April 31, 1700 never existed in the Swedish calendar as Sweden adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1753, which involved a direct transition from February 17, 1753 to March 1, 1753, skipping the intermediate days.
In the 1600s and 1700s, Sweden was still using the Julian calendar, while a good part of Europe had already switched to the Gregorian calendar since 1582. As a result, there was an annoying discrepancy of about ten days between the two systems, which caused quite a few practical problems, especially for trade, diplomacy, or administrative management. The Swedish authorities, aware of the issue, decided — though not very clearly — to gradually transition to the Gregorian calendar to align with neighboring countries. However, things did not go as planned, quickly leading to inconsistencies and some frankly confusing moments in their calendar history.
Around 1700, Sweden was still using the Julian calendar, while many other European countries had already switched to the more accurate Gregorian calendar. To avoid a sudden shift, the Swedes tried something original: gradually removing days gently, year after year, until they caught up with the Gregorian calendar after several decades. Instead of removing the 11 days all at once like everyone else, their idea was simple: to have no leap years for about 40 years, so that no one would notice too much of a difference. A method that seemed clever on paper, but turned out to be complicated to manage in practice and quickly problematic.
In 1700, Sweden decided to gradually transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar by progressively eliminating leap years, aiming to align quietly without upsetting anyone. Logically, they intended to skip February 29 of that year, but someone made a mistake: the year remained a leap year against all odds. As a result, their calendar became completely unstable, neither truly Julian nor fully Gregorian: they thus accumulated a day of delay on their original schedule. This improbable error led to years of calendar confusion that they would struggle to catch up on later.
Simply because the month of April has always ended on the 30th, never on the 31st. When Sweden tried to mess with its calendar in 1700, it had no interest or logical reason to add this imaginary day. The calendar it was using (Julian, at the time) had already clearly defined the length of the months since antiquity. So, adding another day in April was just impossible—a day that came out of nowhere and did not exist in any known calendar. In short, claiming a 31st of April was playing with rules that had been established long ago, pure nonsense.
This anomaly in the calendar caused quite a stir in Sweden. For over 10 years, the country had a strange calendar that did not correspond to either the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar used elsewhere in Europe. Due to this discrepancy, it was necessary to constantly juggle between different dates to communicate with foreign countries or manage trade with neighboring nations. Ultimately, in 1712, the Swedes gave up and reverted to the Julian calendar by simply adding an extra day, the infamous February 30th. This true calendar mess came to an end once and for all in 1753, the year when Sweden finally adopted the Gregorian calendar permanently, like everyone else.
Did you know that Sweden had created its own calendar, called the "Swedish calendar," which was neither completely Julian nor completely Gregorian, causing great confusion for 12 years?
The month of April has always had 30 days, even in Roman times; thus, April 31 has never been officially recognized in any known calendar.
Did you know that because of this calendar anomaly, Sweden ultimately had to introduce an unusual day, February 30, 1712, to correct its mistakes and return to the Julian calendar?
For several years, Sweden's attempt to gradually adopt the Gregorian calendar placed it in constant misalignment with all other European countries, thereby causing trade and diplomatic difficulties.
The Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, is more accurate than the Julian calendar. It corrects a slight error by removing 10 days in 1582 and adjusting the leap year calculation system so that the equinoxes remain aligned with the official dates.
The repeated errors in the gradual transition to the Gregorian calendar led to several anomalies in Sweden. The nonexistent date of April 31, 1700, is one of these blunders, as well as the famous day of February 30, 1712, which was exceptionally added to finally correct the accumulated discrepancy.
Sweden thought that a gradual transition, by removing one day every four years, would be politically and socially more acceptable and less disruptive than the instant jump of 10 days practiced by other European countries before.
At the beginning of the 18th century, other nations, such as Russia and several Orthodox regions of Eastern Europe, continued to use the Julian calendar, initially rejecting the Gregorian calendar due to political, religious, or cultural reasons.
Sweden was considering gradually adopting the Gregorian calendar primarily to align its dates with other European countries, thereby facilitating trade and diplomatic exchanges that required temporal uniformity.
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