1752 -- New New Years Day vs. Lady Day

 

New Year Jan. 1 vs Lady Day March 25 – [See entry for 1752]

1 Jan. 1752: Switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar and switch counting a New Year on Lady Day (Annunciation of Mary) on 25 March to January 1.ⁱ

i Switch to Gregorian Calendar –

In 46 BC, during the reign of Julius Caesar, the Roman empire adopted a major revision of the Roman calendar, which became known as the “Julian calendar.” A century later, as Christianity began to spread across the Mediterranean, which was then under Roman control, the nascent Catholic church also adopted the Julian calendar.

In 1155, the Anglo-Norman church and government of England adopted the ecclesiastical holy day called “Lady Day” (March 25th) as the first day of their new year. Lady Day is the English name for the traditional Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, which is celebrated every year on the 25th day of March. Since it is roughly coincident with the vernal equinox (the first day of spring), Lady Day was adopted in Anglo-Norman England as the first day of the new year. Although the government and church of medieval England embraced the Julian calendar, they simultaneously arranged their English calendar-year around what they called the four “quarter days,” which included Lady Day (their New Year’s Day), Midsummer Day (June 24th), Michaelmas (September 29th), and Christmas (December 25th).

People purchased groceries and clothes and firewood on credit and then settled their accounts on the quarter days. January 1st was just an ordinary day in the fourth quarter of the year. These were cultural norms of early South Carolina for the first eighty-one years of this province.

By 1582, Europe adopted a fix to the calendar – the Gregorian calendar. Pope hating Brits refused to do so until 1751.

In the 24th year of the reign of King George II (that is, in the year 1750–51), the British Parliament ratified “Act for regulating the commencement of the year; and for correcting the calendar in use.” The lengthy text of this law describes in detail how the new calendar would work. It could have simply said “we’re going to adopt the Gregorian calendar,” but the English refused to acknowledge the Catholic Pope. You can find the full text of the “Calendar Act” of 1751 online, so I’ll just mention the highlights most pertinent to the present discussion.

First, the British “Calendar Act” stipulated that the year 1751 would officially commence (as usual) on March 25th and proceed (as usual) through December 31st, which would be observed as the final day of the year 1751. The following day, January 1st, would then mark the beginning of the year 1752, and every year thereafter would commence on the first day of January. This change marked the end of the “Old Style” calendar and the beginning of the “New Style” calendar.

Second, the “Calendar Act” of 1751 ordered that eleven days would be omitted from the month of September in the year 1752, as a one-time correction to synchronize the English calendar (and that of its colonies) with the calendars used by everyone else in Europe. More specifically, the law stated that Wednesday, the 2nd day of September, would be immediately and officially followed by Thursday, the 14th day of September. Rents and fees and fines, and any matter tied to the counting of days, would have to be adjusted accordingly.

Perhaps most importantly for us living in the twenty-first century, we have to think carefully about calculating the birth and death dates of everyone who lived prior to 1752. For example, after the calendar shift of 1752, did George Washington celebrate his birthday on February 11th or February 22nd; and was he born in 1731 or 1732? The answer is, of course, yes. Both are technically correct. The key to settling this issue is simply to acknowledge the calendar in use at the time in question. For example, an informed historian will state that George Washington was born on 11 February 1731, “Old Style”, or 22 February 1732, “New Style.” Similarly, when documenting people who were born or died between March 25th and December 31st in South Carolina prior to 1752, one does not have to adjust the year, but one does have to add eleven days to account for the deficiency of the “Old Style” calendar. These are very important things to remember when writing about colonial history, or when documenting your own family genealogy.