If this were 1712
By DW Davis
@DWDavis (25805)
United States
March 1, 2024 7:21am CST
and you were living in Sweden, today would be February 30.
Why?
I'm glad you asked.
It turns out that up until the 1700s, Sweden was still using the old Julian calendar and decided it wanted to switch to the more "modern" Gregorian calendar.
The problem was that to do so, it needed an extra day. Since 1712 was a Leap Year, so what better time to slip in an extra day?
When March 1, 1712, rolled around, behold, Sweden was on the same calendar as the rest of Western Europe.
The Swedes weren't the only ones to fiddle with the number of days in February. The Soviet Union, in an attempt to change the calendar to consist of 6 weeks of 5 days each with no weekends or days off increased February to a 30-day month in 1930 and1931.
This plan was abandoned and the USSR officially went back to the Gregorian calendar, conceding that no one in the country ever paid attention to the new calendar and had continued taking Sundays off.
So, Happy February 30th everyone. I hope you have/had a great day.
PS. The website with more info about these calendar oddities is
7 people like this
7 responses
@wolfgirl569 (106226)
• Marion, Ohio
1 Mar
@DWDavis I wish we could make July and August weather last at least
1 person likes this
@DWDavis (25805)
• United States
1 Mar
@wolfgirl569 Or at least borrow some of the heat to spread out over the colder months.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (180674)
• United States
1 Mar
That's interesting. Sounds like it could end up as a Jeopardy question.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (89882)
• Arvada, Colorado
1 Mar
Very interesting. Man's attempt to make things more interesting too.
An extra day?
Don't mind if I do.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
2 Mar
I think there is a very occasional year-divisible-by-four when they don't have Feb 29. It's all very interesting even if I can't actually remember exactly what the reasoning was.
@LindaOHio (178568)
• United States
2 Mar
Interesting. Hope you have a good weekend.
1 person likes this
@TraveOnWorld (854)
• Georgia
1 Mar
Thank heavens I did not live there. Bad enough winter is one day longer every 4 years, imagine 2 extra days.