Why doesn't the Orthodox Church switch to the Gregorian calendar? read a book online, read for free. Why the Russian Orthodox Church does not switch to the Gregorian calendar

Question:

Many are sincerely convinced that there are two Christmases - Catholic on December 25 and Orthodox on January 7. Is it possible to switch to Gregorian calendar will not save a person from the need to once again make a choice between truth and deceit? My friend's mother is a sincerely religious person and all the years that I have known her, for her New Year- This is a contradiction between fasting and a universal holiday. We live in a secular state with its own rules and regulations, which last years took many steps towards the Church. Let these steps correct past mistakes, but if you meet each other halfway, you can meet much faster than by waiting for a meeting and not moving yourself.
(With respect and hope for an answer, Tamara)

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

The calendar problem is incomparably more serious than the question of which table we will sit at once a year in New Year's Eve: for fasting or fasting. The calendar concerns the sacred times of the people, their holidays. The calendar determines the order and rhythm of religious life. Therefore, the issue of calendar changes seriously affects the spiritual foundations of society.

The world exists in time. God the Creator established a certain periodicity in the movement of the luminaries so that man could measure and organize time. And God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.(Gen.1:14). Counting systems for long periods of time based on visible movements celestial bodies, usually called calendars (from calendae - the first day of each month among the Romans). The cyclic movement of such astronomical bodies as the Earth, Sun and Moon is of primary importance for the construction of calendars. The need to organize time appears already at the dawn of human history. Without this, the social and economic-practical life of any people is unthinkable. However, not only these reasons made the calendar necessary. Without a calendar, the religious life of no people is possible. In worldview ancient man the calendar was a visible and impressive expression of the triumph of Divine order over chaos. The majestic constancy in the movement of the heavenly bodies, the mysterious and irreversible movement of time suggested an intelligent structure of the world.

By the time of the birth of Christian statehood, humanity already had a fairly diverse calendar experience. There were calendars: Jewish, Chaldean, Egyptian, Chinese, Hindu and others. However, according to Divine Providence, the Julian calendar, developed in 46 and coming from January 1, 45 BC, became the calendar of the Christian era. to replace the imperfect lunar Roman calendar. It was developed by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes on behalf of Julius Caesar, who then combined the power of dictator and consul with the title pontifex maximus (high priest). Therefore, the calendar began to be called Julian. The period of the Earth's complete revolution around the Sun was taken as the astronomical year, and the calendar year was determined to be 365 days in length. There was a difference with the astronomical year, which was slightly longer - 365.2425 days (5 hours 48 minutes 47 seconds). To eliminate this discrepancy, it was introduced leap year(annus bissextilis): every four years, one day was added to February. The new calendar also found a place for its outstanding initiator: the Roman month of Quintilius was renamed July (from the name of Julius).

The fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, held in 325 in Nicaea, determined to celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon, which falls after the spring equinox. At that time Julian calendar The vernal equinox fell on March 21st. The Holy Fathers of the Council, based on the Gospel sequence of events associated with the Death on the Cross and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, took care that the New Testament Easter, while maintaining its historical connection with the Old Testament Easter (which is always celebrated on the 14th of Nisan), would be independent of it and was always celebrated later. If a coincidence occurs, the rules dictate moving to the full moon of the next month. This was so significant for the fathers of the Council that they decided to make this main Christian holiday movable. Wherein solar calendar was connected to the lunar calendar: the movement of the Moon with the change of its phases was introduced into the Julian calendar, strictly oriented towards the Sun. To calculate the phases of the Moon, so-called lunar cycles were used, i.e. periods after which the phases of the Moon returned to approximately the same days of the Julian year. There are several cycles. The Roman Church used the 84-year cycle almost until the 6th century. Since the 3rd century, the Alexandrian Church used the most accurate 19-year cycle, discovered by the Athenian mathematician of the 5th century BC. Meton. In the 6th century, the Roman Church adopted the Alexandrian Paschal. It was fundamental important event. All Christians began to celebrate Easter on the same day. This unity continued until the 16th century, when the unity of Western and Eastern Christians in the celebration of Holy Easter and other holidays was broken. Pope Gregory XIII initiated calendar reform. Its preparation was entrusted to a commission headed by the Jesuit Chrisophus Claudius. Developed by new calendar teacher at the University of Perugia Luigi Lilio (1520-1576). Only astronomical considerations were taken into account, not religious ones. Since the day of the vernal equinox, which during the Council of Nicaea was March 21, shifted by ten days (by the second half of the 16th century, according to the Julian calendar, the moment of the equinox occurred on March 11), the dates of the month shifted 10 days forward: immediately after the 4th the date should not have been the 5th, as usual, but October 15, 1582. The length of the Gregorian year became equal to 365.24250 days of the tropical year, i.e. more by 26 seconds (0.00030 days).

Although the calendar year as a result of the reform has become closer to the tropical year, the Gregorian calendar has a number of significant shortcomings. Chalk up long periods the Gregorian calendar is more difficult than the Julian calendar. The length of calendar months varies and ranges from 28 to 31 days. Months of different durations alternate randomly. The length of the quarters varies (from 90 to 92 days). The first half of the year is always shorter than the second (by three days in a simple year and by two days in a leap year). The days of the week do not coincide with any fixed dates. Therefore, not only years, but also months begin on different days of the week. Most months have "split weeks". All this creates considerable difficulties for the work of planning and financial bodies (they complicate wage calculations, make it difficult to compare the results of work for different months, etc.). The Gregorian calendar could not keep the day of the vernal equinox beyond the 21st of March. The shift of the equinox, discovered in the 2nd century. BC by the Greek scientist Hipparchus, in astronomy called precession. It is caused by the fact that the Earth has the shape not of a sphere, but of a spheroid, flattened at the poles. The gravitational forces from the Sun and Moon act differently on different parts of the spheroidal Earth. As a result, with the simultaneous rotation of the Earth and its movement around the Sun, the Earth's axis of rotation describes a cone near the perpendicular to the orbital plane. Due to precession, the point of the vernal equinox moves along the ecliptic to the west, i.e., towards the apparent movement of the Sun.

The imperfections of the Gregorian calendar caused dissatisfaction as early as the 19th century. Even then, proposals began to be put forward to carry out a new calendar reform. Professor of Dorpat (now Tartu) University I.G. Mädler (1794–1874) proposed in 1864 to replace the Gregorian style with a more precise counting system, with thirty-one leap years every 128 years. American astronomer, founder and first president of the American Astronomical Society Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) advocated a return to the Julian calendar. Thanks to the proposal of the Russian Astronomical Society in 1899, a special Commission was formed under it on the issue of calendar reform in Russia. This Commission met from May 3, 1899 to February 21, 1900. The outstanding church researcher Professor V.V. Bolotov took part in the work. He strongly advocated the preservation of the Julian calendar: “If it is believed that Russia should abandon the Julian style, then the reform of the calendar, without sinning against logic, should be expressed in the following:

a) uneven months should be replaced by uniform ones;

b) according to the standard of the solar tropical year, it should reduce all years of the conventionally accepted chronology;

c) the Medler amendment should be preferred to the Gregorian one, as it is more accurate.

But I myself find the abolition of the Julian style in Russia completely undesirable. I remain a strong admirer of the Julian calendar. Its extreme simplicity constitutes its scientific advantage over all corrected calendars. I think that Russia’s cultural mission on this issue is to keep the Julian calendar in life for a few more centuries and thereby make it easier for Western peoples a return from the Gregorian reform, unnecessary to anyone, to the unspoiled old style.” In 1923, the Church of Constantinople introduced New Julian calendar. The calendar was developed by the Yugoslav astronomer, professor of mathematics and celestial mechanics at the University of Belgrade, Milutin Milanković (1879 - 1956). This calendar, which is based on a 900-year cycle, will coincide completely with the Gregorian calendar for the next 800 years (until 2800). The 11 Local Orthodox Churches, which switched to the New Julian calendar, retained the Alexandrian Paschal, based on the Julian calendar, and immovable holidays began to be celebrated according to Gregorian dates.

First of all, the transition to the Gregorian calendar (this is what is discussed in the letter) means the destruction of that Paschal, which is the great achievement of the holy fathers of the 4th century. Our domestic scientist-astronomer Professor E.A. Predtechensky wrote: “This collective work, in all likelihood by many unknown authors, was carried out in such a way that it still remains unsurpassed. The later Roman Easter, now accepted by the Western Church, is, in comparison with the Alexandrian one, so ponderous and clumsy that it resembles a popular print next to an artistic depiction of the same object. Despite all this, this terribly complex and clumsy machine does not even achieve its intended goal.” (Predtechensky E. " Church time: dead reckoning and critical review existing rules definitions of Easter.” St. Petersburg, 1892, p. 3-4).

The transition to the Gregorian calendar will also lead to serious canonical violations, because Apostolic Rules They are not allowed to celebrate Holy Passover earlier than the Jewish Passover and on the same day as the Jews: If anyone, a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, celebrates the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox with the Jews: let him be deposed from the sacred rank(rule 7). The Gregorian calendar leads Catholics to break this rule. They celebrated the Passover before the Jews in 1864, 1872, 1883, 1891, together with the Jews in 1805, 1825, 1903, 1927 and 1981. Since the transition to the Gregorian calendar would add 13 days, Peter’s Fast would be reduced by the same number of days, since it ends annually on the same day - June 29 / July 12. In some years, the Petrovsky post would simply disappear. It's about about those years when Easter is late. We also need to think about the fact that the Lord God performs His Sign at the Holy Sepulcher (the descent of the Holy Fire) in Holy Saturday according to the Julian calendar.

“The calendar problem is incomparably more serious than the question of which table we will sit at once a year on New Year’s Eve: fast or fast. The calendar concerns the sacred times of the people, their holidays. The calendar determines the order and rhythm of religious life. Therefore, the issue of calendar changes seriously affects the spiritual foundations of society.

The world exists in time. God the Creator established a certain periodicity in the movement of the luminaries so that man could measure and organize time. And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and seasons, and days, and years (Gen. 1:14).

The transition to the Gregorian calendar will also lead to serious canonical violations, for the Apostolic Canons do not allow the celebration of Holy Pascha earlier than the Jewish Passover and on the same day with the Jews: If anyone, a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, celebrates the holy day of Pascha before the vernal equinox with the Jews: let him be expelled from the sacred rank (rule 7). The Gregorian calendar leads Catholics to break this rule. They celebrated the Passover before the Jews in 1864, 1872, 1883, 1891, together with the Jews in 1805, 1825, 1903, 1927 and 1981. Since the transition to the Gregorian calendar would add 13 days, Peter’s Fast would be reduced by the same number of days, since it ends annually on the same day - June 29 / July 12. In some years, the Petrovsky post would simply disappear. We are talking about those years when there is a late Easter. We also need to think about the fact that the Lord God performs His Sign at the Holy Sepulcher (the descent of the Holy Fire) on Holy Saturday according to the Julian calendar.

@ Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

January 25 in Russia is called “Catholic Christmas,” which is not entirely true - after all, on the same day, the Nativity of Christ is celebrated by all local Orthodox churches that have switched to the New Julian calendar, and by numerous Protestants...

Perhaps it’s time for the Russian Church to switch to a new style and celebrate Christmas with the entire Western world?

Despite the fact that the Roman Catholic Church and a number of Local Orthodox Churches - Constantinople, Greece, Cyprus and others - celebrate the Nativity of Christ on the same day, December 25, Catholics and Orthodox Christians live according to different calendars. The Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations follow the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII on October 4, 1582 to replace the old Julian calendar: the day after Thursday, October 4, became Friday, October 15. The Orthodox Local Churches, with the exception of the Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Mount Athos, which remain faithful to the ancient Julian calendar, live according to the New Julian calendar, which was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Serbian astronomer, professor of mathematics and celestial mechanics at the University of Belgrade, Milutin Milanković. Of the Orthodox Churches, only the Finnish one switched to the Gregorian calendar.

The guideline of the new Gregorian calendar was only the solar cycle along with its key date of the vernal equinox, while at the same time its developers completely ignored the phases of the lunar cycle, which are fundamentally important for determining the Christian Easter. The decision of the papal commission violated the coordination of the lunar and solar cycles achieved in the lunar-solar Julian calendar and, accordingly, the approved structure of the 532-year Julian Easter Cycle - Indiction.

As a result decision taken The period of the Western Easter itself became so great (5,700,000 years!) that it could no longer be considered cyclical, but linear. Easter dates need to be calculated separately every year. In addition, as a result of the changes, the Western Passover could occur simultaneously, and even earlier than the Jewish Passover, which is a direct violation of several council regulations and rules and contradicts the Gospel chronology.

The Protestant states initially came out sharply against the Gregorian reform, but gradually, during the 18th century, they switched to a new chronology. Soon the Gregorian calendar became the official calendar of Western European civilization, the so-called “new style”. Orthodox Church sharply condemned the new Gregorian calendar as an unfounded and completely unacceptable innovation. In 1583, by the Decree of the Church Council of Constantinople, the Gregorian calendar was anathematized.

However, in 1923, the Patriarch of Constantinople Meletius IV Metaxakis convened a “Pan-Orthodox” congress - the Constantinople Conference, at which the issue of carrying out a new calendar reform was discussed, the final decision of which was the Regulation on the transition of the Orthodox Church to the new Gregorian calendar. Immediately after the end of the Conference, at the beginning of 1924, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Athens proposed that the Orthodox switch to the New Julian calendar. This calendar differed from the Gregorian calendar in greater accuracy, but practically coincided with it until the year 2800, which is why it began to be considered simply its modulation.

In March 1924, the Greek Church switched to a new calendar, without waiting for the decision of other Orthodox Churches. The Eastern Patriarchs, relying on the decisions of the Holy Councils of their Patriarchates, initially spoke out decisively against the transition to the New Julian calendar. But during the 20th century, the majority of Local Churches nevertheless switched to the reformed Gregorian calendar. Patriarch Meletius IV, occupying the throne of Athens in 1918-1920, Constantinople in 1921-1923, and then Alexandria in 1926-1935, consistently introduced a new style there. He also intended to take the throne of Jerusalem, but he soon died, and Jerusalem did not have time to switch to the new style. Soon the Romanian Church switched to the new style, then the Antioch Patriarchate in 1948, and the Bulgarian Patriarchate in 1968.

After the Constantinople Conference of 1923, which approved the transition of all Orthodox churches to the “New Julian” style, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Tikhon issued a Decree on the introduction of the “New Julian” calendar in the Russian Orthodox Church, but after 24 days he canceled it due to the outbreak of Orthodox unrest clergy and laity.

The introduction of the New Julian calendar in a number of Orthodox Churches caused great turmoil in the Orthodox world. In the Local Churches that switched to the new style, schismatic movements of “Old Calendarists” arose. The largest Old Calendar jurisdiction in Greece today has about 400 thousand parishioners.

The famous professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy V.V. Bolotov spoke about the Orthodox Julian calendar. “Its extreme simplicity constitutes its scientific advantage over all corrected calendars. I think that Russia’s cultural mission on this issue is to keep the Julian calendar in life for a few more centuries and thereby make it easier for Western peoples to return from the Gregorian reform, which no one needs, to the unspoiled old style.”

Today, Christmas is perhaps the most famous of the Christian holidays, but this was not always the case. The main holiday of the first Christians was the Resurrection of Christ, Easter, and at first this celebration was established as a weekly celebration of the Resurrection, and only then as an annual celebration of Easter. The early Christians, most of whom were Jews, did not celebrate their own birthdays or the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ, because in the Jewish tradition the birthday was considered “the beginning of sorrows and illnesses.” When many converts from the Hellenistic culture joined the Church, the idea arose to declare the day of the coming of the Savior into the world winter solstice, when the Romans celebrated the birthday of the Invincible Sun.

In the early Church, on one holiday - Epiphany - they remembered both the birth of Christ in Bethlehem in Judea and His baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. In Armenian Apostolic Church these holidays remained undivided. Armenians celebrate Christmas together with Epiphany on January 6 according to the European calendar.

Text: Olga Gumanova

The calendar problem is incomparably more serious than the question of which table we will sit at once a year on New Year’s Eve: fast or fast. The calendar concerns the sacred times of the people, their holidays. The calendar determines the order and rhythm of religious life. Therefore, the issue of calendar changes seriously affects the spiritual foundations of society.

@ Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

Before the birth of Jesus Christ, humanity knew many calendars, but God wanted Jesus to be born precisely when Rome lived according to the Julian calendar, named after the dictator Julius Caesar, on whose behalf the scientist Sosigenes developed a new calendar.

The sage took the astronomical year as a basis - that is, the time during which the Earth makes a revolution around the sun (most likely, the astronomer did not know about this, and for him the Sun revolved around the Earth) and rounded it, and the year turned out to be equal to 365 days, and the remaining hours and minutes (namely 5 hours 48 minutes 47 seconds) over four years turned into one more day, which it was decided to celebrate with an additional day in a leap year. In the new calendar, Julius Caesar himself was immortalized - the month of July was named in his honor.

Council of Nicaea - when to celebrate Easter?

Since Christ was born and lived during the time of the Julian calendar, it was quite natural that His church began its life according to it, and in the 4th century, at the first Ecumenical Council, which was held in the city of Nicaea, they asked about the date of Easter. For reasons of the sequence of gospel events, it should have been celebrated after the Old Testament Passover (Passover), which is dedicated to the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery and which is celebrated during the week of the 14th day of Nissan according to the Jewish calendar. Since Christ was crucified after Passover, his Resurrection should also be celebrated after, and the holy fathers wanted to take into account not only the connection between two holidays of different religions, but also to ensure independence Christian Easter from the Jewish calendar, so it was decided to celebrate Easter after the spring equinox on the first Sunday after the full moon, and if this Sunday coincides with Passover, then Easter should be celebrated a week later. To follow exactly church calendar, the priests had to take into account the Alexandrian calculus of the lunar cycle, created by the mathematician Meton, who lived five centuries before Christ.

When calculating the day of Easter, Christians around the world combined the Julian calendar, oriented to the sun, with lunar calendar Meton, and everything turned out quite logically, since the equinox fell on March 21, and Orthodox Easter, which became a moving holiday, was always celebrated after Passover.

Reforms are not always good

All Christians lived according to this calendar for a long time, but in the 16th century, Pope Gregory XIII started a calendar reform, and the mathematician Lilio Luigi developed a new calendar that took into account the exact considerations of science. The day of the vernal equinox moved forward by 10 days in terms of calculation, the year became 26 seconds longer, the length of the randomly alternating months became different, the first half of the year turned out to be shorter than the second, and the days of the week no longer coincided with certain dates, as it was before. Despite this, many churches, including Catholics, Protestants and Uniates, recognized this calendar.

Dad's calendar was so inconvenient that late XIX century, a special Commission was created on the issue of the need for a calendar in Russia, which met for almost a year.

Russian astronomer E. Predtechensky pointed out to his colleagues that the Alexandrian calculus of the lunar cycle, adopted in the Julian calendar, still remains unsurpassed in accuracy, in contrast to the Roman calculus adopted by the Gregorians: “...The Roman Paschal,” he wrote, “adopted by the Western Church , is... so ponderous and clumsy that it resembles a popular print next to an artistic depiction of the same subject.”

In 1923, the Church of Constantinople switched to the New Julian calendar, which was developed by Yugoslav Milanković, after which 11 Local churches, who abandoned the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ according to the Julian calendar, and began to celebrate the remaining dates in a new way. Only Christians of the Russian Orthodox Church and monks on Holy Mount Athos remained faithful to the Julian calendar.

The Gregorian calendar destroys Easter

Our contemporary, Hieromonk Job Gumerov, explains in his articles that the transition of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Gregorian calendar will mean the destruction of Paschal and will lead to canonical violations, because the “Apostolic Rules” do not allow celebrating Easter before Passover: “If anyone, a bishop, or a presbyter, or The deacon will celebrate the holy day of Easter before the spring equinox with the Jews: let him be deposed from the sacred rank.” Despite the ban, Catholics celebrated Easter before the Jews four times in the 19th century and celebrated it five times with the Jews in the 19th-20th centuries; the transition to the Gregorian calendar would shorten Peter's fast by 13 days, and in some years it simply would not exist.

In addition, the clergy considers the circumstances under which the Gregorian style was introduced into circulation too suspicious: in Eastern Europe, in Greece and Constantinople it was lobbied by anti-Christian people, and in Russia the introduction of a new calendar was associated with violence against the Orthodox, for example, in the twenties of the 20th century, Bishop Herman of Finland persecuted Russian monks who adhered to the Julian calendar.

In 1923, the Soviet government demanded that His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon introduced a “new” style, threatening reprisals against the arrested clergy, but the Patriarch remained faithful Orthodox faith and did not sign the document. Perhaps in these harsh days he remembered what the Lord sends to the Orthodox Holy Fire precisely according to the Julian calendar, which means it remains the only true tool for calculating Christian holidays.