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Questions: Deerfield Raid date

Carrie asks in the Guest Book, "I saw somewhere the date of the Deerfield raid as February 29, 1703/04. What does that mean?"

Well, Carrie, as in much western history, it involves Popes and Emperors and today is an excellent day to address this issue as it had to do with determining the date of Easter each year. The early western calendar, called Julian for the Emperor of Rome, was a lunar calendar. Here the New Year began March 25 and this was adhered to by England and a few other western nations until 1751.
Attempting to address where Easter would fall, many others including France adopted a solar calendar designed about 1582 during the reign of Pope Gregory XIII, hence Gregorian. Here the New Year began on January 01. As it took five centuries to reach a consensus, at the time of the Deerfield raid the English considered the year 1703, and the French 1704, hence February 29, 1703/04. Confused enough?

Oh, by the way, Easter comes each year on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. But everyone knows that. Read More 
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