Episode 06

Time in Conflict

Calendars as power

Colonial imposition of the Gregorian year, the 1752 calendar riots in England, the French Republican calendar, the Soviet nepreryvka, and communities that kept their own count in secret.

Beats

  • Eleven days stolen in Britain, 1752.
  • The Republican calendar as de-Christianization.
  • Mission schools and the weekday as a tool of conversion.

Terms

Calendar riot
Popular unrest when civil dates jump and rents, wages, or saints' days move.
Nepreryvka
The Soviet continuous work-week that tried to kill Sunday.

Discussion

  1. When is calendar reform experienced as theft?
  2. Can a people keep two calendars at once without splitting in two?

Classroom check

Britain's September 1752 reform jumped the civil date by:

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