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rmoving a contradiction... Julian to Gregorian was in 1582... NEW YEARS changed from 25 March to 1 Jan in 1752.... I don't know who is correct...better minds than mine can surely sort the mess out.!..with kindest regards, suzlizjohnson@gmail.com
Reverting edit(s) by Chromeofhearts (talk) to rev. 1225287338 by InedibleHulk: Advertising/promotional content (UV 0.1.5)
 
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{{Short description|Feast of the Annunciation, usually 25 March}}
{{other uses}}
{{About|a religious festival|the jazz singer|Billie Holiday|other uses|Lady Day (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Leonardo da Vinci 052.jpg|thumb|250px|''The Annunciation'' by [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (1472–1475) [[Uffizi Gallery]].]]
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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox holiday
|holiday_name = Lady Day
|official_name = [[Feast of the Annunciation]]
|type = Religious, with later secular effects
|image = Annunciation (Leonardo) (cropped).jpg
|imagesize =350px
⚫
|caption = ''The Annunciation'' c. 1472<br>[[Leonardo da Vinci]] (1472–1475)<br>[[Uffizi Gallery]]
|observedby = [[English-speaking people|Anglophone]] and [[Scandinavian people|Scandinavian]] Christians internationally
|date = 25 March
|celebrations =
|observances =
|relatedto = [[Christmas]], [[March equinox]]
|frequency = Annual
|duration = 1 day
}}


In the western [[liturgical year]], '''Lady Day''' is the traditional name of the [[Feast of the Annunciation]] of the Blessed Virgin (25 March) in some English-speaking countries. It is the first of the four traditional English [[quarter days]]. The "Lady" is the [[Virgin Mary]]. The term derives from [[Middle English]], when some nouns lost their [[genitive]] inflections. "Lady" would later gain an -s genitive ending, and therefore the name means "Lady's day".
In the Western [[liturgical year]], '''Lady Day''' is the common name in some English-speaking and Scandinavian countries of the [[Feast of the Annunciation]], celebrated on 25 March to commemorate the [[annunciation]] of the [[archangel]] [[Gabriel]] to the [[Virgin Mary]] that she would bear [[Jesus Christ]], the [[Son of God]].


==Non-religious significance==
==Religious significance==
The commemorated event is known in the [[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|1549 prayer book]] of [[Edward VI]] and the [[Book of Common Prayer (1662)|1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'']] as "The Annunciation of the (Blessed) Virgin Mary" but more accurately (as in the modern Calendar of the [[Church of England]]) termed "The Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary". It is the first of the four traditional English [[quarter days]]. The "(Our) Lady" is the [[Virgin Mary]]. The term derives from [[Middle English]], when some nouns lost their [[genitive]] inflections. "Lady" would later gain an -s genitive ending, and therefore the name means "(Our) Lady's day". The day commemorates the tradition of archangel [[Gabriel]]'s announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the [[Christ]].


It is celebrated on 25 March each year. In the [[Catholic Church]]'s [[Latin liturgical rites]], when 25 March falls during [[Holy Week]] or [[Easter week]], it is transferred forward to the first suitable day during [[Eastertide]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=BBC - Religions - Christianity: The Feast of the Annunciation|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/annunciation.shtml|access-date=2020-07-03|website=www.bbc.co.uk|language=en-GB}}</ref> In [[Eastern Orthodoxy]] and [[Eastern Catholicism]], it is never transferred, even if it falls on Pascha ([[Easter]]). The concurrence of these two feasts is called [[kyriopascha]].
In England, Lady Day was [[New Year's Day]] up to 1752, 1 January became the start of the year. A vestige of this remains in the United Kingdom's [[Fiscal year|tax year]], which starts on 6 April, i.e. Lady Day adjusted for the ''lost days'' of the calendar change (until this change Lady Day had been used as the start of the legal year). (This should be distinguished from the liturgical and historical year. It appears that in England and Wales, from at least the late 14th century, New Year's Day was celebrated on 1 January as part of [[Yule]].<ref name = Yule>See [[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]] Fytte Three</ref>)


The Feast of the Annunciation is observed almost universally throughout Christianity, especially within [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodoxy]], [[Anglicanism]], [[Catholicism]], and [[Lutheranism]].<ref name="Melton2011">{{cite book|last=Melton|first=J. Gordon|title=Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations |url=https://archive.org/details/religiouscelebra00melt|url-access=limited|date=13 September 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|language=English |isbn=9781598842067|page=[https://archive.org/details/religiouscelebra00melt/page/n64 39]}}</ref> It is a major [[Veneration of Mary|Marian]] feast, classified as a [[solemnity]] in the [[Catholic Church]], a [[Liturgical calendar (Lutheran)#Festivals|Festival]] in the Lutheran Churches, and a [[Principal Feast]] in the [[Anglican Communion]]. In [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]], because it announces the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|incarnation]] of Christ, it is counted as one of the 8 great feasts of the Lord, and not among the four great [[Marian feast days|Marian feasts]], although some prominent aspects of its liturgical observance are Marian.<ref>[http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/MARCH25.TXT Feast of the Annunciation at EWTN]</ref><ref>[[Annunciation#Eastern Christianity]]</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=per WP:CIRCULAR|date=February 2018}} Two examples in liturgical Christianity of the importance attached to the Annunciation are the [[Angelus]] prayer and, especially in Roman Catholicism, the event's position as the first [[Rosary#Mysteries of the Rosary|Joyful Mystery]] of the [[Dominican Rosary]].<ref name="cna">n.d. [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=188 "Solemity of the Annunciation of the Lord,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326064517/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=188 |date=26 March 2013 }} ''Catholic News Agency''. Retrieved 26 May 2019.</ref>
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As a year-end and [[quarter day]] that conveniently did not fall within or between the seasons for ploughing and harvesting, Lady Day was a traditional day on which year-long contracts between landowners and tenant farmers would begin and end in England and nearby lands (although there were regional variations). Farmers' time of "entry" into new farms and onto new fields was often this day.<ref>Adams, Leonard P. "Agricultural Depression and Farm Relief in England, 1813–1852" Reviewed in ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'', 95(4):735–737 (1932)</ref><ref>"The Tenant League v. Common Sense" ''Irish Quarterly Review'' 1(1):25–45 (March, 1851)</ref> As a result, farming families who were changing farms would travel from the old farm to the new one on Lady Day. After the calendar change, "Old Lady Day" (6 April), the former date of the Annunciation, largely assumed this role. The date is significant in some of the works of [[Thomas Hardy]], ''e.g.'', ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]'' and ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd]]''.


==Secular significance==
The logic of using Lady Day as the start of the year is that it roughly coincides with [[Equinox]] (when the length of day and night is equal); many ancient cultures still use this time as the start of the new year, for example, the [[Iranian new year]]. In some traditions it also reckons years [[A.D.]] from the moment of the [[Annunciation]], which is considered to take place at the moment of the conception of Jesus at the Annunciation rather than at the moment of his birth at Christmas.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}
{{see also|History of taxation in the United Kingdom#Start of tax year}}
In England, Lady Day was [[New Year's Day]] (i.e., the new year began on 25 March) from 1155<ref name="Cath">Catholic Encyclopedia, [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03738a.htm#beginning General Chronology (Beginning of the Year)]</ref> until 1752, when the [[Calendar (New Style) Act 1750|Gregorian calendar was adopted in Great Britain and its Empire]] and with it the first of January as the official start of the year in England, Wales and Ireland.<ref name="Cath" /> (Scotland changed its new year's day to 1 January in 1600, but retained the Julian calendar until 1752.) A vestige of this remains in the United Kingdom's [[Fiscal year|tax year]], which ends on 5 April, or "Old Lady Day", (i.e., Lady Day adjusted for the eleven "lost days" of the calendar change in 1752). Until this change Lady Day had been used as the start of the legal year but also the [[History of taxation in the United Kingdom#Start of tax year|end of the fiscal and tax year]]. This should be distinguished from the liturgical and historical year.


⚫
As a year-end and [[Quarter days|quarter-day]] that conveniently did not fall within or between the seasons for ploughing and harvesting, Lady Day was a traditional day on which year-long contracts between landowners and [[tenant farmer]]s would begin and end in England and nearby lands (although there were regional variations). Farmers' time of "entry" into new farms and onto new fields was often this day.<ref>Adams, Leonard P. "Agricultural Depression and Farm Relief in England, 1813–1852" Reviewed in ''[[Journal of the Royal Statistical Society]]'', 95(4):735–737 (1932)</ref><ref>"The Tenant League v. Common Sense" ''Irish Quarterly Review'' 1(1):25–45 (March, 1851)</ref> As a result, farming families who were changing farms would travel from the old farm to the new one on Lady Day. In 1752, the British empire finally followed most of western Europe in [[adoption of the Gregorian calendar|switching to the Gregorian calendar]] from the Julian calendar. The Julian lagged 11 days behind the Gregorian, and hence 25 March in the Old Style calendar became 5 April ("Old Lady Day"), which assumed the role of contractual year-beginning. (The date is significant in some of the works of [[Thomas Hardy]], such as ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]'' and ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd]]'', and is discussed in his 1884 essay "The Dorset Farm Labourer").
{{blockquote|text=
In Swedish the word ''våffla'' is attested since 1642 and derives from the German ''Waffel'' <ref>[[Nationalencyklopedins ordbok]]</ref> but is possibly associated by [our Swedish] ancestors with ''Vår Fru'' (The Virgin Mary).<ref>[http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/publication.asp?PublicationId=1669 Nordiska museet – Marie bebådelsedag och våffeldagen, 25 mars]</ref> Waffles are even today in a large number of Swedish households commonly served on ''Våffeldagen'', that is to say, on Lady Day, which is observed the 25th of March.<ref>[[:sv:Våffla]]</ref>}}


==See also==
==See also==
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* {{Annotated link |International Women's Day}}
*[[New Year]]
* {{Annotated link |Mother's Day}}
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*[[International Women's Day]] — 8 March
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* {{Annotated link |Mothering Sunday}}
*[[Mother's Day]]
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* {{Annotated link |National Women's Day}}
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*[[Mothering Sunday]]
* {{Annotated link |Quarter days}}, one of which is (or was) Lady Day
⚫
*[[National Women's Day]]


==References==
==References==

{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}

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{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2010}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:March observances]]
[[Category:March observances]]
[[Category:Saints days|Lady]]
[[Category:April observances]]
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[[Category:August observances]]
[[Category:Saints' days|Lady]]
[[Category:Holidays in England]]
[[Category:Holidays in England]]
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[[Category:Spring holidays]]
[[Category:Quarter days]]
[[Category:Quarter days]]

[[he:חג הבשורה]]
{{link FA|ru}}

Latest revision as of 05:40, 9 September 2024

This article is about a religious festival. For the jazz singer, see Billie Holiday. For other uses, see Lady Day (disambiguation).

Lady Day
The Annunciation c. 1472
Leonardo da Vinci (1472–1475)
Uffizi Gallery
Official nameFeast of the Annunciation
Observed byAnglophone and Scandinavian Christians internationally
TypeReligious, with later secular effects
Date25 March
FrequencyAnnual
Related toChristmas, March equinox

In the Western liturgical year, Lady Day is the common name in some English-speaking and Scandinavian countries of the Feast of the Annunciation, celebrated on 25 March to commemorate the annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would bear Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Religious significance

[edit]

The commemorated event is known in the 1549 prayer book of Edward VI and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as "The Annunciation of the (Blessed) Virgin Mary" but more accurately (as in the modern Calendar of the Church of England) termed "The Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary". It is the first of the four traditional English quarter days. The "(Our) Lady" is the Virgin Mary. The term derives from Middle English, when some nouns lost their genitive inflections. "Lady" would later gain an -s genitive ending, and therefore the name means "(Our) Lady's day". The day commemorates the tradition of archangel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the Christ.

It is celebrated on 25 March each year. In the Catholic Church's Latin liturgical rites, when 25 March falls during Holy Week or Easter week, it is transferred forward to the first suitable day during Eastertide.[1] In Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism, it is never transferred, even if it falls on Pascha (Easter). The concurrence of these two feasts is called kyriopascha.

The Feast of the Annunciation is observed almost universally throughout Christianity, especially within Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Catholicism, and Lutheranism.[2] It is a major Marian feast, classified as a solemnity in the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion. In Orthodox Christianity, because it announces the incarnation of Christ, it is counted as one of the 8 great feasts of the Lord, and not among the four great Marian feasts, although some prominent aspects of its liturgical observance are Marian.[3][4][better source needed] Two examples in liturgical Christianity of the importance attached to the Annunciation are the Angelus prayer and, especially in Roman Catholicism, the event's position as the first Joyful Mystery of the Dominican Rosary.[5]

Secular significance

[edit]
See also: History of taxation in the United Kingdom § Start of tax year

In England, Lady Day was New Year's Day (i.e., the new year began on 25 March) from 1155[6] until 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Great Britain and its Empire and with it the first of January as the official start of the year in England, Wales and Ireland.[6] (Scotland changed its new year's day to 1 January in 1600, but retained the Julian calendar until 1752.) A vestige of this remains in the United Kingdom's tax year, which ends on 5 April, or "Old Lady Day", (i.e., Lady Day adjusted for the eleven "lost days" of the calendar change in 1752). Until this change Lady Day had been used as the start of the legal year but also the end of the fiscal and tax year. This should be distinguished from the liturgical and historical year.

As a year-end and quarter-day that conveniently did not fall within or between the seasons for ploughing and harvesting, Lady Day was a traditional day on which year-long contracts between landowners and tenant farmers would begin and end in England and nearby lands (although there were regional variations). Farmers' time of "entry" into new farms and onto new fields was often this day.[7][8] As a result, farming families who were changing farms would travel from the old farm to the new one on Lady Day. In 1752, the British empire finally followed most of western Europe in switching to the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar. The Julian lagged 11 days behind the Gregorian, and hence 25 March in the Old Style calendar became 5 April ("Old Lady Day"), which assumed the role of contractual year-beginning. (The date is significant in some of the works of Thomas Hardy, such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, and is discussed in his 1884 essay "The Dorset Farm Labourer").

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "BBC - Religions - Christianity: The Feast of the Annunciation". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  2. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (13 September 2011). Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations. ABC-CLIO. p. 39. ISBN 9781598842067.
  3. ^ Feast of the Annunciation at EWTN
  4. ^ Annunciation#Eastern Christianity
  5. ^ n.d. "Solemity of the Annunciation of the Lord," Archived 26 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  6. ^ a b Catholic Encyclopedia, General Chronology (Beginning of the Year)
  7. ^ Adams, Leonard P. "Agricultural Depression and Farm Relief in England, 1813–1852" Reviewed in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 95(4):735–737 (1932)
  8. ^ "The Tenant League v. Common Sense" Irish Quarterly Review 1(1):25–45 (March, 1851)
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