Ancient Slavic calendar

Historians use information from medieval written sources to restore the ancient Slavic calendar. Firstly, these are Bulgarian and Old Russian annalistic texts that mention the names of months and keep track of years and time periods, starting with the pre-Christian history of the Slavs. Secondly, it is hagiographic literature . A special group consists of texts containing calendar calculations. These include Easter tables and the “Doctrine of Numbers” by Kirik Novgorod .

The most important source is the so-called folk calendar , which is recorded in the folklore texts of the new time. He preserves, as it is believed, the most important elements of the annual calendar cycle of the ancient Slavs and the internal relations between them. When working with this calendar, one should take into account the layering of later Christian ideas, the discrepancy between the Julian calendar and the astronomical calendar , and the change of calendars: Julian to Gregorian . An important place is the study of popular names of the months.

The third group of sources is archaeological finds. There is a method of statistical analysis of calendar symbols on ceramics and ornaments of preliterate archaeological cultures . Its essence is to identify calendar numbers reflected in decorations (for example, the numbers 21, 13, 12, 9, 7, 4 and 3 are calendar), calculate the frequency of their use in the area of ​​culture and compare with similar statistics of synchronous neighbors across the territory cultures, as well as cultures of earlier and later periods. For the Slavs, no such studies were conducted. The complexity is also caused by disputes about which archaeologically cultures can be considered Slavic. Another problem is the lack of calendar symbols on the Slavs ceramics. The richest material for the reconstruction of the calendar of the ancient Slavs is given by ceramics of the Chernyakhov culture , whose Slavic affiliation, at the same time, is far from recognized by most archaeologists. Some researchers tried to use for the reconstruction of the calendar the numerical values ​​reflected in the construction of the ancient Slavic temples (the number 8, which is more likely geographic rather than calendar).

The fourth group of information about the Slavic calendar arises when using the comparative method. When restoring, analogies with other calendar systems are used, however, this method does not provide reliable data, due to the lack of synchronous written sources and affirmative archaeological data on the early history of the Slavs.

The Slavic calendar was originally lunar, or remnants of the lunar calendar have long been preserved. This is obvious both from the very name “month” and from numerous recollections of the lunar time counting in folk life. However, the realities of the agricultural life of the Slavs, as well as of other European peoples, prompted them to pay more attention to the sun. The main holidays of the annual cycle since ancient times, even from pre-Slavic times, were tied to the daylight - so the Slavic calendar inevitably became lunar-solar ^[1] .

B. A. Rybakov , examining the calendar signs on the Chernyakhov vessel from p. Daisies (IV century) by comparison with the folk calendar, I came to the conclusion that the Slavs counted the time by days, combining this account in small periods (week, two weeks, 40 days, month (or “moon”), etc.) , thus taking into account the ordinal position of the day relative to other days and the ratio of the entire annual cycle to astronomical and natural phenomena. Such phenomena, according to some researchers, were the days of the solar equinox and solstice - the Slavic holidays Maslenitsa , Kupala and Kolyada .

On the Romashkin calendar, according to Rybakov, the period of agricultural work from the end of May to August is marked, the holidays “Kupala” (night from June 23 to 24 ) and Perun ( July 12 and 20 ), as well as “ Rusalias ” and the harvest period are marked.

The days are marked with squares with a cross inside - a symbol of light, that is, the bill was kept “in days” (“in summer days I’m chtyakhu”), whereas in ancient Russian sources it is also indicated that the ancestors of the Slavs before they learned about 12 months of the Julian calendar, counted time on the moon ("ovia on the moon I read"), that is, for months.

With this count of time, it was easiest to consider the days and years from any event, and various local calendar systems and eras were formed that were not all Slavic and existed for a short amount of time until the next significant event.

The ancient Slavs include the numbers 12, 6, 4, and 3 associated with the sun , the numbers 13, 7, 5, and 4, associated with the moon , and also the number 9, which has a lunar-solar explanation. In folklore there are such temporary and numerical values ​​as 30 years and 3 years, “distant” (27) and “thirty” (30), 40 days and “forty magpies” (1600), etc.

Rybakov’s conclusions are not shared by some researchers, for example, L. S. Klein . Klein criticizes Rybakov for the tension of conclusions and ignoring the multi-ethnic nature of Chernyakhov’s culture, so that if the signs on the pots can be regarded as calendar symbols, then only as Germanic or Scythian-Sarmatian ^[2] .

The names of the days of the week in different Slavic peoples

In The Tale of Bygone Years, Monday and Tuesday are mentioned only once, Wednesday twice, Thursday three times, Friday 5 times, Saturday 9, and Sunday ("week") 17 times.

The names of the days of the week (“weeks”) have ordinal values: Tuesday - the second day, Thursday - the fourth, Friday - the fifth. The name of Sunday - “week” - indicates a ban on working on this day, on a day of rest (such bans are also associated with various public holidays and various activities). The name of Monday indicates the connection of the seventh and first days ("after the week").

The word Sabbath is borrowed from the Hebrew language, it probably came along with the Christianization of Russia, with Russian non-church sixes, a shock . The word Wednesday indicates the middle position of the day among five days (or seven, if you count the week not from Monday, but from Sunday). Friday and Sunday were revered in the Slavic folk tradition ^[3] . The celebration of the twelve "Fridays" in the year ^[4] , which has apocryphal origins, has survived.

Svetlana Tolstaya believes ^[5] that the Eastern Slavs enjoyed a five-day week, and they borrowed Saturday and Sunday during Christianization.

The Serbian ethnographer Petar Petrovich suggests that with the advent of Christianity the Serbs added Saturday, and before that the week consisted of six days ^[6] .

L. V. Cherepnin wrote about the first centuries of Christianization:

“It is difficult to reliably say what day the days of the week began in ancient Russia: whether from Sunday, ending with Saturday, or from Monday to Sunday. It is supposed that there was no unified system, that both of these accounts existed simultaneously, moreover, the first one was used in everyday life, the second prevailed in church practice. ”

The days of the week, like other pagan peoples, could be dedicated to various gods. The correspondence of the days of the week to seven planets and planetary gods was borrowed by the ancient Roman calendar from the Chaldean astrology of Mesopotamia along with a seven-day week, and then spread throughout the Roman periphery ^[7] . It is known ^{[8] [9]} that Thursday is associated with Perun , and Friday - with Mokoshia (cf. the late character - Paraskeva Friday ).

The word "month" itself indicates a connection between the allocation of such a chronological segment with the lunar cycles and has pan-European roots. Consequently, the duration of the month ranged from 28 to 31 days, it is not yet possible to more accurately indicate the account of days by months.

Slavic names of the months have been preserved among a number of Slavic peoples ^[10] . (In languages ​​in italics, names of Latin origin are usually used, names with the same meaning are indicated in one color.)

In the Lithuanian language , the Baltic names of the months, partially coinciding with the Slavic ones, are preserved, which suggests that some of these names date back to the time of the Baltic-Slavic unity. Lithuanian names are also given in this table.

In the Ostromir Gospel (XI century) and other ancient monuments of writing, the name corresponded to January as prosinets (since it was becoming lighter at that time), February - section (since this was the season of deforestation), March - dry (anhydrous ^[16] , there is a version that the ground has already dried up in some places), April - birch, birch sap (names associated with a birch starting to bloom), May - grass (from the word "grass"), June - isok ("grasshopper" ^[17] ), July - Cherry, sickle (from the word "sickle", indicating the time of harvest), in August - the glow (from the "glow"), September ryu - ryuen (from the word "roar": during this period, many animals "are in heat and raise a wild roar" ^[17] ), in October - leaf fall, in November - December - chestnuts (from the word "pile" - "frozen, not brought dirt covered by streets and roads with snow ” ^[17] ), sometimes jelly.

Thus, the Slavs did not have common ideas about the order and name of the months. From the whole mass of names, pre-Slavic names are revealed, which indicates the unity of the origin of the calendar. The etymology of names is also not always clear and gives rise to all sorts of speculation on this topic. The only thing that most reenactors agree on is the connection of names with natural phenomena characteristic of the annual cycle.

V. Shaur believes that the Proto-Slavs had common names for months, on the basis of which he tried to reconstruct the names: for example, January prosper, February - sěčьn, March - berzn, April - květn, May - travn, June - črvn, July - lip, august - sirp; september - versus; october - rujn; november - listopad; december - grudn ^[18] .

According to T.V. Gamkrelidze and V.V. Ivanov, only three seasons stood out among the ancient Indo-Europeans, which was probably associated with the agricultural seasons. However, later, almost all Indo-European peoples recorded four seasons. The Slavic name of summer is an innovation, preserving along with this the ancient meaning of “year” ^[19] .

Some researchers ^[20] believe that the Slavs began the new year in January, when they celebrated Christmas time - the birth of a new world.

Until the end of the XVII century, the new year in Russia did not begin in January, but in March (as in Ancient Rome ) or in September (as in Byzantium ). Until 1492, researchers believe that both new years existed in parallel, but the March style prevailed. Since 1492, the September style has dominated, displacing the March style. Peter I, by his decree of December 19 (29), 1699, indicated the beginning of the year to be considered January 1 . By this decree, Peter I ordered the chronology of "from the creation of the world" to be replaced by the chronology of the birth of Christ. 7208 from the creation of the world became the year 1700 from the birth of Christ. The same decree instructed people to wish each other a Happy New Year , and not a Happy New Year, as was previously accepted ^[21] .

If we talk about popular, peasant culture, then on the night of December 31 to January 1, the Russians celebrated Vasilyev evening , the successor of which can partially be considered the Old New Year . The ritual of Vasiliev’s evening had many elements of “first day magic” ^[22] .

From the Greek chronicle of John Malala, we know about the reign of Svarog and his son Dazhbog . The last rule, according to the insert in the annals, is 7470 days, or 20 and a half years. On the other hand, this fragment was only translated using the names of the Slavic gods. Its plot was completely borrowed, reflecting the tradition of Eugémerism characteristic of medieval Christian book writing. The same can be said of the Russians as “ Dazhbogskie grandchildren” from “Words about Igor's Regiment” ^[23] .

• Serbian folk calendar
• Folk calendar of Eastern Slavs
• Folk calendars among the Slavs
• Byzantine calendar

• Alekseev S.V. Reconstruction of the Pre-Slavic ritual: calendar customs // Scientific works of Moscow Humanitarian University. - Publishing house of the Moscow University for the Humanities, 2013. - No. 3/2013 . - S. 21–40 .
• Afanasyev A. N. Public Holidays // The Tree of Life: Selected Articles / Text Preparation and Commentary. Yu. M. Medvedev , will enter. article by B.P. Cirdan . - M .: Sovremennik , 1982.- 464 p. - (B-ka "Lovers of Russian literature"). - 75,000 copies.
• Klein, L.S. Resurrection of Perun. To the reconstruction of East Slavic paganism . - SPb. : Eurasia, 2004.
• Nekrylova A.F. Year-round. Russian agricultural calendar. - M .: True, 1991 .-- 496 p. - ISBN 5-253-00598-6 .
• Petroviћ P. J. Godishњak temporarily // Srpski mitoloshki river boat . - Beograd: Nolith, 1970. - S. 99–101. - 317 p. - (Synthesis Library). (serbochor.)
• Rybakov B.A. Paganism of the ancient Slavs . - M .: Nauka, 1981. - 608 p.
• Ryzhenkov G. D. Folk months: proverbs, sayings, signs, sayings about the seasons and weather . - M .: Sovremennik, 1991 .-- 129 p. - ISBN 5-270-01376-2 .
• Tolstaya S. M. Polessky folk calendar. - M .: Indrik , 2005 .-- 600 p. - ( Traditional spiritual culture of the Slavs . Modern research). - ISBN 5-85759-300-X .

• Summary table of Slavic names of the months
• Zhuravel A. V. The months “book” and “heaven”: their relationship on the pages of the annals
• Gusev V. Ye. On the reconstruction of the Pre-Slavic calendar (on the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs) // Soviet Ethnography, 1978, No. 6. M: Nauka, 1978. P. 132-143.