London, UK, city of, and otherwise

[Thomas F Davis]

Yeah, I'd take that Ripley story with a pinch of salt.  Catholic canon law allows for "dispensations" from rules such as abstinence from meat.  I've seen it done when St. Paddy's Day falls on a Friday and people wanted their coned beef (I'd rather have the fish, so I don't get that one).  A simple dispensation is a lot easier than declaring a virtual Thursday.  If people did riot it was likely after finding out the dispensation didn't apply to them. The most interesting thing about this is that Italian civil law follows in the use of dispensations.  I understand it is possible to park in a no-parking zone in Italy and then get a dispensation from the police to put on your dashboard. Don't know if it has a fee but if there is one it must be less than the fine.
Back to calendar stuff.  When the International Date Line was created some locations skipped or repeated a day of the week.  The most populous such location was the Philippines. 

    On Sunday, September 4, 2016 9:29 PM, Phil via Tacos <tacos at amrad.org> wrote:
 

 Actually, it was as late as the 18th century (1752). 1751 officially only had 282 days. Calendar adjustment began with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (from the Julian) from the 16th century (Greece only converted in 1923.) Details are in that fount of only the purest truth, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Beginning_of_the_year
There are many similar stories of calendar unrest. I particularly like the probably anecdotal tale of a Papal visit to France in the umpteenth century when the Pope was supposedly delayed in travelling by a day. Unfortunately, this caused him to arrive at his destination on a Friday, when only fish could be consumed. So that the sumptuous feast that had been prepared could be enjoyed by all (well, all the important people, anyway), the Pope decreed that the Friday was in fact a Thursday, and the peasants rioted to demand the return of their Friday. You can probably take that with a pinch of tartare sauce (I think I read it in 'Ripley's "Believe It Or Not"'). Nevertheless, the change to the Gregorian calendar was resisted by many countries for fear that it would strengthen the cause of Catholicism. Obviously, the Greeks remained suspicious for the longest. Hardly surprising, when every schoolboy knows that the Ancient Greeks spent all their time fighting the Romans.  :-)
Phil M1GWZ



On 5 Sep 2016, at 01:36, Thomas F Davis wrote:

Supposedly, there were riots in 13th or 14th century London when people were upset that they were robbed of 3 months' wages when the Crown moved the beginning of the year from March 1 to January 1.  Anybody know about this?  I  don't recall where I saw this, and I haven't found a reference to it since the internet arose.


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