Calendar- a system of calculation of long periods of time, based on the periodicity of movement celestial bodies.

In order to somehow coordinate the day, month and year, many calendars were created by different peoples in different eras. All of them can be divided into three main types: lunar(which were based on the periodicity of the movement of the moon), solar(respectively, on the periodicity of the motion of the Sun) and lunisolar(which were based on the periods of motion of the Moon and the Sun).

Word "calendar" derived from Latin calendarium - so called the debt book in Ancient Rome: debtors paid interest on the day of calendars, the first days of the month.

His home is Babylon. In this calendar, the year consisted of 12 lunar months, each having 29 or 30 days. The Muslim lunar calendar still exists today in some Arab countries. The number of days in the months in this calendar changes so that the first of the month begins with a new moon. The duration of the year is 354 or 355 mean solar days. So it's shorter solar year for 10 days.

solar calendar

The first solar calendars appeared in Ancient Egypt several millennia BC. For them, a year was the interval between two successive heliacal risings of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. They noticed that the pre-morning sunrises of Sirius approximately coincided with the beginning of the flood of the Nile, and their harvest depended on this. Observations of the appearance of Sirius made it possible to determine the length of the year - 360, and then 365 days. Based on these observations, a solar calendar was created: the year was divided into 12 months of 30 days each. The year was also divided into 3 seasons of 4 months each: the time of the flood of the Nile, the time of sowing, the time of harvest. After specifying the duration of the solar year, an additional 5 days were added at the end of the year.

And the solar calendar, which is now used by almost all countries of the world, originated with the ancient Romans. Already from the middle of the eighth century. BC. they used a calendar in which the year consisted of 10 months and contained 304 days. In the 7th century BC. its reform was carried out: 2 more months were added to the calendar year, and the number of days was increased to 355. But it did not correspond to the phenomena of nature, and therefore an additional month was inserted every 2 years, which alternately contained 22, then 23 days. Thus, every 4 years consisted of two years of 355 days and two extended years of 377 and 378 days.

But this introduced a fair amount of confusion, because it was the duty of the priests to change the continuation of the months, who sometimes abused their power and arbitrarily lengthened or shortened the year.

In 46 BC A new reform of the Roman calendar was carried out by Julius Caesar, a Roman statesman and commander. Hence the name julian calendar. Counting began on January 1, 45 BC. In 325 the Julian calendar was adopted by Byzantium.

But the spring equinox every 128 years julian calendar retreated by 1 day, in the 16th century it was already 10 days behind, which complicated the calculations of church holidays. Therefore, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Gregory XIII, convened a commission to create a calendar according to which the day of the vernal equinox would return to March 21 and no longer deviate from this date. New system became known as Gregorian calendar , or new style. In Russia new style was adopted only in 1918, although in most European countries it was introduced in the 16th-17th centuries.

This is a more perfect calendar, in which the lunar months approximately agree with the solar year. The first such calendars appeared in Ancient Greece in the 1st millennium BC The year according to this calendar was divided into 12 months, starting with the new moon. For connection with the seasons (solar year), an additional 13th month was inserted. Such a system has been preserved in the Jewish calendar to this day.

Story

Each nation used its own methods of dating historical events. Some tried to count the years from the creation of the world: the Jews dated it to 3761 BC. e., Alexandrian chronology considered this date May 25, 5493 BC. e. The Romans began counting from the legendary founding of Rome (753 BC). The Parthians, Bithynians, and others counted the years from the accession to the throne of the first king, the Egyptians - from the beginning of the reign of each subsequent dynasty. Each world religion founded its own calendar: according to the Byzantine calendar, it is 7521 years from the Creation of the World, in Islam - 1433 Hijri, according to the Buddhist calendar it is 2555 years of the era of Nirvana, according to the Baha'i calendar - 168 years.

Translation from one chronology to another presents difficulties because of the different length of the year and because of the different date of the beginning of the year in different systems.

How about in Russia?

In ancient Russia, time was counted according to the four seasons of the year. The lunisolar calendar was also used, in which every 19 years included seven additional months. There was a seven-day week (week).

After the establishment of Christianity in 988, the years began to be counted according to the Julian calendar from the "creation of the world", more precisely, from the "creation of Adam" - from Friday 1 March, accepting the Byzantine version of this date - 5508 BC, but with some deviations. In Byzantium, the year began on September 1st. In Russia, according to ancient tradition, spring was considered the beginning of the year, so the year began on March 1.

During the time of Ivan III in 1492 (in 7000 from the "creation of the world") the beginning of the year was moved on September 1. First printed church calendar made in Russia on May 5, 1581 Ivan Fedorov.

Peter I replaced the chronology from the “creation of the world” in force in Russia with the chronology from the Nativity of Christ from January 1, 1700 (the difference between the two chronology systems is 5508 years). By decree of the emperor of December 19 (29), 1699, January 1 (11) 1700 of the year "... and the future of Genvar from the 1st of the new year of 1700 will come, together with a new centenary age ...". On December 28, 1708, the first civil calendar was issued.

The difference between the old and new styles was 10 days in the 16th-17th centuries, 11 days in the 18th century, 12 days in the 19th century, and 13 days in the 20th-21st centuries.

As mentioned earlier, the Gregorian calendar in Soviet Russia introduced on February 14, 1918. From 1930 to 1940, the Soviet revolutionary calendar was used.

During the operation of the Soviet revolutionary calendar, the Gregorian calendar was used in parallel in some cases. On August 26, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the resolution "On the transition to continuous production in enterprises and institutions of the USSR" recognized the need to start a systematic and consistent transfer of enterprises and institutions to continuous production from the 1929-1930 financial year. The transition to "continuous work", which began in the autumn of 1929, was consolidated in the spring of 1930. A single production time sheet was introduced. The calendar year provided for 360 days and, accordingly, 72 five-day periods. It was decided to consider the remaining 5 days as holidays.

The picture shows a timesheet calendar for 1939. In fact, this is a calendar for any year, the only difference is the presence or absence of February 29th. Therefore, on the one hand, this calendar can be called permanent. However, six-day periods (that is, weeks) were not continuous, since the thirty-first days of the months were not included in six-day periods. It is also interesting that after the fourth day of the six-day period - February 28 - the first day of the six-day period immediately follows - March 1.

The week in the USSR in 1929-1930 consisted of five days, while all workers were divided into five groups named by color (yellow, pink, red, purple, green), and each group had its own day off (non-working) day on week (the so-called "continuity"). Despite the fact that there were more days off (one per five days, instead of one per seven days earlier), this reform was unpopular, as it significantly complicated personal, social and family life due to the mismatch of days off for different members of society.

Despite the fact that the chronology continued according to the Gregorian calendar, in some cases the date was indicated as "NN year of the socialist revolution", with a starting point from November 7, 1917. The phrase "NN year of the socialist revolution" was present in tear-off and loose-leaf calendars until 1991 inclusive - until the collapse of the USSR. How artistic technique the countdown of years from the October Revolution is present in the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The White Guard".

But…

The beginning of the calendar year is a relative concept. AT different time in various countries, the new year began on March 25 and December 25, as well as on other days. 12 months in a year and 7 days in a week is also a conditional concept, although it has an astronomical justification.

The establishment of an era is also conditional. There were over 200 different eras associated with various real or religious events.

The system of counting years from the Nativity of Christ is now accepted by most states and is called our era(or new era).

The birth of the calendar

Any of us can easily name what day of the week, date, month, year it is. In a conversation, we often use turns that somehow affect the topic of time: “in a week”, “a year ago”, “before the new era”, etc.? But what is behind these familiar words? Why do we start New Year 1st of January?
Why are there seven days in a week and 30 or 31 days in a month? What did the very first calendar look like and who invented it? These and many other similar questions are answered by the auxiliary historical discipline chronology, or the science of time and its measurement.

For many centuries BC. people watched the seasonal changes in nature, trying to establish any patterns, which then became the basis of the future calendar (from Latin calendarium - debt book), i.e. a system of counting time intervals based on the apparent movements of celestial bodies. The main objects of human observation were the Moon and the Sun, which laid the foundation for the three main types of calendar - lunar, solar and mixed. In lunar calendars, years are not coordinated with the movement of the Earth around the Sun. In the solar calendar, the months are in no way coordinated with the movements of the moon. And the mixed calendar combined observations of both the Sun and the Moon.

Calendar of ancient Mesopotamia

Nearly all year round in the daytime in Mesopotamia it is so hot that under the sun's rays even the most hardy slaves fainted, cattle stopped working. And only when the Moon replaced the Sun did the long-awaited coolness set in, and perhaps it was this circumstance that caused the exaltation of Sina, the Sumerian god of the moon.
But the face of God was constantly changing, and the Sumerians could not fail to notice this: now only a narrow sickle was visible in the sky, then he looked to the left, then to the right, or even completely stood over Sumer in his full splendor. Over time, the priests traced the pattern in accordance with which the appearance of the god changed: at first, in the west, in the evening sunlight, only the disappearing pale narrow crescent of Sin could be seen, but every day it shed its light on the earth longer, rose higher and higher in the sky, as if catching up with the setting sun, and all this time the horns of the lunar month looked to the left, to the west. About eight or nine days passed, and the crescent moon shone in the sky almost all night, and after a little more time, Sin showed his entire face to the Sumerians - the full moon came when the moon appeared immediately after sunset and disappeared at its first morning rays. But only a few days the priests could admire Sin in all its glory: after a week, the god began to “melt”, and soon only a narrow sickle appeared in the sky, but now its horns were turned to the right, to the east. And a few days later dark nights came - Sin did not appear at all in the sky, as if only to be born again in the west.

This is how the Sumerian priests imagined the change in the phases of the moon, which always lasted the same time. Every time when, according to the calculations of the priests, a new moon was to appear in the west, they climbed the ziggurats - the towers of the temples, and, seeing a crescent in the sky, with the help of pipes they announced the beginning of the new month to the people. Over time, the priests calculated the duration of the lunar month - about 29 days. But such a number was very inconvenient for Sumer, in which the sexagesimal number system was adopted. It is a completely different matter if the month lasted thirty days - then it could be divided into five periods of six days. But the lunar deity was inexorable, and each month lasted 29 days, and to be completely accurate, then 29.5.
It would seem that such a discrepancy between the desired and the actual could not have any effect on everyday life Mesopotamia: it's okay if the conditional month was a little longer or shorter than the lunar one. In reality, everything was much more serious. The fact is that the Sumerians solemnly celebrated the beginning of the new year and the first calendar month - Nissan, and about 14 days after the holiday, a new moon came, at the same time as the Euphrates flood began.

It probably does not make sense to talk in detail about the exceptional importance for farmers to know the exact date of the beginning of the flood of the river. In the conditions of the hot and dry climate of Mesopotamia, it was necessary to prepare reservoirs in advance, deepen and repair canals and wells. The timeliness of these works largely depended on the correctness of the predictions of the priests, and hence on the correctness of the calculation of the date of the beginning of the new year. The priests calculated that from one flood of the river to another, Sin was born again in the west 12 times, i.e. exactly as many times as there was a new moon. Thus, the priests created the first calendar, consisting of 12 months, in which there were alternately 29 and 30 days, and the year itself consisted of 354 days. But pretty soon the priests noticed their mistake: at the expected time, the river did not overflow. It seemed that there was a conflict between the gods, and now the Euphrates did not obey Sin, refusing to overflow at "the time allotted to it." Trying to correct their calculations, the priests from time to time added one more to 12 months - the 13th, in order to adjust the time of the river flood to the beginning of the new year, but confusion in such calculations was inevitable. The priests again began to study the features of the movement of the Moon and, after centuries of observation, compiled a map according to which the path of the night star passed through twelve constellations, the names of which were given based on their distant resemblance to animals or people. Until now, we use these names: Leo, Scorpio, Taurus, Capricorn, etc., later the Greeks will call these 12 constellations zodiac- "circle of animals."
The priests punctually recorded the dates of each new birth of the moon and full moons, but the number of days between new moons varied from 29 to 30. It was even more difficult to agree on such units of time as a month and a day: if the length of a month depended on the phases of the moon, then the length of a day depended on sunrise and sunset. The priests faced a new problem: how to correlate these two quantities.

It would seem that every day in the morning the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west every evening, but the length of the day is constantly different, and only twice a year day and night are equal in duration. In order, on the one hand, to correlate the year and the day, and on the other hand, to make it easier to navigate in time during the day, the Babylonian priests invented a sundial - gnomon. A long straight pole was stuck into the ground, from which a shadow fell, moving according to the movement of the Sun across the sky. The circle that the shadow described during the day, the priests divided into equal twelve parts - exactly according to the number of months in the year, in addition, the number twelve fit perfectly into the sexagesimal counting system in Mesopotamia.
But, observing the movements of the Moon and the Sun, the priests-astronomers could not fail to notice that the starry sky was also changing. From month to month, the Moon was born in different constellations, as if moving from one to another in turn, just like the Sun. Over time, the regularity of these movements of the luminaries was also revealed, which made it possible to predict in which constellation the Moon would appear on the next new moon. However, the most important discovery The priests of that time had the following: the Sun from year to year passes through all the constellations in the same sequence and, after describing a full circle, returns to the beginning of its journey - to the point of the vernal equinox, when the Euphrates began to overflow. Thus, the general trajectory of the Sun's motion became known, but it was quite difficult to trace it more accurately: constellations are not visible during the day, and there is no Sun at night. Now it’s hard to say: thanks to what calculations the priests came to the conclusion that during the day the Sun takes 180 steps in the sky (assuming that one “step” is equal to two diameters of the star, the priests concluded that the Sun takes the same number of steps during the night, thus, during the day the sun "walked" 360 times). It is worth noting that the number of steps, by chance or on purpose, perfectly fit into the sexagesimal counting system, in addition, it is with this innovation of the priests that the tradition of dividing the circle into 360 degrees is associated (the very word "degree" in translation from Latin means "step"). Further, the priests suggested that in a day the sun approaches the east one step and in 360 days, passing through all 12 constellations, returns to its starting point - the new year begins.

At first, the priests rejoiced that the correct calendar had finally been created: it seemed that the gods themselves arranged so that the year lasts 360 days. But long-term observations of the luminary could not hide the errors - the Sun closes the zodiac circle not in 360, but in 364 and a quarter of a day. In the lunar calendar, there were even fewer days - only 354. It seemed that the priests again stood in a dead end: how, after all, to connect the lunar and solar calendars? The task was quite difficult: each year should consist of a whole number of months, each month - of a whole number of days, while each new month should begin with a new moon and, most importantly, the beginning of the year should coincide with the spring equinox, followed by the flood of the Tigris and Euphrates. The priests again plunged into the calculations, which led to quite witty conclusions: since the calendar lacks 11 and a quarter days every time, then in eight years there are already 90 of them - just 3 months of 30 days each. This means that calendars can be connected if, within eight years, one extra month is added three times - the thirteenth. But this month should be added so that the beginning of the year clearly coincides with the day of the vernal equinox. This could be achieved by adding an extra month to the second, fifth and seventh years of the eight-year period.

Thus, in the VI century. BC. The Sumerians were the first to be able to reconcile the lunar months with the solar year, while allowing minimal errors.
But besides dividing the year into 12 months, and the month into 30 or 29 days, the Sumerians were the first to introduce a seven-day week. Although, at first glance, it may seem strange that with the sexagesimal counting system there were suddenly seven days in a week, in fact, everything is quite simple. According to the astronomical priests, one of the planets ruled every day of the week, and since seven planets were known at that time, there were also seven days in the week. So, Sunday was ruled by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, Tuesday by Mars, Wednesday by Mercury, Thursday by Jupiter, Friday by Venus, and Saturday, which was considered the most unlucky day, by Saturn. These ideas, which are more related to the field of astrology than chronology, have survived in a modified form to this day. And although now Monday is considered to be a difficult and unfortunate day, the names of the days of the week in many languages ​​reflect the connection with the planets that command them.

Ancient Egypt calendar

In Egypt, as well as in Mesopotamia, the calendar appeared thanks to the observations of the priest-astronomers. The main function of the calendar was to predict the date of the Nile flood, the imminent onset of which was difficult to judge based on weather signs. A few months before the flood of the full-flowing river, a dry hot wind blew, replaced by a cooler and more humid one, water gradually began to rise in the river, but only on one of the days of the year its level reached its maximum - and the river overflowed the plain, promising a good harvest for farmers. And it was necessary in some way to calculate this particular day - the beginning of the long-awaited flood of the main water artery of Egypt.
Already at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. the priests noticed that among the many stars in the sky there is one especially bright one. She was named Sothis, or Sirius. In winter, this star shone with an unusual light throughout the night, and it was impossible to confuse it with any other, but then Sothis appeared only in the evening in the west, and soon completely disappeared over the horizon. But about two months later, Sirius reappeared in the east, and he was usually seen in the early hours of the morning. And a few days after its rise, the Nile flooded, and besides, as the priests later noticed, the day of the first appearance of Sothis always coincided with the day of the spring equinox.

Since, according to the religious ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the beginning of spring and the flood of the Nile were associated with the annual resurrection of the god Osiris, as a well-known myth tells us, the Egyptians associated the rise of Sirius with their religious ideas. Now the star, which announced the beginning of the new season, was seen by them as a heavenly incarnation, the “soul” of the goddess Isis, the mother of Osiris. Every year, the goddess mourned her dead son, dropping tears into the Nile, and every year in spring, tears overflowed the river and its waters spilled over Egypt, the valley was covered with young green shoots, trees blossomed, symbolizing the resurrection of Osiris. So the Egyptians tried to explain the relationship between the rise of Sothis and the flood of the Nile.
Now it was enough to count how many days pass from one rising of a star to another, and we would get a time interval equal to one year, the beginning of which would always coincide with the flood of the Nile and the summer solstice. Thus, the Egyptians were the first to create a calendar based on the movement of the Sun. Using the results of their observations, the priests came to the conclusion that the year consists of 365 days, which the priests, for the convenience of counting, divided into 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 days that were celebrated as the birthdays of the most revered gods in Egypt. The first month of the year, which began with the appearance of Sothis on the horizon, was Thoth. But soon the priests had to doubt the correctness of their calculations: if we assume that there are 365 days in a year, then the 366th was the first day of the next year. But then it turned out that if this year Sothis ascended on the first day of the month Thoth, then in four years he will appear only on the second day, and in another four years - on the third. What is wrong? It took the astronomer priests several decades to guess that there are not exactly 365 days in a year, but 365 and a quarter, which is why this “extra” day appears every four years. Thus, it turned out that the New Year's holiday had to be shifted and celebrated one day later every four years. No matter how strange this tradition may seem to us to celebrate the beginning of the year in different days, and then months, but in the eyes of the priests this was quite acceptable, for "such a heavenly order was established by the gods themselves."
A rather interesting legend is connected with such a “transitional” date of the New Year. As the legend says, in 2782 BC. e. In Egypt, the old pharaonic dynasty ended and a new one began. The future ruler certainly wanted the beginning of his reign to coincide with the beginning of the year and the holiday in honor of the rise of Sirius. This desire was also caused by the fact that in that year the rising of the star fell exactly on the first day of the month Thoth, which happened only once in 1460 years. And then the pharaoh decided that he would give each of his 70 most important dignitaries one day of reign. And when 70 days of the reign of the “one-day kings” passed, the pharaoh ascended the throne, as he wanted, on the first day of the New Year.
A similar practice of moving the date of the beginning of the year existed in Egypt until 238 BC, when one of the court astronomers advised the then ruling Ptolemy III to correct the existing calendar so that it did not diverge from the solar year and became more stable. The king was surprised how simple the solution to the problem of the “wandering year” turned out to be, and on March 7, 238 BC. the king ordered to install a stone with a decree carved on it, later called the Canopic Decree, near the temple in Kanop. Its essence boiled down to the fact that if every four years the date of the rise of Sothis shifts by one day, then in order for the New Year to always come on the 1st Thoth, you only need to add one more day to the last month every four years. Thus, the duration of every fourth year became 366 days, so the leap year appeared.
The usual year consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, at the end of the year the remaining 5 days were declared holidays, each of which was dedicated to one of the most revered gods: Geb and his wife, the goddess Nut, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis and Nephthys. The year was also divided into 4 seasons, each of which consisted of 4 months.
A day in ancient Egypt consisted of 24 hours (12 days and 12 nights). At night, the exact hour was determined by the stars, using a ruler with a slot cut through and two squares with a lead plumb line on a string. The very procedure for calculating the hour may seem rather amusing to us: two people participated in it - an observer and his assistant. The assistant stood with his back to the stars, and the observer - opposite him. Further, referring to a special table compiled by the priests 15 days ahead, which stipulated the location of the brightest stars in relation to the head of the assistant, the observer determined the time.

During the day, when the stars are not visible, the Egyptians determined the time with the help of a special conical vase, about a cubit high and with a hole in the bottom. The volume of the vase and the diameter of the hole were calculated by the craftsmen in such a way that water flowed out of it in 12 hours; inside such a vase, special notches were made, marking the water level corresponding to each of the 12 hours. Outside, the vase was usually decorated with astronomical signs: on top of the deity there are 12 months, and in the lower tiers - 36 signs of the zodiac. These water clocks are called clepsydra, they were used both day and night, although in sunny Egypt during the day it was more convenient to use a sundial. But in any case, the exact definition of the hour was necessary only for the priests, who were required to conduct magical rituals strictly at the same time, while ordinary people did not need a watch.
It is also interesting that throughout their history the Egyptians did not have a permanent era. They kept count of years from the time of accession to the throne of the next pharaoh. Days and months were designated by numbers, and usually the date looked like this: “the first year, the month of the second flood season, the fifth day of the reign of the pharaoh ...”.
The names of the Egyptian months corresponded to the names of the gods or the names natural phenomena: Thot, Faofi, Azir, Khoyak, Tibi, Mehir, Famenos, Farmusi, Pahon, Paini, Epifi, Mezori, even the extra five days had their own name - Nasi.
After Egypt was conquered by the Romans, Emperor Augustus in 26 BC. introduced this calendar in Alexandria, and the Copts and Ethiopians still use it, leading the beginning of their calendar from the accession to the throne of the Roman emperor Diocletian on August 29, 284.

Ancient Chinese calendar

Just like in other ancient states, where agriculture was the main occupation of the population and the calendar was needed primarily to predict seasonal weather changes and river floods, in China in the 2nd millennium BC. the foundations of chronology were laid on the basis of observations of the phases of the moon - i.e. the beginning of the lunar calendar.
Year in ancient China began at the winter solstice, and, as ancient Chinese astronomers calculated, a little more than 365 days passed from one winter solstice to another. And just like before the Babylonian and Egyptian priests, they faced the task of how to deal with the incomplete last day of the year. But, unlike in Mesopotamia, astronomers in China came to the conclusion that the new moon coincides exactly with the winter solstice every 235 lunar months, or 19 solar years. Shortly after this discovery, in the VI century. BC, a 19-year cycle was introduced in China - zhang. But here a new problem lay in wait for astronomers: the fact is that only 228 lunar months pass in 19 solar years, i.e., in order for the end of the zhang cycle to coincide with the day of the winter solstice, it was necessary to somehow equalize 19 solar years and 235 lunar months. Astronomers decided to divide the seven "extra" months between years so that 7 of them consisted not of 12, but of 13 months. It was decided to complete the second, fifth, seventh, tenth, thirteenth, fifteenth and eighteenth years in a 19-year cycle. At the same time, an additional month was placed not at the end of the year, but in the middle. Now, although the beginning of the New Year came a little later than the winter solstice, every 19 years these two events coincided, as was intended at the dawn of the creation of the calendar in China.
Over time, Chinese astronomers have made great strides in the science of measuring time. It was in China that the first observatories arose, the first rotating celestial globe was compiled, the most complete map of the starry sky for that time was drawn, including even those stars that flashed only from time to time. It became possible not only to predict solar eclipses, but attempts were made to explain this phenomenon from a scientific point of view; it was Chinese astronomers who discovered spots on the Sun, while in Europe this discovery was made only in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. In addition, China was the only state where even in ancient times the calendar became available even to illiterate people. Especially for them, two off-seasons were added to the already existing four seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn), a more detailed gradation of the year allowed farmers to more accurately determine the timing of sowing, harvesting and other equally important agricultural work.

The beginning of each month in China coincided with the new moon, while the season lasted about 15-16 days and was not determined by the lunar phases. Every year on December 23, the dongzhi season (winter solstice) began, and any peasant knew that in 81 days spring would come and it would be possible to plow the land.
However, in parallel with this system of counting time in China, there was another one: each month was divided into three ten days (or two ten days and one nine days), like the usual division into weeks. Each of the ten days was designated by its own hieroglyph, which were called "heavenly stumps". Each month was also designated by a certain hieroglyph from the group of "earthly branches". Such a complex system of chronology for us seemed very convenient to the Chinese and was combined into cycles that included 60 years and consisted, in turn, of four cycles of 12 years each. Each year of the 12-year cycle was called the year of a certain animal - this is where the familiar Chinese calendar came from, according to which even now, when we meet the New Year, we call it the year of the horse, goat, monkey, rooster or other animal.

The way to create a calendar was difficult. On the one hand, it seemed to the ancient people that the gods themselves - the heavenly bodies - tell them how to determine the time, and on the other hand, it was the Moon and the Sun that misled them. The sun suggested the division of time into a day, consisting of a day and night half, the moon determined the division into months; only the lunar and solar years did not coincide in their length. It was difficult to connect two, in fact, independent of each other, scales for measuring time, but even this was possible for the ancient priests-astronomers, who took into account in their calendars the discrepancies between the solar and lunar chronologies. In addition, one of the important features of the calendar in the Ancient East was that only educated people could use it and determine the time, and often only astronomer priests who had special maps and tables. And the farmers also needed a calendar, i.e. uneducated people, to predict weather changes and river floods. Often, the fate of the future harvest and the life of an entire people depended on the correctness of these predictions. Watches, on the contrary, were necessary only for priests who performed cults of the gods.
It was the priests-astronomers of the Ancient East, who invented the first calendars, who laid the foundations of modern astronomy and our calendar. They divided the year into 12 months of 30 or 31 days, determined the length of the week, drew a fairly detailed map of the starry sky for that time, tried to determine the trajectories of the Sun and Moon, and much more. But at the same time, we owe them the birth of the pseudoscience of astrology and all the superstitions associated with it about happy and unlucky days in the horoscope.

Natalia ROSSELS

Kamentseva E.I. Chronology. - M., 1967.
Krasilnikov Yu.D. Sun, moon, ancient holidays and newfangled theories. - M., 1999.
Shur Ya.I. Calendar stories. - M., 1962.
Efrosman A.M. Calendar history and chronology. To the question of the origin of our chronology. - M., 1984.

History of timing

When humanity realized the existence of time is unknown. However, the assumption that this thought came into someone's bright head several millennia ago is quite justified. Because in ancient Egypt, about 1500 years ago, the first sundial appeared.

In China, the sundial appeared 400 years later, but was almost identical to the Egyptian ones. If we turn to the ancient Russian chronicles, or rather, to their translations into Russian, it will be found that many events are described with an indication of the hour when they occurred.

This allows us to believe that in Russia there were means of counting time. The same chronicles wonderfully illustrate the calendar counting of time, which was used in those years and which we will definitely tell about.

Who invented the calendar

Unfortunately, it is impossible to name the names of the first compilers of calendars. But we can say from what the countdown began in antiquity and how time was measured. Almost every nation has legends about how the people appeared and from what moment they lead their history.

And if at the primitive communal stage no one counted time for years or epochs, then as soon as the first princes, pharaohs and emperors appeared, it immediately became easier. By the way, historians also recognize such a countdown. A lot of ancient monuments date just there: the First or Fourth Dynasty of the pharaohs of Egypt. And in China and Japan - the Qing, Ming, Wu, Tang dynasties.

The calendar, close to the modern understanding, first appeared in Egypt and was associated with the periods of the Nile flood. The Romans counted the years from the date of the founding of the Eternal City. Actually, the Romans, or rather, Julius Caesar, we owe the first calendar familiar to us.

It was Caesar who introduced the calendar in the first century BC, listening to the recommendations of a certain astronomer Sosigen from Alexandria. The calendar was called the Julian and was used literally everywhere until the 16th century. What happened next?

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII made the following statement: he invented a new, much more convenient calendar, which must be immediately accepted and used from now on.

This calendar differed from the Julian as follows:

• leap year became every fourth year, and not the third, as it was before,
• years ending in two zeros (1700, 1800, and so on) could no longer be leap years,
• difference between julian and Gregorian calendars was 11 days: October 4 turned into that year immediately into the 15th.

The Gregorian calendar is still in use today.

Lunar and solar calendars

Moon calendar has been used by mankind to measure time for more than one century. This is quite understandable: the change in the phases of the moon can be observed from the Earth in clear weather almost anywhere on the planet without much difficulty.

The month is counted according to the lunar calendar not from the new moon, which is difficult to observe, but from the moment of the first appearance of the young moon in the rays of the setting sun - neomenia. Usually neomenia is 2-3 days behind the new moon.

The lunar month lasts 29.5 days, and the calendar month can last either 29 days or 30. In order for the human counting of time to correspond as closely as possible to the heavenly clock, months of 29 and 30 days alternate.

The movement of the moon is observed in different ways in different parts of the globe and therefore it is impossible to follow one lunar calendar everywhere. However, in some places the lunar calendar was used for a very long time and even formed the basis of the religious calendar.

According to excavations, the oldest lunar calendar can be considered discovered during excavations of the Achinsk Paleolithic site near the city of Achinsk.

solar calendar. The duration of a solar year is 365 days, and a leap year is 366. So from this point of view, everything is in order with the current chronology. Very many calendars of antiquity before the introduction of a unified calendar system were precisely solar, in particular, Iranian. Julian and Gregorian are also solar calendars.

There are also calendar systems that combine observations of the Moon and the Sun. these are the so-called lunisolar calendars. They were widespread in antiquity. For example, in Babylon and Assyria, as well as in China, they used just such a calendar.

Learn more about calendars different peoples we will tell you next time, because this topic is too extensive and very curious to be limited to only one publication. Be with us and stay tuned for site updates.

• Great Soviet Encyclopedia
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron
• Seleshnikov S.I. Calendar history and chronology.
• Tsybulsky V.V. Calendars and chronology of the countries of the world.

Let's talk about what a calendar is, what it is. This word has had different meanings throughout its history. The term itself comes from the Latin calendae. This is the first day of the month in ancient Rome. Later, the word calendarium appeared - a debt book, in which, on each day of the new month, obligations and interest on them were entered by creditors. But in the Middle Ages, the word has already acquired a modern meaning.

Calendar: definition and brief classification

So what is a calendar in our understanding? This is a kind of reference system for long periods of time with their division into shorter periods (year, month, week, day). The need to coordinate with each other and the day led to the emergence of several calendar systems, or rather three:

• solar calendar,
• lunar,
• lunisolar.

The solar calendar was based on the rotation of the Sun, while coordinating
day and year. Lunar - on the movement of the moon, coordinating the day with the lunar
month. In the lunisolar calendar, an attempt was made to connect all these periods of time.

From the history of the calendar

And now we will make one more small digression into history. A calendar that shows the date, day of the week, month and allows you to calculate how much time is left before some important event was first created in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians needed it to count the number of days left before the Nile flooded. By this date, they had to prepare in advance: clean the canals, repair the dams. For them it was extremely important. If they had not retained water, it would simply have gone into the sea, and the harvest would have been lost without moisture. The priests noticed that a very bright star appeared in the firmament at dawn. Now it is called Sirius. It was on this day that the Nile began to flood. Then the Egyptians calculated that this star appears once every 365 days. They divided these days into 12 intervals, each of which consisted of 30 days (now we call them months). The last 5 days they placed at the very end of the year. This is how the "progenitor" of our modern calendar looked like.

Over time, the Egyptians realized that they had made a mistake in the calculations. Indeed, after 4 years, Sirius was late for a whole day. And after eight years, another one ... They found out that the year has 365 days and another 6 hours. The difference seems to us quite small, but for 4 years they run up a whole day. The Egyptians did not change their calendar. And only in 46 BC. e. changes in their time system were made by the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. After that, the calendar was called the Julian. According to him, each of the months of the year consisted of a different number of days (31, 30, and February - 28). One day was added to the shortest (February) once every 4 years. Now we call such a year a leap year. As you know, it has 366 days.

The modern calendar is slightly different from the ancient Egyptian and Julian ones, it has its own nuances ... More careful calculations made it possible to determine the length of the year down to seconds. It would seem, what a trifle all these minutes and seconds. But for 400 years they ran for three days. Consequently, the calendar again proved to be inaccurate. Again, adjustments needed to be made.

In 1582, Gregory XII made his own changes and named the calendar
Gregorian. Time passed. For many years, the discrepancies between the Julian and amounted to as much as 13 days. Europe switched to the time reckoning proposed by the Pope. But Russia for a long time preferred the Julian. In 1918, during the transition to new calendar I had to remove immediately 13 days. In Russia it was January 31st, and immediately came February 14th. And until now, when describing the events of a hundred years ago, many sources often indicate not one, but two dates - the old and the new style. It should be noted that the current calendar, to which we are all accustomed, is also imperfect and contains its own errors. It's about error in one day, which accumulate over 3300 years.

Varieties of calendars

It should be noted that at present the calendar is not just a means of determining the day, year, month. It has a wider application, which means that there should be several varieties of it. We all heard, for example, about children's calendars. And there is also church, astrological, meteorological, etc. Let us briefly dwell on each of them. And let's start with a child.

For the little ones

So, let's figure out what a calendar for children is, discuss what its purpose and distinctive features are.

The baby development calendar helps parents to monitor the growth and changes in the development of the baby: has he gained enough weight? What is his height? Is there any progress in motor development, psycho-emotional? How to properly engage with a child, what first toys to offer him? Each baby is individual, and therefore develops at its own pace, and its achievements may not coincide with generally accepted standards. The task of calendars for children in this case is precisely to help parents navigate the necessary parameters.

We follow the weather

It would be unfair in the course of our conversation to ignore such varieties as astrological, religious, weather calendars. The first two types are well known to us. But the question of weather calendars should be studied more carefully. The history of their origin is interesting. So, let's look at what a weather calendar is and what it is for.

Its appearance is due to the first need of people to systematize
their observations of the weather. The calendar entered information about weather conditions on different days of the year, months, seasons. By analogy with astrological, weather predicted the future state of nature. Such calendars were still in ancient Rome. The peak of passion for them falls on the Middle Ages. In those days, even the "Book of Nature" (1340) was published.

It is easy to imagine how difficult it is to calculate long-term forecasts.
Serving them only on the basis of ordinary signs is simply naive. But many weather calendars have been compiled in this way. And people believed in them. One of these was the centenary calendar. And it arose in the following way. Abbot Mauritius Knauer lived in the 17th century. After a hard war between Protestants and Catholics
the lands were devastated and devastated. Agriculture has fallen into disrepair. Abbot Knauer was very concerned about this. The weather did not please him either. Snow and late frosts in the spring prevented sowing, crops were soaked from the rains, and drought in the summer ruined the crop. Abbot Knauer began to keep a diary of weather observations. Of course, he did not have any meteorological instruments. He simply wrote down his observations, gave subjective assessments. The Holy Father mistakenly believed that the weather depends on the bright stars. He tried to find patterns. The abbot made his observations for 7 years. According to his calculations, the weather was to repeat itself in the next seven years (according to the number of celestial bodies known at that time). However, later he became convinced that his predictions did not materialize. Having failed, the abbot stopped keeping his diary of observations. However, on their basis, he nevertheless published a book-guide for monasteries on farming.

Years passed, and the abbot's notes came to the astrologer-physician Helwig. And he, using them, published a weather calendar for a hundred years, the so-called centenary calendar. Of course, he was anti-scientific. But it was used throughout Germany. And in translations it spread throughout Europe. The scope of its application was quite wide, sometimes the forecasts even coincided. And people quickly forgot about unjustified "predictions" ...

Well, we have examined what a calendar is, how it appeared, and remembered what varieties of it exist today. We hope that the information was useful to you, and you learned a lot of new and interesting things for yourself.