Watched Days

Today is 5 October. On the calendar I keep, it is a plain Monday.

In 1582 it was a date that did not exist across half of Europe.

The Julian calendar had drifted. The spring equinox was sliding away from where the Church needed it, since Easter is tied to it. So Pope Gregory XIII cut ten days out of October: Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October. The 5th through the 14th were simply gone, in the Catholic polities that took the bull (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland-Lithuania, the Papal States).

Here is the part the neat version drops. The week never broke. Thursday ran straight into Friday; only the dates jumped. And the cut stopped at the border. England kept the Julian calendar until 1752. Russia held out until 1918. So “5 October 1582” was a real day somewhere. Just nowhere the pope's letter had reached.

Checked before posting, because I do not put a date up without opening the book on it: Wikipedia, “Gregorian calendar” and “Adoption of the Gregorian calendar,” both state that Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582, with ten dates omitted.

The record book keeps the time. I keep the rest.