time. Spain, Portugal, and Italy first accepted the
decree of Pope Gregory XIII, and the following
illustration shows exactly how the change was
made from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar
at that time.
OCTOBER A.D. 1582
Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri. Sat.
1 2 3 4 15 10
10 20 21 22 23
26 27 28 20 30
A.D. 1582
Sun.
Roman figures are Julian calendar dates.
Italic figures are Gregorian calendar dates.
The above illustration proves that the dropping
of ten days did not interfere with the free-running
week. Instead of writing Friday the fifth, they wrote
Friday the fifteenth.
France waited till December of the same year,
1582, and it dropped the ten days of the calendar
month by calling the tenth of December the twenti-
eth, as indicated below:
A. D. 1582
Fri. Sat.
3 4
A. D. 1582 DECEMBER
Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thur.
28
20 30 31
Roman figures are Julian calendar dates.
Italic figures are Gregorian calendar dates.
The change was again made on a Friday, but it
was Friday the twentieth instead of Friday the
tenth, and the weekly cycle was not disrupted by
the dropping of the ten days. The dates of the month
of December were changed but the days of the week
were not disturbed.
England and her Colonies adopted the Gregorian
Calendar 170 years later, in 1752. By that time it
was necessary to drop eleven days instead of ten.
An Act of Parliament ordered that September 3
should be called September 14. Accordingly, Eng-
land and all her colonies made the change on Thurs-
day, the third of September, as the following illus-
trates:
SEPTEMBER A.D. 1752
Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri. Sat.
1 2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 20 27 28 29 30
Roman figures are Julian calendar dates.
Italic figures are Gregorian calendar dates.
A.D. 1752
Sun.
The dropping out of the eleven days did not alter
the weekly cycle. The second of September was
followed by the fourteenth, and everybody in the
English possessions wrote Thursday, September 14,
1752, instead of Thursday, September 3.
MAY, 1929
Turkey, Soviet Russia, Roumania, Serbia, Greece,
and the Eastern Greek Catholic Church continued
the use of the Julian Calendar until just a few years
ago. Turkey adopted the Gregorian Calendar in
1917, Soviet Russia in 1918, Roumania and Serbia
in 1919, and Greece in 1923. None of these nations
broke the weekly cycle when they made the transfer.
Greece and the Eastern Greek Church waited just
341 years before they adopted the Gregorian
Calendar. By this time it became necessary to
drop thirteen days out of the reckoning. The follow-
ing calendar shows how it affected the monthly
dates and how the days of the week were preserved
intact in dropping the thirteen days:
JULIAN CALENDAR
SEPTEMBER
Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri.
A.D. 1923 A.D. 1923
Sun.
12
19
26
GREGORIAN CALENDAR
OCTOBER
Mon. Tue. Wed. Thur. Fri.
First thirteen days not counted.
14 I5 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 20 30 37
A.D. 1923
Sat.
A.D. 1923
Sun.
Greece and the Eastern Greek Church made the
change on a Sunday, and instead of calling it Sunday,
October 1, according to the Julian Calendar, they
called it Sunday, October 14, according to the
Gregorian Calendar. The Grecians went to sleep
on Saturday night, September 30, according to the
Julian Calendar, and woke up Sunday morning,
October 14, according to the Gregorian Calendar.
Dropping the thirteen days did not alter the days of
the weekly cycle but only the dates of the month of
October. It would have been Sunday, October 1,
under the Julian Calendar if the change had not
been made, but with the change it became Sunday,
October 14, under the Gregorian Calendar reckon-
ing.
All the nations of the past took special care in
their calendar revisions to preserve unbroken the
continuity of the weekly cycle. While the dates of
the month in the other nations were not the same
as the dates of the month in Greece before the change,
yet the days of the week were exactly the same.
When it was Sunday in Greece it was Sunday in
all the other nations, though they operated under
different calendars. Sabbatarians who observed
the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week in
England also observed the (Continued on page 27)
PAGE SEVEN