Presidents Birthday Contest
Washington was born on 11 February 1731 on the Julian Calendar. His official birthdate is 22 February 1732 is celebrated on the Gregorian Calendar, which is what we use.
Also, the English New Year was on March 25, which also has to do with the difference in the year.
DANG, Macker! You win the Sam Spade Award for quick detective work. I was hoping to trip some of the smart-alecks up with the little known fact about the English New Year.
For the record, it was in 1752 that England and her colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar by jumping ahead 11 days. It was also decided, at that time, to move New years from March to January.
Does anyone know what part of the “Leap Year Rule” was responsible for the 11-day difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendar? Hint: the exception to the rule occurred recently.
That would be: the extra day is added in years evenly divisible by 4 except when the year is divisible by 100—unless the year is divisible by 400.
Good enough?
That would be it, StinKerr. The old Julian calendar had leap year EVERY FOUR YEARS, including century years, even if they were not divisible by 400, thus every century not divisible by 400 added an extra day moving the calendar off from the actual seasonal date by one day.
Question: How did the English happen to pick March 25 as their New Year? I assume it had something to do with the equinox and perhaps old Druidic traditions, or something of that sort?
The Julian calandar is based on a year that is 365.25 days long. The Gregorian Calander is based on a year 365.2425 days in length. The actual solar year is presently 365.242197 days long. Thus, there remains a discrepency that amounts to 0.000303(26.1792 sec) days/year. This results in an accumulated error of one day too many in 3300 years… but we will probably be dead by then.
Posted by Lucius Severus Pertinax
02/05/2005 at 10:12 PM
Also, Russia used the Julian Calendar until January 31, 1918, then it jumped forward to February 14. This is also why the October 25 Bolshevik Revolution is “commemorated” on my Birthday…
November 7!
We do NOT celebrate “Presidents Day” on February 21. The federal holiday is Washington’s Birthday. Please don’t fall into the trap of “Presidents Day.”
Allan, these little tests are far too easy and any fool can find the answer in a search engine in a second. The key is to know something the search engine doesn’t.
Example; what is the definition of ric?
Made a C-note on that one.
Subscribers to the OED are disqualified and if you have to look it up ... well that’s what’s known as education on my planet.
Posted by Steel Turman
02/06/2005 at 01:49 AM
T’berg - I believe Mar 25 date was thought to be Christ’s resurrection day. Some folks complained about New Year being celebrated in a pagan way when New Year was changed to Jan 1.
Steel - Where I live, RIC is Richmond International Airport. How about fairly well off, as in not quite ricH? What does ‘ric’ mean, other than as a suffix? And what is ‘OED’?
