Wednesday, September 3, 2025

It is the 3rd of September 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It should be, at least, a yearly occurrence on this show that we talk about the strange world of calendars- after all, this is the “almanac” and it might seem easy enough, select the date and then talk about what happened on that date… if only it were that easy.

Let me start by asking you a question that vexed me as a young man every February… when was George Washington born? February 11th, of course. But Washington’s Birthday, which has been a federal holiday since the 1800s, is celebrated on the 22nd of February (and now, the third Monday of February… it’s all confusing).

But what if I told you that George Washington’s birthday is both the 11th of February AND the 22nd of February, and the confusion comes down to church history and the celebration of Easter?

Repeat after me, long-time listeners: the early church had TWO major issues, the divinity of Jesus and the celebration of Easter. Stay with me here…

Observing and celebrating the Resurrection together was central- and so we needed a uniform way of calculating time. And, of course, central to human civilization is agriculture, which requires knowing the seasons and calculating the passage of time. SO… how to do it?

We could use the sun or the moon to track the days. We’ll need to divide things- 12s and 10s and 7s… 360 is always a favorite (think degrees in a circle), but the ancients realized that, however we did it, there was some slippage. 360 days isn’t quite a full revolution, and the Egyptians (who needed to be precise- they needed to plan for the Nile to flood) figured 365 days was closer to the actual number of days… and if there was some slippage, they would add a day to the end of the month.  The Romans and Julius Caesar added the “leap day” every four years. Close, but good enough for the Roman Empire and the church.

Miscalculating by fractions of a day might not matter initially, but over time it will lead to slippage- equinoxes and easters don’t do well with this…. 

So, enter Pope Gregory XIII in the late 1500s, who had his people use the latest in astronomy, figured that a better calculation of dates and years and “leap years” could be made, such that the average year was 365.2425 days… pretty close. This is the “Gregorian Calendar” that we use today.

But good luck in the Early Modern Era telling Protestants that the Pope had a good idea and should be trusted. As you might imagine, Catholics would use the Gregorian calendar and Protestants would use the Julian calendar. From 1582 to 1752, there were two different calendars in use in the West. Not only that, but the Gregorian calendar decided that January 1st would be the first day of the year, while others continued to use March 25th (that was the celebration of the Annunciation of the Virgin Birth and was seen as the beginning of a new era).

So… back to George Washington, who was born in 1732 in Virginia- then a colony of the British- Protestant Britain and thus still on the Julian Calendar, so it’s February 11th.

But when George was 18 in 1750, the British Parliament decided that calculating the seasons better was not a popish plot and decreed that they and their colonies would switch to the Gregorian Calendar in September of 1752- and to do so, they would need to “erase” 11 days. And so it was decreed that on the 2nd of September in 1752, all British citizens would go to bed, and when they woke up, it would NOT be today, the 3rd of September… today did not exist in 1752. British Citizens, George Washington included, would go to bed on the 2nd, and when they awoke- today- well, it was the 14th.  Benjamin Franklin has been quoted as saying, "What an indulgence is here, for those who love their pillow to lie down in peace on the second of the month and not perhaps awake till the morning of the fourteenth."

There have been stories of riots, people arguing about not paying a full month's rent or arguing about wages lost. This is likely reading our modern obsession with precise time keeping (9 to 5, Rent due on the 1st…), etc, into the past. There were some concerns, but having a standard calendar seems to have been justified. As for almanacs… well, we’ll survive- next time you see a date notice if there is an “O.S.” or “N.S.” Old style, or new Style… and then remember, for purposes of this podcast- it’s never really been about the dates… that’s just what I use to facilitate looking at our collective Christian past. So.. happy 3rd or 14th or whatever…

 The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Jeremiah: 

15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. 16 In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18 In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 3rd of September 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who refuses to use months named after pagan gods… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who, as a boy, got very sad once when I learned Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t get birthdays- new style or old style… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.