The Calendar.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 14, 3 April 1902, Page 15

The Calendar.

In connection with the approach of the new year (says the New York Fr, c man's Journal, December 2«) it jpay be of interest to recall the fact that it is not so long— only a century and a half — since the New Year in England began on March 25 instead of January 1. That waa simply and solely through the bigotry of the English, who, through nearly two centuries, refused to adopt the Gregorian calendar because it was the work of a Pope. To correct the error of the Julian system, which in the sixteenth century had come to caupe what may be called a shortage of ten days, Pope Gregory XIII., after careful examination of the whole subject and a thorough reform of the calendar, issued a brief in 1582 directing that the day following the feast of St. Francis in that year— that is, the sth of October— should be reckoned as the loth of that month. The new system was immediately adopted by all the Catholic countries, but in England hatred of 'Popery' prevented its adoption until 1752, when it was found that the shortage was eleven days instead of ten, and in that year an Act of Parliament was passed ordering that the 3rd of September should be reckoned the 14th. At the same time the commencement of the legal year waß made January 1 instead of March 25. The change led to rioting in many parts of Eugland.