Emperor Peter I borrowed a lot from Europe: beards, tobacco smoking, regular, but his most global innovation was the change in the chronology system. The date that we now consider the beginning of the new year began to count from January 1, 1700. Before the revolution of 17, after mentioning the date, they always said “from the birth of Christ” and this is the fundamental difference between the new chronology and what happened earlier, when the years were considered “from the creation of the world.”
The most interesting thing is that the European, borrowed by Peter I, and in Europe itself was not adopted immediately, but at the end of the 16th century by decree of Pope Gregory.
The “new style” date introduced by the Bolsheviks, which we use now, is exactly the Gregorian calendar.
Only since 1582 has Europe celebrated the New Year in this way.
One of the points of accusation brought against Copernicus by the Inquisition was his disagreement with the introduction of the reckoning of the date from the Nativity of Christ.
How the years were counted before
The way the chronology was conducted in Russia until January 1700 is habitually called "Old Slavic". But this is fundamentally wrong. The Church could not calculate the date according to the pagan, therefore, it calculated the years according to the same principle as in the Byzantine Empire, from which Orthodoxy came to Russia. The country, which is our spiritual progenitor, counted the years from the creation of the world. According to the Byzantine calendar, Christ was born 5508 years after the creation of Adam.
Politics intervened more than once in the reckoning. For example, the Church of Antioch believed that Christ was born 8 years earlier, and the Byzantine date was adopted only for the convenience of calculating the date of Easter.
There were also discrepancies with the date of the New Year in Russia: the church believed that it was on September 1, and according to the civil calendar, the year began on March 25, the day God created the first woman - Eve.
On March 25, the Annunciation is celebrated - the date when the Mother of God learned that she would give birth to Christ.Peter, with his characteristic straightforwardness, solved this issue simply, bringing everything to a common denominator - the first of January.
Well, what year is it now?
If you want to know what year it is now according to the Old Slavonic calendar, then add 5500 or 5508 to the current date (a figure that is more historically correct). It turns out that we do not live in 2014, but in 7522. Well, the one who gave us these winter holidays was born in 7180 from the Creation of the World.
According to the Byzantine calendar, for more than a thousand years, the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serbian and monasteries on Mount Athos have lived and celebrated services. This calendar is also called the Old Russian calendar, or the Peace Circle. It harmoniously embodies the whole system of religious, astronomical and civil aspects of measuring time, and is one of the highest manifestations of culture in the field of chronology and chronology.
The Byzantine calendar, which had developed over several centuries by the 6th century. n. e., is in its design and circle of ideas the direct heir to the calendar of Ancient Egypt. In this calendar, which existed for about four millennia, mathematical simplicity and perfection were put by its creators above the literal correspondence to the course of the sun.
For those who are sincerely interested in the ancient calendar tradition of the Church, we first of all recommend reading the excellent article by A.N. Zelinsky:
Zelinsky A.N. Constructive principles of the Old Russian calendar. On Sat. "Context-1978", M.: "Nauka", 1978. S. 62-135.
(A scan of this article is available in the electronic library of Moscow University http://lib.mexmat.ru).
Zelinsky A.N. Liturgical time of Christian culture // Orthodox reading. 1990. N. 6.
These articles were published in a small circulation and are already a bibliographic rarity. Here we bring to the attention of the reader a detailed presentation of two schemes of the Peace Circle created by A.N. Zelinsky.
One of the strongest impressions arising from a careful study of the Byzantine Peace Circle - our calendar - is surprise - how interconnected all the threads of this wonderful canvas, woven by the spiritualized mind of man.
Constructive principles of the Byzantine calendar
One of the most famous calendars of antiquity was the Egyptian calendar, which existed for more than four thousand years. “Created in ancient times and characterized by its simplicity and obviousness,” according to the famous American scientist O. Neugebauer, it was “the only reasonable calendar in all early human history.” He "acquired in astronomy the status of a standard system of counting time and retained this role throughout the Middle Ages until its use by Copernicus in the lunar and planetary tables" . The famous science fiction writer A. Asimov in the novel "The Second Academy" chose the Egyptian calendar as eternal all-galactic :
“For a reason, or for a number of reasons, unknown to mere mortals in the Galaxy, in ancient times, the Intergalactic Time Standard allocated a basic unit - a second, that is, a period of time during which light travels 299,776 kilometers. 86400 seconds are arbitrarily equated to an Intergalactic Standard Day. And 365 such days make up one Standard Intergalactic Year. Why exactly 299776, why 86400, why 365? Tradition, historians say, answering this question. No, mystics say, this is a mysterious, mysterious combination of numbers. They are echoed by occultists, numerologists, metaphysicians. Some, however, believe that all these figures are associated with data on the periods of rotation around its axis and around the Sun of the only planet that was the birthplace of mankind. But no one really knew for sure."
Note that 365 days a year is the Egyptian calendar.
The Egyptian calculation of time was based on days, all years had the same number of days, and the calendar lagged behind the movement of the Sun for four years by one day. Obviously, no great importance was attached to the correspondence of the days of the calendar to certain solar seasons - such a correspondence was achieved at an unacceptable price for the Egyptians, destroying the aesthetically perfect rhythms and structure of the calendar. The main purpose of the calendar was the convenience of chronology and continuous counting of time in days. “The pious inhabitants of the fertile Nile valley were quite satisfied with the fact that the holidays on which they offered sacrifices to their gods did not happen on the same days over time, but, moving sequentially, fell, consecrating them, for all months of the annual cycle” . A full revolution for all months, or the "great year" of the Egyptian calendar, was 1460 Julian (1461 Egyptian) years. “And how can one not recall the words of N.I. Idelson that "all number systems ... are only a kind of nets thrown over a continuously flowing sequence of days, both those that have already been, and those that are yet to come" .
The ideas of the ancient Egyptian calendar - and, first of all, the idea of preferring mathematical beauty and semantic content to literally following the sun - were used in the Middle Ages, when the universal chronological scale of historical time, which has not lost its significance to this day, was created - the Scaliger scale. It is still the most widely used instrument for dating. historical events. The Scaliger scale is based on the Julian calendar and is arranged so that it is convenient to maintain, as in the ancient Egyptian calendar, a continuous count of time in days from a certain starting date.
Followed by circle of great indictions(Fig. 4). The great indiction is a segment of 532 years of the Byzantine calendar, during which all possible combinations of days of the week, numbers of days and positions of the moon occur. These combinations are repeated in the calendar every 532 years. It is enough to make a picture for any of the great indictions to describe all the years of the Byzantine calendar in the past and the future.
On the circle of indictions, the beginnings of indictions are marked in the years from the Creation of the world and from the Nativity of Christ. The beginning of the account is at the top, this is the 1st year from the Creation of the world and it is also 5508 BC. B.C. years do not have a special sign, therefore, first they go in decreasing order (5508, 4976, ...), and after R.Kh. - ascending (345, 877, ...). The current indiction began in 1941 A.D. (7449 from the Creation of the world) (Fig. 4).
Setting the Peace Circle to the desired indication
The described scheme was drawn up for the current indiction, which began in 1941. To get a picture of days for another indiction, it is enough to replace the year numbers with indiction circle(Fig. 5). The circle of indiction is a division of the great indiction into segments of 19 years to determine the dates of the Easter full moons. The beginning of this circle, as usual, is at the top of the diagram, where the first year of our indiction is indicated - 7449 from the Creation of the world and 1941 from A.D.
For example, let's show how to build a circle of peace for the XIV century. - lifetime of the prep. Sergius of Radonezh. On the circle of great indictions () we find that the XIV century. falls on an indiction beginning in 877 and ending in 1408 A.D. This means that on the circle of the indiction (Fig. 5), the numbers of the years should be rewritten, replacing 1941 with 877, 1960 with 896, etc. (the number 2 532 = 1064 is subtracted from the numbers of the years).
In this way, the desired indication is selected.
Definition of Sunday days of the calendar (Sunday letters - vrucelets)
Now let's determine the Sundays of the year in order to find out the date of Easter - the nearest Sunday after the Easter full moon. For this, please refer to spirals of the year(Fig. 6).
The start of the spiral is March 1 (above). This is the first day of the Byzantine year. The end of the year is 28/29 February. Thus, a leap day is added at the end of the year.
Inside the spiral is located hand letter circle(Fig. 7). There are seven of them according to the number of days of the week. Which letter corresponds to resurrection depends on the year. Having learned the Sunday letter, we will get the location of the days of the week for the whole year.
How to determine the Sunday letter (vrutselet) of the year? Each year has its own position on circle of the sun(Fig. 8) - solar number from 1 to 28 (in Roman numerals I-XXVIII). This numbering goes sequentially, starting from the 1st year from the Creation of the world. Since the great indiction contains an integer (19) of solar circles (532=19 28), then all years that begin great indictions have solar number 1. For example, if the year number is 7449 from the Creation of the world, then it starts a great indiction ( see), and its solar number is 1. By the solar number of the year, its Sunday letter is recognized: A, B, D, D, E, S, Z (Fig. 8).
How to find out the solar number of the year if it is far from the beginning of the great indiction? For this you need to contact additional circle of indiction(Fig. 9). On this additional circle against the years that open the 19th anniversary, their solar numbers are indicated in Roman numerals.
2) Determination of the beginning of the current 19th anniversary -.
3) Determining the number of the year in the 19th anniversary and the date of the Easter full moon -,.
4) Determination of the solar number for the beginning of the 19th anniversary - - and the solar number of the year and its Sunday letter -.
5) Determining the nearest Sunday after the Easter new moon according to the annual spiral -. This will be Easter.
Other rhythms of the Byzantine calendar on the scheme of A.N. Zelinsky
In addition to the circle of the Sun and the circle of the Moon, 28 and 19 years long, used to calculate Easter and Sundays, the Byzantine calendar includes:
Circle of 15-year-old indicts, historically connected with the economic life of the Byzantine Empire; this circle is associated with the emergence of the "Julian period" 7,980 years long in the well-known chronological scale of I. Scaliger (XVI century).
Discovered in ancient times by observing the constellations, against which the Sun rises at the moment spring equinox.
The universal Julian cycle, or "great year" of the Julian calendar, is 46,752 years long, similar to the 1461-year "great year" of the Egyptian calendar; this is the "apocatastasis" written in the center of the scheme - the period of the return of the seasons to the same dates of the calendar.
Indict and the Great Peace Circle at 7,980 years
On the additional indiction circle () against each year that opens the 19th anniversary, its serial number is indicated inside the indiction (in Arabic numerals on the left), the solar number (in Roman numerals) and the number inside the 15-year indiction (in Arabic numerals on the right). What is an indict? A.N. Zelinsky explains: “Indiction is a period of 15 Julian years, the use of which in the system of taxation of the empire dates back to the time of Constantine the Great. According to legend, the church, in gratitude to the emperor for ending the persecution and proclaiming religious tolerance, introduced an indiction on Paschalia. The indict had a direct bearing on chronology. For example, in the dating of many Byzantine monuments, from tombstones to historical chronicles, there is an "indiction".
The presence of an indict in the paschalia is of extreme interest, because it indirectly indicates the huge time interval for which the paschalia was originally calculated by its creators. The fact is that if there is an indiction in the Paschal circle, all the initial data of the Paschal cycle return to their values for 15 great indictions, i.e., for 15 532 = 7980 years. This cycle had no immediate significance in Easter calculations. “However, the compilers of the Great Indiction, taking into account in their calculations the alternation of indictions (15 years), could not but be aware of the existence of this huge time period. In any case, Gennady of Novgorod, composing, according to the chronicles, Paschalia for the “eighth thousand years”, had an idea about him.
The period of 15 great indictions most directly influenced the determination of the beginning of the Byzantine calendar - 5508 BC. It is in this year that the beginnings of the solar, lunar circles and the circle of 15-year indicts converge, and this first year of the calendar and the earthly history measured by it is closest to 5.5 thousand years, or 5.5 symbolic biblical days separating the beginning of the calendar from the Nativity of Christ . Five and a half millennia balance the time span of 5.5 biblical days from the Creation of the world on Sunday to the fall of Adam on Friday noon (Gen. 1, 23-27). This Friday, March 1, the Byzantine calendar began its count, measuring the time of earthly history from the expulsion of Adam from paradise to the meeting with the incarnated Christ the Savior after 5.5 thousand earth years,.
The first day of the calendar (March 1, 1 A.D. and 5508 B.C.) was set to be Friday. This is evident from the fact that the Sunday letter of the 1st year, like any year that opens the indiction, is "A" (). On the spiral of the year opposite March 1 is the letter "G" (). In Year 1 it's Friday. But this means that the first biblical day of creation is the resurrection. We see that the weekly naming of days begins on Sunday and is carried out earlier than the calendar begins! In this way, the calendar expresses the ecclesiastical idea of the primacy of the cycle of seven days in relation to the calendar account.
A segment of 7980 years A.N. Zelinsky calls the "great peace circle." This circle contains:
The Great Peaceful Circle entered the science of chronology at the end of the 16th century. called the Julian period. The outstanding scientist of the Middle Ages Joseph Scaliger (1540–1609) introduced it into scientific use in his treatise “A New Work on Improving the Account of Time” (Scaliger J. Opus novum de emendatione temporum. Paris, 1583). This work came out almost simultaneously with the Gregorian reform (1582), the opponent of which Scaliger remained until the end of his life. One of the first to appreciate the merits of Scaliger's Julian period was the great Kepler. A.N. Zelinsky remarks: “The fact remains paradoxical that the very period, without which astronomy and the chronology of our days cannot do, was recognized by Pope Gregory XIII as unsuitable for the calendar.”
Due to the fact that the Julian year is longer than the solar year (365.2500 and 365.2424 days, respectively), the vernal equinox event moves back in the Julian calendar by one day in 128 years. The accuracy of this number is amazing: if you introduce an amendment of one day for 128 years into the Julian calendar, as is done in the solar calendar by I. Mödler, then an error of 1 day will accumulate as much as 80,000 years. But the significance of this fact should not be exaggerated, due to the inconsistency of the length of the day: at the beginning of AD. e. the error of the Julian calendar in 1 day accumulated not for 128 years, as it is now, but for 133 years.
In turn, the dates of the Julian calendar slowly move forward through the seasons: from spring to summer, from summer to autumn, etc. It is easy to calculate that a full turn of dates will occur in 365.25 128 = 46,752 years. This period is called by A.N. Zelinsky "universal Julian cycle" (Fig. 12).
The universal Julian cycle reflects the movement of the conventional Julian date of the vernal equinox (March 21) according to the numbers of the ideal solar calendar: in the year of R.Kh. the beginning of the conditional spring (March 21 yul.) fell approximately on March 20 of the solar calendar, in 3896 the beginning of the conditional spring will already be on April 20 of the solar calendar, and then for a full circle of 46,752 years it will again return to March 20, successively going through all seasons of the solar year.
In conclusion, we note that the value of 46,752 years, adopted by A.N. Zelinsky for the universal Julian cycle, obtained by the simplest arithmetic calculation. It does not exactly correspond to astronomical observations, if only because the duration of the solar year changes slowly over time (this was discussed above). Achieving the best astronomical accuracy is not the goal of the Circle of Peace (Byzantine calendar).
Great precession circle at 25,920 years
The movement of the Earth is described by two main time intervals - the period of revolution around its axis (day) and the period of revolution around the Sun (year). These two periods of time in one form or another are present in all calendars. Much less known is the third time interval associated with the motion of the Earth. This interval is the longest historical time imprinted in cultural monuments. Such a period of time does not correlate with changes in climate or illumination of the area, so it has no practical significance, like a year or a day. It is all the more surprising that this time interval was discovered in ancient times, and traces of it can be traced in the culture different peoples. With the presence of this latent period in the motion of the Earth, the difference in the duration of the so-called solar and stellar years in astronomy is connected. If the Earth's axis of rotation were always directed in the same direction, it would be impossible to distinguish between solar and sidereal years. So, the period in question is associated with a periodic change in the direction of the Earth's axis of rotation. This phenomenon is called precession, and it can be observed during the rotation of the top, when a fast rotational movement is combined with slow circular movements of the upper end of the axis of the top (Fig. 13). How is the slow precession of the Earth's axis of rotation revealed in terrestrial conditions?
About the constellation Pisces, which became equinox at the beginning of a new era, A.N. Zelinsky writes that since ancient times, the Chaldean sages and Babylonian astrologers associated it with the idea of the Messiah. This meaning survived into the Middle Ages in the Jewish tradition. The arrival of the Messiah was expected precisely at the moment the equinoctial point entered the sign of Pisces. At the very dawn of Christianity, fish are one of its most universal symbols, as a symbol of the flood and Baptism - rebirth to a new life. The Greek word "Ιχθυς" ("fish") was considered by Christians as a cryptogram from the initial letters of the Greek phrase - "Jesus Christ God's Son, Savior":
Ιησους Χριστος Θεου Υιος Σωτηρ - ΙΧΘΥΣ.
The image of the Great Precessional Circle completes A.N. Zelinsky. A fragment of a circle is shown in fig. 14. At the top is the current year (beginning of the 21st century).
The second scheme of the Peace Circle
On the 2nd scheme, there is no longer a separate circle of full moons, and the determination of the date of Easter is reduced to calculating the position of the year on the circle of Easter borders. This is easier than the separate calculation of the Easter full moon and bright resurrection according to the 1st scheme. In addition, according to the 2nd scheme, it is easy to find years with early Easter, when the Annunciation falls on Bright Week, as well as years with the latest Easter. However, the mathematical arrangement of the Byzantine calendar, based on the circles of the Sun and the Moon, is no longer expressed as clearly as in the 1st scheme. On the 2nd scheme, A.N. Zelinsky also placed the days of the Jewish and Gregorian Passover.
The general view of the 2nd scheme is shown in fig. fifteen.
In the center of the scheme is an icon-painting image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The image surrounds the text of the Paschal troparion "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and bestowing life on those in the tombs." On the next circle are inscribed the Great Days of Holy Week, from Monday to Saturday. The very day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ is taken out of the circle of the week and placed in the center of the whole scheme, which emphasizes the semantic Paschal significance of the Byzantine church time reckoning (Fig. 16).
Choice of the Great Indiction
The first step in working with the scheme is to determine the Great Indiction, in which the year of interest to us is located (the Great Indiction is a time period of 532 Julian years, see above). To determine the Great Indiction, one should, as in the 1st scheme, turn to the circle of great indictions (Fig. 17). The beginning of this circle is at the top, where the first year of the current indiction is indicated - 1941 AD, or 7449 AD. The current indiction is the last in the circle of indictions, followed clockwise by the first indiction, beginning in the year 1 A.D. (5508 B.C.), then the second indiction, and so on.
In order to adjust the scheme of the Circle of Peace to the selected indiction, it is enough to recalculate the number of years on the circle of the indiction (Fig. 18). This is done in the same way as for the 1st scheme (see explanation after Fig. 5). There is no need to recalculate the years for the two previous indictions, they are already on the diagram. For example, right below the pair of numbers 7449 and 1941, which show the beginning of the current indiction in the years from the Creation of the world and from A.D., we see the pairs of numbers 6917 and 1409, 6385 and 877, which show the beginnings of the previous two indictions (Fig. 18 and Fig. 19).
The years that open the 19th anniversary are inscribed in the cells (in pairs of numbers - from the Creation of the world and from R. Kh.). In the center of the cells are placed one under the other two numbers, Arabic and Roman numerals. This is the number of the year in the account from the beginning of the indiction (in Arabic) and the number of the year in the account from the beginning of the current 15-year indiction (in Roman). (The account by indicts is not used in Easter calculations, it is described above, in the explanations for the 1st scheme). For example, the year A.D. 1941 is the year 7449 A.D., year 1 in indiction and year IX in indiction. Below are the pairs of numbers 6385 and 877, 6917 and 1409 - these are the numbers (from the Creation of the world and from R. Kh.) of the initial years in the previous two indictions.
Definition of Sundays
Next to the signs of the Sun "" and the Moon "" on the circle of indiction ( and ) are the numbers of the year on the circle of the Sun (solar number) and on the circle of the Moon. Since the years beginning with the 19th anniversary are entered in the cells, they all have the 1st lunar number. The year 1941 is solar number 1, the year 1960 is solar number 20, the year 1979 is solar number 11, and so on ().
Unlike the 1st scheme of A.N. Zelinsky, solar and lunar numbers in the 2nd diagram are no longer used to calculate the date of Easter. By the solar number, the vrutselet (Sunday letter) of the year is recognized, and thus the location of Sundays for the whole year.
Since the indiction is divided into 28 cells (according to 19 years), it turned out to be possible to place on it a circle of vrucelet, i.e. 28 solar numbers and their Sunday letters A, B, G, D, E, S, Z. They are located in the center of the top of the cells of the indiction circle and surrounded by parentheses (). (For comparison, see the vrucelet circle in the 1st diagram -).
To determine the Sunday letter of the year, you need to find (see):
Starting year of the 19th anniversary.
Sunny number of the initial year of the 19th anniversary.
The solar number and the Sunday letter of our year, counting on a circle vrutselet from the solar number of the initial year of the 19th anniversary to ours.
For example, to find the Sunday letter of 1970:
We find the initial year of the 19th anniversary - 1960.
Remembering the solar number 1960 - 20
We pass to the cell with solar number 20 (20 D Mon) - this is 1960, and count: (21 E Tue) - 1961, (22 S Wed) - 1962, ..., (2 On Sat) - 1970 G.
Sunday letter 1970 - "B". We turn to the calendar of the year (Fig. 20). Opposite the letter "B" on the calendar in 1970 are Sundays. It is only necessary to take into account that March 1 is considered the beginning of the new year, that is, for dates from January 1 to February 28/29, you need to use the Sunday letter of the previous year (1969 - (1 A Fri), Sunday letter "A").
Determining the date of Easter
In the 2nd scheme we are describing, determining the date of Easter is reduced to determining the position of the year on circle of easter dates(Fig. 21). There are 35 such Easter dates, they are marked with Easter numbers from 1 to 35 and the letters of the Church Slavonic alphabet (Fig. 21)
To find out the Easter number and the Easter date of the year, one should turn to the rays of 19th birthdays (Fig. 22). The Easter numbers of all the years of the indiction are written on the rays. Each beam has 3 columns of 19 Easter numbers. The highlighted right column contains numbers for determining the dates of Orthodox Easter. The remaining two columns are designed to determine the dates of the Jewish and Gregorian Passovers. The presence of empty spaces in these two columns apparently indicates that sometimes the Jewish and Gregorian Passovers fall before the equinox on March 21, i.e., they fall in the last Paschal year and occur 2 times during one Paschal year.
For example, to determine the date of Easter in 2010, we find on the indiction circle (Fig. 18) the beginning of the 19th anniversary - 1998. Then we move along the beam to the center of the diagram and read in the right highlighted column: 16 (this is the Easter number of the initial 1998 year ), 8 (1999), 27 (2000), … , 1 (2010). This means that the Easter number of 2010 is 1. On the circle of Easter dates (Fig. 21), number 1 corresponds to March 22 of the Julian calendar. This is the earliest Easter. It falls in 2010.
On the rays of the 19th anniversary, you can clearly see the location of the dates of Easter in different years. For example, the 19th anniversary, starting in 2036, especially because the Annunciation falls three times on Bright Tuesday (the Easter number of this year is 2) and four times Easter will be late, in May, if you count according to the solar (Gregorian) calendar (Easter numbers 30, 30, 33, 34). The latest Easter - this is the Easter number 35 - April 25 of the Julian calendar, or May 8 of the Gregorian (Fig. 21) - will be in 2078.
Other rhythms of the Byzantine calendar on the 2nd diagram
Let us explain the images of other calendar rhythms in the 2nd scheme. The meaning of these rhythms is described above in the explanations for the 1st scheme, so we will be brief.
Universal Julian cycle of 46,752 years
This cycle describes the movement of the day on March 21 (conditional Julian equinox) through the seasons of the year, that is, according to the numbers of the ideal solar calendar.
On the circle of the universal Julian cycle are the days of the solar calendar and the number of years from 0 to 46,752 (Fig. 23). The number 0 is placed opposite the day of March 22 of the solar calendar, the number 46 752 is opposite to March 21. Thus, the beginning of the movement around the circle of the universal Julian cycle coincides with the transition from March 21 to March 22 of the solar calendar.
Near the 2000 mark on the circle of the universal Julian cycle, i.e. at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the day of April 3 of the solar calendar is located (Fig. 23). This means that the day of the conditional Julian equinox (March 21) at this time will fall on April 3 of the solar calendar. Indeed, opposite April 3 of the solar calendar on the diagram is the Julian day of March 21 (Fig. 24).
Within 128 years, the circle of the Julian year (and Fig. 24) will slowly “turn” counterclockwise relative to the circle of the Universal Julian cycle (Fig. 23) by one day, and the Julian day of March 21 will be opposite April 4 of the solar calendar. In the next 128 years, the Julian day of March 21st will be opposite April 5th, and so on. For 46,752 years, the day of March 21 of the Julian calendar will bypass the entire circle of solar seasons.
Great precession circle at 25,920 years
The great precessional circle reflects the slow movement of the equinox among the constellations of the Zodiac due to the precession of the earth's axis. The description of what the equinox point is, and how its movement against the background of the constellations is observed from the Earth, is given above in the previous section, when describing the Great Precession Circle on the 1st scheme of A.N. Zelinsky. The starting point for this circle is from above. Here is the sign of Taurus, the first of the signs of the Zodiac according to the ancient account. Years are counted from the beginning of a new era (R. Kh.) (Fig. 25).
Additional explanations for the 2nd scheme by A.N. Zelinsky
We have analyzed the main elements of the 2nd scheme of A.N. Zelinsky. For further clarification, the interested reader may refer to the article by A.N. Zelinsky in "Orthodox Reading".
Conclusion
From the point of view of a believer, there are events in history worthy of eternal memory. Church tradition says that the events of Easter in Jerusalem, the Cross and the Resurrection are closely connected with the Old Testament Passover, which took place on Nisan 14 of the Jewish calendar - on the full moon after the spring equinox. To preserve the memory of this, it would be possible to adjust the calendar to the movement of the luminaries, doing this constantly, since an absolutely accurate astronomical calendar is impossible. But this means, in principle, abandoning the idea of a perpetual calendar. The ancient Egyptians created a calendar, like the pyramids, aimed at eternity - a calendar like a book, which reflects the features of the movement of the stars, but there is no literal astronomical correspondence, which is not a prerequisite, because the desire for literalism conflicts with perfection and beauty; such a calendar (and only such) can be eternally unchanged; it was in such a calendar that it was possible to reflect the memory of events that are worthy of eternal memory.
A further development of the ancient Egyptian calendar, a more complex and meaningful model of the flow of time, was the Byzantine calendar (peace circle), which includes the Alexandrian Paschalia and the Julian calendar. This calendar inherited the ideas of the ancient Egyptian calendar and was created with the direct participation of Alexandrian astronomers, bearers of the culture of Ancient Egypt. The idea and semantic content of the Byzantine calendar go far beyond the simple calculation of days. The lunar and solar cycles of the calendar, the beginning of the countdown, the location of the "vrutselet" (Sunday letters) in the table for calculating the days of the week for any year, the names of the days of the weeks and months are like an amazing book, which reflects not only a perfect model of astronomical reality, but also biblical chronology, evidence of historical names and events, traces of the economic way of economic life of past generations, and also - which is especially important for us - an enduring evidence of the Faith and hope of the Church, incorporated into the calendar by its creators. The history of the formation of the Byzantine calendar, its fine structure formed by repeating periods of several hundred and even thousands of years, the reference point chosen by its creators indicate that in the Byzantine calendar the issue of constant correspondence of the numbers of days to the solar seasons was never put at the forefront to the detriment of arithmetic harmony and semantic content.
The slow movement of the solar seasons according to the numbers of the calendar - "apocatastasis", the return of the seasons - which is the most essential property of the Julian (Byzantine) calendar, contains a concrete historical indication, surprising in its design, of the century that opened the new Christian era, the century in which the were to all peoples Christmas and Easter of Christ. Namely, over the course of more than 40 thousand years to come, by the difference between the astronomical equinox and the conditional equinox on March 21 of the Byzantine calendar, it will be possible to unambiguously establish the centenary of the Incarnation, the suffering of the Cross and the Resurrection of the Savior.
Our Byzantine calendar, upon careful and unprejudiced examination, opens up as created for eternal use. It is like a beautiful book that reflects the course of time and luminaries and fills it with meaning, and at the same time does not strive for a literal correspondence with the movements of matter in nature.
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And later, as Saturday, September 1, 5509 BC. e. Starting from the 7th century, it gradually became the current chronological system in the Byzantine Empire and throughout the Orthodox world, for example, in Serbia and Bulgaria. It was used, in particular, in Russian chronicles (with some errors of 1-2 years associated with the dates of the first day of the new year and other problems), as well as in general in Russia before the calendar reform of Peter I in 1700.
Byzantium
Two dates for the beginning of the year were used, periodically in parallel:
In Byzantium, the era from the "creation of the world" with the beginning of September 1, 5509 BC. was officially approved at the VI Ecumenical Council of 681. This system finally won in Byzantium in the middle of the 9th century, by the time Christianity spread among the Slavs. Ancient Russia adopted the chronology in finished form.
“In order to somehow distinguish these eras from each other, academic historians called the “September” era "Byzantine", and "March" - "Constantinople". After the adoption of Christianity, the “March” era became widespread in Russia, was used on a par with the September one, and already in Soviet literature was called “Old Russian”.
How the date was calculated
“A few years after the death of St. Constantine the Great, the starting point was calculated - the era from which the days, months and years of the Christian calendar were counted. The calculation method was based on the idea that all three cycles - solar (with a period of 28 years), lunar (with a period of 19 years) and indiction (with a period of 15 years) began at the same time. In its final form, the era took shape in 353. True, at that time the chronology system from the Nativity of Christ did not yet exist, it was about the year 1106 from the founding of Rome, which was also the ninth year in the 28-year solar cycle, the ninth year in the lunar 19-year cycle, and, finally, the eleventh year in a 15-year cycle of indictions. Before compilers new system chronology, the task was to find in the past centuries that historical moment at which the beginning of all three cycles falls simultaneously. The desired date fell on September 5509 BC. Surprisingly, it almost exactly coincided with the age of the world calculated on the basis of biblical texts, the beginning of which was attributed to approximately 5500 BC. Note that some time later in the Roman Christian ecumene other varieties of the era from the creation of the world appeared, the most famous of which began on March 1, 5508 BC. It was believed that it is better consistent with biblical data, since it began on Friday - the fifth day of the week on which man was created. Meanwhile september era with the epoch of September 1, 5509, beginning on Saturday, also has a theological basis. Recall that Saturday is the day rest, which begins at the moment when creation is completed. In a symbolic sense, it can be interpreted as the beginning of the period (and also as the entire period itself), when the cycle of creation described in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis is completely completed and the descendants of Adam are left to their free will. This is the beginning of an "autonomous" human history, in which even God Himself saves the world by becoming the God-Man.
Vatican opinion
Catholic Rome did not recognize these calculations, using Vatican era(in the Latin translation of the Vulgate, unlike the Septuagint, the life expectancy of the ancient patriarchs, the reigns of kings, etc., are less than in the Greek translation, so the date was different - 4713 or 4000 years, denoting it Anno Mundi- from the creation of the world. And Beda the Venerable published the year 3952, there were other dates.). Western churches switched to the chronology from the Nativity of Christ after it was calculated in the 9th century by the monk Dionysius the Small.
Russia
Errors in chronicles
Researchers note that in many chronicles, in particular in The Tale of Bygone Years, several dating options are used at once, not necessarily the Constantinople era. Also found there:
- Alexandrian - August 29, 5493 BC e.
- Antiochian era - September 1, 5969 BC e. (or 5517, 5507)
- Old Byzantine era - 5504 BC e.
- Bulgarian era - 5511 (or 5504 BC)
Also, dates may slip due to the difference in the beginning of the year - in September or March. Scientists note: “due to the translation of the dates of the Byzantine September clan into Slavic March, errors of one year are possible ( "March" and "ultramart" styles").
Chronological framework
This system is believed to have been used in Russia since the 11th century. The final choice in favor of the "September era" was made in 1492.
The last day in this reckoning was December 31, 7207; by decree of Peter I, the next day was already officially considered according to the new chronology from the "Christmas" - January 1, 1700.
church calendar
The Constantinople era is still accepted in some Orthodox churches, and on September 1 (in churches using the Julian calendar - September 14 N.S.) the church new year is celebrated. “Despite the fact that in 1700 Peter the Great introduced a purely secular calendar, where the new year falls on January 1, the church new year still falls on September 1 (14 according to the new style). At the same time, each church new year is counted according to the era “from the creation of the world”, which began in 5509 BC (contrary to popular belief, this practice is preserved today not only among the Old Believers, but also in the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate) ".
See also
- Byzantine calendar
Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
The calendar included three levels: days within months, as they were represented by the Julian calendar of Caesar, months of the year and chronology. As for the days, they turned out to be completely new, because the week was now determined by the solar months of the Julian calendar. Influenced by the story of the creation of the world. God created the world in six days and decided to rest on the seventh. Byzantium took the week very seriously: it ended with a day that we call Saturday. But the basis of the new world is the Resurrection of Christ, and therefore the first day of the week was identified with this event: the re-creation of heaven and earth is the day of the Lord. Eastern Christians did not leave the names of other days of the week as they came from Egypt and exist in our current calendar (meaning the French calendar. - Note. ed.). The names were adopted by part of the Jewish communities, where the days followed in a complex order based on the distance of the planets from the Earth, starting with the Sun and the Moon. Friday became the "preparation" day, and the other days looked like this: the second day (Monday), the third (Tuesday), the fourth (Wednesday) and the fifth (Thursday). This system existed in the Jewish communities, but in official acts, in the records of chroniclers and even in the works of church writers, not the days of the week, but simply the dates of the month were used. For example, the liturgical books numbered the sequence of days in the month rather than in the week, which turned out to be quite convenient for ensuring the durability of the system: this made it possible to avoid moving one or another day of the month over the years.
Roman names remained to designate the months of the year, although most of them bore the names of pagan gods (for example, Mars - March, Juno - June, Janus - January) or even pagan emperors (Julius Caesar - July, August - August). The Roman year began in March, which determined the names of the months from September (seventh) to December (tenth). From the 3rd century, the beginning of the year was moved to 1 September, and the Byzantine Empire kept this until its end. Liturgical calendars adapted to this order. Chet's Menaion - the biographies of the saints, arranged in the calendar in the order of their celebration, begin on September 1. There was no controversy in the East regarding the day of the celebration of Easter, although this agitated the entire Western Christendom, where this issue was the subject of fierce debate for several centuries.
It remained to determine the system of reckoning. It was impossible to count time from the foundation of Rome; and it is also inconvenient to determine the time by the periods of the reign of emperors, since they often changed, and the beginning of their reign never coincided with the beginning of the year. It was not good to count the time by the consuls, who replaced each other every year, because the consulate disappeared in the 6th century. As a result, they recognized the need to keep the chronology from the Creation of the world, having in perspective the second coming of Christ to earth: this event marked the end of the world, expected by Christians, since their salvation depended on doomsday, which will occur at this moment. Based on the Old Testament or on the genealogy of Christ, the one that appears at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, then the calculation could give different results. In the 7th century, the Byzantine era was finally established. And as a result, they agreed to date the Creation of the world on March 31, 5008 BC. For three centuries, for political reasons, September 1 was considered the beginning of the calendar year. Since then in official documents the year was counted from September 1, 5509 BC. To determine a date related to some year of our era, subtract 5509 between September 1 and December 31, and 5508 between January 1 and August 31.
This calculation was somewhat of a compromise. According to the beliefs of the calculators, the world lived in cycles of a thousand years. Christ was born in the middle of the sixth cycle and, apparently, there will be no seventh. Of course, the calculation that resulted in the number 5509 is not accurate, but all other methods of numbering turned out to be just as wrong: for example, according to the Alexandrian church calendar, accepted by the chronicler Theophanes, the Creation of the world took place in 5492 BC. The approach of the end of the cycle, about 500 years away, does not seem to have caused the great anxiety that arose in the West in the thousandth year after Christ. With that date past, the expectation resumed: Constantinople fell in 1453. Patriarch Gennady Scholary, who served under Ottoman rule, could believe that the end of the world would come when the seventh cycle was completed, that is, in 1492. This expectation spread during the last century of the existence of the Byzantine Empire, the fall of which was clearly expected by all its subjects. In the period from the end of the sixth millennium to the end of the seventh, eschatological fear did not disappear, especially intensifying as we approached the middle of the seventh millennium, which almost corresponded to the millennium from the birth of Christ. Emperor Basil II (976-1025), who was at the peak of his power, was forced by some of his close associates to abandon his decisive struggle with the Bulgarians, because of which he received the nickname Bulgar Slayer, and go to conquer Jerusalem, so that the world empire, the owner of which he was, became the owner of the alleged place of the second coming. Basil's predecessor, John Tzimiskes, stopped only 150 km from the Holy City. However, the preoccupation with this problem was not so strong as to make Basil forget the main goal - opposition to the Fatimid Caliphate. It was a rather formidable opponent, which quite justifiably seemed inaccessible to him. At the same time, apocalyptic literature was constantly circulating in the empire, often of oriental origin, coming from regions where the Syriac language was spoken or from Jewish communities living outside the empire. Later, this literature spread widely in the West.
The administrative nature of this method of dating from the Creation of the world was also expressed in another establishment, the indict, which was closely connected with taxation. It dates back to the reform of Diocletian in 297, accompanied by the compilation of a cadastre of land and methods of its processing. Since then, such establishments (indicts) took place in a fifteen-year cycle. This time separated two renewals of the land registry: the first year of the first indiction - from September 1, 297 to August 31, 298, and the fifteenth - from September 1, 311 to August 31, 312, etc. However, the number of indicts that took place after 297 was quickly forgotten, and the years were numbered in the order in which they appeared in the indict cycle, that is, from 1 to 15. This method of dating was often found in written sources, it, of course, determined the date only in one of the fifteen year cycles. Consider, for example, the decision of an official named Simeon, who confirmed the rights of the monks of the monastery of Lavra in Halkidiki to 32 wigs. It is dated September of the third indiction. Since the official acted on the orders of an unnamed emperor, but the text referred to the "late" Nikephoros Phocas (963-969), it can be concluded from this that John Tzimisces (969-976) was probably the reigning emperor, which means , the 3rd indict took place from September 974 to August 975. The date corresponds to 6483 from the Creation of the world.
If the Byzantines did not introduce anything original into the seasons of the year, then of undoubted interest is the relationship between secular holidays and liturgical holidays, showing close contact between the Roman, pagan basis and a civilization that claims to be called Christian. Some pagan holidays persisted for a long time. If Lupercalia, dedicated to both the foundation of Rome and fertility, disappeared after the 6th century, then other holidays survived until the 10th century. So, on the Day of Wishes (Behold, January 3), they continued to make sacrifices, and for this the Church Council in Trullo (692) intended to ban it. But the Votes were also the reason for the races at the Hippodrome, introduced by the emperor in the 10th century. Similarly, back in the VI century there were Brumalia - the feast of Dionysus, celebrated from November 24 to December 21. It marked the end of wine fermentation and passed into Christmas. Those who took part in the Brumalia were threatened with excommunication by the decision of the Church Council in Trullo. However, even in the 10th century, the holiday was still practiced at the imperial court, where dignitaries stormily greeted the emperor and wished him a long reign. In return, the emperor gave them purses of gold. Brumalia did not disappear even in the XII century. At the same time, civil holidays were added. So the main thing in the capital was the city holiday on March 11 - the day of the solemn election of the city of Constantinople as the capital by Emperor Constantine, which became the occasion for holding the most magnificent chariot races at the Hippodrome and was accompanied by the distribution of bread and fish, even when these products had already disappeared from the daily diet of Constantinople . In the provinces, a civil holiday often coincided with a religious one, for example, with the feast of the holy defender of the city, whose relics were kept there.
In rural areas, the rhythm of life was determined mainly by the seasons and seasonal work associated with them. Our knowledge of them is very fragmentary. However, it seems that two festivals were celebrated on the solstice days, much more important for agricultural work than for cities. So Christmas almost exactly matched winter solstice, and the day of St. John the Baptist - the summer solstice. Apparently, Christianity preferred to absorb ancient customs, Christianizing them, instead of fighting them.
Of course, in the Byzantine Empire, the calendar of numerous liturgical holidays was the main one. In addition to Easter, the main holiday, it included twelve twelfth holidays, including three moving in time associated with Easter - Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), Ascension and Trinity, the days of which depended on the date of the Easter celebration in the current year . There were also nine fixed holidays, reminiscent of events in the life of Christ (Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany, Presentation of the Lord, Transfiguration), or the Virgin Mary (Nativity of the Virgin, Entry into the Temple, Assumption), which included the holiday
Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord. A few more were added to them: Circumcision and two holidays associated with John the Baptist - with his birth on June 24 and the beheading of his head on August 29, as well as the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul on June 29. The list of common holidays was supplemented by local celebrations. Each city and many villages had their own patron saint, whose life may indeed have taken place in this area or was associated with it by legends, but whose celebration was an integral part of the life of the community. One of the best examples is the feast in Thessalonica, the second city in the empire. The day of its patron saint Demetrius was celebrated from the 5th century on October 26, and at that time one of the grand Venetian fairs was held.
Byzantium / Michel Kaplan. - M. : Veche, 2011. p. 213-220.
