Interesting facts about chronology in different countries. Interesting facts about the calendar As the Pope commanded

Before the discovery of America and the beginning of its conquest by Europeans, the territory of present-day Mexico, Guatemala and some other countries was occupied by the Aztec Empire, which created a very original calendar. The year consisted of 18 months, 20 days each, and the “remaining” 5 days were considered “unlucky”. This calendar was carved on a huge stone. It had the shape of a circle, with a diameter of about 4 meters. Each day was marked with its own symbol.



Creation of the modern generally accepted calendar
Nowadays there are many different calendar systems created different peoples and priests of various religions. Some of them are still in limited use. Most calendars were calculated on the basis of identified astronomical patterns, primarily the movements of celestial bodies. These systems could differ significantly from each other. Additional confusion was caused by the difference between the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, as well as the fact that the duration of the period of the Earth's revolution around the Sun (years) is not a multiple of the period of the Earth's revolution around its own axis (days). As a result, with sufficiently long use of each specific calendar, errors inevitably accumulated, gradually becoming more and more noticeable. This necessitated calendar reforms.
Such reforms have been carried out repeatedly. For example, the calendar was reformed by the Roman emperors: Caesar, Octavian (August) and others. The most famous reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII, when the “Gregorian” calendar was created, which is now accepted as the main one in most countries and the UN.

Gregorian calendar
In our country, this current calendar is also called the “new style”. The fact is that until October 1917, the outdated “Julian” calendar continued to operate in Russia. The transition to the “new style” took place only after the RCP(b) came to power.

In Catholic countries, the “Gregorian” calendar came into effect on October 15, 1582. Its introduction was due to the errors that had accumulated since the previous calendar reform (I Ecumenical Council in 325 AD). The reform consisted of two main parts:
- The error that reached 10 days from 325 was eliminated. Thus, the date of “Easter Friday” was returned and strictly tied to the day of the vernal equinox (21.03). The rules of Easter, established by the Council of Nicea, began to be fulfilled again.
- To prevent the accumulation of errors in the future, an innovation was adopted that ensures a more accurate linking of the calendar to astronomical patterns. It consists in the fact that over the course of every 4 centuries, three leap years are converted into ordinary years. For this purpose, a rule was established according to which a year with a number ending with two zeros is considered a leap year only if the number made up by its first two digits is also a multiple of 4. For example, the year 2000 was a leap year. But in the year 2100 there will be no February 29th. For years whose serial numbers do not end with two zeros, the leap rule remains the same. If the year number is a multiple of 4, the year is considered a leap year.

The introduction of this amendment significantly slowed down the accumulation of error in the discrepancy between the calendar year and the astronomical standard. Now an error of one day will accumulate for 3333 years. The described amendment constituted the main difference between the “Gregorian” calendar and the Julian style adopted before its introduction.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles gradually but steadily increases: in the 16th-17th centuries. it was 10 days in the 18th century. – 11, in the 19th century. - 12, and in the XX-XXI centuries. reached 13 days. From March 15, 2100, the difference between styles will be 14 days. Although the Gregorian calendar provides for a February duration of 28 or 29 (in a leap year) days, it happened that in some years in some countries (for example, Sweden, 1712) February lasted 30 days.

Calculation in Russia
In Russia, chronology reforms also took place. One of the most famous is the calendar reform carried out by Peter I, but there were others.
For quite a long time, the date of the new “secular” year was March 1, while the religious year began on September 1. And the starting point of chronology was considered the date of the “creation of the world.” Later, and "secular" New Year postponed to September 1st. About 200 years later, Peter I carried out his famous reform. Its main goal was to harmonize the Russian calendar and chronology with those accepted in Europe. The date of the new year was set on January 1, and the starting point of the chronology was the Nativity of Christ. As a result, 01.01.7208 was transformed into 01.01.1700, and calendar year, which preceded the reform (1699) was reduced to 4 months: from September to December. It was the shortest calendar year in the history of our country.

The creation of the first printed calendar in Russia was led by the famous alchemist and scientist J. Bruce. This calendar was scientific work, consisting of a set of complex astronomical drawings and graphs. Even specialists can’t figure out the calendar (named after its creator, “Bryusovoy”).

The transition to the modern Gregorian calendar took place on February 14, 1918, shortly after the RCP(b) came to power. However, from 1930 to 1940. The USSR had its own “revolutionary” calendar. But since the 1940s, the country again began to adhere to the “Gregorian” style.

Failed global reform
At the beginning of the twentieth century. an initiative arose for global calendar reform. The draft of the new calendar developed at that time provided for dividing the year into 13 months of equal duration, 28 days each. It was planned to separate the “extra” day, as well as the “extra” day in leap years, and declare it a holiday. Among the advantages of this system were the strict binding of calendar numbers to certain days of the week (all months consisted of exactly 4 weeks) and the ability to accurately compare numerous economic and statistical indicators by month. However, the strict linking of the number to the day of the week was perceived by many (especially superstitious) people as a disadvantage, since Friday would always coincide with the 13th of the month. True, this problem could be solved if the beginning of the week was taken not to be Sunday (as, for example, in the USA), but Monday (as is usual for us).

This project was considered by the League of Nations, but was rejected by it in 1937. Interestingly, one of its ardent supporters, the founder and head of Kodak, D. Eastman, introduced this system for internal use in his company back in 1928, where it was used until 1989.

So, I conveyed to you how the calendar came into being, what interesting moments there were when creating this or that calendar, and, probably, each of you understood that this article is dedicated to the fact that in just 14 days a new one will come 2017 is the year of the fiery rooster and of course I can’t help but talk about the nuances of the new calendar for 2017. In general, the best service to do this is “Calendar555” (https://calendar555.ru/) and here’s just a small part of what you can find out on this website: The 2017 calendar on this service will tell you about holidays and weekends, about all official holidays, and about a variety of other holidays celebrated both here and abroad. In 2017, there were fourteen official holidays. 3 days have been moved to weekdays, which will give us the opportunity to relax at home longer. And a huge number of professional, folk and religious holidays.


. In Muslim countries it is in circulation lunar calendar, completely different from what residents of Christian states are accustomed to. Moreover, the very degree of their differences varies depending on current year and even months. Calculating the correspondence between them is extremely difficult. But now any personal computer is initially equipped with a compliance program. This way, users can easily switch from one calendar to another.
. Creating a calendar was a difficult task for each of the nations. Most tried to associate his grid with the movement celestial bodies, but since the lunar and solar cycles do not coincide, problems arose. To eliminate the confusion, heads of state had to carry out calendar reforms. The Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, his nephew Emperor Augustus, and Pope Gregory XIII were forced to do this. Each time the chronology began in a new way: the previous cycle shifted.
. In Russia, the most famous reform of Peter I. But it was not the only one. Initially civil year We started on March 1st, religious - on September 1st. Later, the arrival of the New Year began to be celebrated on the first day of autumn. Two centuries later, Peter I moved the date to January 1, deciding to equalize the domestic chronology with the European one. So January 1, 7208 from the creation of the world turned into January 1, 1700 from the Nativity of Christ, so the last pre-reform year (1699) was the shortest for Russia: it lasted only four months - from September to December.
. The ancient Romans considered the first new moon of spring to be the beginning of the year. They divided the entire year into ten months, or 304 days. Only the first four months had names: March, May, June - from the names of the gods, and April - from the Latin word “to open”. The rest wore numerical designations. The Romans did not divide the days remaining until spring into months and lived throughout the winter “in timelessness” before the start of spring. next year.
. The appearance of the first printed calendar in our country is associated with the name of Jacob Bruce, a scientist and military leader. He was considered an alchemist ■ and a sorcerer. It was under the supervision of this historical figure that the first calendar was released, which to this day is called “Bryusov”. It consisted of extremely complex drawings, and today not every specialist can understand them. “Bruce's calendar” was astrological, consistent with strict scientific canons.
Calendars in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries were thick books in which any information could be found: about saints, holidays, field work. In fact, they were both a kind of encyclopedia and a literary almanac. Therefore, you should not be surprised when you meet literary work a phrase about the family reading the calendar out loud at night. Two centuries ago, a pocket calendar was called a book of the appropriate format for short notes, in which the calendar was only an auxiliary tool. In fact, it was a modern weekly magazine in miniature. The pocket calendar we were used to was called a timesheet calendar. At first these were large structures, then they gradually became smaller. Colorfully decorated, they were intended mainly for women and were decorated with flowers, angels and romantic pictures. As in other texts, there are errors in calendars. The rarest incident occurred with a series of calendars from the Timiryazev Academy: they contained 31 days for all months of the year. Much more often, oddly enough, January 1 is missing from calendars. No less common mistakes include confusion with the day of February 29: confusion occurs every four years. So, in 1975, Sovexportfilm approved an order for a series of 36 calendars for 1976, in which the ill-fated day was absent. When part of the circulation was received, a typo was noticed. In the next batch, the lost day appeared, but the name of the month was missing. And only last batch calendars turned out to be without errors. In this case, a wise decision was made: send calendars without errors abroad (which, in fact, they were intended for), and distribute them with errors in the USSR.

Before the discovery of America and the beginning of its conquest by Europeans, the territory of present-day Mexico, Guatemala and some other countries was occupied by the Aztec Empire, which created a very original calendar. The year consisted of 18 months, 20 days each, and the “remaining” 5 days were considered “unlucky”. This calendar was carved on a huge stone. It had the shape of a circle, with a diameter of about 4 meters. Each day was marked with its own symbol.



Creation of the modern generally accepted calendar
Nowadays, many different calendar systems are known, created by different peoples and priests of different religions. Some of them are still in limited use. Most calendars were calculated on the basis of identified astronomical patterns, primarily the movements of celestial bodies. These systems could differ significantly from each other. Additional confusion was caused by the difference between the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, as well as the fact that the duration of the period of the Earth's revolution around the Sun (years) is not a multiple of the period of the Earth's revolution around its own axis (days). As a result, with sufficiently long use of each specific calendar, errors inevitably accumulated, gradually becoming more and more noticeable. This necessitated calendar reforms.
Such reforms have been carried out repeatedly. For example, the calendar was reformed by the Roman emperors: Caesar, Octavian (August) and others. The most famous reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII, when the “Gregorian” calendar was created, which is now accepted as the main one in most countries and the UN.

Gregorian calendar
In our country, this current calendar is also called the “new style”. The fact is that until October 1917, the outdated “Julian” calendar continued to operate in Russia. The transition to the “new style” took place only after the RCP(b) came to power.

In Catholic countries, the “Gregorian” calendar came into effect on October 15, 1582. Its introduction was due to the errors that had accumulated since the previous calendar reform (I Ecumenical Council in 325 AD). The reform consisted of two main parts:
- The error that reached 10 days from 325 was eliminated. Thus, the date of “Easter Friday” was returned and strictly tied to the day of the vernal equinox (21.03). The rules of Easter, established by the Council of Nicea, began to be fulfilled again.
- To prevent the accumulation of errors in the future, an innovation was adopted that ensures a more accurate linking of the calendar to astronomical patterns. It consists in the fact that over the course of every 4 centuries, three leap years are converted into ordinary years. For this purpose, a rule was established according to which a year with a number ending with two zeros is considered a leap year only if the number made up by its first two digits is also a multiple of 4. For example, the year 2000 was a leap year. But in the year 2100 there will be no February 29th. For years whose serial numbers do not end with two zeros, the leap rule remains the same. If the year number is a multiple of 4, the year is considered a leap year.

The introduction of this amendment significantly slowed down the accumulation of error in the discrepancy between the calendar year and the astronomical standard. Now an error of one day will accumulate for 3333 years. The described amendment constituted the main difference between the “Gregorian” calendar and the Julian style adopted before its introduction.

The difference between the Julian and Gregorian styles gradually but steadily increases: in the 16th-17th centuries. it was 10 days in the 18th century. – 11, in the 19th century. - 12, and in the XX-XXI centuries. reached 13 days. From March 15, 2100, the difference between styles will be 14 days. Although the Gregorian calendar provides for a February duration of 28 or 29 (in a leap year) days, it happened that in some years in some countries (for example, Sweden, 1712) February lasted 30 days.

Calculation in Russia
In Russia, chronology reforms also took place. One of the most famous is the calendar reform carried out by Peter I, but there were others.
For quite a long time, the date of the new “secular” year was March 1, while the religious year began on September 1. And the starting point of chronology was considered the date of the “creation of the world.” Later, the “secular” New Year was moved to September 1st. About 200 years later, Peter I carried out his famous reform. Its main goal was to harmonize the Russian calendar and chronology with those accepted in Europe. The date of the new year was set on January 1, and the starting point of the chronology was the Nativity of Christ. As a result, 01.01.7208 was transformed into 01.01.1700, and the calendar year preceding the reform (1699) was reduced to 4 months: from September to December. It was the shortest calendar year in the history of our country.

The creation of the first printed calendar in Russia was led by the famous alchemist and scientist J. Bruce. This calendar was a scientific work consisting of a set of complex astronomical drawings and graphs. Even specialists can’t figure out the calendar (named after its creator, “Bryusovoy”).

The transition to the modern Gregorian calendar took place on February 14, 1918, shortly after the RCP(b) came to power. However, from 1930 to 1940. The USSR had its own “revolutionary” calendar. But since the 1940s, the country again began to adhere to the “Gregorian” style.

Failed global reform
At the beginning of the twentieth century. an initiative arose for global calendar reform. The draft of the new calendar developed at that time provided for dividing the year into 13 months of equal duration, 28 days each. It was planned to separate the “extra” day, as well as the “extra” day in leap years, and declare it a holiday. Among the advantages of this system were the strict binding of calendar numbers to certain days of the week (all months consisted of exactly 4 weeks) and the ability to accurately compare numerous economic and statistical indicators by month. However, the strict linking of the number to the day of the week was perceived by many (especially superstitious) people as a disadvantage, since Friday would always coincide with the 13th of the month. True, this problem could be solved if the beginning of the week was taken not to be Sunday (as, for example, in the USA), but Monday (as is usual for us).

This project was considered by the League of Nations, but was rejected by it in 1937. Interestingly, one of its ardent supporters, the founder and head of Kodak, D. Eastman, introduced this system for internal use in his company back in 1928, where it was used up to 1989

So, I conveyed to you how the calendar came into being, what interesting moments there were when creating this or that calendar, and, probably, each of you understood that this article is dedicated to the fact that in just 14 days a new one will come 2017 is the year of the fiery rooster and of course I can’t help but talk about the nuances of the new calendar for 2017. In general, the best service to do this is “Calendar555” (https://calendar555.ru/) and here’s just a small part of what you can find out on this website: The 2017 calendar on this service will tell you about holidays and weekends, about all official holidays, and about a variety of other holidays celebrated both here and abroad. In 2017, there are fourteen official holidays in the Russian Federation. 3 days have been moved to weekdays, which will give us the opportunity to relax at home longer. And a huge number of professional, folk and religious holidays.

1. Today it is impossible to say exactly how many calendars there were. Here is the most complete list of them: Armelina, Armenian, Assyrian, Aztec, Bahai, Bengali, Buddhist, Babylonian, Byzantine, Vietnamese, Gilburda, Holocene, Gregorian, Georgian, Ancient Greek, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Indian, Ancient Chinese, Ancient Persian, Ancient Slavic, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Indian, Inca, Iranian, Irish, Islamic, Chinese, Konta, Coptic, Malay, Maya, Nepalese, New Julian, Roman, Symmetrical, Soviet, Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Turkmen, French, Canaanite, Juche, Sumerian, Ethiopian, Julian, Javanese, Japanese.

2. Collecting pocket calendars is called philotimey or calendarism.

3. Over the entire existence of the calendar, very original and unusual calendars appeared from time to time. For example, a calendar in verse. The first of them was released on one sheet, in the form of a wall poster. The Chronology calendar was compiled by Andrei Rymsha and printed in the city of Ostrog by Ivan Fedorov on May 5, 1581.

4. The very first calendar in the form of a miniature book came out of print on the eve of 1761. This is the “Court Calendar”, which can still be seen in the State Public Library named after M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in St. Petersburg.

5. The first Russian tear-off calendars appeared at the end of the 19th century. The publisher I. D. Sytin began publishing them on the advice given to him by none other than... Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

6. The first pocket calendar (about the size of a playing card), with an illustration on one side and the calendar itself on the other, was first released in Russia in 1885. It was printed at the printing house of the Partnership of I. N. Kushnaerev and Co. This printing house still exists, only it is now called “Red Proletarian”.

7. The smallest calendar in history weighs only 19 grams including binding. It is kept in the Matenadaran (Armenian Institute of Ancient Manuscripts) and is a manuscript less than the size of a matchbox. It contains 104 parchment leaves. It is written in the calligraphic handwriting of the scribe Ogsent and can only be read with a magnifying glass.

8. The largest pocket calendar (1400 square centimeters) was made in 1976 by Vneshtorgizdat for the Sovexportfilm association. The calendar was a block chain on a single sheet of paper. The sheet was perforated and was torn into 24 small calendars with portraits of Soviet film stars.


9. The “shortest” calendars were published in 1918, since this year was the shortest in the history of our country - only 352 days. In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars “On the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic,” time reckoning according to the so-called “new style” was introduced in our country. As a result of the temporary “correction,” the year became 13 days shorter. Immediately after January 31st came February 14th. The largest number of weeks in the calendar (72 instead of the current 52) ​​was in 1930. The USSR introduced a “continuous calendar” with a 5-day week.

10. One day, the Volgograd offset printing factory produced a strange calendar: it had two Februarys, two Marches, two Augusts and two Septembers. January, October, November and... the year itself was not foreseen at all... With this masterpiece of printing thought, perhaps only a mini-calendar with the emblem of the magazine “Sobriety and Culture” of 1987 can compete, each month of which contained 31 days...

11. The largest collection of calendars is in the State Press Archive at the Book Chamber. From all the printing houses in the country, so-called “control copies” of not only books, but also calendars are received here for eternal storage. About 40 thousand items of calendars of all varieties are collected here.

12. After the French Revolution in 1793, the National Convention reformed the calendar and units of time. The year was divided into 12 months, strictly 30 days each, and the month consisted of 3 decades of 10 days, of which only one day was a day off for civil servants. The remaining 5 or 6 days of the year, the so-called sansculottes, did not belong to any month. According to the new rules, a day was divided into 10 hours, an hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds, and thus each new second corresponded to 0.864 of the old second. On January 1, 1806, Napoleon abolished this system and returned the calendar we were familiar with.

13. Leap year was introduced by Gaius Julius Caesar. February 24th was called the “sixth day before the Kalends of March,” and the additional day fell on the next day and became the “second sixth day,” in Latin “bis sextus,” which is where the word “leap year” comes from.

14. It was December 30, 2011 without a day in the Pacific nation of Samoa. This decision was made by his authorities in order to change the time zone from UTC–11 to UTC+13. The fact is that Samoa used to be oriented towards the USA and Great Britain in its trade relations, but in lately there was a reorientation of business ties to Australia and New Zealand, to which Samoa is geographically closer. The leap in the calendar made it possible to eliminate the daily time difference with these countries.

15. Friday the 13th is not always considered the unluckiest day of the calendar. In Greece and Spanish-speaking countries people are traditionally afraid of Tuesday falling on the 13th. And in Italy - Fridays, but on the 17th, because Italians fear the number 17 much more than 13. However, fear of such numbers can have the opposite effect on the likelihood of misfortunes. For example, the Dutch Insurance Statistics Center estimates that on Friday the 13th days there are fewer accidents and insurance claims than on regular days, as people tend to be more careful or not leave the house at all.

16. In the culture of the peoples of the African state of Ghana, there is a very great value given to the day of the week on which a person was born - it is believed that this influences his entire future fate. Almost all children receive a first or second name in accordance with this day. For example, Kofi Anana, the former UN Secretary General, has the name Kofi meaning “Friday.” And the popular Chelsea footballer Michael Kodjo Essien's name Kodjo means "Monday".

17. The Baku metro was launched in 1967, and one of the stations was called “April 28” - in honor of the day when Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan. After the republic left the USSR, the station was “raised” for exactly a month. Now it is called “May 28” - in honor of the national holiday of Republic Day.

18 . In 1699, Sweden decided to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. However, the Swedes did not jump forward by the 11 days accumulated by that time, but decided to make the transition gradually, skipping leap years for 40 years. However, despite the adopted plan, 1704 and 1708 were leap years. Because of this, for 11 years the Swedish calendar was one day ahead of the Julian calendar, but ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. In 1711, King Charles XII decided to abandon the calendar reform and return to the Julian calendar. To do this, two days were added to February, and thus in 1712 it was February 30th. Sweden finally switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1753 in the usual manner for all countries.

19 . Pi has two unofficial holidays. The first is March 14, because this day in America is written as 3.14. The second is July 22, which is written in European format as 22/7, and the value of such a fraction is a fairly popular approximate value of Pi.

20. In Korea, a person turns a year older not on their birthday, but on January 1st. When a baby is born, he is automatically considered one year old (the rounded time in the womb), and on January 1 of the following year he becomes 2 years old. It is important for teachers and educators of young children to clarify what age they were told - Korean or Western.

21. A wide variety of materials are used for pocket calendars. Calendars are printed on paper and cardboard, tin, silk and leather. In the second decade of the twentieth century, calendars appeared on aluminum - on a metal that was just beginning to come into everyday life at that time.

22. Pocket calendars began to be produced in large quantities in the USSR in 1986. Until this year, the total number of pocket calendars produced in the USSR is estimated at 20–22 thousand types. After 1986, the same number of calendars began to be published every five years (1987 - 1991, 1992 - 1996), and then just every two years (1998 - 1999).

23 . One of the mass producers of pocket calendars in the USSR was the Leningrad Color Printing Plant (LKCP). Calendar cards were even placed in decks of playing cards issued by LKCP (52 cards each) from the 1970s to the 2000s - a year or two in advance. These calendars usually contained drawings and engravings of Leningrad by various artists, in the same color paint, produced by the same plant and often without output data, for example, prices, since they were not sold separately. So, a deck of cards from 1980 contains 2 calendars for 1982 with city silhouettes green works by A. Ivanov, in the 1993 deck - a calendar with a blue engraving of the Peter and Paul Fortress on the 1995th, in the 1998 deck - an image of a sculptural group of Klodt's horses on the Anichkov Bridge in orange on the 1999th, etc.

automatically counts as one year, and on January 1 of the next year it becomes 2 years old. It is important for teachers and educators of young children to clarify what age they were told - Korean or Western.

Although Gregorian calendar much more accurate than the Julian one, it also has some errors with the true solar year. By 3328, the difference between the true year and the Gregorian calendar will be 1 day. There will likely be 367 days to make up the difference this year.

Pi has two unofficial holidays. The first is March 14, because this day in America is written as
3.14. The second is July 22, which is written in European format as 22/7, and the value of such a fraction is a fairly popular approximate value of Pi.

In 1699, Sweden decided to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. However, the Swedes did not jump to 11
the accumulated days ahead by that time, and decided to make the transition gradually, skipping leap years for 40 years. However, despite the adopted plan of 1704 and 1708 Sh Vedish
The calendar was one day ahead of the Julian calendar, but ten days behind the Gregorian calendar. In 1711, King Charles XII decided to abandon the calendar reform and return to the Julian calendar. For this purpose in February there were
two days were added, and thus in 1712 it was February 30th. Sweden finally switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1753 in the usual manner for all countries.

Leap year was introduced by Gaius Julius Caesar.
February 24th was called the “sixth day before the Kalends of March,” and the additional day fell on the next day and became the “second sixth day,” in Latin “bis sextus,” which is where the word “leap year” comes from.


On New Year's Eve 2011 in Omsk came out extraordinary calendar. It can only be read under a microscope: 365 days and the image of a rabbit fit into 3 millimeters on a grain of rice.

In addition, Omsk Lefty - Anatoly Ivanovich Konenko released insect horoscope 2011.

Each of the 12 characters corresponds to a miniature - a bug, a fly, a bee, a spider (biologists may note that a spider is not an insect), a grasshopper holding a 5-mm rabbit in its paws. It is he, according to the micromaster, who is the symbol of the coming year.

“When 12 animals came to the Almighty, no one paid attention to the fact that 12 insects also appeared with them, claiming joint rule,” Anatoly Ivanovich explained his choice. “The first to arrive was a mosquito, followed by an ant, followed by a flea, spider, wasp, bee, fly, dragonfly, butterfly, bug and beetle. Our year's hero, the grasshopper, came in fourth."

In 1908 in the ruins of ancient Gezer A clay tablet measuring 11.1 cm long and 7.2 cm wide was discovered containing the oldest Hebrew inscription known to date, approximately dating from 925 BC. e. In seven lines CALENDAR FROM GEZER text describes agricultural work calendar :