The Byzantine calendar is a living tradition of the Church. Old Russian (Byzantine) chronology system Adjusting the Peaceful Circle to the desired indiction

The calendar included three levels: days within months, as they were represented by Caesar's Julian calendar, 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. The story of the creation of the world had its influence. 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, which we call Saturday. But the foundation 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 some 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 day of "preparation", 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 Jewish communities, but in official acts, in the records of chroniclers and even in the writings of church writers, not the days of the week, but simply the dates of the month were used. For example, in liturgical books, the sequence of days was numbered in a month, not in a week, which turned out to be quite convenient for ensuring the longevity of the system: this made it possible to avoid the movement of one or another day of the month over the years.

To designate the months of the year, Roman names remained, 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 September 1, and the Byzantine Empire kept this until its end. Liturgical calendars have adapted to this order. Readings of the Menaion - the biographies of the saints, arranged in the calendar in the order of their celebration, begin on September 1. In the East, there was no controversy regarding the day of the celebration of Easter, although it stirred up the entire western Christendom, where the issue has been the subject of fierce controversy for several centuries.

It remained to determine the system of chronology. It was not possible to count the time from the creation of Rome; and it is also inconvenient to determine the time according to 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 suitable 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 chronology from the Creation of the world, having in perspective the second coming of Christ to earth: this event marked the onset of the end of the world expected by Christians, since their salvation depended on the Last Judgment, which would take place at that moment. Based on the Old Testament or the genealogy of Christ, the one that appears at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, the count could give different results. In the 7th century, the Byzantine era was finally established. As a result, they agreed to date the Creation of the world on March 31, 5008 BC. For three centuries, for political reasons, the beginning of the calendar year was considered September 1. Since then, in official documents, the year was counted from September 1, 5509 BC. To determine a date for a particular year AD, subtract 5509 between September 1 and December 31, and 5508 between January 1 and August 31.

This calculation was in some way a compromise. According to the convictions of the calculators, the world lived in cycles of a thousand years. Christ was born in the middle of the sixth cycle and, most likely, the seventh will not be. Of course, the calculation that resulted in the figure 5509 is not accurate, but all other methods of reckoning turned out to be just as incorrect: for example, according to the Alexandrian church calendar, adopted by the chronicler Theophanes, the Creation of the world took place in 5492 BC. The approach of the end of the cycle, which was about 500 years old, did not seem to have caused the great anxiety that arose in the West in the thousandth year of Christ. With that date behind, the anticipation resumed: Constantinople fell in 1453. Patriarch Gennady Scholarius, who served during the 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 throughout the last century of the Byzantine Empire, the fall of which was clearly expected by all of its subjects. In the period from the end of the sixth millennium to the end of the seventh, eschatological fear did not disappear, especially when it approached the middle of the seventh millennium, which almost corresponded to the millennium since the birth of Christ. Emperor Basil II (976-1025), who was at the peak of his power, some of his entourage were forced to abandon his decisive struggle with the Bulgarians, because of which he received the nickname of the Bulgarian fighter, and set off to conquer Jerusalem, so that the world empire, the master of which he was, became the owner of the alleged place of the second coming. Basil's predecessor, John Tzimiskes, stopped just 150 km from the Holy City. However, the concern about this problem was not strong enough to make Basil forget his main goal - opposition to the Fatimid Caliphate. This was a rather formidable adversary who, quite justifiably, seemed to him out of reach. At the same time, apocalyptic literature was constantly circulating in the empire, often of oriental origin, coming from the regions where the Syrian language was spread or from Jewish communities 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 expressed in another establishment, the indicta, which was closely related to taxation. It dates back to the reform of Diocletian in 297, accompanied by the compilation of an inventory of land and methods of its cultivation. Since then, such establishments (indicts) have taken place in a fifteen-year cycle. This time was separated by two updates of the land cadastre: the first year of the first indication - 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 of their sequence in the indict cycle, that is, from 1 to 15. This dating method was often found in written sources, then, of course, it determined the date only in one of the fifteen-year cycles. Consider, for example, the decision of an employee named Simeon, who confirmed the rights of the monks of the monastery of Lavra in Halkidiki for 32 wigs. It is dated September of the third indict. Since the servant acted on the orders of an unnamed emperor, but the text mentioned the "late" Nicephorus Phocas (963-969), it can be concluded from this that the reigning emperor was probably John Tzimiskes (969-976), which means , The 3rd indict took place from September 974 to August 975. The date corresponds to the year 6483 from the Creation of the world.

If the Byzantines did not introduce anything original into the seasons of the year, then the relationship between secular holidays and liturgical holidays is of undoubted interest, showing the 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 founding of Rome and fertility, disappeared after the 6th century, then other holidays survived until the 10th century. So, on the Day of Wishes (Voty, January 3), they continued to offer sacrifices, and for this the Church Council in Trullo (692) intended to ban it. But the Vots were also the reason for the races on the Hippodrome, introduced by the emperor in the 10th century. Similarly, back in the 6th century, Brumalia existed - the festival 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 Brumalia, by decision of the Church Council in Trullo, were threatened with excommunication. However, even in the 10th century, the holiday was still practiced at the imperial court, where dignitaries loudly greeted the emperor and wished him a long reign. In return, the emperor handed them wallets of gold. Brumalia did not disappear even in the XII century. At the same time, civil holidays were added. So the main holiday 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 reason for 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 holiday 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 the seasonal work associated with them. Our knowledge about them is very fragmentary. However, it seems that two holidays were celebrated on the days of the solstices, much more important for agricultural work than for cities. So the Nativity of Christ almost exactly corresponded to the winter solstice, and the day of St. John the Baptist - to 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 feasts was the main one. In addition to Easter, the main holiday, it included twelve twelve holidays, including three moving in time associated with Easter - the 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, Introduction to the Temple, Dormition), to which the holiday also belonged

Exaltation of the Holy Cross. 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. List common holidays complemented local celebrations. Each city and many villages had its own patron saint, whose life could really take place in this area or was associated with legends, but the celebration of which was an integral part of the life of the community. One of the best examples is the festival in Thessaloniki, the second city in the empire. The day of his patron saint, Demetrius, was celebrated since the 5th century on October 26, and at this time one of the grandiose Venetian fairs was organized.

Byzantium / Michel Kaplan. - M.: Veche, 2011. p. 213-220.

And subsequently, 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 related to 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 start dates 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 in 681. This system finally won out in Byzantium in the middle of the 9th century, by the time of the spread of Christianity 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 along with the September one and already in Soviet literature received the name "Old Russian".

How the date was calculated

“Several years after the death of St. Constantine the Great calculated the starting point - the era from which the days, months and years of the Christian calendar were counted. The calculation methodology 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 (a period of 15 years) began at the same time. The final form of 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 1106th year 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 indications. Before the compilers new system chronology, the task was to find in the past centuries that historical moment at which all three cycles began simultaneously. The sought date fell on September 5509 B.C. Surprisingly, it almost exactly coincided with the age of the world calculated on the basis of biblical texts, the beginning of which was dated to about 5500 B.C. Note that some time later in the Roman Christian oecumene there were other varieties of the era from the creation of the world, the most famous of which began on March 1, 5508 BC.It was considered that it was better coordinated with the biblical data, since it began on Friday, the fifth day of the week on which man was created. Meanwhile september era with the era of September 1, 5509, starting on Saturday, also has a theological justification. Let's remind that Saturday is a day reststarting at the moment creation is complete. In a symbolic sense, it is permissible to interpret it as the beginning of a period (and also as the entire period itself), when the cycle of creation described in the first chapter 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 a God-man. "

Vatican's opinion

Catholic Rome did not recognize these calculations, using vatican era (in the Latin translation of the Vulgate, in contrast to the Septuagint, the life expectancy of the ancient patriarchs, the reign of kings, etc., are indicated less than in the Greek translation, so the date turned out to be different - 4713 or 4000 years, denoting it Anno mundi - "from the creation of the world." And Bede the Venerable came out in 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 the annals

The 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 there are:

alexandrian - August 29, 5493 BC e.
antioch Era - September 1, 5969 BC e. (or 5517, 5507)
old Byzantine era - 5504 BC e.
bulgarian era - 5511 (or 5504 BC)

Also, sliding dates can occur 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

It is believed that this system has 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 chronology was December 31, 7207; by the decree of Peter I, the next day was already officially reckoned according to the new chronology of the "birth of Christ" - 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 AD) 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 in a 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 beliefs, this practice continues today not only among the Old Believers, but also in the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate) ".

Cm. also

Byzantine calendar

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

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Summer 7528 has come on the Calendar of Russia. (it happened at 18 o'clock 21 September 2019 "Years" according to Christian calculus)

Few people know that the modern “year reckoning” was introduced in Russia quite recently - in 1700.

This act was done by Peter I, or rather, the one whom. It was by the decree of Peter in the summer of 7208, according to the then current calendar, that Russia canceled its native Calendar and switched to the current year reckoning, starting from 1700.

What is known about this?

Any calculus has a starting point from any SIGNIFICANT EVENT. For example, now 2019 YEAR (GOD - God) from the Nativity of Christ. Of course, our calendar, marked by Peter, was the starting point.

The countdown began from the summer (year) called the "STAR TEMPLE", in which our ancestors won the Great Victory over Arimia, the country of the Dragon (present-day China), completed a long and bloody war, that is, CREATED PEACE. Obviously, the event was so important and significant that for 7208 years, up to the reign of Peter I, Russia lived under the sign of the Calendar starting from the CREATION OF THE WORLD IN THE SUMMER OF THE STAR TEMPLE, according to which, at the time of this publication, 7528 summer.

It was possible to level this starting point, make it abstract, and then delete it from human memory and official "history" by replacing the image of the word MIR. Each of us knows that in the Russian language there are homonyms words, the same spelling, but different in meaning. Our linguistics stubbornly ignores the explanation of the reasons for this oddity - the origin of twin words that have different concepts. In fact, the secret is simple. Our original Initial letter consisted of 49 letters. Among those that fell under the "abbreviation" and now missing drop caps, there was the letter "i" (with a period). The sounds of the letters “and” “i” were almost the same, but the IMAGE of the letters was different. So the letter "I" had (and has now!) The image of UNION, UNITY, UNION,. And the letter “i” with a dot had the image of a “divine, universal ray” descending from the depths of the Universe to people. Accordingly, the word written as peace - meant an alliance, an agreement, a STATE WITHOUT WAR. And the word written like world - had the image of the Universal World, the UNIVERSE. We know the slogan common in Soviet times, which includes both words with different meanings: “Peace - Peace!”, That is Miru universal - Mir without war

After the illegal seizure of power in Russia by the pro-Western Romanov dynasty, a smooth but systematic destruction of our past began. Including chronology. First, the letter “i” in the word MIR was replaced with the letter “i”, and “the creation of the world” gradually became associated with the creation of the Universe, and not with the establishment of peace after the war.

At the same time, on the frescoes and engravings that depicted the defeated Dragon by Vityaz-Ariy, the Dragon (the symbol of China-Arimia) was replaced by an abstract Serpent, and Vityaz-Arius received the name George (which in Greek still means a farmer) Should I remind, that the tiller of the earth is Aryan, an Aryan? Nevertheless, Saint George remained the patron saint of tillers in most modern cultures.

The substitution of three important components of the image of the Great Victory - the words MIR (no war) for the Universe, the DRAGON (Chinese) for the rootless Serpent, and the name of the Russian Knight for the Greek George gradually turned the significant EVENT of our chronology into an abstraction, “fantasy”, deprived of value in human memory. This allowed Peter to replace our ancient calendar with the European one on the year 7208 painlessly and without resistance.

Everyone knows that on December 24, that is, 8 days before January 1, the entire Catholic world celebrates Christmas, the birth of the baby Jesus.

According to the Jewish rite, a Jewish boy must be circumcised strictly on the 8th day from birth. It is at this moment that he becomes involved in the agreement between the Jews and God Yahweh (Jehovah) and is included in the ranks of the “chosen people”. This means that the biblical character born on December 24, the Jewish boy Jesus, is circumcised on the 8th day from birth, that is, on January 1.

Under Peter I, communication of the nobility was conducted mainly in Dutch and German, and the word God (Year), just in these languages, means the word "God".
It turns out that Peter I forced everyone to congratulate each other on the circumcision of the new Jewish god.

This joke of the tsar "reformer" has taken root in Russia so much that now people, without hesitation, congratulate others and themselves on the circumcision of an unknown Jewish boy, at the same time setting up a Christmas tree at home - a tree symbolizing the path to the afterlife since ancient times.

Today only Old Believers and some Internet users who are interested in the present Great Past of Russia-Russia know about the celebration of the New Year.

However, the overwhelming mass of people who have lost their genetic memory and the original meaning of this expression continue to congratulate each other on the coming New Circumcised God, but not on the New Year, as it should be in Russia.

5508 years of the worthy Past of the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian peoples dissolved in the new Peter's History, in which we are given the last place among all the peoples of the world.

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Some Calendars from previous years

summer 7527

Emperor Peter I borrowed a lot from Europe: beards, smoking tobacco, 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 be counted from January 1, 1700. Before the revolution of 17, after the date was mentioned, it was necessary to say "from the birth of Christ" and this is a fundamental difference between the new chronology and what was 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 the decree of Pope Gregory.

The date introduced by the Bolsheviks according to the "new style", which we use now, is precisely the chronology according to the Gregorian calendar.

Only since 1582 Europe celebrates New Year In a similar way.

One of the points of accusation brought against Copernicus by the Inquisition was his disagreement with the introduction of the calculation of the date from the birth of Christ.

How the years were counted before

The way the chronology was conducted in Russia until January 1700 is usually called "Old Slavonic". But this is a fundamentally wrong opinion. 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 chronology. For example, the Antiochian Church 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 September 1, and according to the civil calendar, the year began on March 25, the day of the creation of the first woman - Eve by God.

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 single denominator - the first of January.

What year is it now?

If you want to know what year it is according to the Old Church 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 this winter vacation was born in 7180 from the Creation of the World.