What is time? Is reality real? Do people actually exist, or are they simply elaborate holograms? Can time be measured, and if so, does it fluctuate like my midsection during the holiday season?
Well, let’s not dwell on that last question, but we do know George Washington really had two birth dates. What the heck! (February 11, 1731 and February 22, 1732).
The Gregorian calendar, a modification of the Julian calendar, corrected an oopsy (a miscalculation) in the time it takes the earth to twirl around the sun. The development of the Julian calendar involved Julius Caesar ordering from professional stargazers a twelve-month calendar based on the solar year. This calendar moved the new year from March 1 to January 1. Unfortunately, “During the Middle Ages, it began to become apparent that the Julian leap year formula had overcompensated for the actual length of a solar year, having added an extra day every 128 years” (Colonial Records). That’s okay. Math is hard, but by 1582, the seasonal equinoxes were ten days too early. To fix this error, “Ten days were dropped from the month of October, and the formula for determining leap years was revised so that only years divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000) at the end of a century would be leap years” (Colonial Records). Therefore, by adopting the Gregorian calendar, October 7, 1867 became October 18, 1867. Interestingly, even with the sketchy changes in the calendar, the weekly seven-day cycle was never changed. Monday continued to follow Sunday, Thursday still came before Friday, rent for a cottage was due on the same day, there was no morphing of time to modify for a human mathematical technicality, and George Washington never knew he was gifted two birthdays because he was already dead. When America adopted the Gregorian calendar, many documents were “double-dated,” meaning that to keep records straight, officials added a second date to important documents. The date written during the Julian-calendar era was left on these documents, but to accommodate the new calendar system, another date compensating for the 10-day change was added to many documents. For other countries that took a little longer to adopt this new calendar, like Canada and the UK, 11 days were dropped, but they did so in 1752. Later, in 1872, Japan cut 12 “days, Russia, Greece, and Turkey, switched calendars as late as the early 20th century. They omitted 13 days” (Bikos and Kher). It took time for the various countries to see the benefit of adopting the Gregorian calendar. I can imagine children asking their parents if they would have two birth dates like Washington, or wives expecting two anniversaries, and landlords excited to receive “early” payment. Or did they? Time is so convoluted. Unfortunately, despite its improvements, the Gregorian calendar retains several of the Julian calendar's flaws. Months still vary in length, holidays still fall on different days of the week from one year to another, and it still primarily follows
Christian holidays, therefore causing misalignment with other cultural or religious calendars. In fact, its benefits over the Julian calendar are disputed among astronomers. So, time goes on, and records will continue to be modified because of human mistakes. Thankfully, the only date I care about is my birthday. I do like me a large slice of chocolate cake.
Works Cited
Bikos, Konstantin, and Aparna Kher. From Julian to Gregorian Calendar. 2024.
Eldridge, Alison. “Our Days Are Numbered: 7 Crazy Facts About Calendars.” Encyclopedia Britannica.
“Colonial Records and Topics: 1752 Calendar Change.” Connecticut State Library, 23 Sept. 2024.
“George Washington’s Birthday.” National Archives, 27 Dec. 2023.
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