We Orthodox Christians live according to the Gregorian calendar, i.e. according to the old style. The Catholic world lives according to the Julian calendar. Unlike the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar takes into account only one object - the Sun.
The Gregorian calendar is based on the fraction 97/400, i.e. There are 97 leap years in the 400-year cycle.
The word calendar itself comes from the Latin Calendae, which means “time for paying debts.” Kalends began each month of the Roman civil calendar, established by Numa Pompilius and which became the prototype for the subsequent Julian and Gregorian calendars. The most important Kalends during the year were, of course, the January Kalends, with which the New Year Roman calendar. On January 1, in Rome, consuls replaced each other at the highest state post, transferring to their successors the affairs and debts of the state. Nowadays people no longer think about the fact that January 1 is the time for the necessary payment of debts and interest, and celebrating the New Year on the day of payment of debts dooms those celebrating constant dependence from the state, which has placed all citizens in the position of debtors. Living according to the Gregorian or Julian calendar means recognizing oneself as a debtor and bearing the burden of responsibility for what we cannot change.
It is known that for two centuries the New Year was celebrated in Russian state September 1st.
Peter I decided to equalize the Russian chronology with the European one, and ordered that instead of January 1, 7208, “from the creation of the world,” January 1, 1700, “from the birth of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ,” should be counted. The civil new year was also moved to January 1. The year 1699 was the shortest for Russia: from September to December, i.e. 4 months. However, not wanting conflicts with adherents of antiquity and the church, the tsar made a reservation in the decree: “And if anyone wants to write both those years, from the creation of the world and from the birth of Christ, freely.”
Subsequently, there was a transition to the Gregorian style. Prince Lieven, the Minister of Public Education, wrote about this event in 1830: “due to the ignorance of the masses, the inconveniences associated with the reform will far exceed the expected benefits.”
By decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 26, 1918, it was approved that after January 31 it was no longer February 1, but immediately the 14th.
The modern world lives according to different calendars. Here are some of them.
Thus, in Vietnam, Kampuchea, China, Korea, Mongolia, Japan and some other Asian countries, it has been operating for several millennia eastern calendar. It was compiled during the time of the legendary Emperor Huang Di in the middle of the third millennium BC. This calendar is a 60-year cyclical system and is very different from the European number system. It is based on the astronomical cycles of the Sun, Earth, Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. The 60-year cycle includes the 12-year Jupiter and 30-year Saturn cycles. The 12-year period of Jupiter was considered the most important for the life of nomads, and in those days the main peoples of the East were nomadic tribes. The ancient Chinese and Japanese believed that the normal motion of Jupiter brought benefits and virtues.
In countries professing Islam, the Islamic calendar (or Hijri) is purely moon calendar. The year contains 12 synodic months and its length is only 12*29.53=354.36 days. The calendar is based on the Koran (Sura IX, 36-37) and its observance is a sacred duty of Muslims.
Islamic calendar - official calendar Saudi Arabia and countries Persian Gulf. The rest of the Muslim countries use it only for religious purposes and Gregorian as the official one.
There is also a Jewish calendar. It is the Jewish religious calendar and the official calendar of Israel. This is a combined solar-lunar calendar, in which the year coincides with the tropical one and the months with the synodic ones.
A regular year consists of 353, 354 or 355 days - 12 months, a leap year of 383, 384 or 385 days - 13 months. They are respectively called “incomplete”, “correct” and “complete”.

Before the transition to the Gregorian calendar, which different countries ah occurred at different times, the Julian calendar was used everywhere. It is named after the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, who is believed to have carried out a calendar reform in 46 BC.

The Julian calendar appears to be based on the Egyptian solar calendar. A Julian year was 365.25 days. But there can only be an integer number of days in a year. Therefore, it was supposed: three years should be considered equal to 365 days, and the fourth year following them equal to 366 days. This year with an extra day.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a bull ordering “the return of the vernal equinox to March 21.” By that time it had moved away from the designated date by ten days, which were removed from that year 1582. And to prevent the error from accumulating in the future, it was prescribed to eliminate three days from every 400 years. Years whose numbers are divisible by 100, but not divisible by 400, are not leap years.

The Pope threatened with excommunication anyone who did not switch to the Gregorian calendar. They switched to it almost immediately Catholic countries. After some time, Protestant states followed their example. IN Orthodox in Russia and Greece adhered to the Julian calendar until the first half of the 20th century.

Which calendar is more accurate?

The debate about which calendar is Gregorian or Julian, or rather, does not subside to this day. On the one hand, the year of the Gregorian calendar is closer to the so-called tropical year - the period during which the Earth makes full turn around the Sun. According to modern data, the tropical year is 365.2422 days. On the other hand, scientists still use the Julian calendar for astronomical calculations.

The goal of the calendar reform of Gregory XIII was not to bring the length of the calendar year closer to the length of the tropical year. In his time, there was no such thing as a tropical year. The purpose of the reform was to comply with the decisions of ancient Christian councils on the timing of Easter celebrations. However, the problem was not completely solved.

The widespread belief that the Gregorian calendar is “more correct” and “advanced” than the Julian calendar is just a propaganda cliche. The Gregorian calendar, according to a number of scientists, is not astronomically justified and is a distortion of the Julian calendar.

God created the world outside of time, the change of day and night, seasons allows people to put their time in order. For this purpose, humanity invented the calendar, a system for calculating the days of the year. The main reason for switching to another calendar was disagreement about the celebration of the most important day for Christians - Easter.

Julian calendar

Once upon a time, back during the reign of Julius Caesar, in 45 BC. appeared Julian calendar. The calendar itself was named after the ruler. It was the astronomers of Julius Caesar who created a chronology system focused on the time of successive passage of the equinox by the Sun , therefore the Julian calendar was a “solar” calendar.

This system was the most accurate for those times; each year, not counting leap years, contained 365 days. In addition, the Julian calendar did not contradict the astronomical discoveries of those years. For fifteen hundred years, no one could offer this system a worthy analogy.

Gregorian calendar

However, at the end of the 16th century, Pope Gregory XIII proposed a different chronology system. What was the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, if there was no difference in the number of days between them? Leap year no longer was every fourth year counted by default, as in the Julian calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar, if a year ended in 00 but was not divisible by 4, it was not a leap year. So 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will no longer be a leap year.

Pope Gregory XIII was based on the fact that Easter should be celebrated only on Sunday, and according to the Julian calendar, Easter fell on each time different days weeks. 24 February 1582 the world learned about the Gregorian calendar.

Popes Sixtus IV and Clement VII also advocated reform. The work on the calendar, among others, was carried out by the Jesuit order.

Julian and Gregorian calendars – which is more popular?

The Julian and Gregorian calendars continued to exist together, but in most countries of the world it is the Gregorian calendar that is used, and the Julian remains for calculating Christian holidays.

Russia was among the last to adopt the reform. In 1917, immediately after the October Revolution, the “obscurantist” calendar was replaced with a “progressive” one. In 1923 the Russian Orthodox Church they tried to transfer it to the “new style,” but even with pressure on His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, there was a categorical refusal from the Church. Orthodox Christians, guided by the instructions of the apostles, calculate holidays according to the Julian calendar. Catholics and Protestants count holidays according to the Gregorian calendar.

The issue of calendars is also a theological issue. Despite the fact that Pope Gregory XIII considered the main issue to be astronomical and not religious, later discussions appeared about the correctness of a particular calendar in relation to the Bible. In Orthodoxy, it is believed that the Gregorian calendar violates the sequence of events in the Bible and leads to canonical violations: Apostolic rules do not allow the celebration of Holy Easter before the Jewish Passover. Go to new calendar would mean the destruction of Easter. Scientist-astronomer Professor E.A. Predtechensky in his work “Church Time: Reckoning and Critical Review of Existing Rules for Determining Easter” noted: "This collective work(Editor's note - Easter), in all likelihood by many unknown authors, was executed in such a way that it still remains unsurpassed. The later Roman Easter, now accepted by the Western Church, is, in comparison with the Alexandrian one, so ponderous and clumsy that it resembles a popular print next to an artistic depiction of the same object. Despite all this, this terribly complex and clumsy machine does not yet achieve its intended goal.”. In addition, the descent of the Holy Fire at the Holy Sepulcher takes place on Holy Saturday according to the Julian calendar.

Throughout almost its entire existence Russian Federation, namely, from October 23, 1991, a resolution of the Council of the Republic was in force on the territory of our country Supreme Council RSFSR from “On streamlining the calculation of time on the territory of the RSFSR.” This legal act established the annual introduction of summer time; the procedure and date for the transition to it were to be determined in accordance with the requirements of the European Economic UN.

Cancellation of the annual transfer of hands

In 2011, the then President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that abolished the practice of changing the hands on the clock. However, this legal act was signed in June, that is, after the country’s residents switched their clocks to summer time.

Thus, the federal law No. 107-FZ of June 3, 2011 “On the calculation of time” actually established permanent summer time in Russia. The main factor that caused the refusal of the double annual adjustment of the clock hands was called Negative influence temporary changes on the human body, expressed in an increase in the incidence and population of the country.

Discussion about the temporary regime in Russia

At the same time, the decision taken several years ago cannot be called unambiguously popular: it had quite a lot of opponents. The main argument that is usually put forward to challenge the legality of fixing summer time on the territory of the country is the continued operation of the so-called maternity time.

The fact is that back in 1930, by a special decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, time was set on the territory of all republics, one hour ahead of standard time. And although this decree was in effect in 1991, about a year later this temporary regime was restored on Russian territory.

The introduction of summer time actually represents the addition of one more hour to maternity time: thus, residents of the Russian Federation find themselves two hours ahead of standard time. In this regard, in last years There are periodic proposals to return to winter time.

At the moment, a project consolidating the country's transition to permanent winter time, accepted State Duma RF in the third reading. If it comes into force, the actual time in Russia will be closer to standard time.

Video on the topic

New Zealand entomologist and astronomer George Vernon Hudson was the first to propose the idea of ​​moving the clock hands to make better use of daylight hours. He devoted his free time from his main job to collecting insects. In 1895, Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philological Society, which proposed a two-hour daylight saving time shift.

Summer time

Hudson's idea generated some interest in his home country of New Zealand. But over time I was forgotten. At the beginning of the twentieth century, British developer William Willett independently thought about switching to daylight saving time. In 1907 he own funds published a brochure “On the Waste of Daylight.”

In it, Willett proposed moving the clocks forward 80 minutes in four steps during the month of April. And in September, do everything in reverse order. In his opinion, bright evenings will become longer, the time for summer holiday, and it will also be possible to save significant money on lighting.

After a vigorous campaign, by 1908 Willett had secured the support of MP Robert Pearse, who made several unsuccessful attempts to pass the legislation through the House of Commons. For some time, young Winston Churchill helped him in this.

The issue gained importance during the First World War, primarily due to the need to preserve coal. On April 30, 1916, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary implemented daylight saving time. Many other countries soon followed suit.

After the end of the First World War, daylight saving time was abolished. In most countries they did not resort to it for a long time. Daylight saving time came into widespread use again, particularly in the United States of America and Europe, in the seventies, when the energy crisis broke out.

Winter time

If daylight saving time is a widespread practice, then the use of winter time, in the sense of turning the clock hands back from standard time during the winter months, is very rare. Such cases are rare in history.

Thus, winter time was introduced by government decree in Czechoslovakia from December 1, 1946 to 1947. The main reason given was the fact that the country's power plants produced electricity 10 percent less than potential demand. This move was intended to distribute the load on the network during peak hours.

The legislation that gave the Czechoslovak government the right to introduce winter time at any time has not yet been repealed. This theoretically gives the governments of both the Czech Republic and Slovakia the opportunity to reintroduce winter time whenever they please. However, the experiment was not repeated.

In fact, Russia also lived in winter time in the early nineties. On March 31, 1991, the so-called “maternity” time, introduced in 1930, was abolished. The clock hands were moved back. And on September 29, the clocks were set back again. Due to citizen dissatisfaction and excessive energy consumption, maternity leave was restored on January 19, 1992.

Video on the topic

Sources:

• On Seasonal Time; By GV Hudson in 2019
• THE WASTE OF DAYLIGHT; William Willett's pamphlet in 2019
• Winter time (Czechoslovakia) in 2019
• Kommersant-Vlast 24 Oct 2000

For the first time, the transfer of clock hands, due to the division of the year into “winter” and “summer” time, was carried out in the Soviet Union, in 1981. Then this transition was motivated by the desire to save energy by extending daylight hours. However, even then it became clear that such a temporary transition did not represent any particular economic benefit, and many countries that introduced it canceled it almost immediately.

Games with time

The decisions taken by the Soviet government in 1981 were canceled in Russia only in 2011 on the initiative of D.A. Medvedev, who at that time. As a result of this, to put it mildly, ill-conceived decision, Russia began to live 2 hours behind astronomical time, which is most familiar to animals in biological and physiological terms.

Changing the clock by 1 hour every six months led to a drop in milk yield, weight gain and other indicators in farm animals.

The fact is that the hand was set one hour ahead according to a decree Soviet Power back in 1918, and all the years until 1981, citizens of the USSR lived 1 hour ahead of the movement of the sun. After the decree in the summer of 2011 canceled the return of the clock hands to “ ”, the final advance was already 2 hours. But since human nature is initially subject not to the orders of the authorities, but to natural biorhythms, this has become so dissonant that doctors have already stood up for the return of astronomical time.

What are the consequences of disrupting natural biorhythms?

After some time, even a one-hour change occurring once every six months was recognized as harmful to human health and farm animals. Immediately after switching the switches another two, the bulk of the population suffered from chronic lack of sleep and the fatigue it caused. Then, of course, the body got used to it, but after a few months it again experienced another stress from turning the arrows back.

The next change of hands, bringing the life schedule of Russians closer to astronomical time, is planned for the spring of 2014.

In itself, the reasonable decision to stop moving the switches was implemented at the wrong time, and the 2-hour difference with natural rhythms resulted in problems not only with the physical, but also with the mental health of the population. Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate an increase in the number of deaths by 65-70 thousand people per year, in addition, the number of accidents has also increased noticeably. People are increasingly turning to doctors about depression and chronic stress, and myocardial infarction. Force change biological rhythms, caused by nature, leads to an imbalance, because getting up 2 hours earlier, a person does not see the sun in the morning. His nervous system cannot begin to function normally, since it is still night outside. Doctors definitely recommend canceling the clock change to daylight saving time and never moving the hands forward or backward again.

Related article

Tip 4: Changing clocks to winter/summer time: pros and cons

The change of clocks to summer time was in effect in Russia until 2011, and was later canceled by the government. But there is still debate about the advisability of changing the clocks annually.

Arguments of supporters of changing clocks to daylight saving time

WITH scientific point From a perspective, only the term summer time is correct, and the so-called standard time is standard time. Daylight saving time is a time that is shifted by one hour relative to standard time. The purpose of changing the clocks is to more rational use daylight hours, and due to this, energy savings on lighting are achieved.

Most countries do not use the practice of changing clocks to daylight saving time. In 2012, these included 161 countries. The remaining 78 countries use seasonal hours. The distribution is largely due to the fact that switching to daylight saving time is impractical in many latitudes where the length of daylight hours does not change throughout the year.

Those who advocate returning to the practice of changing clocks most often cite its main benefit - helping to reduce electricity consumption. A side effect of this is a reduction in the load on environment, preservation natural resources. Some also put the advantages of summer time in the reduction of accidents on the roads, the reduction in the number of criminal incidents, the increase in income from tourism, and the harmonization of timekeeping with surrounding countries.

It is worth noting that there is no clear confirmation of the possibility of saving energy by changing the clocks. For example, RAO UES estimated the scale of annual savings at 4.4 billion kWh. Thus, each Russian saved 60 rubles annually.

American and other Russian researchers estimated savings at 0.5-1%. And scientists from the UK came to the conclusion that moving the switches, on the contrary, increases electricity consumption. This is due to the growing demand for air conditioning and heating.

Arguments of opponents of changing clocks to daylight saving time

The majority of the Russian population is among the opponents. Polls public opinion indicate that more than 2/3 of Russians are against moving the switches.

The key argument of opponents is that changing clocks has negative consequences for people's health. ABOUT harmful effects temporary shifts in 2003 were announced by the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. The translation of the arrows has the most negative impact on night owls and cardiovascular diseases.

It was also revealed that the clock change was not in the best possible way affects labor productivity, causing the country to lose in GDP.

According to some reports, turning the arrows leads to an increase in accidents on the roads and causes problems in work transport system countries.

Finally, the need to change clocks entails certain difficulties for residents of the country. In particular, they need to manually change the clocks on equipment - televisions, video cameras, players, etc.

On June 16, 1930, the Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a decree, according to which maternity time was introduced on the territory of the USSR - for the reasonable use of the daylight hours and the correct distribution of electricity between industrial and household consumption. This time, 1 hour ahead of standard time, became known as maternity leave.

Time for the number of hours (Greenwich Mean Time) corresponding to the zone, plus one hour. This is a difference of one more hour in the summer.

In the USSR, clocks were kept from 1917 to 1930, then the hands were moved an hour ahead relative to standard time, and for more than 50 years they were not moved back. Only since 1981 in the USSR was the clock switched to winter time and back to summer time (maternity time was not abolished). It turned out that the clock hands were moved forward one more hour (summer time), and in the fall they returned back to winter time (maternity time). The purpose of changing the clocks was to save energy.

In the winter of 2011, the President of the Russian Federation D. Medvedev issued a decree, according to which the abolition of the translation of clock hands was introduced, i.e. spring daylight saving time was the last one. In the fall of 2011, clocks were no longer changed to winter (maternity) time. Thus, the hands of all clocks in the Russian Federation

Exactly one year ago - at 2.00 Moscow time on October 26, 2014 - the residents of Russia moved their clocks back one hour. This is how the country switched to winter time, which we still live by today. On October 27, 2014, the number of time zones in Russia was reduced from eleven to nine - now 52 regions live according to capital time.

The decision to abolish daylight saving time was made on the basis expert assessments: Thus, Rospotrebnadzor specialists argued that

The old system had a negative impact on the health of people, especially children. The abolition of winter time, implemented in 2011, also had a negative impact on animals, from which farmers suffered. The Ministry of Industry also stated that switching the switches does not save electricity.

Last year, astronomer Oleg Ugolnikov explained why moving the clock back an hour will not solve the listed problems: “The answer is that in winter you will still have to get up in the dark, and the gained hour will fall at the beginning of working hours, when there is no special meaning in it anymore .

The length of the climb in sunlight will only increase by two months. Moreover, all these effects could be removed by introducing seasonal winter time, as is done in many countries of the world,” the astronomer said.

“As for the bright evenings, they were after the end of the working day already in February. At the end of April it is light until 21:00. In the case of reform, there will be light only until 20 o'clock - we will lose the much-needed bright evening hour. He will switch to an interval of five to six hours in the morning, where absolutely no one needs him,” Ugolnikov added.

The clock change nevertheless took place, and we still live on winter time.

This is how it happened historically

“Disorder” over time in Russia began in 1917 - it was then that the Provisional Government, by decree of June 27, introduced summer time from July 1 to August 31, 1917, and from March 1 to September 1 of the following year, 1918. However, the clock hands returned an hour only on December 27, 1917.

In subsequent years, the transition to daylight saving time was carried out without any order, and in 1921 it happened twice - on February 14 and March 20. After 1922, the country used standard time (the officially approved time for each time zone), without changes to summer or winter time.

On June 21, 1930, the clocks were moved forward an hour, and on September 30 they were brought back - this regime became known as maternity time.

On April 1, 1981, the Council of Ministers of the USSR again ordered the clocks to be moved forward relative to maternity time. Because of this, summer time in many regions began to be two hours ahead of standard time.

Until 2010, the transition to and from daylight saving time occurred every year, but the date of the clock change changed four times. From 1996 to 2010, we moved the clocks to the last Sunday of March and October.

In 2011, on the initiative of Dmitry Medvedev, it was decided to cancel the October clock setting back an hour, but last year legislators again decided to change the course of time and the country switched from summer to winter.

What about them?

Currently, most countries in Europe (except Russia, Belarus and Iceland), the USA (except for some states), Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine switch to daylight saving time. In the Southern Hemisphere, summer time is used in some states of Australia and Brazil, New Zealand, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Namibia.

Paul Eggert Blue indicates countries that apply daylight saving time, orange indicates countries where the transition has been abolished; red - countries where daylight saving time has never occurred.

It is worth noting that at latitudes close to the equator, switching to summer time is impractical, since it is dark and daylight hours The day lasts approximately the same, 12 hours each.

Some countries that have refused to change clock hands use another method to save the daylight hours - they shift the operating hours of enterprises and educational institutions.

This means that in summer people start working earlier, in winter - later, and the shift can exceed one hour.

If you want to sleep, go to New Zealand

However, how Scientists' research shows, the duration of sleep of residents of different countries does not depend on the presence or absence of a clock change law. The researchers used data collected by tracking human sleep dynamics mobile applications. In total, in this way, data on more than 941 thousand residents of different countries of the world fell into the hands of scientists.

It turned out that residents sleep the least South Korea and Saudi Arabia - the average duration of their night's sleep was 6 hours 2 minutes. They go to bed at 0.16 and 0.39, respectively. New Zealanders get the best sleep, going to bed at 11:29 p.m. and sleeping for 7 hours and 27 minutes.

At the same time, residents of Russia go to bed later than everyone else - at 1.05, at the same time as the Greeks and residents of the United States. United Arab Emirates, but sleep on average 6 hours 45 minutes.

The rhythm of life in some countries may also seem unusual for residents of Russia. So, in China, many people are already on their feet at five o’clock in the morning, and at six o’clock in the parks and on the streets you can meet large groups Chinese practicing qigong or taijiquan - specific types physical exercise, similar to recreational gymnastics.

IN Chinese schools classes also start early - at 7.00 - 7.30. However, in Brazil things are about the same - there schoolchildren sit at their desks at 7.00.

In countries with a hot climate - Spain, Italy, Greece - you may encounter an afternoon rest, a siesta, when the most of public establishments, including cafes, restaurants and even some museums.

The latter is especially typical for small Spanish towns - in some of them the siesta can last about three hours.

In our country there are no such bright traditions associated with sleep and rest, so Russians can only do one thing - get used to the regime established by the law “On the Calculation of Time” and hope that American scientists who declare the dangers of switching to daylight saving time are right: that because of During the transition to daylight saving time, people lose about half an hour of sleep per night.