Something to consider...."What year is it?

If you ever have or ever do read anything to do with history, there is something you may not know, but might want to consider.

If you walk through an old graveyard you may come across a headstone which has the date of death written thusly... January 1713/4. Would you have any idea why? Stonecutters were not confused, nor did they not know what year it was, as a matter of fact they had more issues with which year it was than you do. 

The problem was, you see, calendars. Plain and simple. From the Medieval age Christian England celebrated the New Year not on January 1, as we do, but on March 25th. March 25th at noon to be exact. It's just the way it was, so why two years on a headstone? Well, not everyone in the world was Christian English and there was another Calendar out there. Pope Gregory XIII's calendar of 1582 had amongst other changes, had January 1 as the New Year. So Stone cutters placed both years on the stone so there would be no question as to when someone died.

The world fuddled along until 1752 with both calendars before the Catholic version was accepted. If you know your history you should know that Christians and Papists did not see eye to eye on very many issues.

One other little tidbit for you to make it a little more confusing. Let's say you were reading about a ship being launched. It was built in one of the many seaports along the New England Coast. Now picture yourself as the person logging the launch for the records. How would you write the date. Let's put the launch at the 21st day in the month of March, and in current calendar parlance, the year of our lord 1713. How would you write that? Simple right? In 1713 March 21st would be the year ending correct? The new year would not begin til the 25th at noon. You would be correct in writing it just like that, 21, January 1713. Except that if you were reading it today you would have to determine if February was 1713. If february was 1713 then you are almost a year off in when you picture this ship launching. What?!!!

You see, New England being New England...It decided that they didn't want the Catholic calendar and that March should be the first month of the year. But... They also didn't like the idea of having to wait until the 25th at noon, so New England decided to start the new year on March 1st.  Understand now? 

It's simple, the date is the date no matter what. It's just that the depending on the month it could be the beginning of the new year or the end of the old.