The Mystery of History - September 1752

Have u ever seen the calendar for September 1752???

The 11 Minute Error
Although the Julian calendar at 365¼ days per year is fairly accurate, it is in fact 11 minutes
and 10 seconds too long. By the mid 1500s it was 17 650 minutes or 11.6 days adrift from
astronomical time.

The Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian calendar - also known as the New Style was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in
1582 but was not adopted by Great Britain until 1752. It modified the Julian calendar in order
to correct the accumulated errors of 11 minutes 10 seconds in each Julian year. 10 days were
removed in 1582 in those countries that adopted the Gregorian calendar. Great Britain removed
11 days in September 1752 when it adopted the Gregorian calendar.
The Gregorian Reformation is assumed to have occurred in 1752 on the 3rd of September. By
this time, most countries had recognised the reformation (although a few did not recognise it
until the early 1900's.) Ten days following that date were eliminated by the reformation, so the
calendar for that month is a bit unusual.
When the Gregorian Calendar was adopted the following significant changes occurred:

• Drop 10 days from October 1582 (11 from September 1752), to realign the Vernal
Equinox with March 21st. The Julian Calendar, first adopted by Julius Caesar for the
Roman Empire in 45 BC, had an annual error factor of .00636 days. From 45 BC to 1582
AD, the correct day of the Vernal Equinox using the Julian Calendar fell behind by a full
ten days.
• Reduce the number of possible leap years. In the Julian Calendar, a leap year occurred
every four years. By reducing the number of leap years, the Gregorian Calendar was
able to more closely align the Vernal Equinox over centuries. The change was to make
leap years for years ending in "00," but only if the number could be divided evenly by
400. The year 2000 is a leap year (2000/400=5), while the year 1900 was not
(1900/400=4.75).
• Change the first day of the year from March 25th to January 1st. This was the most
dramatic change from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar. Traditionally, the new year was
determined by the beginning of the four seasons, and through several centuries, the
first day of Spring in the Julian Calendar was on or about March 25th.

Double Dating
When the first day of the year changed from March to January in 1752 people began writing
dates between January 1st and March 25th both ways, reflecting the "Old Style" (OS) And the
"New Style" (NS), which genealogists may find indicated in old records from September 1752
forward. Someone born between 1st January and 25th March in years 1752 and before would
indicate the date as 22nd February 1731/2 to indicate that in the Julian calendar they were
born in 1731 but in the Gregorian calendar it was 1732. The double dating indicates the
situation of a date between January 1st and March 25th. As a genealogist, any date you find in
old records before 1752, and between January 1st and March 24th, inclusive, should be
expressed as a double date. The authors of the documents did not do it for you in most cases.
There may have been some anticipation of the calendar change in the British Empire just
before 1752, but in most cases, finding a date written as 22 February 1731/2 is rare. What was
written was the Julian date of 22 February 1731. After 1752, the use of double dating was
widespread in the old documents. In order to calculate ages when the dates span 1752, use the
second number in both cases and assume that pre 1752 years start on the 1st January.
Check and Recheck Dates
In the Julian calendar 24th March 1701 is followed by 25th March 1702! So, someone born on
20th March 1701 and dying on 30th March 1702 is only 10 days old. If these dates are expressed
as "double dates" it would be shown as born on 20th March 1701/2 and dying on 30th March
1702. This makes it easier to calculate date intervals.

Easter
The name Easter comes from Eastre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In
pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honour. Some Easter customs have come
from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals.

Halloween
The USA Halloween traditions of trick-or-treating and jack-o-lanterns were brought to America
in the 1840s by Irish escaping the Great Potato Famine. On Halloween, Irish peasants begged
the rich for food and played practical jokes on those who refused. To avoid being tricked, the
rich handed out cookies, candies, and fruit - a practice that turned into the present day trick-
or-treating. Jack-o-lanterns trace back to an old Irish tale about a man named Stingy Jack.
Unable to enter Heaven because of his stingy ways and turned away by the Devil, Stingy Jack
wandered the world, searching for a resting place. To light his way, Stingy Jack used a burning
coal in a hollowed out turnip -- hence the name "jack-o-lantern." The first jack-o-lanterns, in
fact, were carved out of turnips. Only when the Irish tradition reached America did turnip
carving turn into pumpkin carving. Witch means wise one. It comes from the Saxon word wica.
Witches were thought to be wise enough to tell the future. Orange and black became
Halloween colours because of orange is associated with harvests and black is associated with
death. Halloween is the 8th largest card-sending occasion in the USA. There are over 28 million
Halloween cards sent each year! There are many variations on the history of Halloween, but it's
generally believed that Halloween dates back to 700 BC to the Celts, a rural society in northern
England, Scotland and Ireland. On November 1, the first day of their new year, the Celts
celebrated a festival called Samhain ("sow-in"). Chosen to signify the end of the harvest season
and the onset of winter, Samhain was also thought to be a day of the dead. Because it was the
end of one year and the start of another, the Celts believed that past and present were closely
linked, allowing ancestral spirits to join them. On the eve of Samhain, October 31, the Celts
dressed in costume, lit bonfires, and offered food and drink to masked revellers. Many say the
costumes and fires were used to drive away the spirits, and the food given to placate the dead.
October 31 came to be called Halloween when the Christians proclaimed November 1 as All
Hallow Day. Unable to stop the pagan ritual of Samhain, the Christians made it a day to
celebrate saints who had no day of their own. The night before, or All Hallow Eve, was later
shortened to Halloween.