… it was March 1st 1700 in Denmark.
In 46 BC Julius Caesar reorganised the calendar with months at fixed lengths, one year had 365 days, 12 months and every 4th year was a leap year with 366 days. To return the public feasts to their correct seasons an additional month was inserted in 46 BC which was called the “Year of Confusion” since it consisted of 445 days – and on 1 January 45 BC the Julian Calendar came into effect. But the Julian calendar did not account for the fact that a solar year is not quite 365 and a quarter days.
In February 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a Papal Bull to correct the calendar and decreed that the day after Thursday, October 4 1582 would be Friday, October 15, 1582. The new Gregorian Calendar made allowances for the correct number of days in a solar year.
While all European Catholic countries reformed their calendars almost immediately, most Protestant countries saw this as yet another “Popish Plot’, and ignored the Bull.
Denmark was amongst the earliest of Protestant countries to follow the ‘new’ Gregorian Calendar. The Danes went to bed on February 18th 1700 and awoke on the 1st of March.
Britain (and her colonies) followed suit in 1752 and decreed that the day following September 2nd 1752 should be the September 14th. At the same time it was determined that, in line with almost the rest of Europe, New Year’s Day would no longer be the 25th of March, but on January 1st.
The last European country to adopt the Gregorian Calendar was Yugoslavia in 1919.
Boadicea's Chariot 
“Give us back our 12 days”.
Arrrgh,
My small furry brain hurts. 😦
All very confusing! Apparently Scotland changed before England and Alaska was out of step because it was Russian at the time.
Yes Araminta! I get confused when I cross the border between Queensland and NSW and there is (at the moment) an hour’s difference. To cross the English/Scottish border and have to change dates by about 11 days would have been most confusing!
I’d like New Year’s Day to be 25th March. Then my birthday would be before Xmas and people would still have cash for decent presents for me.
On the other hand August Bank Holiday would come very early – or maybe late.
Boadicea, imagine liing in Russia up until the end of Soviet times when the whole country operated on Moscow time – even though it covers 5 time zones
One always knew it was a plot!
Good evening, Boa. There’s that Araminta confusing you with her lack of intellectual rigour again.
There was never an 11 day difference between England and Scotland. In 1600, we switched the start of each year from 25th March to 1st January.
Extract from the National Archives of Scotland website:-
‘…..by an act of the Privy Council of Scotland on 17 December 1599 (PC1/17). The act commanded that royal officials, clerks, judges, notaries, and others “in all tyme heireftir date all thair decreittis infeftmentis charteris seasings letteris and writtis quhatsumeuir according to this p[rese]nt ordinance, Compting the first day of the yeir fra the first day of Januare yeirlie.” ‘
The rest of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland did not catch up with that idea until 1752, as you say in your blog.
But we retained the Julian calendar since the other one was, again as you say, clearly a Popish plot so far as we staunch Presbyterians were concerned.
So, it was never a problem of knowing what day and month it was but you might be a tad confused as to the year if you crossed the border between 1st January to 24th March for a century and a half or thereby.
This also explains, of course, why we Jocks are so much better than the English at celebrating on the night of December 31st each year – we’ve had many more years of practice.
Bravo22c
I presume Russia has got its act together now?
We have the utterly stupid situation here whereby Queensland refuses to adopt daylight saving (the cows won’t adjust to the time shift*) and an hour or so down the road NSW does and is now an hour ahead of us, although geographically we should be an hour ahead of them.
* That truly is one of the reasons given for refusing to adopt day light saving!
Thanks for that John and for enlightening me as to why the ‘Jocks’ are far better at celebrating the New Year than we Southerners. 🙂
Baodicea, Indeed, time zones are now in use 🙂
Boa
So, the government still owes us 12 days? Will they be tax-free days?
I see lately that G. Brown has been toying with the idea of us here in the United Kingdom of Fife and others losing 1 hour every day in winter, and two hours in summer. This despite the fact that we are supposed to live in a 24/7 society, and encouraging “flexible working”. There is no limit to which governments will not stoop to make life inconvenient for the populace.
Set the people free.
Oh heavens, John, it was even more confusing than I thought 😉
I don’t want to mislead anyone but I could have sworn I read somewhere that Ethiopia still hasn’t changed over 🙂
Arrers, does that mean that if I have my birthday and Xmas in Ethiopia, I’ll get what I deserve?