Gregorian calendar: history of origin and main characteristics

The Gregorian calendar is the most common chronological system, named after Pope Gregory XII, who insisted on its introduction in the Catholic world. Many people mistakenly believe that it was Gregory who came up with this system, however, this is far from being the case. According to one version, the main inspirer of this idea was the Italian doctor Aloysius, who theoretically substantiated the need to change the pre-existing chronology.

The problem of chronology at all times was quite acute, because the development of historical science in the country, and even the world outlook of ordinary citizens, largely depends on what is taken as a starting point and what are the days, months and year equal.

There existed and there are many chronological systems: some take as a basis the motion of the moon around the Earth, others consider the creation of the world as the starting point, the third is the departure of Muhammad from Mecca. In many civilizations, each change of ruler led to a change in the calendar. At the same time, one of the main difficulties is that neither the earthly day nor the earthly year lasts for a round number of hours and days, the whole question is - what to do with the remaining remainder?

One of the first most successful systems was the so-called Julian calendar, named after Gaius Julius Caesar, in whose reign he appeared. The main innovation was that for every fourth year one day was added. This year began to be called a leap year.

However, the introduction of a leap year only temporarily corrected the problem. On the one hand, the discrepancy between the calendar year and the tropical one continued to accumulate, although not as rapidly as before, but on the other, the day of Easter fell on different days of the week, although, according to most Catholics, Easter should always be on Sunday .

In 1582, after numerous calculations and based on clear astronomical calculations, in Western Europe there was a transition to the Gregorian calendar. This year in many European countries immediately after October 4 came the fifteenth.

The Gregorian calendar in many respects repeats the basic provisions of its predecessor: the usual year also consists of 365 days, and the leap year - from 366, also the number of days changes only in February - 28 or 29. The main difference is that the Gregorian calendar excludes all leap Years, divisible hundred, except for those that are divided into 400. In addition, if the New Year was on the first of September or the first of March according to the Julian calendar, then in the new chronological system it was originally declared on December 1, and then it shifted ie for a month.

In Russia, under the influence of the church, the new calendar has not been recognized for a long time, considering that the entire sequence of evangelical events has been violated on it. The Gregorian calendar in Russia was introduced only in early 1918 after the Bolsheviks came to power, when right after the first of February came the fourteenth.

Despite much greater accuracy, the Gregorian system is still imperfect. However, if in the Julian calendar an extra day was formed over 128 years, then the Gregorian calendar would require 3200.