Sweden Skips Eleven Days: Gregorian Calendar Adopted

Sweden skipped eleven days in February 1753, jumping directly from February 17 to March 1, finally completing its adoption of the Gregorian calendar that most of Western Europe had switched to in 1582. The delay reflected both Protestant suspicion of a reform initiated by the Catholic Pope Gregory XIII and the genuine confusion that resulted from Sweden's earlier botched attempt at a gradual transition. In 1700, Sweden had decided to adopt the Gregorian calendar incrementally by skipping leap days over a forty-year period, allowing the two calendars to slowly converge. They skipped the leap day in 1700 as planned. Then they forgot. Leap days were observed normally in 1704 and 1708, leaving Sweden on a calendar that was neither Julian nor Gregorian but uniquely Swedish, one day ahead of the Julian calendar and ten days behind the Gregorian. No other country in Europe could determine what date it was in Stockholm without a conversion table. The government gave up on the gradual approach in 1712, adding a February 30 to get back to the Julian calendar. Sweden became the only country in history to have a February 30th on its calendar. Forty years later, they abandoned incrementalism entirely and jumped the full eleven days, bringing the country into alignment with its trading partners. The experience became a cautionary tale about the dangers of compromise in technical standardization.