Julian (Old Style)

Julian Date Today

Q: Is "Julian date" the same as "Julian Day Number"?

No — and this is a common source of confusion. The Julian calendar is the reformed solar calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE, with months and days and a 365.25-day year. The Julian Day Number (JDN) is an astronomical day count, devised by Joseph Justus Scaliger in 1583, that counts days continuously from a reference epoch on 1 January 4713 BCE proleptic Julian. Astronomers use the JDN for things like calculating eclipse dates and orbital mechanics — today's JDN is around 2,461,181. The two systems are entirely different and don't share anything other than the word "Julian".

Q: Why does the Russian Orthodox Church still use the Julian calendar?

For liturgical purposes — to preserve the ancient ecclesiastical tradition codified at the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) and to maintain unity with the broader Eastern Orthodox communion. The Russian Orthodox Church (and the Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem, and several other Orthodox churches) regards the Gregorian reform as a Catholic innovation and has not adopted it for religious use. Civil Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1918 under the Bolsheviks, so Russians use the Gregorian calendar for business, school, and government, but the Orthodox Church's feast days (Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, the saints' days) follow the Julian calendar — producing the well-known phenomenon of Russian Orthodox Christmas on 7 January.

As of Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 11:32 PM, today's Julian (Old Style) date is:

6 May 2026 (Julian)

6 May 2026

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Today's Julian (Old Style) date — full detail

Date: 6 May 2026 (Julian)
Latin: 6 May 2026
Short form: 6/5/2026 OS
Month: May
Year: 2026 AD (Anno Domini) / OS (Old Style) / CE (Common Era)
Gregorian: Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Today (Julian): 6 May 2026 (Julian)
Gap with Gregorian (currently): 13 days behind
Gap will widen to 14 days: 1 March 2100 Gregorian
Leap year rule: Every 4 years, no exceptions
Drift vs tropical year: ~1 day every 128 years
Orthodox Christmas (25 Dec Julian): 7 January Gregorian

Why today matters

Today's Julian (Old Style) date is 6 May 2026 (Julian). The Julian calendar — Julius Caesar's reform of 45 BCE — currently runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, a gap that will widen to 14 days in 2100. While replaced almost universally as a civil calendar by the Gregorian reform of 1582, the Julian calendar remains the liturgical calendar for most of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. When you see a Russian Orthodox Christmas on 7 January Gregorian, you're seeing 25 December Julian — the same date in the Julian calendar, just rendered in the secular calendar that everyone in Moscow uses for business.

Reformed in 45 BCE, supplanted in 1582 — but never quite retired. The Julian calendar still keeps liturgical time for over 250 million Orthodox Christians.

How we compute this

Julian (Old Style) is a solar calendar. Each year contains 365.25 days exactly — every 4th year is a leap year, with no exceptions, with each month averaging 28–31 days (same month structure as Gregorian). Years are counted from Reform by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE; AD numbering from the calculation of Dionysius Exiguus in 525 CE (era: AD (Anno Domini) / OS (Old Style) / CE (Common Era)).

The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE (to take effect from 1 January 45 BCE) on the advice of the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes. Caesar's reform replaced the chaotic pre-Roman calendar — in which the pontifices arbitrarily inserted intercalary months for political reasons — with a clean 365.25-day solar year: a 365-day common year, with one leap day every fourth year. The new system worked remarkably well for nearly 17 centuries. But the actual tropical year (the time the Earth takes to return to the same equinox) is 365.2422 days — about 11 minutes 14 seconds shorter than the Julian average. Over 1,600 years, this accumulated into a 10-day drift, with the result that the spring equinox — which the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) had fixed at 21 March for the calculation of Easter — was occurring on 11 March by the late 1500s. Pope Gregory XIII's 1582 reform corrected this drift and adjusted the leap-year rule (centuries not divisible by 400 are no longer leap) to prevent recurrence. Catholic countries adopted the new Gregorian calendar in 1582–1584. Protestant and Orthodox countries resisted on religious grounds — Britain held out until 1752, Russia until 1918, Greece until 1923. The Eastern Orthodox churches have largely retained the Julian calendar for liturgy even where civil life is Gregorian.

Used by: Liturgically used by Eastern Orthodox churches, Oriental Orthodox churches (partly), and several Berber and Algerian agricultural communities. Regions: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Athos, Jerusalem (Orthodox liturgical use), parts of North Africa (Berber agricultural use, called the <em>Yennayer</em> calendar).

Frequently asked

What is the Julian date today?

Today's Julian (Old Style) date is 6 May 2026 (Julian). The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

Is "Julian date" the same as "Julian Day Number"?

No — and this is a common source of confusion. The Julian calendar is the reformed solar calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE, with months and days and a 365.25-day year. The Julian Day Number (JDN) is an astronomical day count, devised by Joseph Justus Scaliger in 1583, that counts days continuously from a reference epoch on 1 January 4713 BCE proleptic Julian. Astronomers use the JDN for things like calculating eclipse dates and orbital mechanics — today's JDN is around 2,461,181. The two systems are entirely different and don't share anything other than the word "Julian".

Why does the Russian Orthodox Church still use the Julian calendar?

For liturgical purposes — to preserve the ancient ecclesiastical tradition codified at the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) and to maintain unity with the broader Eastern Orthodox communion. The Russian Orthodox Church (and the Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem, and several other Orthodox churches) regards the Gregorian reform as a Catholic innovation and has not adopted it for religious use. Civil Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1918 under the Bolsheviks, so Russians use the Gregorian calendar for business, school, and government, but the Orthodox Church's feast days (Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, the saints' days) follow the Julian calendar — producing the well-known phenomenon of Russian Orthodox Christmas on 7 January.

When will the Julian–Gregorian gap widen?

The gap grows by one day every Gregorian century that is not a multiple of 400. So: it grew from 12 to 13 days on 1 March 1900 Gregorian (because 1900 was a Gregorian common year but a Julian leap year), and will grow from 13 to 14 days on 1 March 2100 Gregorian. It will then stay at 14 days until 2200, when it grows to 15 days. The year 2000 was a Gregorian leap year (divisible by 400), so the gap did not change at that boundary.

When is Orthodox Easter compared to Western Easter?

Both Easters are calculated using the same general rule — the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox — but using different calendars and different astronomical tables. Western Easter uses the Gregorian calendar and the Gregorian Paschal Full Moon. Eastern Orthodox Easter uses the Julian calendar (treating 21 March Julian = 3 April Gregorian as the spring equinox) and the Alexandrian Paschal computus. The two Easters can fall on the same day, or up to 5 weeks apart. They coincided most recently in 2017 and 2025; they won't coincide again until 2028, then 2031.

Does anyone still use the Julian calendar civilly?

For civil purposes — almost no one. Some Berber communities in North Africa retain the Julian calendar for agricultural timing under the name Yennayer (the Berber New Year, celebrated 12–13 January Gregorian = 1 January Julian). Mount Athos in Greece operates entirely on Julian time. A few Old Believer Russian Orthodox communities in Russia, Romania, and the diaspora use Julian for daily life. But for international, commercial, or governmental purposes, the Gregorian calendar is universal.