The sounds of chimes for Russians, like champagne and salad Olivier, have long been an integral attribute of the New Year's Eve.

Many people think that it is necessary to clink glasses of champagne after the Kremlin chimes strike 12 times. This misconception arose back in the Soviet era: when accurate time signals were transmitted by radio, the last radio signal corresponded to the beginning of a new hour. But this does not apply to the chimes. There is another opinion: the new year allegedly comes with the first blow. This is not true either.

Now I'll tell you when you need to "clink glasses" ...

The exact Kremlin time is kept behind iron bolts. Access to the holy of holies, the Spassky Tower, only with an escort. regime object. No elevators. Almost 10 floors up on foot along the old spiral staircases.

Each hand is 3 meters, the dial itself is 6 meters. From the paving stones, the size is not so felt, but the main clock of the country takes up several floors. Wheels and gears larger than human growth, a huge musical drum, a 32-kilogram pendulum - in total, the whole structure weighs more than 25 tons. In all other respects, the chimes are the most ordinary mechanical clocks.

Here, in the astronomical time service of the Sternberg Institute, everyone knows about them, they observe the stars, study the rotation of the Earth and continuously receive signals from satellites so that the chimes constantly receive reports of the most accurate Moscow time. Here they know the answer to the main question.

Evgeny Fedoseev, Head of the Time Service of the Astronomical Institute named after Sternberg: “The New Year comes at the first sound of the chimes. Ding-ding-ding. It’s already New Year’s Eve and we have to shout, congratulate and celebrate, and all these blows and signs are all later.”

The wheels turned. Began. This is how the arrival of the new year to replace the old one in the heart of the main clock of the country looks like.

And if we take an even more pedantic approach to the problem, then here:

The moment of the onset of the new year is a conditional and relative concept. How to agree. If you live in a city, then at its different ends (west - east) the moment 24-00 LOCAL TIME (!) will be at different times. In middle latitudes, with a difference in distance of about 15 km, the difference will already be in a minute.

So:
The first beat of twelve sounds ten seconds after the start of a new day. And their change occurs when the chimes begin to chime. More precisely, of course, on the contrary: the beginning of the chiming of the chimes coincides with the moment of the change of day. At zero hours zero minutes zero seconds chime starts. Ten seconds later, the first blow of the bell sounds, striking the whole clock.

The first clock in Moscow appeared in 1404. Then Moscow was already a big city, and the Kremlin was the residence of the Grand Dukes. The Kremlin clock was one of the first in Europe and was considered a miracle of its time. This clock was located in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily Dimitrievich on Cathedral Square, not far from the Cathedral of the Annunciation. The chronicler described their device in the following way: at every hour he strikes the bell with a hammer, measuring and counting the hours of the night and day; not more than a man strikes, but human-like, self-resonant and self-moving, strangely stylized, somehow created by human cunning, exaggerated and outwitted.

About the clock master it is written in the annals: "The prince himself conceived the watchmaker, and the Serb monk named Lazar installed the clock." They paid 150 rubles for the installation of the clock, a large sum for that time.

It is not known exactly when the Kremlin tower clock appeared. There is an assumption that they were placed on the Spasskaya Tower shortly after its construction (1491). However, documentary evidence of this dates back to the 16th century. By whom the clock was arranged and what they were, it has not yet been established exactly. In archival materials only under 1585 there is a mention of the watchmakers of the Frolovsky (Spassky), Trinity and Tainitsky gates. Documents have been preserved, which show that watchmakers received 4 rubles and 2 hryvnias per year for their work and 4 arshins of cloth for clothes.

At the beginning of the 17th century, these watches were sold to Yaroslavl, and from the surviving bill of sale we know that they weighed 960 kilograms. But what kind of chime they had, the documents do not mention.

A second clock appeared on the Spasskaya Tower, built on in 1625. They were assembled under the guidance of the English master Christopher Golovei, who was invited to arrange the chimes by Tsar Mikhail Romanov. Thirty bells, cast by master Kirill Samoilov, beat every even hour. After numerous fires in the Kremlin, this mechanism was repeatedly repaired, but fire July 19, 1701 the chimes did not survive.

New chimes, by order of Peter the Great, were delivered from Amsterdam to Moscow on 30 wagons. They struck the hours and quarters and chimed on 33 bells. It is known for certain that Muscovites heard it for the first time on December 9, 1706 at 9 am.

Alas, this watch met the same sad fate as the previous movements. They have been repaired several times, but after the fire of 1737 the chimes rose completely.

In 1763, a “large chiming clock” of English production was removed from the premises under the Faceted Chamber. It took master Ivan Polyansky three years to install them on the Spasskaya Tower. The mechanism served faithfully for several decades, during which its parts wore out and the clock stopped. Their repair was carried out at the factories of the Butenop brothers for two years. In the same place, a musical mechanism was re-created, which performed the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of Peter the Great and the melody of D.S. Bortnyansky "How glorious is our Lord in Zion". So that the belfry could perform these melodies, it was supplemented with 24 bells. 16 of them were taken from the Trinity Tower and 8 from Borovitskaya. After that, the number of bells in the belfry reached 58, and 13 of them were cast for the Golovey chimes.

In 1860, the chimes surprised Muscovites with a new melody. It was the German mechanic Fatz, who was invited to service the clock, retuned the copper musical shaft to the unpretentious melody "Ah, my dear Augustine." However, Nicholas the First considered this song unworthy of the main clock of the state. By the way, earlier Nikolai did not allow the shaft to be tuned to “God Save the Tsar”, believing that the chimes should not play the national anthem.

In the revolutionary year of 1917, a shell hit the chiming dial, and in 1919 the clock was repaired by master N.V. Bern. Now the melodies of the "Internationale" and the funeral march "You fell a victim" were typed on the musical shaft. These two melodies alternately (at noon and midnight) and sounded until 1932, when it was decided to leave one "Internationale". In 1938, the performance of this melody also ceased. Now the chimes only struck quarters and whole hours.

In 1974 the chimes were stopped for a hundred days. During this time, the watch mechanism was completely disassembled, all worn parts were replaced. A device for automatic lubrication of parts was designed. But the musical mechanism was never repaired.

On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Plenum of the Central Committee decided that the chimes should play the national anthem, written by Aleksandrov. However, experts who examined the musical mechanism came to the conclusion that the available bells this song is impossible to play.

Everyone, probably, knows the principle of operation of an ordinary music box. It was invented several centuries ago, but was especially widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries, when even pocket watches, cigarette cases and snuff boxes played various melodies. The musical mechanism had a so-called program cylinder, seated with small short pins. When the cylinder rotated, they sounded thin metal plates.

The Kremlin chimes also have a program cylinder, but its diameter is about 2 meters, its width is more than 2 meters. The mechanism is driven by a heavy weight weighing more than 200 kilograms.

After the clock strikes, the stopper of the chiming mechanism is turned off. A huge cylinder slowly rotates, bristling with a thousand steel pins. The pins are occupied

When the program cylinder rotates, the pins touch a special device like a pedal. The pedal is connected by a steel cable to the percussion mechanism (it is located above, on the 10th floor, where the bells hang). The cable pulls a specially shaped hammer from the edge of the bell, the pin breaks off the pedal, and the hammer strikes the edge of the bell, extracting sound from it.

While for many decades the Kremlin chimes underwent all sorts of alterations, the clock mechanism worked properly all the time and hardly stopped.

And the music of the Moscow chimes did not sound until 1996. Then the inauguration of B.N. Yeltsin, to which the musical unit was again repaired. This time he was "taught" to perform "Patriotic Song" and "Glory" by Glinka. To do this, we recorded the sound of each bell and analyzed both melodies using a computer. Smart electronics suggested how many and what tone of bells were missing. Three missing bells were cast in Holland, delivered to Moscow and installed on the belfry.

And today you can hear Glinka's melodies performed by Moscow chimes. Of course, if you find yourself on Red Square at noon or midnight.

With what blow of the chimes on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower new year is coming? With the first? Not! Is it with the last one? Also no!

The first beat of twelve sounds ten seconds after the start of a new day. And their change occurs when the chimes begin to chime. More precisely, of course, on the contrary: the beginning of the chiming of the chimes coincides with the moment of the change of day. At zero hours zero minutes zero seconds chime starts. Ten seconds later, the first blow of the bell sounds, striking the whole clock.

By the way, at different times the chimes of the Moscow Kremlin played different melodies. Tower clock appeared on the Spasskaya Tower at the end of the 15th century under Ivan the Third. At the beginning of the 17th century, these watches were sold to Yaroslavl, and from the surviving bill of sale we know that they weighed 960 kilograms. But what kind of chime they had, the documents do not mention.

A second clock appeared on the Spasskaya Tower, built on in 1625. They were assembled under the guidance of the English master Christopher Golovei, who was invited to arrange the chimes by Tsar Mikhail Romanov. Thirty bells, cast by master Kirill Samoilov, beat every even hour. After numerous fires in the Kremlin, this mechanism was repeatedly repaired, but fire July 19, 1701 the chimes did not survive.

New chimes, by order of Peter the Great, were delivered from Amsterdam to Moscow on 30 wagons. They struck the hours and quarters and chimed on 33 bells. It is known for certain that Muscovites heard it for the first time on December 9, 1706 at 9 am.

Alas, this watch met the same sad fate as the previous movements. They have been repaired several times, but after the fire of 1737 the chimes rose completely.

In 1763, a “large chiming clock” of English production was removed from the premises under the Faceted Chamber. It took master Ivan Polyansky three years to install them on the Spasskaya Tower. The mechanism served faithfully for several decades, during which its parts wore out and the clock stopped. Their repair was carried out at the factories of the Butenop brothers for two years. In the same place, a musical mechanism was re-created, which performed the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of Peter the Great and the melody of D.S. Bortnyansky "How glorious is our Lord in Zion". So that the belfry could perform these melodies, it was supplemented with 24 bells. 16 of them were taken from the Trinity Tower and 8 from Borovitskaya. After that, the number of bells in the belfry reached 58, and 13 of them were cast for the Golovey chimes.

In 1860, the chimes surprised Muscovites with a new melody. It was the German mechanic Fatz, who was invited to service the clock, retuned the copper musical shaft to the unpretentious melody "Ah, my dear Augustine." However, Nicholas the First considered this song unworthy of the main clock of the state. By the way, earlier Nikolai did not allow the shaft to be tuned to “God Save the Tsar”, believing that the chimes should not play the national anthem.

In the revolutionary year of 1917, a shell hit the chiming dial, and in 1919 the clock was repaired by master N.V. Bern. Now the melodies of the "Internationale" and the funeral march "You fell a victim" were typed on the musical shaft. These two melodies alternately (at noon and midnight) and sounded until 1932, when it was decided to leave one "Internationale". In 1938, the performance of this melody also ceased. Now the chimes only struck quarters and whole hours.

In 1974 the chimes were stopped for a hundred days. During this time, the watch mechanism was completely disassembled, all worn parts were replaced. A device for automatic lubrication of parts was designed. But the musical mechanism was never repaired.

On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Plenum of the Central Committee decided that the chimes should play the national anthem, written by Aleksandrov. However, experts who examined the musical mechanism came to the conclusion that the available bells this song is impossible to play.

And the music of the Moscow chimes did not sound until 1996. Then the inauguration of B.N. Yeltsin, to which the musical unit was again repaired. This time he was "taught" to perform "Patriotic Song" and "Glory" by Glinka. To do this, we recorded the sound of each bell and analyzed both melodies using a computer. Smart electronics suggested how many and what tone of bells were missing. Three missing bells were cast in Holland, delivered to Moscow and installed on the belfry.

And today you can hear Glinka's melodies performed by Moscow chimes. Of course, if you find yourself on Red Square at noon or midnight.

Every year on December 31, not all of us go to the bathhouse with friends, but everyone prepares for the celebration. Nervous chores that begin in the morning end with a long-awaited feast. The culmination of the holiday is the battle of the Kremlin chimes. To this sweet sound, we open champagne, pour it into glasses. The New Year is coming. But when exactly does this happen - with the first or, after all, with the last blow of the main clock of the country?

There are two answers to the age-old New Year's question.

After the last hit

When is January 1st? Obviously, with the change of day. Nevertheless, most Russians believe that the New Year begins after the twelfth strike of the chimes. With the first chord of the anthem.

After the first hit

Some of our compatriots hold a different opinion. The New Year comes after the first strike of the chimes, and the next eleven have a symbolic meaning.

Both points of view are wrong. The New Year comes even before we hear the chimes of the legendary tower - with the beginning of the chime. When will 2019 come? Ten seconds before the first strike of the chimes. Therefore, we usually celebrate the New Year with a little delay.

The main clock of the country

We have known the chiming clock since childhood. Therefore, it seems that the clock on the Spasskaya Tower has always existed. But it's not. The famous chimes have predecessors. What the first ones looked like is unknown. The second ones appeared under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and were created according to the project of an English watchmaker. They lasted only forty years.

The third clock was installed under Peter I and did not look as pretentious as the previous ones, known all over the world. They were damaged in a fire in 1737, restored only during the reign of Catherine II. A complete reconstruction of the chimes was carried out in the middle of the 19th century. For more than 60 years they worked properly and only in 1917 they stopped after a shell hit them.

Over the past hundred years, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower has been modernized many times. The last time was in 1999.

You may be surprised, but statistics show that more than half of the population of our country make wishes for the new year. There are no statistics on how many percent of the conceived are fulfilled. But a magical night is needed in order to make a secret desire and believe that it will definitely come true.

Even experts are sure that New Year's Eve has its own special, very strong energy. Many people begin to believe in miracles and magic. Therefore, often people are interested in how to correctly make a wish for the new year under the chiming clock.

There are different options for how to do this:

Eat 12 grapes. It is necessary to prepare 12 large grapes in advance and, with the beginning of the chiming clock, try to eat them all, while constantly repeating your cherished desire to yourself. Grapes are what the Spaniards traditionally eat on New Year's Eve to the sound of the clock. It seems that the Spaniards are happy and successful people, which means that grapes work. Therefore, put all your faith into what has been envisioned and hope that 2015 will definitely bring you the miracle that you are waiting for;

A glass of champagne and ashes. It is considered one of the most powerful New Year's rituals to be performed when the chimes strike. You need to take a piece of paper and write your cherished desire on it. When the clock starts to beat and announce the coming of the new year, you need to set fire to the paper over your glass so that the ashes fall into the drink. Then stir the ashes in champagne and drink it. The whole ritual must be done before the end of the battle.

It is interesting! Due to the fact that most of the rituals put people in a clear framework, it becomes interesting how many times the chimes strike for the New Year and how many seconds the New Year's chimes strike. 12 chimes is theoretically equal to twelve seconds. But, if we take the full chronology, then the melody before the start of the battle lasts 20 seconds, and 12 beats account for 40 seconds. That is, a little less than four seconds per hit.

Candles. Another ritual, how to correctly make a wish for the new year under the chiming clock. It is necessary to take a candle and hold it in your hands before midnight, tell her about your cherished desire. Then, with the beginning of the chiming clock, light a candle and once again tell the flame about your desire. Now leave the candle on the festive table and let it burn out to the end.

During the chiming clock, you need to jump 12 times, while repeating your desire to yourself each time.

In order for what you want to come true, it is important not only when to make a wish for the new year, but also how to do it. It is precisely those desires that are correctly formulated that are embodied.

How to correctly formulate a desire:

1. More specifics. It is necessary not only to think in the New Year that you want to meet a man. Otherwise, your subconscious will understand this desire in a literal sense, and perhaps the person you first meet in the new 2015 will be a man. But, if you want to meet a loved one or fall in love, then you need to formulate your desire there. That is, the wording must be complete and complete. Therefore, think that you want to meet a smart and wealthy man whom you will love and who will love you in order to live life happily with this man;

2. Don't limit yourself on how you can get what you want. The subconscious mind has its own energy, and it is able to find the shortest path to your goal, if you do not interfere with it. When you think that you want to earn money and buy a car, then you limit yourself. After all, you can get what you want (a car), but not necessarily with hard work. Remember this and think exactly what you want, and not specific paths to it;

3. Focus on one desire. If you have a specific dream for the next year, then you need to concentrate only on it, forgetting about everything else, less important. Free up energy specifically to achieve a specific dream, other goals can even be left to chance. Highlight what's important. Think of it in the New Year!

4. Be sure to think carefully about your desire and decide whether it is true and comes from the heart. Sometimes desires are caused by envy, fear, resentment - and these are the wrong goals that will not bring you anything good in the new year. If it is difficult to understand how sincere the desire is, then it is necessary to imagine that it has already come true. Now tell me, what feelings overcome you, are you happy with what happened?
Feeling happy or uncomfortable? Remember that even if untrue wishes come true, they will not bring happiness.

A conspiracy, when the chimes strike for the new year and even before the onset of the New Year, is a great opportunity to ensure happiness for yourself next year. For example, a ritual that will save you from problems and troubles next year is to clean the house. It is necessary to collect and throw away all unnecessary items and trash a few hours before the new year.

Another ritual that will bring financial well-being is decorating the Christmas tree with coins and banknotes. If you need love in 2015, then decorate the space with hearts. A good conspiracy is half an hour before the chiming clock to write a letter to yourself and describe all the plans for the coming year, be sure to also indicate your most cherished dreams.

To make your wish come true, be sure to remember what you asked fate for at New Year's midnight. Often people simply forget their wishes, and then they say that what they made for the New Year did not come true. We wish you bright moments and incredibly pleasant surprises in the new 2015!

These sounds for Russians, like champagne and Olivier salad, have long been an integral attribute of the New Year's Eve. Only here in the main question, when exactly it comes, there is still no complete clarity - with the chime of bells, with the first or last blow of the chimes. The exact Kremlin time is kept behind iron bolts. Access to the holy of holies, the Spassky Tower, only with an escort. regime object. No elevators. Almost 10 floors up on foot along the old spiral staircases. Each hand is 3 meters, the dial itself is 6 meters. From the paving stones, the size is not felt that way, but the main clock of the country takes up several floors. Wheels and gears larger than human growth, a huge musical drum, a 32-kilogram pendulum - in total, the whole structure weighs more than 25 tons. In all other respects, the chimes are the most ordinary mechanical clocks.
Evgeny Fedoseev, Head of the Time Service of the Astronomical Institute named after Sternberg: “The New Year comes at the first sound of the chimes. Ding-ding-ding. It’s already New Year’s Eve and we have to shout, congratulate and celebrate, and all these blows and signs are all later.” The wheels turned. Began. This is how the arrival of the new year to replace the old one in the heart of the main clock of the country looks like. And if we take an even more pedantic approach to the problem, then here: The moment of the onset of the new year is a conditional and relative concept. How to agree. If you live in a city, then at its different ends (west - east), the moment 24-00 LOCAL TIME will be at different times. In middle latitudes, with a difference in distance of about 15 km, the difference will already be in a minute.
So: The first stroke of twelve sounds ten seconds after the start of a new day. And their change occurs when the chimes begin to chime. That is, the beginning of the chiming of the chimes coincides with the moment of the change of day. At zero hours, zero minutes, zero seconds, the chime begins. Ten seconds later, the first blow of the bell sounds, striking the whole clock.
The first clock in Moscow appeared in 1404. Then Moscow was already a big city, and the Kremlin was the residence of the Grand Dukes. The Kremlin clock was one of the first in Europe and was considered a miracle of its time. This clock was located in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily Dimitrievich on Cathedral Square, not far from the Cathedral of the Annunciation. The chronicler described their device in the following way: at every hour he strikes the bell with a hammer, measuring and counting the hours of the night and day; not more than a man strikes, but human-like, self-resonant and self-moving, strangely stylized, somehow created by human cunning, exaggerated and outwitted. It is not known exactly when the Kremlin tower clock appeared. There is an assumption that they were placed on the Spasskaya Tower shortly after its construction (1491). However, documentary evidence of this dates back to the 16th century. By whom the clock was arranged and what they were, it has not yet been established exactly. At the beginning of the 17th century, these watches were sold to Yaroslavl, and from the surviving bill of sale we know that they weighed 960 kilograms. But what kind of chime they had, the documents do not mention. A second clock appeared on the Spasskaya Tower, built on in 1625. They were assembled under the guidance of the English master Christopher Golovei, who was invited to arrange the chimes by Tsar Mikhail Romanov. Thirty bells, cast by master Kirill Samoilov, beat every even hour. This mechanism was repeatedly repaired after numerous fires in the Kremlin, but the chimes did not survive the fire on July 19, 1701. New chimes, by order of Peter the Great, were delivered from Amsterdam to Moscow on 30 wagons. They struck the hours and quarters and chimed on 33 bells. It is known for certain that Muscovites heard it for the first time on December 9, 1706 at 9 am. Alas, this watch met the same sad fate as the previous movements. They were repaired several times, but after the fire of 1737, the chimes stopped completely. In 1763, a “large chiming clock” of English production was removed from the premises under the Faceted Chamber. It took master Ivan Polyansky three years to install them on the Spasskaya Tower. The mechanism served faithfully for several decades, during which its parts wore out and the clock stopped. Their repair was carried out at the factories of the Butenop brothers for two years. In the same place, a musical mechanism was re-created, which performed the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of Peter the Great and the melody of D.S. Bortnyansky "How glorious is our Lord in Zion". In 1860, the chimes surprised Muscovites with a new melody. It was the German mechanic Fatz, who was invited to service the clock, retuned the copper musical shaft to the unpretentious melody "Ah, my dear Augustine." However, Nicholas the First considered this song unworthy of the main clock of the state. By the way, earlier Nikolai did not allow the shaft to be tuned to “God Save the Tsar”, believing that the chimes should not play the national anthem. In the revolutionary year of 1917, a shell hit the chiming dial, and in 1919 the clock was repaired by master N.V. Bern. Now the melodies of the "Internationale" and the funeral march "You fell a victim" were typed on the musical shaft. These two melodies alternately (at noon and midnight) and sounded until 1932, when it was decided to leave one "Internationale". In 1938, the performance of this melody also ceased. Now the chimes only struck quarters and whole hours. In 1974, the chimes were stopped for a hundred days. During this time, the watch mechanism was completely disassembled, all worn parts were replaced. A device for automatic lubrication of parts was designed. But the musical mechanism was never repaired. On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Plenum of the Central Committee decided that the chimes should play the national anthem, written by Aleksandrov. However, experts who examined the musical mechanism came to the conclusion that it was impossible to play this melody with the available bells. Everyone, probably, knows the principle of operation of an ordinary music box. It was invented several centuries ago, but was especially widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries, when even pocket watches, cigarette cases and snuff boxes played various melodies. The musical mechanism had a so-called program cylinder, seated with small short pins. When the cylinder rotated, they sounded thin metal plates. The Kremlin chimes also have a program cylinder, but its diameter is about 2 meters, its width is more than 2 meters. The mechanism is driven by a heavy weight weighing more than 200 kilograms. After the clock strikes, the stopper of the chiming mechanism is turned off. A huge cylinder slowly rotates, bristling with a thousand steel pins. The sizes of the bells of the chimes are different, therefore they make different sounds: from a thick bass to a sonorous treble. The weight of the bells depends on their size - from tens to hundreds of kilograms. The weight of the largest bell is 500 kilograms. When the program cylinder rotates, the pins touch a special device like a pedal. The pedal is connected by a steel cable to the percussion mechanism (it is located above, on the 10th floor, where the bells hang). The cable pulls a specially shaped hammer from the edge of the bell, the pin breaks off the pedal, and the hammer strikes the edge of the bell, extracting sound from it. While for many decades the Kremlin chimes underwent all sorts of alterations, the clock mechanism worked properly all the time and hardly stopped.
And the music of the Moscow chimes did not sound until 1996. Then the inauguration of B.N. Yeltsin, to which the musical unit was again repaired. This time he was "taught" to perform "Patriotic Song" and "Glory" by Glinka. To do this, we recorded the sound of each bell and analyzed both melodies using a computer. Smart electronics suggested how many and what tone of bells were missing. Three missing bells were cast in Holland, delivered to Moscow and installed on the belfry. And today you can hear Glinka's melodies performed by Moscow chimes. Of course, if you find yourself on Red Square at noon or midnight.