Nordic Feast Day Calendar

Julian Calendar changed to Gregorian Calendar

• In the Western world time began to be reckoned or dated before and after the birth of Jesus Christ.
  • B.C. (before Christus)
  • A.D. (Anno Domini — the year of our Lord; or "after Domini" — the Lord's birth)

• In the late 1600s, scientists and astronomers told about the incorrectness of the Julian calendar system they were using. The calendar date was off by eleven days, a leap year was needed to make time line up correctly, and so forth.

• The reigning pope of the time, Pope Gregory, ordered the scientists and astronomers to make the necessary changes to bring the calendars in line with their measurements.

• In 1700, most of the Christian/Western world switched to using the Gregorian calendar system. Denmark, Iceland, and Norway all changed at that time.
  • 19 February 1700 became 1 March 1700

• Sweden and Finland waited until 1753 to bring about their calendar change.
  • 18 Feb 1753 became 1 March 1753

Fixed and Movable Feast Days

• Pagan dates began to be mixed with religious dates
• "Feast days" celebrating lives of those who were designated "saints" and life events of those who were important in religious history all began to be mixed together.

• All Sundays were considered feast (fest) days. They are generally prefaced or referred to as "Dominica" (the day of the Lord), "Dom.,""Dna.," or "D." in the records.

• Fixed Feast Days
  • The first day of each new year is always "1 January" (in Latin, Novi Anni; for Scandinavians, Nyt Aarsdag), no matter which day of the week it falls on.
  • January first is also supposed to be the day on which the Christ child was circumcised, so instead of the day date being written, it is sometimes recorded as "Circumcisio."
  • January 6, also known as "Holy Three Kings Day" (Trium Rex, Tre Konger Dager, H3Kdag), and so forth. This is the date the three wise men were supposed to have visited the Christ child.
  • March 25, the day Mary or Maria was supposed to have conceived Jesus, and of course, exactly nine months later, on December 25, Jesus Christ was born.
  • St. John the Baptist (St. Hans, St. Johannes) was supposed to have been born on June 24, six months before the birth of Christ — his birthday became a set feast day.
  • Christmas (Juul or Juledag) is an a "set" feast (fest) day. It is always celebrated on December 25, no matter which day of the week it falls on.

• Moveable Feast Days
  • Easter is celebrated on a different date each year, though it is always on a Sunday.
  • Sundays before and after Easter are moveable because they are calculated from Easter.
  • Trinity Sunday could fall anytime from late May to the early part of June. There could be between 24 and 27 Sundays in Trinity.
  • Advent Sundays were the four Sundays immediately preceding Christmas

Finding the Calendar

On this wiki, in the search field, type in the country you are interested in, then the words "movable feast days", followed by the year. For example, "Denmark Movable Feast Days 1712".  You will see a list of all of the feast days and their dates for that particular year.

If you do not see the feast day you need, it may have been a fixed feast day.  Type in the country, and then  the words "fixed feast days". Choose the first letter of the feast day and you will see a list of all fixed feast days starting with that letter.