[Ansteorra] Happy New Year - maybe

[Stefan li Rous via Ansteorra]

On Jan 2, 2015, at 7:21 AM, Jay Rudin via Ansteorra <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org> wrote:
> 
>> So in order to keep confusion to a minimum, I'll keep to the custom of these Modern Middle Ages and bid you all a Happy 2015!
> 
> Ah, but is New Year's Day January 1st or May 1st?
> 
> Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
> 
> P.S. Trick question of course. Properly, it's March 25.

Or to clarify things further, here is a recent message on this topic. Or see even more, in the calenders-msg file in the Florilegium.

Stefan

===========
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 13:56:19 -0500
From: Garth Groff via Atlantia <atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>
To: Merry Rose <atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>
Subject: [MR] Wikipedia" January 1

I wish you all a propserous and happy new year, and hope for many more 
of the same for all of us.

But did you all know that January 1 was not the usual start of the new 
year throughout much of Europe during our SCA time-period? Depending 
upon the country, the new year began on a number of other dates, many 
coinciding with a religious feast day. What follows here is the text 
from a Wikipedia article discussing this historical oddity.

*
**During the Middle Ages under the influence of the Catholic Church, 
many countries in western Europe moved the start of the year to one of 
several important Christian festivals -- December 25 (the Nativity of 
Jesus), March 1, March 25 (the Annunciation), or even Easter. Eastern 
European countries (most of them with populations showing allegiance to 
the Orthodox Church) began their numbered year on September 1 from about 988.**
**
**In England, January 1 was celebrated as the New Year festival, but 
from the 12th century to 1752 the year in England began on March 25 
(Lady Day). So, for example, the Parliamentary record notes the 
execution of Charles I as occurring on January 30, 1648, (as the year 
did not end until March 24), although modern histories adjust the start 
of the year to January 1 and record the execution as occurring in 1649.*

*Most western European countries changed the start of the year to 
January 1 before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. For example, 
Scotland changed the start of the Scottish New Year to January 1 in 
1600. England, Ireland and the British colonies changed the start of the year to January 1 in 1752. Later that year in September, the Gregorian calendar was introduced throughout Britain and the British colonies. These two reforms were implemented by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.**
**
**January 1 became the official start of the year as follows:**
**
**1362 Grand Duchy of Lithuania**
**1522 Republic of Venice**
**1544 Holy Roman Empire (Germany)**
**1556 Spain, Portugal**
**1559 Prussia, Sweden**
**1564 France**
**1576 Southern Netherlands**
**1579 Duchy of Lorraine**
**1583 Dutch Republic (northern)**
**1600 Scotland**
**1700 Russia**
**1721 Tuscany**
**1752 Great Britain (excluding Scotland) and its colonies*

So as you can see, the Lithuanians were out in front in designating 
January 1 as the beginning of the new year. We Scots were pretty far 
down the list, though we still beat the Brits by 152 years!

Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot
==========

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****