September 14 — promulgation of the Gregorian calendar

Currently, most of the civilized world is using the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII. Prior to this, the Julian calendar was in use, which was proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, as a reform of the Roman calendar. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematician and astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria. The calendar was predominant in the Roman world, most of Europe, and in European settlements in the Americas and elsewhere, until it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, promulgated in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. The Julian calendar has two types of year: a normal year of 365 days and a leap year of 366 days. It followed a simple cycle of three normal years and one leap year, based on an average year that is 365.25 days long. In effect, it is erroneous because that is more than the actual solar year value of 365.24219 days, which means the Julian calendar gains a day every 128 years.

Although, the Gregorian calendar was decreed in 1582, Great Britain and its colonies promulgated the Gregorian calendar in 1752, by which time it was necessary to correct by 11 days. Wednesday, September 2, 1752, was followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752. Since the year 1752 was a leap year, so that it consisted of 355 days (366 days less 11 omitted).

Many Protestant countries initially objected to adopting the Catholic innovation, fearing that the new calendar was part of a plot to return them to the Catholic fold. In England, Queen Elizabeth I and her privy council had looked favourably to a Gregorian-like royal commission recommendation to drop 10 days from the calendar but the virulent disagreement of the Anglican bishops, who opposed the Pope, led the Queen to let the matter be quietly dropped. In the Czech Republics, Protestants resisted the calendar imposed by the Habsburg Monarchy.

Remonstrations and furor prevailed in some misinformed quarters as the rioters demanded “Give us our eleven days”. Daily wages workers assumed that they had been robbed of eleven days of wages. This misconception grew out of a misinterpretation of a painting by William Hogarth. In 1755, William Hogarth produced a painting entitled An Election Entertainment, which shows a placard carrying the slogan “Give us our Eleven Days”. The issue was debated hotly in the British Parliament till the misconception was resolved. Ronald Paulson, author of Hogarth, His Life, Art and Times, wrote that “the Oxfordshire people … specifically rioted, as historically the London crowd did, to preserve the ‘Eleven Days’ the government stole from them in September 1752 by changing the calendar”.

There were, however, legitimate concerns regarding tax and other payments under the new calendar due to the shortened period. Consequently, Provision 6 (Times of Payment of Rents, Annuities) of the Act was introduced, which stipulated that monthly or yearly payments would not become due until the dates that they originally would have done had the Julian calendar continued.

This provision applied to defer payment of Window Tax, which was a permanent tax. It did not apply to Land Tax which was re-enacted each year.

The Land Tax Act for the year from 25 March 1752 became law after the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 and therefore over-rode the provision governing the time of payment.

In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was accepted after the October Revolution. On 24 January 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars issued a decree that Wednesday, 31 January 1918, was to be followed by Thursday, 14 February 1918, thus dropping 13 days from the calendar. With the change, the October Revolution itself, once converted, took place on 7 November. Articles about the October Revolution which mention this date difference tend to do a full conversion to the dates from Julian to the Gregorian calendar.

In Pakistan, we use the Gregorian calendar for formal purposes but all religious events are based on the Islamic calendar which is a lunar one, so that there are 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days, being 11 days shorter than a solar year. Consequently, holy days in Islam migrate around the solar year on a 32-year cycle. Some other countries in the Islamic world too use the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes, while retaining the Islamic calendar for religious purposes. For example, Saudi Arabia adopted the Gregorian calendar for the purpose of paying public sector staff effective 1 October 2016; private sector employers had already adopted the Gregorian calendar for pay purposes.

Today, the vast majority of countries use the Gregorian calendar as their sole civil calendar. Countries which have not adopted the Gregorian calendar are Ethiopia, which uses the Ethiopian calendar, Nepal follows the Vikram Samvat, Iran and Afghanistan use the Solar Hijri calendar.

Israel follows the Hebrew calendar and Myanmar the Burmese calendar, while some countries use a modified version of the Gregorian calendar, including Thailand (Thai solar calendar), Japan (Japanese calendar), North Korea (North Korean) and China uses the Chinese calendar, which is lunisolar. It is based on exact astronomical observations of the sun’s longitude and the Moon’s phases. It attempts to have its years coincide with the tropical year.

September 14 is commemorated as the promulgation of the Gregorian Calendar, now widely in use.