[tchaika]

Happy New Year 2011 from Christmas! (According to the Julian calendar). We wish first of all spiritual wealth. Else, I hope, will follow. "Money is not happiness," - as stated in the folk wisdom.

In the Russian tradition to celebrate New Year at midnight on January 13, January 14, due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church continues to meet all the church holidays of the Julian calendar ("old style"). Hence the conventional term "Old New Year".
In this modern new year falls on Christmas post - Orthodox forty-day fast in honor of Christmas.

According to scientists, the new year to celebrate the humanity at the dawn of civilization - five thousand years ago. This custom originated in ancient Mesopotamia: each spring, streets filled with noisy parades, carnivals and masquerades in honor of the supreme god Marduk. In this festive tradition of the Babylonians took over the Greeks, and then it passed to Romans. In 1946 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar reformed calendar, which then become available to all countries belonging to the Roman Empire. His naturally, became known as Julian. Year of the Julian calendar has 365.25 days.
In the year 325 at the I Ecumenical (Nicene) Cathedral of the Julian calendar was adopted and the Christian Church. In VI century Roman monk Dionysius the Small was first proposed by the so-called "Christmas calendar" (the starting point of a new era began to consider Christmas), which until now used in most countries.

Since mankind lived not tuzhilo over one thousand six hundred years (!), While in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decided not to reform the old calendar (to cope with the inevitable errors in calendar) and coined the new "Gregorian", by which time the countdown is now the entire Western world. Year on this "new" calendar is 365.2425 days. The difference between old and new style then was 10 days.

If we compare the Julian and Gregorian calendars with the star, it appears that the latter they differ by 0.00175 and 0.0038 percent respectively. Thus, the rigorous mathematical calculations, it turns out that Julian calendar is still more accurate !

In Russia, the "new chronology" of the Gregorian calendar was introduced by the Soviet authorities in 1918, but the tradition of celebrating New Year at midnight on January 13, January 14, survived.

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Russia, Russia - which I neither have a look!
For all your sufferings, and the battle
I love thee, Russia, old
Thy forests, graveyards and prayers ...

Russia, Russia! Take care of yourself and cherish!
Look back into the forest and thy dales
On all sides they descended,
Other times of the Tatars and Mongols ...

Crosses, crosses ... I can not!
I greatly take away from the eyes of the palm
And suddenly I see: quietly in the meadow
Grass chewed hobbled horses.

Zarzhut they - and somewhere in aspen
Pick up the echo of a slow neighing,
And me - the immortal stars of Russia,
Quiet stars boundless flicker ...

Nikolay Rubtsov