As you know, February is typically the shortest month of the year as it has 28 days in a common year. But for one year in the 1700s, February had an unusual number of days. In 1712, Sweden extended the month by an extra day, and the month now ended on February 30 for this particular year. This strange occurrence happened as Sweden shifted between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, as they had around a 10-day gap between them.
Pope Gregory XIII had introduced the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s to fix large variables between the solar year and calendar date that the Julian calendar had displayed. Countries from across the globe eventually started using the new calendar, and Sweden finally decided to do so in 1700.
The year 1700 was a leap year in the Julian calendar, but it wasn’t a leap year in the Gregorian version, widening the gap between the two even further. The first day of March in the Julian calendar was equal to the Gregorian March 12.
Sweden planned to slowly transfer over to the Gregorian calendar by omitting 11 leap days over the course of a 40 year-span, but that plan was destroyed when leap years were wrongfully observed in 1704 and 1708. By 1712, Sweden’s timekeeping was such a disaster that the country planned to change everything back to the Julian calendar starting on the first day of March, while still wanting to be sure they celebrate Easter on a Sunday. To make this happen, Sweden included February 29 — as the year 1712 was already a leap year — plus an additional day, February 30, to make up for the leap day it had taken away in 1700. But wait!
There’s more. Sweden finally made the permanent shift to the Gregorian calendar in 1753, getting rid of the 11-day variance by hopping from February 17 to March 1.
Happy Leap Day everyone.
This is something that most people don’t know, and if you think that leap years today are confusing, living in Sweden during the 1700s would be even worse for you.
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