Imagine going to sleep on 4 October and waking up on the 15th. That’s what happened in parts of Europe in 1582, when several countries adopted the new Gregorian calendar- and ten days simply disappeared.
The reform was ordered by Pope Gregory XIII to fix the old Julian calendar, which had drifted about ten days out of sync with the solar year. The error came from a tiny miscalculation: the Julian calendar assumed a year lasted exactly 365.25 days, but it’s actually slightly shorter. Over centuries, that tiny difference pushed the spring equinox- and Easter- further and further out of season.
So the Pope hit “delete” on ten days. In Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland, 5–14 October 1582 never happened. People went to bed on the 4th and woke up on the 15th: a real-life time skip.
How Julius Caesar caused the problem
The Julian calendar had been introduced in 45 BC by Julius Caesar himself. As Pontifex Maximus– Rome’s chief priest- he was responsible for keeping the civic calendar aligned with the seasons. But between wars, reforms, and a few assassinations, he didn’t exactly keep up with the bookkeeping. The seasons got all out of synch with the months and holidays, and in the end he sat down and sorted out a whole new calendar. His calendar fixed some old errors but left a small one of its own, which slowly snowballed over the centuries.
Why September isn’t the seventh month
Fun fact: even our month names bear the marks of Roman ego. September, October, November and December literally mean seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth- but they’re the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth months. That’s because later emperors wanted months named after themselves: July for Julius Caesar and August for Augustus. To make their months longer, they “borrowed” days from poor February, leaving it the runt of the calendar with just 28 (or sometimes 29) days.
The global catch-up
Not everyone switched to the Gregorian calendar right away. Protestant countries like England waited until 1752, and Greece held out all the way until 1923! For those who changed in 1582, though, 8 October never happened at all- a day literally erased from history. Sucks if it was your birthday!
Also read: Five simple tips to make the most of autumn in Cyprus
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