March On…
By Sharon Archer
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a tricky calendar change - today, I’m back with another one!
The beginning of the year is 1st January… isn’t it?
Well, yes, it is now… but it wasn’t always.
In the ‘Old Style’ or Julian Calendar, the first day of the year was Lady Day or the 25th of March.Lady Day was quite a logical start to the year in the agrarian societies of our forebears. It was close to the spring equinox and nature was beginning to stir after the dormant months of winter. People were preparing to start the farming cycle for another year. Market towns held hiring-fairs for servants and land tenancies were settled then too.
It’s also the festival day for the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady), from which it gets its name - Lady Day.
But, in 1751, Chesterfield’s Act changed that and made January 1st the first day of the year. This meant that 1751 consisted of just over nine months.
- The year before - 1750 - ran from 25 March to 24 March
- While 1751 ran from 25 March to 31 December
- And the year after - 1752 - the year settled into the pattern we’re familiar with, 1 January to 31 December
There are still traces of this change in the Latin origins of four of our months.
- September is the ninth month but Septem means seven
- October is the tenth month but Octo means eight
- November is the eleventh month but Novem means nine &
- December is the twelfth month but Decem means ten
So spare a thought for our UK ancestors, as they grappled with the major changes to their calendar. In 1751, they had a nine-month year and then in 1752, they had that eleven-day adjustment! No wonder there were riots!
What would you have thought? Would you have found it confusing? Would you have wondered what the governing elite were up to?
PS
I was late getting back to announce the winner of the book I gave away with the Calendar Daze, Part 1, so I’m announcing it again now. It’s Sylvia! Sylvia, could you please contact me on sharon (at) sharon-archer (dot) com with your address?
Sharon
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting and boy would it have been unsettling for a while it is the same with me when day light savings starts and finishes takes me a few weeks to get used to the changes I should imagine it would have taken a little bit longer than that to get used to this big change.
Have Fun
Helen
Fascinating information, Sharon and as Helen says, we can't really gripe about having to adjust to daylight saving.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think I find it hard enough these days to know what date it is!
Zana
That's 3 years that were all different lengths? Wow, Sharon, that's amazing! Gives a whole new meaning to the expression, "I don't know what day it is," huh?
ReplyDeleteI'd think that someone was taking the Mickey!! I'm glad it was sorted WAY before I turned up.
ReplyDeleteHey, Helen, I agree with you about it being very unsettling! And I imagine the people back then were terribly disturbed by it all!
ReplyDelete:)
Sharon
Zana, YES! makes you glad we only have daylight saving to grapple with, doesn't it!
ReplyDeleteHey, you're in cognito - trouble signing in?
:)
Sharon
Michelle, they had such good reason to be confused, didn't they? It seems so logical now to have the New Year start on Jan 1st --- but then to the people back then the 25 March seemed perfectly logical... I'm trying to imagine how I'd feel if someone came along and said we're going to start the year on November 10th, for instance...
ReplyDelete:-o
Sharon
LOL, Marybelle! I'm very glad it was all sorted so long ago too!
ReplyDelete:-D
Sharon
I sure as heck would have wondered what they were up to, Sharon!!! It's funny, I knew about the Julian calendar having studied Latin and Classics, but had no idea about all the Georgian kerfuffle. Very complicated stuff! Must have been hard to figure out without the calculators and computers that we take for granted these days.
ReplyDeleteHi, Sharon! I am soooo glad we weren't around when these changes to the calendar came to be. I'd definitely be among the confused folk. Especially as I seem to be two weeks ahead of myself right now.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I surely would have been wondering and probably been as suspicious as anything that there was some sort of conspiracy going on!
ReplyDeleteJulius Caesar and Pope Gregory were obviously very smart - firstly to come up with the way of measuring passing time and then later to understand what was going wrong and to devise a solution!
LOL, Vanessa! What have you done with your two weeks?
ReplyDeleteOr is it that you've been so efficient that you've done two weeks worth of work ahead of schedule - now that would be pretty good!
:)
Sharon
Sharon, this stuff is fascinating, isn't it? And have you noticed Lady Day is exactly nine months before Christmas? Do you have more calendar treasures awaiting us? I'm going to call you Bright Young Thing Time (as compared to Old Father Time! If I call you that, you might hit me!).
ReplyDeleteAnother bunch of really interesting facts. I too am glad that all these changes took place before my time.
ReplyDeleteCan you just imagine the logistics of putting some of these changes into effect back in the days when the only form of communicating them was by letter? I can just imagine some people in remote places coming to town to find out all manners of change. How confusing it must have been.
I bet they thought there was something bigger going on back then since people were even more superstitious than they are now.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'd like the year to start at the start of spring. Feels like new year to me then. It gets so messy with Christmas and New Year together. Do you think we could take up a petition...?
Anna, Bright Young-thing Time works for me - any *Old* Father Time stuff and you'd definitely be at risk of retribution - so good call! LOL
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed, Lady Day *is* exactly nine months before Xmas - it's when the Angel Gabriel came to announce to Mary she was going to be pregnant - I Googled!
:)
Sharon
Kaelee, you're so right about the people living in remote places! How unnerving to go to town and find the whole world had changed while you were busy!
ReplyDelete:)
Sharon
Argh, Rachel! You are wicked! LOL
ReplyDelete... though I do know what you mean about spring... there's that *renewal* that makes is such an excellent time for a beginning. But oh, the confusion it would cause!
:)
Sharon