25th March is Lady Day. If we’re being strictly Anglican about it, we should called it the Annunciation of Our Lord, a principal feast. This is not just an anti-Catholic post-Reformation rebranding exercise, rolling back the Cult of the Virgin Mary. This day has always been about the Angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, being precisely nine months before Christmas Day.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.” (Luke 1:30-31)
If we’re being pedantic, the text does not say that Gabriel’s visit marks the day of Christ’s physical conception in utero. But let’s not worry too much about that.
The result is that Lady Day is precisely 9 months before Christmas Day on 25th December. Both are ‘Quarter Days’, the other two being are Midsummer Day on 24th June and Michaelmas falling on 29th September. These four days were the basis of our calendar for centuries. Rents were often paid on Lady Day and Michaelmas. They were administrative days as much as holy days.
Thirds, not Quarters
Nowadays, at least in the UK, we divide the year into three rather than four. Sure, my VAT tax returns need to be done quarterly, but everything else seems to be arranged around a calendar divided into three.
Why? The State and the Weather. The Education Act of 1880 stated that all children aged between 5 and 10 had to go to school. But there was no hope of getting parents to allow their children to attend school over the summer when there was fruit to be picked and harvests to be brought in. So the school year did not really begin until the end of the long summer break. Once you have a break for Christmas and Easter, you’re left with three terms which now dominate our culture where it feels like the year essentially begins in September.
The tax year begins on 6th April. How did that happen? We can thank the Angel Gabriel, Lady Day and Pope Gregory XIII for that.
Two calendars a-leaping
For centuries, in England, the year began on 25th March rather than 1st January. It seems odd to us now. The first day of the month named after Janus, the god of beginnings and doorways feels like it should be the beginning. But if Jesus is central to everything (and He is) why not begin your year with the very beginning of the life of Christ. That’s not his birth but his conception. Besides, the Winter is the passing of the old year. The Spring is the beginning of the new. You can’t start a new year when everything is frozen and nothing grows.
England was using the Julian Calendar which was good, but not perfect. It insisted on a Leap Day every four years without exception. Over the centuries this pushes you out of kilter. The Gregorian system is slightly more precise stipulating thus:
Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the year 2000 is.1
Catholic Europe switched to this new calendar in 1582 following the Papal Bull Inter gravissimas. Britain defiantly held out, finally giving into the European Single Calendar, aka The Gregorian Calendar, in 1752. By this time, Britain was 11 days ahead of continental Europe and time itself. Maybe that explains why we were able to build such a big empire. We kept showing up nearly two weeks before we were expected, catching everyone totally off guard.
I Contradict A Riot
And so it came to pass that in Great Britain, Wednesday 2nd September 1752 would be followed by Thursday 14th September 1752. The riots about the ‘Eleven Lost Days’ appear to be completely made up. We’re very good at convincing ourselves that our ancestors were idiotic simpletons who would howl at the moon.
Not one bit of it. There was consternation, but it was about money. The Government demanded annual taxes at the end of the year on Lady Day, 25th March. But 365 days had not elapsed until 5th April 1753. Rather than lose the eleven days of tax, the tax year was deemed to end on 5th April. This was codified later by William Pitt the Younger when he introduced his latest ‘temporary measure’ called Income Tax.
The liturgical years begin with Advent. But that’s one for another time.
Until then, we can be sure of two things: Christmas and taxes.
Easter Explained for Families
I’ve also made more episodes of the Faith in Kids podcast. Here’s a short series of 4 about easter, using Jesus’s own words in John. They good family listening for the car (so I’m told).
And here’s an interview I did for the Faith in Media podcast that some folk might find interesting:
Source: https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/calendars
Fascinating how the tax year date came into being-always wondered- now I know!