the New Julian calendar, proposed by the Yugoslav astronomer Milanković, was approved. To reduce the discrepancy between the calendar and astronomical years, it was proposed to consider not all years that are divisible by 4 as leap years, but only those years ending centuries in which the number of hundreds when divided by 9 leaves a remainder of 2 or 6.

However, the New Julian calendar will remain virtually unchanged from the Gregorian calendar until 2800.

The Gregorian calendar, adopted almost throughout the world, records with sufficient accuracy the tropical year and the synodic month. But in the 19th century. and XX century Its shortcomings have been revealed, which complicate the work of financial and other economic matters: unequal number of days in months and quarters, discrepancies in numbers, months and days of the week in different years, etc.

In this regard, already in the first half of the 19th century. began to create projects for a calendar that would eliminate the noted shortcomings. In 1923, the International Committee for the Creation of a Unified World Calendar was formed, which published more than 200 projects. Since 1953, the United Nations has been dealing with this issue.

From the numerous number of projects, two of the most optimal ones can be identified.

According to the first of them, the year is divided into 13 months, each of which has 4 weeks of 7 days, and a total of 28 days. The main disadvantage of such a calendar is the inability to divide the year into half-years and quarters.

The second project proposes a calendar in which the year consists of 12 months, divided into 4 three-month quarters of 91 days. Each quarter contains 13 weeks. The first days of the year and quarter always fall on Sunday. Since such a calendar has 364 days, a day without a number is inserted in a regular and leap year.

Such a calendar has a number of advantages: it repeats the numbers of months and days from year to year, each month contains the same number of working days; it is divided into half-years and quarters.

However, disruption of the weekly count due to the presence of days without a number in the calendar will shift the holy days of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions.

CONCLUSION

Even at the early stages of development, primitive people perceived the passage of time, distinguished between the changes of day and night, seasons, the period of rains and ripening of fruits, but they did not count time, since this was not necessary. Their memory of the past did not extend beyond one or two generations. People began to count time only with the development of agriculture, cattle breeding, exchange and navigation.

As the working life of the people develops, higher forms of production and economic life are created. There is a need to calculate long periods of time.

For agricultural tribes, it is important to take into account the time of year - the annual period, because when engaged in agriculture it is extremely important to foresee the timing of certain agricultural work that required collective labor for its implementation. All the most important festivals of agricultural tribes were associated with agricultural work and were timed to coincide with them.

In hot countries, where the scorching rays of the Sun forced daytime work to be transferred to the night, it was necessary to take into account the lunar phases - the monthly period of one revolution of the Moon.

The initial recording of time was of a primitive nature. It was carried out according to changes in nature - the change of seasons, floods of large rivers, alternation of winds, etc.

Subsequently, the needs of economic and social life made it necessary to clarify the rough and uncertain natural year and its divisions. The need to study the starry sky, study the movement of the Sun and Moon to keep track of time was realized very early.

The first time counting systems date back to 4 - 3 thousand BC.

LIST OF REFERENCES USED

1. Berezhko, N.G. Chronology of Russian chronology. Problems of source study / N.G. Berezhko - 1958.

Bickerman, E. Chronology of the ancient world / E. Bickerman M. - 1975.

Ermolaev, I.P. Historical chronology / I.P. Ermolaev - Kazan, 1980.

Kamentseva, E.I. Chronology / E.I. Kamentseva - M., 1982.

Klimishin, I.A. Calendar and chronology / I.A. Klimishin - M., 1985

6. Pronshtein, A.P. Questions of theory and methods of historical research / A.P. Pronshtein, I.N. Danilevsky - M., 1986. S. 63 - 112.

Pronshtein, A.P. Methodology of historical source study / A.P. Pronstein - Rostov-on-Don, 1976. pp. 186 - 205.

Pronshtein, A.P. Methodology for working on historical sources / A.P. Pronshtein, A.G. Zadera - M., 1977.

Pronshtein, A.P. Chronology / A.P. Pronshtein, V.Ya. Kiyashko - M., 1981.

Racer, S.A. Fundamentals of textual criticism / S.A. Racer - M., 1978. S. 73 - 82.

11. Chronology of Russian history: encyclopedic reference book - M., 1994.

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began more than six thousand years ago. The word “calenda” is of ancient Roman origin; in those days, this was the name of the manuscripts in which moneylenders wrote down the accumulated interest to debtors.

Calendar year in ancient civilizations

History of the creation of the calendar went through three main stages, when the lunar, solar, solar-lunar reference systems were used. In modern world The solar cycle is in demand; chronology is based on observations of the main luminary of the solar system - the Sun.

History of the calendar roots go back to the distant past.

• The oldest references to the calendar ordering of days were found in what is now Iraq. The Sumerians lived on the territory of this country; they divided the year into 354 days.
• In Babylon, the priests, based on the results of astronomical observations, found out that there are more days in the year - 365 and a half, they reworked the calendar familiar to those times into a lunisolar one.
• In Persia, the date of the longest night was called the winter solstice; it fell on December 22. On this significant holiday, ancient farmers from almost all countries performed a number of obligatory rituals designed to help the arrival of spring.
• In Ancient Rome, the year began on January 1, when the consuls changed.
• In Ancient Greece, summer began on the summer solstice - June 22. The Greek calendar of those times began with the first Olympic Games, held in honor of the hero Hercules.
• After the emergence of Christianity, the birthday of Christ began to be celebrated - December 25, which coincided with the celebration of the winter solstice.

In 46 BC. e. Julius Caesar reformed the calculation of years according to the Egyptian model, in which he relied on the solar year. The calendar was named Julian, it made it possible to reduce the gap between the natural change of seasons and the official months. The average length of a year over four years was taken to be 365.25 days, which most accurately corresponded to the real state of affairs. Over time, the difference between nature and calendar calculation accumulated, seconds added up to days.

In 1582, Catholic Pope Gregory XIII carried out another major reform, replacing the old Julian with a revised one. So the old style was transformed into a new one, which was caused by the need to overcome the lag between the official seasons and the natural course of events. The vernal equinox was celebrated on March 21, chronology became more accurate, and most countries accepted it.

History of the calendar in Russia

In Rus', the Julian style of chronology was in effect for a long time, and the names of the days of the week and months were Roman. In pre-Petrine times, Russians celebrated the beginning of the year after harvesting cereal crops, in September, others - in March, on the spring solstice. Tsar Peter I issued a strict decree on the universal celebration of the New Year on January 1, as in European countries.

Until 1917, Russia adhered to the Julian calendar, differing in dates from European countries by two weeks. The Soviet government issued a decree in which February 1, 2018 was renamed 14. It turned out that after January 31, 1917, February 14, 1918 immediately followed. in Russia The year 1918 turned out to be thirteen days shorter than usual, and the Russian calendar became like in Europe.

An attempt to clarify the chronology was made at the UN in 1954, when a draft of an updated calendar was being considered. In it, the first day of each quarter began on Sunday. Each first month of the quarter lasted 31 days, and the second and third – 30. The project was supported by the USSR, but the USA objected, and as a result the reform was rejected.

Today it is used in the international community. To keep up with the times, we recommend products from Ideaprint, which produces excellent quality calendars to order.

1) sufficiently fully documented harm caused (actually, not hypothetically) to the common good,

2) this harm must first be assessed from the point of view of possible gay non-restriction of privacy (private life),

3) if privacy restrictions are necessary, they should be implemented to the minimum extent possible;

4) priority is given to methods of limiting privacy that are aimed at preventing undesirable side effects

Considering the prospects for modern societies as “good societies”, !>1Tsioni believes it is necessary to formulate and answer a number of key questions: without seeking to rely on the market and the state, what can we do as members of communities, families, voluntary associations? How can we decide on values ​​and avoid moral anarchism and determinism at the same time? How to decriminalize and cleanse politics. create reliable trust rules shra? How can we recognize our diversity, its costs, and survive as a nation? What role does the state play in a good society and how acceptable is its intervention/non-interference? How to combine economic growth with social development and not fall into reducing the social to serving the market9

CONCLUSION

The concept of a “good society” and communitarianism in general might seem like another beautiful utopia, if not for the screaming hopelessness of the crisis of individualism in its postmodern form. Needless to say, the role of cultural and social criticism (Bauman) in this case is no less important than the attempt to offer a responsible and justified pragmatic solution and even an ideal (g>gtsioni) Despite the fact that communitarianism is an ethical perspective at its core , because it offers an alternative ethic (including moderate individualism); Despite the fact that the individualistic culture of postmodernity has developed immunity against ethical dogmatism, the theory and culture of the “good society” demonstrate that from postmodernity there is only one road - to the rethought and transformed world of Modernity. And on this path we not only face the need to go through purification by moral reflection, but also the practical necessity of turning to the anthropological foundations of cultural values, which is clearly seen in the example of communitarianism, which, according to the author - a follower of M. Buber, contains a kind of theory and the practice of the fundamental “I - Thou” relationship.

LITERATURE

1 ^tsioni A New golden rule’ Community and morality in a democratic society // New post-industrial wave in the West Anthology / Pod. rsd V L Inozemtseva M: Academia, 1999 C 30U-337.

2 Bauman 1 Life in fragments essay in postmodern morality Oxford UK and Cambridge USA Blackwell s. 1995.

3 Bcmmcrn Z. Liquid modernity Oxford UK and Cambridge USA Blackwell s, 2000.

4 Baxtman Z Postmodern ethics Oxford UK and Cambridge USA Blackwcll s, 20(H).

5 Bauman Z. Sociological enlightenment for whon"? For what? // Theory, culture and socich 200 (1 SAGE Publications. London, Thousand Oaks, CA

and New Delhi Vol. 17(2) P. 71-82

6. The essential communitarian reader Lanham. MD: Rouman & Littlefield Publishers. Inc. 1998.

7 Etzioni A Capital corruption the new attack on amcncan democracy. New York Harcourt Bracc Joxanovich, 1984

8 Etzioni A The active socicty: a theory of social and political processes. New York Free Press. I96X

9 Etzioni A. The limits of pnvac> New York Basie Books, 1999

10 Etzioni A The monochrome socicty Princeton Princcton University Press, 2001

11. Etzioni A The moral dimension towards a new economy. New York The Free Press, 1988

12 Etzioni A The new golden rule community and morality m a democratic society New Yori* Basic Books. 1997

13 Etzioni A Next the road to the good society New York: Basic Books. 2001

14 1е spirit of community rights, responsibilities and the communitarian agenda New York Crow n Publishers. Inc 1993.

The article was presented by the Department of Theory and History of Culture of the Institute of Arts and Culture of Tomsk State University, received by the scientific editorial office “Philosophy” on March 1, 2004

S.Yu. Kolesnikova

CALENDAR SYSTEMS IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

Some aspects related to the understanding of time in ancient societies are analyzed, the importance of taking into account the peculiarities of the economic activities of ethnic groups when studying their calendar systems is noted. The main calendar systems of ancient civilizations are considered

Time is one of the universal categories of any culture and belongs to the constituent elements of the general picture of the world that develops among representatives of various societies. The category of time, along with such categories of human consciousness as space, reason, number, etc., refers to the main semantic “inventory” of culture and “there are few other indicators of culture that would characterize its essence to such an extent as the understanding of time.” Therefore, it is quite obvious that the study of the understanding of time by representatives of a particular culture 142

will allow us to get closer to a more complete understanding of all the features of this culture.

From the point of view of some scientists, time and its calculation did not take place in all ancient societies. It is not surprising that the awareness of time was an important stage in the formation of human society. Moreover, counting time at a certain stage in the development of society became necessary, constituting “...one of the most important areas of activity in archaic society.”

In various cultures located at successive stages of human history, ideas about

times were different. Specific categories of time were formed in various social structures. This fact is both psychologically and culturally determined. Obviously, recording the peculiarities of perception of time and time calculation by representatives of certain societies can contribute to understanding their way of life and psychology

The word “time” is understood in our industrial consciousness and in various modern studies in different ways: it is physical, geological, cosmic, biological, philosophical, etc. The characteristics of these concepts are different. In his daily activities, a person does not operate with all of the listed concepts. Time at the everyday level is thought of as “pure duration, an irreversible sequence of events from the past through the present to the future.” Time is the duration that we measure in seconds, minutes, hours, etc., it is an interval of one or another duration during which something happens. anything, a sequential change of hours, days, years In addition, time is a specific moment at which something happens

A.G. Spirkin says that the source of the idea of ​​time is the everyday, practical-based sensory perception of a continuous change of events (the movement of animals, the flow of rivers, wakefulness - sleep, inhalation - inhalation, heat - cold, etc. ) At the same time, a necessary condition for the knowledge of real time was not only the change of events observed by a person, but also, first of all, his practical interaction with reality. The expansion of the time range was associated with the development of material production (the production of primitive tools, the construction of housing, the manufacture of clothing, etc.).

The founder of the French sociological school, E. Durkheim, believed that the ideas of time (as well as space) could arise in human consciousness only in the conditions of social life, and not through individual human experience.

On the pages of the works you can find definitions and characteristics of the concept of “time”, based both on the study

understanding of individual specific ethnic groups, as well as on the theoretical generalization of such studies.

E. Evans-Pritchard, one of the founders of modern structuralism, using the example of a study of the culture of the Nuer (upper Nile), believed that there were two concepts of time - ecological (related to the natural environment) and structural (related to the public sphere).

C) three types of time among the ancient Babylonians - historical. peripheral, mythical - this is discussed in the work of I.S. Klochkov, who studied the spiritual culture of Babylonia. Historical time is the past about which the people retained relatively reliable information. Peripheral time is the past at the edge of public memory, memories of it are vague. Mythical time is a time that lies beyond the boundaries of folk memory, the time of the gods.

Macrotime (including mythical time, historical and individual) and calendar time (including years, seasons, months, weeks and days) are considered in the work of D.N. Mother 114. P. 95].

Cyclic and linear time are discussed, in particular, in the work of A. Ya. Flier. According to the author, the cyclical image of time is based on the repeatability of certain natural phenomena, linear on repeating events, for example, on the stages of human life

These examples are a demonstration of some of the many aspects that are touched upon by scientists studying the problems of understanding time in various societies (for example, in some works the concepts of “past - present - future" are also considered, ways of perceiving time are analyzed from the point of view of their historical evolution, and features of time calculation in pre-class societies, etc.).

Studying the time concepts of different ethnic groups, especially ancient ones, is a rather difficult task. Among the 7 available scientific mechanisms for researching the category of time! refers to the “finding of methods and forms of time calculation that were formed in a particular society. One of such forms of temporal representations and time counting among an ethnos is its calendar. Therefore, in this article we will talk specifically about calendars and the calendar counting of time among ancient peoples.

The term “calendar” comes from the Laggian term kalends (Calendae) - the name of the first day of the month among the ancient Romans. There are several definitions of the concept “calendar”, but the most suitable for analyzing the understanding of time by ancient ethnic groups in this article we will accept the following designation of a calendar: calendar is a way of counting time based on a sequence of periodic events and serving for the orderly perception of these events.

Speaking of unsommon significant! and the calendar as a source for studying the worldview of ancient peoples, it is necessary to separate ourselves from what is meant in this article by the concept of “ancient society”. In our opinion, this must be done for the following reason: ancient societies are societies that arose in ancient times. However, some of them, in the same period of time distant from us, went through the path of evolution, reaching a high level of development. Others continued to remain at a relatively low level of development. But both of them and others belong to the ancient ones. At the same time, their cultural, social and other features are naturally too different. This also applies to the perception of time and time calculation. In ancient, but unequally developed societies, different ideas about time, different calendar systems and calendars were formed (as discussed higher).

However, in many works one can find the following formulations: “calendars of primitive peoples”, “primitive time calculation”, “primitive calendars of ancient peoples”. When studying such works, it turns out that the authors consider, often quite unsystematically, the calendars of both ancient, “civilized” societies and and calendars of ancient, pre-class societies. It is clear that the time calculation of the latter can be attributed to primitive, but the time calculation of the first of these peoples cannot be considered as such. It is obvious that the concepts “ancient” and “primitive” are not identical. In our opinion, when studying the calendars of these ethnic groups, it would be more correct to clearly determine the level of development of ancient society and differentiate and analyze calendars depending on this level

We believe that the following working classification of ancient societies, based on ethnological developments, will be quite acceptable for this purpose in this article:

1st type - a society that arose in ancient times on the basis of two types of producing economy: early, where the leading place is occupied by agriculture and cattle breeding: complex economy of early farmers of the subtropics, agriculture and animal husbandry of the temperate zone in ancient times, hand farming of the tropics and developed, associated with pastoral cattle breeding, nomadic cattle breeding, plow farming,

2nd type - a society that arose in ancient times, based on the idle economy of wandering hunters and gatherers: specialized hunting and gathering in the tropics: hunting, fishing and gathering in the temperate zone, foot taiga hunting, Arctic hunting for sea animals, hunting on a deer; hunting, fishing, gathering with the beginnings of agriculture and animal husbandry

It should be noted that some of the ancient ethnic groups of both the first type and the second may be completely disappeared, others may be in the stage of extinction or development. Currently, societies of the first type are better studied, since many of them had a well-developed written language and left written evidence of its cult re.

of this type, related to the non-literate and now almost completely lost their traditional culture. Despite the obvious difficulty of studying such ethnic groups, many scientists have studied their calendars; There are numerous publications by both domestic and foreign authors. These works characterize various aspects of time calculation, conduct comparative studies of calendar systems, analyze meladlic, wooden, stone calendars, etc., and express the points of view of eltugraphers, linguists, and philosophers on the problems of calendars. Based on the materials available to the author of this article on the calendars of the unliterate peoples of the world, it is possible to say with a high degree of probability that these calendars are very similar in their core. This fact naturally provokes discussion about the reasons behind it. It is possible that many peoples had a single scheme for the formation of calendars. However, there are still no specific studies on this topic, the motivation for the emergence of the calendar of unliterate ethnic groups has not been clearly traced, and there is no clearly described system of its formation and functioning. It seems necessary and possible to try to recreate (reconstruct) the general model for constructing the calendar of ancient unliterate peoples. The presence of such a model will make it possible to more accurately predict the features of the formation and functioning of the calendar of any of the existing pre-literate societies.

One of the first steps to implement this idea may be to become familiar with the principles of forming calendars in societies of the first type. It is obvious that information about the calendars of these peoples is more extensive and objective, since they were recorded and preserved in written sources. It is quite possible that these principles could underlie the emergence of calendars in the societies of the second century. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze the main, most studied calendar systems of ancient civilizations.

At the earliest stages of human development, it became possible to measure periods of time by comparing them with significant periodic phenomena. The most common periodic phenomena are the change of day and night (day), the change of phases of the Moon and the change of seasons. They are based on the movements of the Moon and the Sun. The Moon and the Sun are the most noticeable large celestial bodies that could be observed with the naked eye. The Moon and the Sun helped people navigate time in ancient times. The first, most primitive attempts to count time in most are based on observations of these two objects. Many peoples of the world have myths and legends associated with the Sun and the Moon.

According to many scientists, the Moon was, at the initial stages of the formation of the time-counting system, more convenient as an object of reference than the Sun. And this is no coincidence: the apparent movement of the Moon is very simple, with it the movement from the growth of the disk to its decrease and disappearance is clearly visible . And each of these phases lasts for a constant period of time. To apply "these repeating phenomena -

research and observation of celestial bodies as units of time, representatives of ancient societies had to master ways of counting them and relating them to each other. As human culture developed, these methods improved, and new concepts and units of time counting appeared.

First of all, at the pre-agricultural stage, the lunar reckoning was probably formed. Later, the growing needs of agricultural and livestock farming led to the need to create solar and lunisolar calendars. The solar calendar is based on the solar year (the time interval between two successive passages of Co.1GNSH through the vernal equinox). In ancient societies, solar calendars were compiled primarily for agricultural purposes to determine the seasons of field work. The lunisolar calendar, quite cumbersome, appeared as a tool for coordinating the day, synodic) month and tropical (solar) year. Such coordination became necessary, since there are 29.53 solar days in the lunar synodic month, i.e. 12 months make up a lunar year of 354.36 solar days. Consequently, there remains a gap of approximately 11 days until the end of the solar astronomical year, which consists of 365.24 days and determines the cyclical nature of seasonal phenomena. And the 13-month lunar year is 19 days longer than the solar year. This was the main difficulty in creating calendar systems in ancient times.

The formation and development of calendar systems was carried out in different ways in different ancient shgvilizations. The most studied calendars include the calendars of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Ancient China, and Pre-Columbian America.

ANCIENT EGYPT

Throughout its history, Egypt used several types of calendars. According to E. Leach, at the dawn of its existence, Egypt had a lunar calendar. The lunar month began in the morning, when the waning moon became invisible. Accordingly, calendar days began in Egypt at sunrise. Some months were 29 or 30 days long, but the sequence of “full” and “empty” months was in a very complex dependence on the movements of the Sun and Moon. Many religious holidays were by their nature associated with the phases of the Moon and therefore were recorded in the lunar calendar.

Around the 4th millennium BC. Egypt, as an agricultural state, could no longer be content with a simple lunar year. The activities of its inhabitants were highly dependent on the Nile, on the flood of waters and their decline. The importance of this fact led to the understanding that the year should begin with the lunar month corresponding to the beginning of the flood. But the beginning of the water spill is very variable (from the beginning of May to the beginning of June, sometimes the “spread” was about two months). As a result, the ancient Egyptians tried to find a more accurate basis for fixing the length of the lunar year, for which they began to use the star Sirius. However, the calendar, based on the flood of the Nile and the appearance of Sirius, satisfied the needs of agricultural and religious activities, but was insufficient for administrative

manuals. Therefore, later, around 111 thousand BC, a civil calendar was invented in Egypt

The civil calendar of Ancient Egypt is a solar calendar. It was used mainly in the administrative and economic life of Egypt, because Due to the unpredictability of insertions in the lunar calendar, it was often impossible to indicate in advance the date of any future event. At first, the length of the year was set at 360 days. The year was divided into 12 months of 30 days, the month - into three large weeks of 10 days or 6 small weeks of 5 days. The Greeks called them decades and pentads, respectively. Subsequently, the length of the year was clarified: at the end of it, five additional days were added, which were considered holidays of the gods, that is, an “averaging” of a series of lunar years and agricultural years was carried out. The civil calendar was universal for the entire state, despite the existence of a religious lunar calendar based on simple observation (Fig. 1).

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The oldest of the E1~ilegian calendars, about which there is more or less reliable data, is the calendar of the XVIII Dynasty (1500 BC). It had three components: a) a primitive summer calendar based on the annual flood of the Nile and the fall in its water level, b) a complex system of magical rituals that helped to guarantee the daily return of the sun from the underworld and the appearance of the rich waters of the Nile in the right season ; c) a clearly structured calendar of holidays, which did not have a direct astronomical meaning, but was based on a system of counting days.

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

Here, as in ancient Egypt, the agricultural nature of civilization at a certain stage of its development determined the primary importance of the seasons of the solar year. Accordingly, attempts arose to correlate the lunar months more or less accurately with the agricultural seasons. This led to the addition, when necessary, of 13 th month to the usual 12-month calendar.

For many centuries, these insertions (intercalations) were carried out in a simple derivative manner depending on the agricultural situation. At the same time, cities located at short distances from each other could have completely different ways of adding a 13th month. Whenever the needs of economic activity required it, formal civil months with an exclusively fixed length of 30 days were used, rather than real lunar months

One of the states in which already in the 3rd century. BC. It was possible to develop a relatively clear lunar-solar calendar when counting time. There was Ancient Babylon - one of the powerful states of Ancient Mesopotamia. The Ancient Babylonian calendar year consisted of 12 months, the names of which were mainly associated with the peculiarities of the life of the ancient Babylonians. For example, in the name of the month “Nisan” there is a root, the meaning of which is “to move”, “Ayru” means “bright”, “Abu” - “hostile”, “Shabbat” - “destruction” (rains and downpours), etc. d. (20. P. ITO-171] (Fig. 2). Additional months were inserted into the calendar by order of the authorities. The month itself began on the evening when a new crescent of the Moon was visible in the sky for the first time after sunset. Therefore, the day in Ancient Babylon started in the evening

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Other inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, originally had a lunar calendar. The ancient Greeks knew four seasons, certain phases of the stars and solstices, as well as lunar months. However, as in Egypt and in other states, the increasingly complex economy required new techniques and ways of counting time.

To carry out agricultural work in a timely manner, the Greeks coordinated their lives with the changing times.

mens of the year, with the visible annual movement of the Sun across the sky. Around the 9th century. BC. The ancient (rivers) knew how the appearance of the starry sky changes in rhythm with the changing seasons. They used this annually repeating change in the visibility of stars in everyday life as a kind of solar calendar. The day of the ancient Greeks began with sunset and consisted of night and the following day. Day they divided into five parts (“early”, “before noon”, “noon”, “afternoon”, “evening”) Throughout the day

I rivers used special instruments for measuring time - a gnomon (sundial) (Fig. 3) and a skafis (sundial in the form of a hemispherical bowl)

Fig 3 Gnomon

From about the 1st century BC. The Greeks already used lunar-solar calendars in their business and social life. The calendar year under this system consisted of 12 months. The names of the months of these calendars usually came from the names of festivals celebrated in the corresponding month. According to some sources, the ancient Greeks initially began their year with the winter solstice. Then the beginning of the year was moved to the summer solstice. The days of the month of the ancient Greek calendar were divided into three decades. The first 10 days were simply counted - from the first to the tenth, the next 9 were called “first”, “second”, etc. with the addition of the words “after ten”, the remaining days were counted in reverse order: “the ninth from the end of the month”, “the eighth from the end of the month”, etc. It is noteworthy that the ancient Greeks on each day of the month honored one or more gods to whom this day was dedicated day.

ANCIENT CHINA

The peoples of China already in ancient times counted the days by the changes in the phases of the moon. But their daily needs, their entire way of life, the agricultural cycle of work forced them to determine the onset of certain annual seasons as carefully as possible and to improve the calendar. I. A. Klimishin in his work says the following about the calendar compiled in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC: as a result of regular and long-term observations, it was established that the appearance in the sky in the evening or morning of certain indicative stars - “cheng” - repeats in rhythm with the onset of a particular agricultural season. !>go allowed farmers to use “cheng” to report the upcoming onset of a particular season.

Ancient Chinese astronomers established the length of the synodic month at 29.5 days and solar

the year is 366 days. Since ancient times, it was customary in China to divide the month into three decades. The ordinal designations of the days of the decade were called “ten heavenly branches.” To represent the months of the year, 12 symbols were used ("12 earthly branches"), which corresponded to the names of the constellations and the name of the animal.

Along with calendars in which both the number of months in a year and the number of days in a month were different, in Ancient China from about the 26th century. BC. there was a counting of time in cycles, where each cycle consisted of 60 years. In fact, the 60-year Chinese cyclic calendar is lunisolar. The number 60 is the result of multiplying two characteristic numbers - 5 and 12. The number 5 symbolizes the 5 elements (water, fire, metal, wood, earth), the number 12 corresponds to the period of time during which the “royal” planet Jupiter passes through 12 constellations. The components of the 60-year cycle were the decimal cycle of the “heavenly branches” and the duodecimal cycle of the “earthly branches” (Fig. 4).

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One of the features of the formation of Chinese calendar systems was that. that almost every emperor sought to reform the old calendar and form his own (which did not always lead to an improvement in the method of calculating time) For example, according to E.R. Licha. At a certain stage in Ancient China, there were two calendars, one for peasants, based on the seasons, the other for clerks, which was a system of numbers. Thus, there were a lot of time counting systems in Ancient China and only a few are demonstrated here.

PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA

In ancient times (towards the end of the 1st millennium BC), on the American continent, on the territory of Mesoamerica (approximately Central and Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, western regions of El Salvador and Honduras) and in the Andes (Bolivia, Peru) Completely unique early class civilizations of the Maya, Zapotec, Quechua, Incas and others arose, reaching a high level of culture.

But none of the peoples of ancient America had such a highly developed calendar and system.

time calculation, like the ancient Mayans of the classical period (beginning of our era - 9th century AD). Each day of the month had its own name, reminiscent of the most important event or phenomenon at that time (Fig. 5, 6).

Fig 5 Hieroglyphs of the names of Mayan days

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According to scholars of Mayan culture, the 260-day period was originally the period from sowing to harvest. The sequence of eighteen 20-day months was a 360-day period, to the end of which 5 days were added, called

"days without a name" The 260-day period was widespread throughout Mesoamerica and, obviously, was the seed from which all other calendar systems grew. Its origin is unclear, but most likely its origins must be sought in the agricultural activities of the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica |23 C 138] Thus , the Mayans used 3 different years at the same time - a year lasting 260 days ("Tzolkin"), a year of 360 days ("Tun"), a year of 365 days ("Haab")

In addition to the main cycles described, the Mayans also used a number of other, very diverse ones. Among them we can name, first of all, the 52-year cycle (Mayan perpetual calendar, calendar circle), as well as a 9-day week, a cycle of 819 days, a 17-day week of the gods of the earth, the cycle of the planet Venus, the lunar cycle. Of great importance was the “long count” (chronology by era, the origin of which is not entirely clear), which the Mayans also thought of cyclically (after the completion of 13 large cycles, the countdown began anew, the period was 347,000 years) |23. P. 139].

As for other highly developed states of Mesoamerica. then their calendar systems were based primarily on the same as the Mayans. 2 main calendars - 260-day, often called ritual in foreign literature, serving for religious purposes, for predicting the future, etc., and 365-day, so-called annual, intended for both religious and practical agricultural purposes Among the Aztecs, In addition to these two main ones, the 52-year cycle was also widely used.

Conducted within the framework of this article, a brief presentation of calendars characteristic of various civilizations of the ancient world showed that the basis for the formation of calendar systems and their development was

economic activity. The change in the time counting system by ancient civilizations was carried out with a fundamental change in economic activity. Therefore, it would be preferable to carry out an analysis of time calculation among various ancient ethnic groups, necessarily taking into account and more accurately determining the economic basis of a particular society. By analyzing the economic type of activity of any ethnic group, it is possible to predict the level and need for the development of calendar accounting in the culture of this ethnic group.

It must be emphasized that the civilizations in question were geographically located far from each other. However, the reasons and mechanisms for changing calendar systems, as well as the newly created methods of counting time, turned out to be fundamentally similar. In particular, the agricultural nature of the activities of the described peoples was a prerequisite for their abandonment of the lunar calendar and the creation of more complex types of time calculation (use of solar, lunisolar calendar, calendar cycles, etc.). Based on this, it can be assumed, firstly, that the preliterate ethnic groups that interest us, belonging to the societies of the 2nd hyp, could not form complex types of calendars, but were probably limited to the lunar one. Secondly, in the depths of various preliterate societies, certain unified mechanisms for the formation of calendar systems could converge.

Available studies and descriptions of the calendar systems of ancient civilizations, including those presented above, can be considered as a full-fledged scientific basis for further study of not only the calendars of the mentioned civilizations, but also the time calculation and calendars of ancient preliterate peoples

LITERATURE

2. Guyot A/ Origin of the idea of ​​time St. Petersburg. People's benefit. 1899 BUT p.

3. Wienbicka A Semantics. Pnmcs and Univcrsals Oxford Université Press. 1996 5(H)p

4. Toporova TR. Semantic structure of the ancient Roman model of the world M Radix. 1994 191 s

5. Ozhago SI Dictionary of the Russian language M Russian language. 19X8 65(1 s

6. Fainper?L A Ideas about time in primitive society / Sov ethnography. 1977. I pp. 128-136.

7. Steblin-Kaiensky MI Myth L Ma\ka. 1976 103 s

8 VaSiCek Z L "arch with logic. G histoire, le passe Chantres sur la presentation, I" cpistcmologic et G ontologie du temps perdu. In Y: Crand angle Kronos Editions. 1994 255 RUR

9. Spirkin A I Origin of consciousness VI, I960 471 p.

10. Tokaren S A Problems of social consciousness of the pre-class era // Hunters, fishermen, gatherers L. Science. 1972. pp. 236-280

11 Evans-Pntchard E. Nucr Time-reckoning // Africa 12 1939 No. 1 C IH9 -216

12. Klochkov I S. D\ cult ra of Babylonia M: Science. 1983. 206 p.

13. Bèmchou H Fêtes et calcndncrs Mercvrc de France. 1922.222p

14 Malt/ D N. Primitive time-reckoning as a s\rabolic svstcm // Cornell Journal of social relations. 1968. Vol. 3, L? 2 Cornell Uni\ersitv. Jthaka. New

Hb.Flier A I Culturology for culturologists M Academic Project, Ekaterinburg Business book, 2002. 492 pp.

16. ("Regional Dictionary of Foreign Words St. Petersburg: Duet. 1994. 752 p.

17. CaôoxuH A P..1’rushevitskaya / G Ethnology M Higher school. 2000. 304 p.

18. Leach ER. Primitive Time-reckoning // A History of Technology Oxford 1954 Vol 1 P 110-127

19. Saggs H WE Civilization before Greecc and Rome / B.T Batsford LTd London. 1989 322p

20. Kshmishin I A. Calendar and chronology M Nauka, 1990. 480 p.

21. Hawkes J The first great civilizations Hutchinson of London. 1973. 475 p

22. Nillsort M P Primitive Timc-rcckoning London, Pans: Oxford-Lcipzig. 1920. 384 p

23. Daggers P V Culture of the ancient Maya L.: Science. 1971 364 s

24. Smith M.E The A/tocs Blackwell Publishers UK, 1996 361 p.

The article was presented by the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of the Siberian State Moscow State University and the Department of Museology of the Institute of Arts and Culture of Tomsk State University, received by the scientific editorial office “Philosophy” on February 27, 2004

Term "chronology" comes from two Greek words: “chronos” - time and “logos” - word, knowledge, teaching. Thus, chronology is the science of measuring time.

The subject of chronology as an auxiliary historical discipline includes the doctrine of the formation and development of various time systems, the determination and clarification of the dates of past historical events.

We can separately distinguish two types of chronology:

• - mathematical chronology
• - historical chronology (or, as it is otherwise called, technical)

Mathematical chronology, with the help of appropriate calculations, establishes the exact astronomical time based on the movement of celestial bodies. The task of historical chronology is to determine, by studying the documentary data that has reached us, the time of individual historical events.

Chronology should deal with the scientific development of dates available in historical sources (i.e., digital signs indicating the time to which a particular historical fact relates). The counting of time among different peoples in different periods of their past was not the same, therefore, in historical sources there is an extraordinary variety of dating. For a correct understanding of the latter, it is necessary to be familiar with the time calculation systems used in different eras by different peoples, and the ability to convert dates from ancient to modern ones, expressing them in uniform units of time that are accepted today.

Chronological dates are usually called the dates of historical events not in the raw form in which we extract them from sources, but dates scientifically processed by the technical means that the auxiliary discipline - historical or technical chronology - puts into the hands of historians.

Historical(technical) chronology develops methods for scientific analysis of sources based on the data available to mathematical chronology, since various time measurement systems are in close connection with observations of natural (astronomical) phenomena. In this regard, the historian must work hand-in-hand with the mathematician-astronomer, using the latter's findings for his own purposes. time calculation chronology calendar historical

Types of calendars. A time calculation system based on a specific, precisely established relationship between individual units of measurement in the form of a year, month, day is called a calendar. The latter term comes from the Latin word "calends", which in ancient Rome designated the first day of each month.

Among the many different calendar systems, two main types can be identified:

• 1) solar calendars, the astronomical basis of which is the tropical year or the period of the earth’s annual revolution around the sun
• 2) lunar calendars, which arose on the basis of a synodic month or a completed period of alternation of lunar phases.

The difficulty in constructing a calendar of any of the two named types lies in the fact that neither the tropical year nor the synodic month contains the full number of days. Therefore, when establishing the duration of the calendar year and month, one has to deviate from exact astronomical data. This is where the concepts of “tropical year” and “calendar year”, “synodic month” and “calendar month” arise.

Solar calendars. Egyptian calendar. The solar calendar usually assumes that a year is equal to 365 or 366 days, thus rounding the astronomically established value of 365.2422 days. History knows two main types of solar calendar:

• 1) the so-called “wandering” calendar system
• 2) leap system. The wandering solar calendar originated in very ancient times, in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians took the length of the calendar year to be 365 days, i.e., almost a full quarter of a day less than the length of the tropical year (=365.2422 days - 365 days = almost 0.25 days).

As a result of this deviation from astronomical data, the beginning of the Egyptian year, smaller in size than the tropical one, gradually and slowly moved within the latter, falling on different seasons (summer, autumn, winter, spring). Hence the later name of the Egyptian calendar “wandering”. Observing this “wandering”, it is not difficult to see that with a discrepancy between the Egyptian calendar and the tropical year of about a quarter of a day, every 1460 years the beginning of the Egyptian calendar returned to the same moment in the solar year (4 x 365 = 1460). This period of 1460 years was called the “Sothis period”. "Sothis" is the Greek name for the star Sirius. The Egyptians associated their chronology with observations of the movement of Sirius, whose position in the sky changed in connection with the annual revolution of the earth around the sun and whose rise coincided with the flood of the Nile River once every 1460 years.

Julian calendar. The inconvenience of the “wandering” calendar eventually caused the transition to the so-called leap year system. Its meaning is that the average length of the calendar year is taken to be 365.25 days, almost equal to the length of the tropical year (365.2422 days). But since it is inconvenient to count an incomplete number of days in a year, the indicated system is based on alternating simple years (365 days) and extended ones, with one additional day (366 days).

The introduction of such a calendar is associated with the name of the famous Roman statesman Julius Caesar, who carried out this undertaking with the participation of the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes in 46 BC. e. The basic principle of this reform: for each four-year period there are three simple years (365 days each) and one extended or leap year (366 days). With this construction of the calendar, the average length of the year (365.25 days) turns out to be very close to astronomical data (365.2422 days). The very name “leap”, “leap” comes from the Latin word “bissextum”, i.e. “second sixth”. The fact is that the additional day for the extended year in the Roman calendar was the second February 24th. The Romans, as stated above, counted with kalends (the name of the first day of each month), but not forward, but backward. Since February had 28 days, February 23 was the sixth day before the March calendar (until March 1). And the additional day after March 23 was called double sixth ("bisextum" - "leap"). Hence, the year with one extra day in February began to be called, in contrast to a simple year, a leap year. In our modern calendar, which originates from the Roman calendar, the extra day in a leap year is February 29. February of a simple year has 28 days, February of a leap year has 29 days. The remaining months, both in a common and leap year, have either 30 days (April, June, September, November) or 31 (January, March, May, July, August, October, December). In order to determine by the digital designation of a year whether it is a simple year or a leap year, one should be guided by the signs of divisibility of a number by 4, since every fourth year is a leap year. Therefore, if the last two digits of a number indicating the year are divisible by 4, or if this number ends with two zeros, therefore, the year is a leap year. In all other cases, the year is simple. The Julian calendar formed the basis of the calendar system, which is currently used by most cultural countries, and in particular Russia, but not in its pure form. In the 16th century this calendar underwent further reform, the objectives and nature of which will be revealed below.

Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar, of course, was a step forward compared to the Egyptian one, since it much more successfully solved the problem of bringing the average length of the year closer to the value established by astronomical calculations. However, this calendar was not yet perfect. If the Egyptian year was shorter than the tropical one, then the Julian year, on the contrary, turned out to be somewhat longer than the latter. The Julian calendar year, although imperceptibly, systematically lagged behind the tropical year. This, at first glance, seems to be a completely insignificant lag (365.25 - 365.2422 days) reached a whole day for every 128 years, and by the end of the 16th century. it has already reached 16 days (since the Julian calendar was adopted for use in Christian countries at the Council of Nicaea in 325, i.e. at the beginning of the 4th century). The question arose about a new calendar reform, which was carried out in 1582 by a special commission created by Pope Gregory XIII. This reform, however, pursued not so much scientific goals as tasks of a church nature related to determining the day of Easter celebration. But its results were of quite scientific significance. The commission, headed by Pope Gregory XIII, had two main tasks:

• 1) eliminate in some way the difference of 10 days between the tropical and calendar years that has accumulated over previous centuries;
• 2) through appropriate changes in the structure of the Julian calendar, eliminate or at least reduce this difference for the future.

The first task was resolved purely administratively. The corresponding papal decree ordered October 5, 1582 to be considered October 15th. Thus, the current year 1582 was shortened by 10 days and this restored the broken correspondence between the Julian calendar, which was somewhat behind in the past, and the tropical year.

In order to further bring the calendar year closer to the tropical one, the commission followed the natural path of reducing the number of leap years. Indeed, taking every fourth year as a leap year, the Julian calendar was based on the premise of an average year length of 365.25 days. But this average value is slightly higher than astronomical data (year = 395, 2422 days). Based on the latest ones, then not every fourth year will have to be considered a leap year. The Gregorian reform eliminated three leap years within each 400th anniversary. This reduction specifically affected some of those years that end centuries, or in other words, whose numerical designation ends with two zeros. To clearly imagine what’s going on, let’s take 1582 as a starting point - the moment of reform. Let us write down those years (after 1582) that end four consecutive centuries. This:

• 1600 (the line between the 16th and 17th centuries)
• 1700 (the line between the 17th and 18th centuries)
• 1800 (the line between the 18th and 19th centuries)
• 1900: (the line between the 19th and 20th centuries).

All these years, according to the Julian calendar, are leap years, because the numbers denoting them end with two zeros. The Gregorian Commission proposed that of these years only those with first two digits are divisible by 4. Therefore, according to the Gregorian calendar, only 1600 will be a leap year (since the number 16 is divisible by 4). The remaining three years are considered simple years, since neither 17, nor 18, nor 19 are divisible by four.

It must be firmly understood that this innovation, associated with the name of Pope Gregory XIII, concerned exclusively only those years that separated neighboring centuries from each other and were designated by numbers with two zeros at the end. The Gregorian reform did not at all affect those years that were within the centuries. To distribute them into simple ones; and leap days, the old rule to which the Julian calendar was subject, i.e., the signs of divisibility by four, remained in force. Let's say, recognizing the year 1700 ( like the end of a century) simple, due to the fact that its first two digits are not divisible by four, the Gregorian Commission did not at all establish that all subsequent years following 1700 (namely 1701, 1702, 1703, 1704, etc.), for the same reason will be simple. To identify leap years in these cases, as in the Julian calendar, it was not the first two digits that mattered, but rather the last two. So 1701 is a simple year, because the number 01 is not divisible by four, and 1704 is a leap year (despite the fact that 17 is not divisible by four), due to the fact that 04 is divisible by four. But as soon as it comes to the next year on the verge of two centuries (say, 1800), the decisive sign for classifying it as a simple or leap year is divisibility by four of the first two digits.

In short, in the Gregorian calendar each period is 400 years; has three fewer leap years than Julian. Because of this, the average length of the Gregorian calendar year is less than the Julian year; The Gregorian calendar is more perfect than the Julian calendar. The divergence between the Gregorian calendar year and the tropical one by one day occurs not in 128 years (as in the Julian calendar), but in 3500 years.

The Gregorian calendar was adopted in different countries at different times. In Russia it was introduced only after the October Revolution, on the basis of a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, on February 14, 1918.

Relationship between the Julian and Gregorian calendars("old" and "new" styles). The simultaneous existence of two calendar systems in different countries resulted in the difference between two “styles”: the “old” (Julian calendar account) and the “new” (Gregorian calendar account).

In Russia, before the October Revolution, the “old style” reigned. In 1918, as indicated, our country switched to the “new style”. We are accustomed to thinking that the “old style” lags behind the “new” by 13 days. Let's say April 15, 1943. according to the “new style” corresponds to April 2, 1943 according to the “old style”. But not everyone is aware of where this 13-day difference between the two calendar “styles” comes from. Unable to explain this circumstance, many fall into a grave mistake when, wanting to express, according to the “new style,” some dates of past centuries (the 19th, 18th and earlier), without hesitation, they increase them by 13 days.

To understand what this common mistake is, we must return to the moment from which the Gregorian calendar began its existence - to the reform of 1582. The reform of the Julian calendar was caused, as we know, by the fact that the latter lagged behind the tropical year for 10 days. A decree of Pope Gregory XIII eliminated this difference. Consequently, those countries that switched to the Gregorian calendar ("new") style began to count 10 days ahead. Those countries that retained the Julian calendar (“old style”) were 10 days behind in their counting.

This difference of 10 days between the “old” and “new” styles, which had developed by the 16th century, could not remain constant. After all, the Gregorian calendar has fewer leap years than the Julian calendar. Consequently, sooner or later a year had to come which, being a leap year (=366 days) according to the Julian calendar, would be simple according to the Gregorian calendar (=365 days). Then the discrepancy between the two “styles” would result in 11 days (one day more). When will this moment come? It is clear that only one of the years ending a century can be decisive (1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, etc.), since for all other years within centuries the distribution into leap years and simple ones remain the same according to both the Julian and Gregorian calendar accounts.

Let us consider in turn all the years that complete the centuries (from the 16th to the 19th). The year 1600 (which is the boundary between the 16th and 17th centuries) will be a leap year both according to the Julian calendar (since its digital designation ends with two zeros) and according to the Gregorian calendar (since its first two digits are divisible by four). Consequently, in the 17th century the difference between the “old” and “new” styles will not increase, remaining equal to the same 10 days. The year 1700 (the border between the 17th and 18th centuries) is a leap year (= 366 days) according to the Julian calendar (since its digital designation ends with two zeros) and a simple year (= 365 days) according to the Gregorian calendar (since its first two numbers -17 are not divisible by four). Consequently, in the 18th century. the difference between the two “styles” will already increase to 11 days (one day more).

In the 19th century this difference reaches 12 days (1800, based on the above characteristics, is a leap year according to the Julian calendar and a simple year according to the Gregorian calendar). And finally, in the 20th century. the divergence of “styles” reaches 13 days (1900 is a leap year according to the Julian calendar, simple according to the Gregorian calendar).

This is what explains this discrepancy of 13 days between the “old” and “new” styles, which was established by the 20th century. And this is why one cannot proceed from this figure - 13 - when translating dates from past centuries into the “new style”. We must learn the following rule, to which all previous reasoning has led us: to translate dates of the 16th-17th centuries into the “new style”. they should be increased by 10 days, the dates of the 18th century. when translated, the dates of the 19th century are increased by 11 days. - for 12 days, dates of the XX century. - for 13 days. Therefore, October 15, 1586, the “old style” corresponds to October 25, 1586, the “new style”. July 17, 1643 "old style" = July 27, 1643 "new style". May 21, 1741 "old style" - June 1, 1741 "new style". April 15, 1833, “old style” = April 27, 1833, “new style.” August 18, 1901 "old style" = August 31, 1901 "new style".

Without limiting ourselves to the history of the relationship between the Julian and Gregorian calendars in the past, we can look into the future and wonder when the moment of further divergence between the “old” and “new” styles will come. Obviously, not in the 21st century, since the year 2000, located on the border between the 20th and 21st centuries, will be a leap year according to both the Julian and Gregorian accounts (the number 2000 ends with two zeros, and 20 is divisible by 4). Thus, the Gregorian calendar will overtake the Julian calendar by 14 days only in the 22nd century. In addition to the Julian and Gregorian calendar systems, history knows of other attempts to create a solar calendar based, if possible, as close as possible to the average length of the tropical year. Such, for example, is the experience of the Great French bourgeois revolution, during which in 1793 a unique revolutionary calendar was created. He did not establish any permanent leap system. Its beginning coincided with the moment of the autumnal equinox (the time of equality of day and night) and was determined each time by special astronomical calculations.

It can also be noted New Julian calendar system, developed in 1923 in connection with the transition of the Balkan countries to the “new style”. Its task was, through the appropriate distribution of simple and leap years, to further clarify (in comparison with the Gregorian calendar) the correspondence of the calendar year to the tropical one.

We will not dwell in detail on all the varieties of the solar calendar developed by different peoples in different eras. To understand Russian chronology, it is enough to imagine the relationship between the calendars: the Julian, which was in use before the October Revolution, and the Gregorian, which came into use since 1918.

Lunar calendars. The above applies to Russian chronology. But many non-Russian nationalities used in the past (and some still use) various lunar calendar systems. Therefore, it is necessary to briefly dwell on the latter. Its main task is to ensure that the beginning of each month always falls on the same phases of the moon. If the solar calendar is based, as a constant value, on the period of revolution of the earth around the sun, which determines the alternation of seasons, then the lunar calendar takes as its initial value the duration of the synodic month, i.e., the completed period of changing lunar phases.

There are two main types of lunar calendar systems. The first became widespread in Muslim countries. It is based on a year consisting of 12 calendar lunar months, with the duration of each of them (on average 29.5 days) approximately equal to the length of the synodic lunar month (29.5306 days). Since a calendar month cannot contain an incomplete number of days (29.5), a system of alternating empty and full lunar months (i.e., calendar months of 29 and 30 days) is usually adopted. Thus, the duration of the calendar lunar year is expressed in 354 days (29.5 days x 12). Due to the fact that the average calendar lunar month (=29.5 days) is somewhat shorter than the synodic month (=29.5306 days), over time the correspondence of the beginning of each month with certain lunar phases was disrupted. To restore the lost balance, it was necessary, within some appropriately calculated cycle of years, along with simple years (354 days each), to insert a certain number of extended (leap) years (355 days each). In this way, the lag of the synodic month from the calendar month was to some extent paralyzed.

The lunar calendar year, consisting of 354-355 days, is called free or wandering, because it is not in any connection with the tropical (solar) year. Its beginning moves (wanders) annually across different dates within the solar calendar.

Calendar systems of another type, usually called coupled or lunisolar, aimed to establish a correspondence between two quantities: the duration of the solar tropical year (= 365.2422 days) and the lunar month (= 29.5306 days).

The solar year does not contain the full number of lunar months. Therefore, the above correspondence can only be achieved if some (strictly calculated) period includes a certain number of calendar years with a duration of 12 lunar months and a certain number of years with 13 lunar months. (The quotient of 365.2422 divided by 29.5306 will be greater than 12 but less than 13). The task of constructing a lunisolar calendar was solved by the Mongols.

Below, when studying the chronology systems of the peoples of the USSR, we will encounter and get acquainted in detail with both of these calendar systems: free lunar (Muslim) and linked lunisolar (Turkic-Mongolian).

Calendar reform of Peter I Calendar reform in our country, however, did not begin with V.I. Lenin, and from Peter I, who on December 19, 7208 from the “creation of the world” signed a decree “On the writing henceforth of January from the 1st day of 1700 in all papers of the year from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world.” This decree proposed that the day following December 31, 7208 from the “creation of the world” should be considered January 1, 1700 from the “Birth of Christ.” Thus, the calendar practice of Russia was brought into line with the tradition of Western Europe.