It’s a Red-Letter Day!
I would think many people have heard the expression “red-letter day” and have an idea of its meaning. The origin of the phrase might be a little hazy for some, though.
It is generally used to describe a day when a special event, a significant anniversary takes place, or something really good has happened.
I’ll admit that I heard this more often as a youngster, and that was some time ago. It still pops up now and then, however. And the calendars I remember from my childhood usually had the dates for Sunday marked in red. But those were numbers…
There is the thought that early calendars marked religious dates and feast days in read. This made it easy for the illiterate peasants (and even some a bit higher up the food chain) to understand on which days they had to go to church or celebrate a holiday.
Still, don’t calendars have numbers?
Well, yes, but calendars have changed a bit over the years. Here is a snippet from the Julius Work Calendar I found on a site called The Wonderlist. There is supposedly a copy on the British Museum website, but that didn’t seem to be working. This calendar is said to be for the year 1000 AD. Not being a medievalist or antiquarian, I’ll have to take their word for it.
