Why Does George Washington Have Two Birthdays?

The FindingDulcinea Blog ^ | February 11, 2010 | Denis Cummings

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks az_gila.

[SunkenCiv]

It can be a real mess when trying to figure out ages and birthdates for 18th c ancestors, or 17th c for that matter, and depending on where from, 19th and 20th c. The calendar adjustment is so far out of living memory, and probably never mentioned in American history classes (which concentrate on Black History Month, Herstory, and how all Republican Presidents were evil, except for Lincoln who was really a Democrat; wedged between self-esteem class and self-criticism class), that it's nearly as confusing and upsetting to some folks as when they learn about the history of US currency. :')

Lafayette's America

[Duchess47]

I have done a lot of genealogy and I don’t remember ever reading this, no wonder I had so many problems determining whether I was talking about one person or two. Shows I’m not as good a researcher as I thought. :)

[Verginius Rufus]

I think in Sweden instead of making the change all at once, they just omitted Feb. 29th in years that would have been leap years until they were in synch with the Gregorian calendar--which meant that for some decades they had a calendar date that was different from anyone else's.

In England when the change was made people thought they were losing 11 days. "Give us back our 11 days!"

[Verginius Rufus]

June 24th was also an important religious feast--the Nativity of John the Baptist.

Going by Luke 1.36, they calculated that John the Baptist was born exactly six months before Jesus. So why not June 25th for the Nativity of John the Baptist? Because by the Roman calendar, December 25th is the 8th day before the Kalends of January, and June 24th is the 8th day before the Kalends of July.

St. John's, Newfoundland, is so called because John Cabot discovered it on June 24, 1497.

[samantha]

Jeb Bush and Sarah Palin Feb 11,Glenn beck feb 10,only sarah is not nuts.

[SunkenCiv]

I was trying to find the file I had on this, dusty old archival stuff, and have now got the search program looking for it. I mean, really, that’s what it’s for, right? ;’) And the original hard drive was something like 1.4 GB, the current one is 500, so, vast difference in the number of files.

Ah, here we go... http://www.genfair.com/dates.htm but it’s a dead link. Probably archived on the Wayback Machine. Later link was http://www.cree.ie/genuki/dates.htm but that’s gone too. https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.genfair.com/dates.htm

OLD STYLE AND NEW STYLE DATES AND THE CHANGE TO THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR
A summary for genealogists
by Mike Spathaky

[snip]

Our modern practice of starting each New Year on 1st January, has indeed a long pedigree. The Roman civil year started on 1st January and its use continued until the seventh century AD. The Christian Church generally wished to move towards using one of its major festivals as the start of the year, and Christmas Day was used from the time of Bede (AD 672 or 673-735) until the twelfth century.

The Feast of the Annunciation, 25th March, started to be used in the ninth century in parts of southern Europe, but only became widespread in Europe from the eleventh century and in England from the late twelfth. It then held sway until the sixteenth century. 1st January then started to be used as the start of the year, starting in Venice in 1522. Dates when this change was made in some other countries are:

1544 Germany

1556 Spain, Portugal, Roman Catholic Netherlands

1559 Prussia Denmark, Sweden

1564 France

1579 Lorraine

1583 Protestant Netherlands

1600 Scotland

1725 Russia

1721 Tuscany

1752 England and colonies

[/snip]

[snip]

Unfortunately the sixteenth century was a time of severe religious division right across Europe. States still obedient to the Papacy adopted the Gregorian calendar at once, that is in October 1582. These were Spain, Portugal and Italy, with France following in December of that year, and Prussia, the Catholic States of Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Flanders on 1st January 1583. Poland went Gregorian in 1586 and Hungary in 1587. In the year 1700 the German and Netherland Protestant States and Denmark adopted the Gregorian calendar. Sweden wavered, keeping the Gregorian non-leap year of 1700 but reverting back in 1712 by having two leap days that year. The Swedes finally settled for the Gregorian calendar in 1753 omitting the eleven days from 18th to the end of February of that year.

In Britain the Gregorian calendar was not adopted until 1752, and the start of year date was changed to 1st January by the same Act of Parliament. The day following 31st December 1751 was decreed to be 1st January 1752 and 2nd September 1752 was followed by 14th September. As England had taken the year 1700 to be a leap year, the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars now amounted to eleven days. The changes were to apply to all the Dominions of the British Crown, including of course the North American colonies, and will be the ones most of interest to family historians reading this article.

[/snip]

and

[snip]

This quotation from ‘Cradled in Sweden’, by Carl-Erik Johansson, throws more light on the confusion caused by different systems operating in different countries:

“....In November 1699 an agreement was reached to switch over from the old to the new calendar by gradually taking away the eleven days that separated them. By taking away only a day a year, time would be gained for further discussion, as the decision for reform was far from unanimous.

“A beginning was made by leaving out the leap day in 1700. But the reform was not carried any further.

“By January 1711 King Charles XII declared the return to the old way. He stated that the Swedish almanac did not follow that of any other country since the leap day in 1700 was left out. Many mistakes have been made due to this. He also decreed that the month of February should have 30 days in 1712. Sweden was back to the Julian calendar after twelve years of unique dating.

“Not until 1753 was Sweden ready for the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. The problem was solved by letting February 17 be followed by March 1. The reform, however, was not joyfully accepted by all as many held that they had been robbed of 11 days of life!”

(Thanks to Bill Johnson for this gem from The Master Genealogist Mailing List.)

[/snip]

Jewish calendar ‘fo from 2006:

Happy 5767- but how did we reach that number?
by Stephen Rosenberg
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Happy-5767-but-how-did-we-reach-that-number

[SunkenCiv]

Swedish notes:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3391425/posts?page=27#27

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Thanks VR.

[SunkenCiv]

A couple more one last things:

Gregorian and Julian Calendars
https://dfns.dyalog.com/n_Gregorian_calendar.htm

-and-

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q1927.html

How many years would it take for a Full Moon to reoccur at the same time on a given date?

OK, the answer is simply how many years it takes for m lunar cycles of length 29.53059 days to equal 365.2422 days to get a reoccurance accuracy of 0.01 days of 15 minutes. A simple computer program can be written to determine the commensurability time for any degree of precision. To get within an hour, my calculator says in 19 years you have 235 lunar months with an accuracy of 0.15 days or 3.6 hours. This is, of course, the well-known lunar Metonic Cycle. To get even closer in time, you have to wait 353 years for lunar month 4366 when the difference is only 0.064 days or 92.1 minutes since 4366 x 29.53059 days = 128,930.5559 days = 353x365.2422 = 128,930.4966 days...

Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald

-however, that’s the apparent or Synodic month; the Sidereal month is figured (very painstakingly) using the ‘fixed stars’, and is a bit more than 27.3 days long. Stick with the Synodic month, no one will suspect a thing. Oh, and the year is actually 365.242198 days long.

Hebrew Calendar:
http://www.science.co.il/Hebrew-Calendar.asp

[Duchess47]

Thank you for all of that research. I just printed it out so I have it. I love your pings, all interesting and some like this one, absolutely critical to something I am doing. :)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the kind remarks!

[Bigg Red]

George Washington is my favorite president. Such an honorable, brave man.

[colorado tanker]

There were several reforms Catherine wanted but could not overcome opposition from the Church and/or aristocracy. She really wanted to abolish serfdom, but the great landowners just would not let her.

[NoCmpromiz]

I have experienced months like that. Of course, I was drinking then..

Or maybe it was ‘cause I’m from Ohio.

;-)

[SunkenCiv]

High in the middle? ;’)