The structure of the Old Russian Easter (flexible) calendar (based on the database "Chronology of the Novgorod Chronicles of the 9th-15th Centuries")

The study aims to identify and analyze the chronological elements that allow to show the structure of the Old Russian Easter (flexible) calendar cycle based on the materials of the Novgorod chronicles. The continuous study of all Easter chronological elements was made possible through the use of the database "Chronology of the Novgorod Сhronicles of the 9th-15th centuries" which allows to make a selection of datings of a certain type. The framework of the database developed by the author was based on the materials of three Novgorod chronicles - the First Novgorod (Synodal and Commission List), the Fourth Novgorod and the First Sofia Chronicles. Both general historical (comparative historical analysis, structural analysis, etc.) and special methods developed within the framework of historical chronology (methods for checking the calendar-mathematical coordination of diverse elements contained in the dating records, asynchronous dating analysis method, method of determining the annual limits of complexes, etc.) were used in this study. The innovation is the application of the database technology by the author of the study for the analysis of narrative sources which the Chronicles also include. The article presents the structure of a flexible (Easter) calendar cycle, used not only to organize liturgical practice, but also to date historical events. The content of the liturgy system is affected by the flexible calendar and is decorated in a special book - Triodion, which means a three-song canon. The liturgies of Triodion are written for 18 weeks: 10 weeks before Easter - Lenten Triodion, and 8 weeks after Easter - Pentekostsarion. The period of the year, not related to Lent or Lent preparatory weeks, Pentecost Sunday or of All Saints week, is formally considered as the time when there are no memories of the flexible cycle (it is usually called the time of Octoechos singing), although the flexible cycle determines the order of voices of Octoechos and of Sunday morning Gospel readings for the whole year. A table that allows to visualize the structure of the flexible church calendar and years of Novgorod chronicles with references to specific Easter elements is provided. The author comes to the following conclusions. First, the Russian chronicles are full of Easter chronological elements, there are 303 events found in these chronicles, they have reference to the flexible calendar. Second, it was possible to identify two week's counting systems within the Triodion cycle: the first (Monday-Sunday) from the beginning of the flexible church year (Week "of the Publican and the Pharisee") before Easter; the second (Sunday-Saturday) from Easter to Pentecost. Third, it is possible that in the early liturgical tradition the change from the Monday-Sunday week counting to the Sunday to Saturday counting did not take place before Easter, but earlier, after the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross. Finally, the presence of Easter elements makes possible not only the reconstruction of old dates on the modern system of counting time, but of the Old Russian time counting systems themselves.

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