Swedish Calendar
Instead of changing from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar by omitting a block of consecutive days as had been done in other countries, the Swedish Empire (which included Finland at the time) planned to change gradually by omitting all leap days for the entire period from 1700 to 1740 inclusive. Although the leap day was omitted in February 1700, the Great Northern War began later that year, diverting the attention of the Swedes from their calendar so that they did not omit leap days on the next two occasions and 1704 and 1708 remained leap years.
To avoid confusion and further mistakes, the Julian calendar was restored in 1712 by adding an extra leap day, thus giving that year a 30th of February. That date corresponded to February 29 in the Julian calendar and to March 11 in the Gregorian calendar.
The Swedish conversion to the Gregorian calendar was finally accomplished in the usual way in 1753, by omitting the last 11 days of February.
Read more about this topic: February 30
Famous quotes containing the word calendar:
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)