Gregorian Calendar Reform (1582)

On this day in 1582, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal adopted the Gregorian calendar. In practice, the day after October 4 was counted as October 15, removing ten dates from the civil calendar. This was not “lost time,” but a correction of accumulated error in the older Julian system, which had slowly drifted away from the true solar year.

The reform sought to measure God’s world more faithfully. Scripture presents the heavens as ordered for human reckoning: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark the seasons and days and years