In David Ewing Duncan's
The Calendar it states that Spain "and its colonies" made the transition from the Julian calendar to the new Gregorian system in 1582, specifically excising 10 days between October the 4th and 15th (ie - you went to bed on the 4th, and the next morning it was the 15th) in order that the new system (featuring a more accurate arrangement of leap years) could catch up with the solar year. however, elsewhere in the same book it suggests that this might have occured at a slightly later date in the more distant colonies owing to the difficulty of communicating over such distances. I've done the google thing but, as usual, just come up with a load of new-age guff.
So... can anyone tell me, did Mexico lose October 5th to 14th, 1582, or did their transition from one calendar to another occur at a slightly later date?
edited next day: well, it turns out the change was made in 1583, though I'm not sure exactly when. Gordon Brotherston's Feather Crown states that an indigenous feast that would ordinarily have began (ie corresponded to) on October 22nd (Julian calendar) actually began on November 1st (Gregorian time) in 1583, although that may not neccessarily represent the actual missing days so much as a shift effected in their wake. More news as it breaks.
Edited by Yaomitl - 17-Sep-2007 at 05:13