Chronicle and age of Jesus  . Calendar. July from Antiquity to the 16th century. Roman calendar Calendar reform of Julius Caesar

Days, weeks and months pass, few of us think about where the current names in the calendar come from. In fact, our modern calendar dates back thousands of years, with roots in the Roman Empire.

And after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman calendar was used in its former territories for early Middle Ages. Although some details have changed, our modern calendar is simply a version of the ancient Roman calendar.
This is how the months of the year got their names.

January


Statue depicting Janus Bifrons in the Vatican Museum.

January, the first month of the Roman imperial calendar, is named after the god Janus.
This important Roman deity was the god of beginnings and was usually depicted with two faces: one looking forward and the other looking back.

Temple of Janus with closed doors on a sestertium, issued under Nero in 66 AD at the mint at Lugdunum.

Janus was also the god of doorways, gates and transitions, which is why he was chosen to mark the month of transition from one year to the next.
The first day of January was the beginning of the New Year, when the festival of Janus was celebrated by exchanging sweet gifts such as dates, figs or honey. Pies were brought as a gift to the altar of God.

February


February from the book “The Three Riches of the Duc de Berry” - a prayer book said at canonical time.

February took its name from the festival of purification - Februus, the "purifying month" which was believed to drive out evil spirits from the city of Rome.
On the 15th day of the month, a number of rites were held throughout Rome, many of which involved sacrifices or ritual parades.

March


March from the book “The Three Riches of the Duc de Berry” is a prayer book recited at canonical time.

March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is believed that this month marked the beginning of the period when the Roman army prepared for the upcoming season of military campaigns.
Therefore, it was important to glorify the god of war at this time, and March was a period of rituals and festivals that ensured military success.

Medieval image of Mars sitting on a rainbow with a sword and scepter, calling people to war.

March was originally the first month in the Roman calendar, which at that time had only ten months. However, to avoid confusion with dates, two additional months (January and February) were added and the start of the year was moved to January.
The Julian calendar (created as a result of the reforms of Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC) is a version of the Roman calendar from which our modern dating system is derived.

April


April panel from a Roman mosaic of the months (from El Jem, Tunisia, first half of the 3rd century AD).

April is named after the Roman month Aprillis, used as the name of the fourth month of the Roman calendar.
One of the most popular theories is that Aprillis refers to the Latin aperir, meaning "to open." April is the month when flowers begin to bloom and spring begins its full bloom, which is why it has such a special name.

May


Hermes and Maya, detail of a ceramic amphora (c. 500 BC).

The month of May, when the earth begins to bear fruit, is named after greek goddess land of Maya. She was the goddess of fertility and abundance, so she is associated with this warm, bountiful time of year.
The Roman poet Ovid, however, thought differently. He argued that the Latin name "May" came from major, which means "eldest", as opposed to the name "June" from junior, or "young".

June


June is associated with one of the most important deities of the Roman Pantheon. Juno, the wife of Jupiter, is celebrated in June and she gives her name to this important month.
Juno was also known as the goddess of marriage, and in Roman culture the end of June was considered especially favorable for weddings. However, getting married before the 15th was considered a bad omen and was generally avoided.

July


Sculpture of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar near the ancient greenhouse in the Lazienki Public Park, Warsaw. The sculpture was made by Francis Pink (1733-1798).

July is the first month in the Roman calendar named after a historical figure. Julius Caesar, Roman dictator and conqueror of Gaul, certainly left his mark on Roman society.

Assassination of Julius Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini, 1804

July was originally called Quintilis, as it was the fifth month in the traditional Roman calendar. However, after the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC. E. It was renamed in his honor since it was the month of his birth.

August


Julius Caesar's successor, Octavian, did not want to be outdone by his adoptive father, and as a result, the next month in the Roman calendar is named after him.

Octavian rose to power to become the first Emperor of Rome, after which he changed his name to Augustus, meaning “sanctified” or “venerable.”
Although many other Roman figures tried to insert their name into the calendar, none succeeded, Julius Caesar and Augustus remain the only people commemorated in the names of the months of the year.

September - December

The remaining months in the Roman calendar have a less exalted etymology. They were simply called the serial number that existed before the Julian reforms.

September comes from septem, meaning seven; October from October, which means eight; November from November, meaning nine; and December from decem, meaning ten.

Plan
Introduction
1 Calendar
2 Week
3 Clock
4 Calculation

Bibliography
Roman calendar

Introduction

1. Calendar

According to the ancient Roman calendar, the year consisted of ten months, with March being considered the first month. At the turn of the 7th and 6th centuries BC. e. a calendar was borrowed from Etruria in which the year was divided into 12 months: January and February followed December. The months of the Roman calendar had the following names:

Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e., on the advice of the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes, carried out a radical reform of the calendar according to the model adopted in Egypt. A four-year solar cycle was established (365 + 365 + 365 + 366 = 1461 days) with the unequal length of months adopted until now: 30 days in April, June, September and November, 31 days in January, March, May, July, August , October and December, in February - 28 days during three years and 29 days for the fourth year. Caesar moved the beginning of the year to January 1, because from this day the consuls took office and the Roman economic year began.

The designation of the numbers of the month by the Romans was based on the identification of three main days in it, initially associated with the change of phases of the moon:

1. 1st day of each month - calendars ( Kalendae or Calendae, abbr. Kal., Cal.); originally the first day of the new moon, announced High priest(from the Latin verb calare- to convene, in this case to announce the new moon).

2. 13th or 15th day of the month - Ides ( Idus, abbr. Id.); originally in the lunar month the middle of the month, the day of the full moon (according to the etymology of the Roman scientist Varro - from the Etruscan iduare- divide).

3. 5th or 7th day of the month - nones ( Nonae, abbr. Non.), day of the first quarter of the moon (from the ordinal number nonus- the ninth, 9th day before the Ides, counting the day of Non and Id).

In March, May, July, October, the Ides fell on the 15th, the Nones on the 7th, and in the remaining months the Ides fell on the 13th, and the Nones on the 5th. History knows, for example, the Ides of March - March 15, 44 BC. e., the day of the assassination of Julius Caesar: Idus Martiae.

The names of these days (calends, nones, ides) when designating the date were put in the ablative of time ( ablativus temporis): Idibus Martiis- on the Ides of March, Kalendis Januaryis- on January calendars, i.e. January 1.

The days immediately preceding the Kalends, Nones or Ides were designated by the word pridie- the day before (in the vin. case): pridie Idus Decembers- on the eve of the Ides of December, i.e. December 12.

The remaining days were designated by indicating the number of days remaining until the next main day; in this case, the count also included the day that was designated and the next main day (cf. in Russian “the third day” - the day before yesterday): ante diem nonum Kalendas Septembres- nine days before the September calendar, i.e. August 24, was usually written in abbreviation a. d. IX Cal. Sept.

In the fourth year of the cycle, an additional day was inserted immediately after February 24, i.e., after the sixth day before the March calendar, and was called ante diem bis sextum Kelendas Martium- on the sixth day before the March calendar.

The year with an extra day was called bi(s)sextilis- with a repeated sixth day, from where the name “leap day” penetrated into the Russian language (through Greek).

The review of the year was called calendarium(hence the calendar), the debt book was also called, since interest was paid during the calendar.

The division of the month into seven-day weeks, which arose in the Ancient East, in the 1st century BC. e. began to be used in Rome, from where it later spread throughout Europe.

In the seven-day week borrowed by the Romans, only one day had a special name - “Saturday” (ancient Heb. sabbath- rest, peace), the remaining days were called serial numbers in the week: first, second, etc.; Wed in Russian Monday, Tuesday, etc., where “week” originally meant a non-working day (from “not to do”). The Romans named the days of the week according to seven luminaries, which bore the names of the gods. The names are as follows: Saturday - the day of Saturn, then - the day of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus.

Latin names, having changed, are still partly preserved in the names of the days of the week in Western Europe.

The division of the day into hours has come into use since its appearance in Rome. sundial(lat. horologium solarium) in 291 BC. e.; in 164 BC e. A water clock was introduced in Rome. solarium ex aqua). Day, like night, was divided into 12 hours. IN different time Years, the duration of one hour of the day and one hour of the night varied. Day is the time from sunrise to sunset, night is from sunset to sunrise. On the equinox, day was counted from 6 o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock in the evening, night - from 6 o'clock in the evening to 6 o'clock in the morning. Eg: hora quarta diei- at four o’clock in the afternoon, i.e. at 10 o’clock in the morning, 4 hours after 6 o’clock in the morning.

The night was divided into 4 watches of 3 hours each: prima vigilia- first guard, secunda vigilia- second guard, tertia vigilia- third guard and qvarta vigilia- fourth guard.

4. Calculation

The Romans kept lists of consuls (lat. fasti consulares). Consuls were elected annually, two per year. The year was designated by the names of the two consuls of a given year, the names were put in ablative, for example: Marco Crasso et Gnaeo Pompejo consulibus- to the consulate of Marcus Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey (55 BC).

Since the era of Augustus (from 16 BC), along with dating according to consuls, chronology from the supposed year of the founding of Rome (753 BC) has come into use: ab Urbe condita- from the foundation of the city, abbr. ab U.c., a. u. c.

Bibliography:

1. The names of the months were adjectives with the word mensis- month, e.g. mensis Martius, mensis December.

2. From this table it is clear that in the Anglo-German names of the days of the week, the Roman gods are identified with the gods of German mythology: the god of war Tiu - with Mars; the god of wisdom Wotan - with Mercury; the thunder god Thor - with Jupiter; goddess of love Freya - with Venus.

3. Samedi from the Middle Ages. lat. sabbati dies- Sabbath day.

4. Dimanche from the Middle Ages. lat. dies Dominica- the day of the Lord.

The remaining days were indicated by indicating the number of days remaining until the next main day; wherein the count included both the day that was designated and the next main day: ante diem nonum Kalendas Septembres - nine days before the September calendar, i.e. August 24, usually written in abbreviation a. d. IX Cal. Sept.
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Calendar of the ancient Romans.

At first the Roman year consisted of 10 months, which were designated serial numbers: first, second, third, etc.
The year began with spring- the period close to the spring equinox.
Later the first four months were renamed:

First(spring!) month of the year was named after god of spring shoots, agriculture and cattle breeding, and the Romans had this god... Mars! It was only later that he became, like Ares, the god of war.
And the month was named Martius(martius) - in honor Mars.

Second the month was named Aprilis ( aprilis), which comes from the Latin aperire - “to open”, since this month the buds on the trees open, or from the word apricus - “warmed by the Sun”. It was dedicated to the goddess of beauty, Venus.

Third month in honor of the earth goddess May and began to be called Mayus(majus).
Fourth the month was renamed to Junius(junius) and dedicated to the sky goddess Juno, patroness of women, wife of Jupiter.

The remaining six months of the year continued to retain their numerical names:

quintilis - fifth; sextilis - sixth;

september - seventh; october - eighth;

november - ninth; december - tenth.

Four months of the year ( martius, maius, quintilis and october) each had 31 days, and the remaining months consisted of 30 days.

Therefore, the original Roman calendar the year had 304 days.

In the 7th century BC. the Romans made a reform your calendar and added to the year 2 more months - the eleventh and twelfth.

The first of these months is Januarius- was named after two-faced god Janus, which was considered god of the firmament, who opened the gates to the Sun at the beginning of the day and closed them at the end. He was god of entry and exit, every beginning. The Romans depicted him with two faces: one, facing forward, God sees the future, the second, facing backward, contemplates the past.

Second added month - Febrarius- was dedicated to god underground kingdom Februus. Its name itself comes from the word februare - "to cleanse" and is associated with the rite of purification.

Year in the Roman calendar after the reform it began to consist out of 355 days, and due to the addition 51 days (why not 61?) I had to change the length of the months.

But still the Roman year was more than 10 days shorter than the tropical year.

To keep the beginning of the year close to one season, they did insertion of additional days. At the same time, the Romans in every second year, between February 24 and 25, alternately 22 or 23 days were “wedged in.”

As a result, the number of days in the Roman calendar alternated in the following order: 355 days; 377 (355+22) days; 355 days; 378 (355+23) days. The intercalary days are called month of Mercedonia, sometimes called simply an intercalary month - intercalarium(intercalis).
Word " mercedonium" comes from “merces edis” - “payment for labor”: then payments were made between tenants and property owners.

The average length of the year in such a four-year period was 366,25 days, that is, a day more than in reality.

A design engraved on an ancient Roman stone calendar. The top row depicts the gods to whom the days of the week are dedicated: Saturn - Saturday, Sun - Sunday, Moon - Monday, Mars - Tuesday, Mercury - Wednesday, Jupiter - Thursday, Venus - Friday. In the center of the calendar is the Roman zodiac, to the right and left of it are the Latin symbols for the numbers of the month.

Reform of Julius Caesar.

The chaos of the Roman calendar had become significant and reform was urgently needed. And the reform was carried out in 46 BC Julius Caesar(100 - 44 BC). A new calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigen.

The basis of the calendarcalledJulian, the solar cycle was assumed, the duration of which was taken to be 365.25 days.

Counted in three out of every four years 365 days, in the fourth - 366 days.

As before the month of Mercedonia, so now this additional day was “hidden” between February 24 and 25. Caesar decided to add to February second sixth ( bis sextus) the day before the March calendar, that is second day February 24. February was chosen as the last month of the Roman year. The augmented year began to be called annusbissextus, where our word comes from leap year The first leap year was 45 BC. e.

Caesar ordered number of days in months according to the principle: An odd month has 31 days, an even month has 30. February is in simple year should have 29, and in a leap year - 30 days.

Moreover, Caesar decided to start counting the days in the new year from the new moon, which just happened to be on the first of January.

The new calendar indicated for each day of the year which star or constellation had its first morning rising or setting after a period of invisibility. For example, in November it was celebrated: on the 2nd - the setting of Arcturus, on the 7th - the setting of the Pleiades and Orion, etc. The calendar was closely associated with the annual movement of the Sun along the ecliptic and with the cycle of agricultural work.

Counting according to the Julian calendar began on the first of January 45 BC. On this day, from which, already starting from 153 BC, newly elected Roman consuls took office, and the beginning of the year was postponed.
Julius Caesar is the author of the tradition start counting the new year on the first of January.

In gratitude for the reform, and given the military merits of Julius Caesar, the Roman The Senate renamed the month Quinitilis(Caesar was born this month) in Julius.

And a year later, in the same Senate, Caesar was killed...

Calendar changes there were later.

The Roman priests again confused the calendar by declaring every third (rather than fourth) year of the calendar to be a leap year. As a result, from 44 to 9 years. BC. 12 leap years were introduced instead of 9.

This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus(63 BC - 14 AD): for 16 years - from 9 BC to 8 AD - there were no leap years. Along the way, he contributed to the spread of seven day week, which replaced the previously used nine-day cycles - nundids.

In this regard, the Senate renamed the month Sextilis in the month of Augustus. But the duration of this month was 30 days. The Romans considered it inconvenient for the month dedicated to Augustus to have fewer days than the month dedicated to Caesar. Then took another day away from February and added it to Augustus. So February was left with 28 or 29 days.

Now it turns out that Julius, Augustus and Septeber kept for 31 days. To avoid three months of 31 days in a row, one day of September was transferred October. At the same time, one new day was postponed to december. Thus, the correct alternation of long and short months, and the first half of a simple year turned out to be four days shorter than the second one.

The Roman calendar system spread widely in Western Europe and was used up to the 16th century. With the adoption of Christianity in Rus' They also began to use the Julian calendar, which gradually replaced the Old Russian one.

In the 6th century, the Roman monk Dionysius Small proposed to introduce new Christian era, which starts from Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world, and not from the founding of Rome.

Dionysius justified the date from the Nativity of Christ. According to his calculations, it fell in the 754th year from the founding of Rome or in the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Augustus.
Era from the Nativity of Christ firmly established itself in Western Europe only in VIII century. And in Rus' for several centuries they continued to count the years from the creation of the world.

Reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

At the end of the 3rd century. AD the vernal equinox had to on March 21. Council of Nicaea, held in 325 in the city of Nicaea (now Izvik in Turkey) fixed this date, deciding that the spring equinox will always fall on this date.

However, the average length of the year in the Julian calendar is 0.0078 days or 11 min 14 sec more tropical year. As a result every 128 years an error accumulated for a whole day: The moment of the Sun's passage through the vernal equinox moved during this time one day back - from March to February. By the end of the XVI centuries spring equinox moved back 10 days and accounted for 11th of March.

The Pope carried out the calendar reform Gregory XIII based on a project by an Italian doctor and mathematician Luigi Lilio.

Gregory XIII in his bull ordered that after 4 October 1582 should be October 15, not October 5. So the spring equinox was moved to March 21, to its original place. To prevent the error from accumulating, it was decided out of every 400 years, throw away three days.
It is customary to consider as simple those centuries the number of hundreds of which is not divisible by 4 without a remainder. Due to this, there were not leap days 1700, 1800 and 1900, and 2000 was a leap year. The discrepancy of one day between the Gregorian calendar and astronomical time accumulates not in 128 years, but in 3323.

This calendar system received the name Gregorian or "new style""In contrast to it, the name of the "old style" was strengthened behind the Julian calendar.

Countries in which the position of the Catholic Church was strong almost immediately switched to a new style, and in Protestant countries the reform was carried out with a delay of 50 - 100 years.

England I was waiting before 1751 g., and then “killed two birds with one stone”: she corrected the calendar and rescheduled beginning of 1752 from March 25 to January 1. Some of the British perceived the reform as robbery: it’s no joke, three whole months of life disappeared!)))

Using different calendars caused a lot of inconvenience, and sometimes just funny incidents. When we read that in Spain in 1616 he died on April 23 Cervantes, and died in England on April 23, 1616 Shakespeare, you would think that two great writers died on the same day.
In fact the difference was 10 days! Shakespeare died in Protestant England, which still lived according to the Julian calendar, and Cervantes died in Catholic Spain, where the Gregorian calendar (new style) had already been introduced.

One of the last countries to adopt the Gregorian calendar 1928, became Egypt.

In the 10th century, with the adoption of Christianity, chronology came to Rus', used by the Romans and Byzantines: Julian calendar, Roman names of months, seven-day week. But the years were counted from the creation of the world which happened in 5508 years before the birth of Christ. The year began on March 1, and at the end of the 15th century the beginning of the year was moved to September 1.

The calendar in force in Russia from the “creation of the world” was replaced by Julian Peter I from January 1, 1700 (the difference between the two chronology systems is 5508 years).

Reforming the calendar system Russia was greatly delayed. The Orthodox Church refused to accept it, although back in 1583 at the Council of Constantinople it recognized the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar.

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated January 25, 1918 g., was introduced in Russia Gregorian calendar. By this time the difference between the old and new styles was 13 days. It was prescribed in 1918, after January 31, count not February 1, but the 14th.

Now the Gregorian calendar has become international.
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Now about the Slavic names of the months.
12 months - favorite fairy tale

Month- a period of time close to the period of the Moon’s revolution around the Earth, although the modern Gregorian calendar is not consistent with the change in the phases of the Moon.

Since ancient times, segments of the year have been associated with certain natural phenomena or economic activities.

Not really on topic. From the legend: among the Slavs, the Month was the king of the night, the husband of the Sun. He fell in love with the Morning Star, and as punishment the other gods split him in half...

Month names

January. The Slavic name “Prosinets” comes from the appearing blue of the sky in January.

February- "Sechen", "Lute". Cutting - because the time had come to cut trees to clear the land for arable land.

March
“Dry” from the spring warmth, drying up the moisture; in the south - “Berezozol”, from the action of the spring sun on the birch, which at this time begins to fill with juice and buds. “Protalnik” - it’s clear why.
April
Old Russian names for April: “Berezen”, “Snegogon”. In Ukrainian, the month is called “kviten” (blooming).

May- the names "Grass", "Grass" - nature turns green and blossoms.
June.
"Izok." Izok is a grasshopper; there were especially many of them in June. Another name is "Cherven".

July.

“Cherven” - the name comes from fruits and berries, which in July are distinguished by their reddish color (scarlet, red). Also called "Lipets" - linden blooms in July. "Groznik" - from strong thunderstorms. And simply - “Top of Summer”. “Stradnik” - from hard summer work.
August
And the Slavs are still suffering - “Serpen”, “Zhniven” - time to mow the wheat. In the north, Augustus was also called “Zarev”, “Zornichnik” - from the radiance of lightning.
September
The Russian name of the month was “Ruin”, Revun - from roar autumn winds and animals, especially deer. “Gloomy” - the weather began to deteriorate. In the Ukrainian language, the month is “Veresen” (from the flowering honey plant - heather).

October
The wonderful Slavic name is “Listopad”. Otherwise - “Mud”, from autumn rains and abyss. And also “Wedding Party” - at this time the main agricultural work was ending, it was not a sin to celebrate a wedding, especially after the holiday of the Intercession.

November- “Bruden”, from piles of frozen earth with snow.

December- “Jelly” - cold!

Tablet of Slavic names of the months

Week and days of the week.

A week is a period of time of 7 days, existing in most calendar systems in the world. The custom of measuring time by a seven-day week came to us from Ancient Babylon and is associated with changes in the phases of the moon.
Where did the names of the days of the week come from?

Ancient Babylonian astronomers discovered that, in addition to the fixed stars, seven moving luminaries which were later named planets(from the Greek "wandering"). It was believed that these luminaries revolve around the Earth and that their distances from it increase in the following order: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Babylonian astrologers believed that every hour of the day is under the protection of a certain planet, which "controls" him.
The counting of hours began on Saturday: its first hour was “ruled” by Saturn, the second by Jupiter, the third by Mars, etc., the seventh by the Moon. Then the whole cycle repeated again.

Eventually it turned out that at first o'clock the next day, Sunday, "managed" Sun, the first hour of the third day was Moon, the fourth day - to Mars, the fifth - to Mercury, the sixth - to Jupiter and the seventh - to Venus.

The planet that ruled the first hour of the day patronized the entire day, and the day received its name.

This system was adopted by the Romans - the names of the planets were identified with the names of the gods. They controlled days of the week that received their names. Roman names migrated to the calendars of many peoples of Western Europe.

"Planetary" names of the days of the week in both English and Scandinavian languages, but the names in them are derived from the name of pagan gods of German-Scandinavian mythology.

The Babylonians considered Saturn's day unlucky; on this day it was prescribed not to do business, and it itself received the name " Shabbat - peace. However, it was moved to the end of the week. The name passed into Hebrew, Arabic, Slavic (Saturday), and some Western European languages.

The Slavs called Sunday "week"", "the day on which nothing do not do" (do not do business). And Monday is “the day after the week,” Tuesday is “the second day after the week,” etc.
That's what it's like...)))

Days of the week

We see the personification of the days of the week in the names preserved in English, German, and French.

Monday- Monday (English) echoes Moon- Moon, even more clearly Lundi (French),

Tuesday- in the name of Tuesday Mardi (French), el Martes (Spanish), Martedi (Italian) we recognize the planet Mars. In Tuesday (English), Dienstag (German) the name of the militant is hidden ancient Germanic god Tiu, analogue of Mars.

Wednesday- guessed Mercury in le Mercredi (French), Mercoledi (Italian), el Miercoles (Spanish).

Wednesday(English) comes from Wodensday meaning Woden's day(Wotan, Odin). The same god is hidden in Onstag (Swedish), Woenstag (Gol.), Onsdag (Danish).

Woden- an unusual god, he is depicted as a tall old man in a black cloak. This character became famous for the invention of the runic alphabet, which draws a parallel with the patron god of writing and oral speech- Mercury. According to legend, Woden sacrificed one eye for the sake of knowledge.

In Slavic "Wednesday", "Wednesday"", as well as in Mittwoch (German), Keskeviikko (Finnish) the idea of ​​the middle of the week is embedded

Thursday- Latin Dies Jovis, Day Jupiter, gave rise to Jeudi (French), Jueves (Spanish), Giovedi (Italian).

And here Thursday(English), Torstai (Finnish), Torsdag (Swedish), Donnerstag (German), and others have a direct connection with the ancient thunder god Thor, analogue of Jupiter. In Hindi, Thursday is Jupiter Day.

Friday- Venus is clearly visible in Vendredi (French), Venerdi (Italian).
English Friday, Fredag ​​(Swedish), Freitag (German) on behalf of the Scandinavian goddess of fertility and love Freya (Frigge), analogous to Aphrodite and Venus. In Hindi, Friday is Venus Day.

Saturday- face Saturn visible in Saturday (English) and Saturni (Latin).
Russian name " Saturday", el Sabado (Spanish), Sabato (Italian) and Samedi (French) go back to the Hebrew "Sabbath", meaning "peace, rest".
Lauantai (Finnish), Lördag (Swedish), Loverdag (Danish) are similar to the Old German Laugardagr and mean “day of ablution”. In Hindi, Saturday is Saturn Day.

Sunday - Day of the Sun in Latin, English and German, in many languages ​​this day is designated by various variations of the word "Sun/Son" (Sun).
Domingo(Spanish), Dimanche (French), Domenica (Italian) translated means " Lord's Day"and are a layer brought to Europe along with Christianity.

Russian " Sunday"appeared in the same way, replacing the old name for this day "Week", preserved in other Slavic languages ​​- Nedelya (bol.), Nedilya (Ukrainian), Nedele (Czech). In Hindi, Sunday is the Day of the Sun.
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And finally about the day and hours.

Day- a unit of any calendar, the allocation of which is based on the alternation of day and night. This division of the day originated in Ancient Babylon, whose priests believed that day and night consisted of twelve hours. Officially dividing the day into 24 hours introduced by the Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the 2nd century. AD

The first hour began at dawn, noon was always the sixth hour, and sunset was the twelfth hour. And the length of the hour was a variable, depended on the length of daylight hours.
An important step was the invention and use of mechanical watches, in Europe this was the 9th - 12th centuries.

Antique clock in Prague

Mechanical watches made the duration of the hour constant and independent of the ratio of day and night parts of the day.
The first mechanical watch in Russia were installed by Grand Duke Vasily I in 1404 in the courtyard behind the Church of St. Annunciation. Famous clock on the Spasskaya Tower established in 1624 under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich by the mechanic Galloway.

Like this complicated story calendar...

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Wikipedia and Runet.

12.3. Calendars of Ancient Rome. Julian calendar.

Gregorian calendar

In ancient Rome, the calendar first appeared in VIII V. BC e., he was lunar. The year consisted of 10 months, and there were 304 days in a year. The year began on the first day of the first spring month. Initially, all months were designated by numerals, then they received names:

· Martius– in honor of the god of war and the patron saint of agriculture and cattle breeding, Mars, agricultural work began this month (31 days);

· Aprilis– aperire (lat.) – to grow, to open (29 days);

· Mayus– in honor of the goddess of beauty and growth Maya (31 days);

· Junius– in honor of the goddess of fertility Juno (29 days);

· Quintilis– fifth month (31 days);

· Sextile– sixth (29 days);

· September– seventh (29 days);

· October– eighth (31 days);

· November– ninth (29 days);

· December– tenth (29 days).

The superstitious Romans were afraid of even numbers, so each month consisted of 29 or 31 days. IN V II century BC e. - calendar reform, a lunar-solar calendar was created, which had 355 days, divided into 12 months. Two new months:

· Januarius- in honor of two-faced god Janus (31 days);

· Februarius– month of purification, in honor of the god of the dead and the underworld Februarius (29 days).

Kalends- the first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar.

Nones– 7th day of long months, 5th day of short months.

Ides– 15th day of long, 13th day of short months. Counting days by Kalends, Nones and Ides is a trace of the lunar calendar. The Kalends are the day of the new moon, the Nones are the day of the first quarter of the moon, and the Ides are the day of the full moon.

In order to bring the year as close as possible to the tropical one (365 and 1/4 days), once every two years they began to introduce an additional month between February 23 and 24 - marcedonia (from the Latin word “marces” - payment), initially equal to 20 days. All cash payments for the past year were supposed to be completed this month. However, this measure failed to eliminate the discrepancy between the Roman and tropical years.

Therefore in V V. BC. The Romans, following the example of the Greek calendar, introduced an 8-year cycle, changing it slightly. The Greeks had 3 extended years every 8 years, while the Romans introduced a 4-year cycle with two extended years. Marcedonium began to be administered twice every four years, alternating 22 and 23 additional days. Thus, the average year in this 4-year cycle was equal to 366 days and became longer than the tropical year by approximately 3/4 days. To eliminate this discrepancy, the priests were given the right to correct the calendar and decide what insertions to make into it. Intercolation- the introduction of an additional month, the duty of priests - pontiffs. Using their right to introduce additional days and months into the calendar, the priests confused the calendar so much that in the 1st century. BC. There is an urgent need for its reform.

Julian calendar . Such a reform was carried out in 46 BC. e. on the initiative of Julius Caesar. The reformed calendar became known as the Julian calendar in his honor. The calendar reform was based on the astronomical knowledge accumulated by the Egyptians. An Egyptian astronomer from Alexandria, Sosigenes, was invited to create a new calendar. The reformers faced the same task - to bring the Roman year as close as possible to the tropical one and thereby maintain constant correspondence of certain days of the calendar with the same seasons.

The Egyptian year of 365 days was taken as a basis, but it was decided to introduce an additional day every four years. Thus, the average year in a 4-year cycle became equal to 365 days and 6 hours. Sosigenes retained the number of months and their names, but the length of the months was increased to 30 and 31 days. An additional day began to be added to February, which had 28 days, and was inserted between the 23rd and 24th, where marcedonium had previously been inserted.
As a result, in such an extended year, a second 24th appeared, and since the Romans kept count of the day in an original way, determining how many days remained until a certain date of each month, this additional day turned out to be the second sixth before the March calendar (before March 1). In Latin, such a day was called bisectus - second sixth ("bis - twice, again, sexto - six").
In Slavic pronunciation, this term sounded slightly different, and the word “leap year” appeared in Russian, and the extended year began to be called leap year year.

January 1 began to be considered the beginning of the year, since on this day the consuls began to perform their duties. Subsequently, the names of some months were changed: in 44 BC. e. Quintilis began to be called July in honor of Julius Caesar in 8 BC. sextile - August in honor of Emperor Octavian Augustus. Due to the change in the beginning of the year, the ordinal names of some months lost their meaning, for example, the tenth month (“December - December”) became the twelfth.

The Julian calendar is purely solar. In the Julian calendar, the year became longer than the tropical one by only 11 minutes 14 seconds. The Julian calendar lagged behind the tropical year by one day every 128 years. Initially, the Julian calendar was used only in Rome. In 325, the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea decided to consider this calendar mandatory for all Christian countries. The Julian calendar was adopted in Byzantium on September 1, 550 AD. e. In the 10th century switched to Rus'.

Gregorian calendar . In the Julian calendar, the average length of the year was 365 days 6 hours, therefore, it was longer than the tropical year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds) by 11 minutes 14 seconds. This difference, accumulating annually, led after 128 years to an error of one day, after 384 years - to 3 days, and after 1280 years to 10 days. As a result, the day of the vernal equinox was March 24 during the time of Julius Caesar in the 1st century. BC.; March 21 – at the Council of Nicaea in I V V. n. e.; March 11 at the end of X V I century, and this threatened to move the main holiday in the future christian church– Easter from spring to summer. This affected religious and economic life. Easter was supposed to be celebrated after the spring equinox - March 21 and no later than April 25. Again the need arose for calendar reform. The Catholic Church carried out a new reform in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII.

A special commission of clergy and scientific astronomers was created. The author of the reform project was the Italian scientist - doctor, mathematician and astronomer Aloysius Lilio. The reform was supposed to solve two main problems: firstly, to eliminate the accumulated difference of 10 days between the calendar and tropical years and will prevent this error in the future, and secondly, to bring the calendar year as close as possible to the tropical one, so that in the future the difference between them would not be noticeable.

The first task was solved administratively: a special papal bull ordered October 5, 1582 to be counted as October 15. Thus, the spring equinox returned to March 21.

The second problem was solved by reducing the number of leap years in order to reduce the average length of the Julian calendar year. Every 400 years, 3 leap years were removed from the calendar. 1600 remained a leap year in the new calendar, and 1700, 1800 and 1900. became simple. According to the Gregorian calendar, years whose numbers end in two zeros began to be considered leap years only if the first two digits are divisible by 4 without a remainder. The calendar year became closer to the tropical one because the difference of three days, which accumulated every 400 years, was discarded.

The new Gregorian calendar created was much more advanced than the Julian calendar. Each year now lagged behind the tropical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy between them in one day accumulated after 3323 years. Such a lag has no practical significance.

The Gregorian calendar was initially introduced in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Southern Netherlands, then in Poland, Austria, the Catholic states of Germany and in several other European countries. The introduction of the Gregorian calendar encountered fierce opposition from the clergy of those churches that compete with the Catholic Church. The Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant churches, citing church dogmas and theological interpretations, declared the Gregorian calendar to be contrary to the teachings of the apostles.

In 1583, a church council was convened in Constantinople, which recognized the inaccuracy of the Julian reckoning of time. But the new calendar was not recognized as correct. The advantage was left to the old Julian calendar, as it was more consistent with the definition of the day of Easter. According to the Gregorian system of counting time, it became possible for the day of the celebration of Christian and Jewish Easter to coincide, which, according to the apostolic rules, was strictly prohibited. In those states where the Orthodox Christian Church dominated, for a long time used the Julian calendar. For example, in Bulgaria a new calendar was introduced only in 1916, in Serbia in 1919. In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918; the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 24 prescribed that the day following January 31 should be considered not February 1, but February 14.

The relationship between the Julian (old style) and Gregorian calendars (new style) . The difference between them is not a constant value, but is constantly increasing. B X V I century, when the reform was carried out, it was 10 days, and in the twentieth century. it was already equal to 13 days. How did this accumulation occur? 1700 was a leap year according to the Julian calendar, but simple according to the Gregorian calendar, since 17 cannot be divided by 4 without a remainder. Thus, the difference between the calendars increased to 11 days. Similarly, the next increase in the discrepancy between them occurred in 1800 (up to 12 days), and then in 1900 (up to 13 days). In 2000, the difference remained the same, since this year is a leap year in both calendars, and will reach 14 days only in 2100, which will be a leap year according to the Julian calendar, but simple according to the Gregorian calendar.

History has not preserved for us exact information about the time of the birth of the Roman calendar. However, it is known that in the time of Romulus (mid-8th century BC), the Romans used a lunar calendar, which diverged from the actual astronomical cycle on Earth. The year began in March and consisted of only 10 months (contained 304 days). Initially, the months did not have names and were designated by serial numbers.

In the 7th century BC e., i.e. During the time of the second legendary ancient Roman king, Numa Pompilius, the Roman calendar was reformed and two more months were added to the calendar year. The months of the Roman calendar had the following names:

The names of the months were adjectival definitions of the word mensis - month, for example, mensis Martius, mensis December.

Julian calendar.

The chaotic nature of the Roman calendar created such great inconvenience that its urgent reform turned into an acute social problem. Such a reform was carried out over two thousand years ago, in 46 BC. e. It was initiated by the Roman statesman and commander Julius Caesar. He entrusted the creation of a new calendar to a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sosigenes.

The essence of the reform was that the calendar was based on the annual movement of the Sun between the stars. The average length of the year was set at 365.25 days, which exactly corresponded to the length of the tropical year known at that time. But so that the beginning of the calendar year always falls on the same date, as well as at the same time of day, they decided to count 365 days in each year for three years, and 366 in the fourth. Last year was called a leap year.

Sosigenes divided the year into 12 months, for which he retained their ancient names. The year began to begin on January 1. This coincided with the beginning of the Roman financial year and with the assumption of office of new consuls. At the same time, the length of months was established, which still exists today.

After the death of Julius Caesar, the fifth month of Quintilis was named Iulius (July) in his honor, and in 8 AD. Sextilis was named after Emperor Augustus.

Counting according to the new calendar, called the Julian calendar, began on January 1, 45 BC. e. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII amended the Julian calendar, according to which the year began 13 days earlier. It was accepted all over the world. In Russia, the “new style” was introduced in 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar.

Counting days in months. The Roman calendar did not know the ordinal counting of days in a month. Counting was carried out by the number of days up to three certain moments within each month: Kalends, Nons and Ides. The designation of the numbers of the month by the Romans was based on the identification of three main days in it, initially associated with the change of phases of the moon.

New moon day(1st day of the month) was called Kalendae (abbr. Kal.). Initially, its arrival was announced by the high priest (from Latin calare - to convene; z.: to announce the new moon). The entire system of calculation during the year was called Kalendarium (hence the calendar), and the debt book was also called the same, since interest was paid during the calendars.

Full moon day(13th or 15th day of the month) was called Ides (Idus, abbreviated Id.). According to the etymology of the Roman scientist Varro - from the Etruscan iduare - to divide, i.e. the month was divided in half.

Day of the first quarter moon ( The 5th or 7th day of the month) was called nonae (Nonae, abbr. Non.). From the ordinal number nonus - ninth, because it was the 9th day until the next milestone in the month.

In March, May, July, October, the Ides fell on the 15th, the Nones on the 7th, and in the remaining months the Ides fell on the 13th, and the Nones on the 5th.

Dates were designated by counting from these three main days of the month, including both this day and the day of the designated date: ante diem tertium Kalendas Septembres - three days before the calendar of September (i.e. August 30), ante diem quartum Idus Martias - behind four days before the Ides of March (i.e. March 12).

Leap year. The expression “leap year” is associated with the origin of the Julian calendar and the peculiar counting of days used by the ancient Romans. During the calendar reform, February 24 was repeated twice, that is, after the sixth day before the March calendars, and was called ante diem bis sextum Kelendas Martium - on the repeated sixth day before the March calendars.

A year with an additional day was called bi(s)sextilis - with a repeated sixth day. In Latin, the sixth number is called “sextus”, and “sixth again” is called “bissextus”. Therefore, a year containing an extra day in February was called “bisextilis.” The Russians, having heard this word from the Byzantine Greeks, who pronounced “b” as “v”, turned it into “visokos”.

Days of the week. The seven-day week in Rome appeared in the 1st century. AD influenced by the Ancient East. Christians introduced a regular holiday after every 6 working days. In 321, Emperor Constantine the Great enshrined this form of the week into law.

The Romans named the days of the week according to the seven then known luminaries, which bore the names of gods. Latin names, having changed, are still partly preserved in the names of the days of the week in many European languages.

In the Slavic names of the days of the week (via Greek Orthodox Church) the designation was learned by their numbers. In the Romance languages, the tradition of naming the days of the week by the names of pagan gods (despite the stubborn struggle of the Christian Church) has been preserved to this day. In Germanic languages, the names of Roman deities were replaced by corresponding Germanic ones. In German mythology, the Roman god of war Mars corresponds to Tiu, the god of trade Mercury - Wodan, the supreme deity of the sky and thunderstorms Jupiter - Donar (Thor), the goddess of love Venus - Freya. The name “Saturday” is a modified Hebrew word sabbaton (shabbaton) - peace. The first Christians celebrated Sunday as “the day of the Lord,” that is, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Calculation. In the first centuries of its existence, events in Rome were dated by the names of consuls, who were elected two per year. Thanks to the careful historical recording of the names of consuls and their constant use in historical works and documents, we know the names of the consuls, starting with Brutus (509 BC) and ending with Basilius (541 AD), i.e. for over 1000 years!

The year was designated by the names of the two consuls of a given year, the names were put in the ablative, for example: Marco Crasso et Gnaeo Pompejo consulibus - to the consulate of Marcus Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey (55 BC).

Since the era of Augustus (from 16 BC), along with dating according to consuls, chronology from the supposed year of the founding of Rome (753 BC) has come into use: ab Urbe condita - from the foundation of the city, abbr. . ab U.c. An abbreviation was placed before the year number, for example, 2009 of the Gregorian calendar corresponds to 2762 of the Roman era.