What happened between October 4 and 15, 1582 ?
Question for a "Trivial Pursuit", or a TV game show...
Nothing ! The answer is obviously absolutely nothing! Since October 15, 1582 is in fact the day after October 4 of that year, following the establishment of the Gregorian Calendar...
Gregorian Calendar vs Julian Calendar...
What most people probably don't know, however, is that this is only true, roughly speaking, for the Papal States, the territories ruled by Philip II of Spain (at the time, Spain, Portugal and part of Italy) and the "Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth" led by Anna Jagiellon. For the rest of Europe, fragmented both politically and religiously, and the rest of the world, everyone, according to their convictions and interests, will or will not convert, depending on circumstances. France (what it was at that time) would follow from December 9 to 20, Belgium (then part of the Netherlands) from December 14 to 25, for example... The Protestant states and England were more reluctant. Prussia (Lutheran, but stronghold of the Catholic king of Poland) first in 1611, the Protestant states of Germany, as well as Denmark and Sweden in 1700, Great Britain in 1752. What posed a problem was not the calculation itself, which no one contested, but the fact that the reform was of Catholic origin. The Orthodox Church put up the fiercest resistance, preferring "not to agree with the sun, than to agree with the Pope"...
In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was finally adopted by decree of the Council of People's Commissars in 1918. Reason why the anniversary of the October Revolution is celebrated on... November 7 !?... The Bolsheviks taking power October 25 of the Julian calendar (known as "old style"), i.e. November 7 of the Gregorian calendar (known as "new style").
The Orthodox Church for its part will never adopt the Gregorian calendar. So much so that, on the one hand, the tradition being firmly anchored in the population, Russian calendars will mention the two dates for a long time: as illustrated above, on this calendar sheet of July 13 (new style)/June 30 (old style) 1943... And, on the other hand, religious celebrations remain faithful to the Julian calendar. Thus Christmas is celebrated on January 7, while for Easter, its date is calculated according to the same solar/lunar mix as for Catholics (*), but from the Julian calendar equinoxe, which places Orthodox Easter sometimes close, or even the same date, sometimes at a very distant date of the Catholic one. Some poeple even still celebrate, sometimes, in Russia the "old New Year", January 14... Which I never fail to take advantage of, after having celebrated Christmas twice, to celebrate the New Year a second time. Before I bring this up again with my Chinese friends... China which, moreover, also, after several attempts, officially adopted the Gregorian calendar during the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. But that's not the last country to have made the conversion. Saudi Arabia also officially adopted the Gregorian calendar in 2016...
Ite, missa est !
(*) The first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox
Other Intercultural Notes...
"Si vis pacem..." the article, some kind of manifesto of our association.
You can follow our Facebook. page. But, as prevention is better than cure, to avoid censorship, we are also on Telegram