French Republican time and dates

Posted Jul 14, 2022 9:14 UTC (Thu) by james (subscriber, #1325)
In reply to: French Republican time and dates by Wol
Parent article: Native Python support for units?

Actually, before Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, the beginning of the tax and legal year was Lady Day (25 March, the Church feast celebrating the angel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary that she was to conceive Jesus: nine months before Christmas).

When Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, eleven days were "lost" to the calendar. The lawyers saw no reason why the tax year should remain fixed to the Church calendar, but some very good ones why the tax year should remain 365 or 366 days long. That moved it to 5 April.

Then 1800 would have been a leap year under the old Julian calendar, but not under the Gregorian calendar, and the Treasury pushed the start of the tax year to 6 April, to match Lady Day in the old Julian calendar.

French Republican time and dates

Posted Jul 18, 2022 15:21 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

Which is why I said I thought it was now the 7th - because 1900 also wasn't a leap year in the new calendar ... :-)

I was a bit vague (as always) about 5th/6th/7th April being the Julian 25th March, but I didn't want to overcomplicate by spelling it all out ... and in another 80(ish) years it'll be the 8th April :-) Although I doubt the Treasury will bother moving the tax year.

Cheers,
Wol