The Calendar
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| The Calendar |
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As is well known, the earth does not orbit the sun in exactly 365 and a quarter days and this fact has caused many problems to calendar makers over the centuries. In the course of history many different calendars have been invented but today for most practical purposes the Gregorian is the most commonly used with others such as the Jewish, Moslem and Chinese calenders being used for religous purposes.
For western genealogists the two most important calendars are the Julian and its later variation the Gregorian.
The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. As it was the official calendar of the Roman Empire it became the de facto calendar of the western world. The main point of interest in this calendar was that the New Year began in the spring, the season of birth and regeneration. New Year's Day was the 25th of March.
The difference between the calendar year and the solar year was accounted for by the use of leap years, an extra day being added to February every fourth year. This correction was slightly too much and by the 16th century the surplus time had displaced the vernal exquinox to the 11th of March from the 21st of March.
In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII rectified the error by suppresing 10 days in that year and ordered thereafter years ending in hundreds should not be leap years unless they were divisible by 400. This reform was implemented almost immediately by most Roman Catholic countries and more gradually by the Protestant countries. This calendar, in almost universal use today, is therefore called the Gregorian Calendar though it is only a slight modification of the Julian calendar.
The reform was not accepted by England and its British North American Colonies until 1752. (Please, this is not a political statement but a convenience. Let us not get into a discussion of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man, Acts of Union and other matters.) As a result dates prior to 1752 are according to the Julian or Old Style calendar and dates after 1st of January, 1752, are according to the Gregorian or New Style calendar.
This change means that until 1752 the new year began on the 25th of March, and, incidentally, that 1751 was only 9 months and 1 week long. As a result, for example, 31 December 1709 was followed by 1 January 1709 and 24 March 1709 was followed by 25 March 1710. This can be a little disconcerting when first reading old records, such as Parish Registers, where one expects the entries to be in chronological order.
For some years prior to 1752 it was a fairly common, though not a universal, practice to write both years in dates for the months of January-March, e.g. 20 February 1709/10. Today genealogists should always record the dates in such manner so there is no confusion.
Beside the familiar abbrevations for the months of the year you will sometimes come across 7r for September, 8r for October, 9r for November and 10r for December. In early documents the names of the months are often given in Latin. Also the latin expression eodem die, meaning “the same day” is frequently used in Parish Registers when more than one event occured on the same date.
Most pre 1832 records (1878 for the Isle of Man) were kept by the Established Church, the Church of England, as a result of which we sometimes find a date recorded as the name of a Saint's Day or other religious festival. For example, a baptism may be recorded as “St. Simon and Jude, 1654”. Luckily these days are fixed and the entry can be easily translated into “28 October 1654”. The Saint's Days that I have found used in Manx doucuments and their corresponding dates have been listed. I would be pleased to add any others that researchers have noted in doucuments.
Some Christian festivals are moveable, i.e. they do not occur on the same date each year. These moveable feasts are all related to the date of Easter which may fall on any date from 22nd of March to the 25th of April. Easter is defined as the Sunday following the full moon next after the vernal equinox (or something like that). The actual date of Easter can be computed from tables in the Book of Common Prayer. The date of Easter for the period 1600-1799 is listed.