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Lost Festivals at Megalithic Sites
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Branwen
824 posts

Re: Lost Festivals at Megalithic Sites
Dec 28, 2009, 19:42
There are two elements of our modern calendar that were not always the same as they are now.

One - the starting day of the change of year
Two - the rule for working out leap years which resulted in the loss of 11 days.

1st January was the start of the Roman civil year,and its use continued until the seventh century AD.

Christmas Day was used from the time of Bede (AD 672 or 673 to 735) until the twelfth century in Europe.

25th March, The Feast of the Annunciation, started to be used in the ninth century in parts of southern Europe, but only became widespread in the rest of 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

We take a long time to change in Scotland, maybe. People were still bemoaning the loss of the 11 days right to the end of their lives after the 1752 change, after all. No doubt we had gotten used to Christmas as new year right up to the 12th century. Or maybe it was just because in Scotland New Year made more sense as January, due to the survival of the Yules which are closer to January. They begin in full swing with Modronacht on the night of the 21st, which began the pagan new year celebrations. Christmas itself wasn't even a public holiday here till recently, and New Year's we get an extra day.

Although Scotland made the change to January as a place to start the new year in 1600, it didn't make the change to the new calendar way of calculating leap years, losing 11 days in September, till 1752, when England was changing New Year and losing 11 days in the one year.

http://www.cree.ie/genuki/dates.htm
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