Wales Dates and Calendars

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Wales

Dates and Calendars

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• Genealogical Feast Day Calendars

Background

Early Traditions

• We lack extensive records from pre-Christian Wales, so details are limited. However, historians believe they likely relied on natural cycles and events to mark time. This might include things like observing the changing seasons, solstices, and lunar phases.
• Festivals based on these cycles probably played a significant role in marking important dates. These festivals might have been tied to agricultural activities, hunting seasons, or other aspects of daily life.

Medieval Influences

• With the spread of Christianity in Wales (around the 5th to 6th centuries), the Julian calendar, already used in Europe, gained influence. This calendar system was based on the solar year and included leap years, but it wasn't perfect.
• The "Laws of Hywel Dda" (completed around 966 AD) is a key source for understanding early Welsh calendars. These laws established the three main Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun) as important dates. They also documented existing Welsh festivals like Calan Gaeaf (first day of winter) and others tied to saints' days.

Shifting Systems

• By the 18th century, the Julian calendar had accumulated a slight inaccuracy due to leap year calculations. This meant it drifted out of sync with the actual solar year.
• To address this, Great Britain, including Wales, adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. This "New Style" calendar introduced a leap year adjustment and shifted the start of the year from March 25th to January 1st. With this change, eleven days were effectively "skipped" to realign with the solar cycle. Dates between January and March before 1752 might be written in a "double dating" format to account for this shift.