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Särskilda ämnen & övrigt => Discussions in English => General questions => Ämnet startat av: Jeff Benson skrivet 2012-02-20, 03:43
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I have been doing research in fairly old parish records (before 1750 in Älvdalen, Dalarna) at a time when most baptisms, weddings and burials were recorded under the name of the feast day in the church calendar, rather than the calendar date. I have managed so far to figure out what calendar date corresponds to each feast day using web searches and the charts found in the reference book Cradled In Sweden (by Carl-Erik Johansson). However, I have regularly encountered one set of feast days that aren't mentioned in my references.
The vicars of Älvdalen were fond of holding events on Die X Solemnis Precum (where X seems to be 1, 2, 3 or 4). I have finally figured out that the Latin means solemn day of prayer so I expect Die 1 Solemnis Precum translates as First solemn day of prayer. Likewise, 2, 3 & 4 correspond to the Second, Third and Fourth prayer days. Maybe there were even more prayer days in the calendar, I don't know.
I would like to know what were the calendar dates of these prayer days? (That is, assuming the date was the same every year.) If prayer days were held on different dates each year (as I suspect they were), how does one calculate each one? I know they do not fall on the regular Sunday feast days because prayer days always appear in the records between the feast days I recognize.
Thanks for any information you can provide.
Jeff
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Translated from Swedish wikipedia:
In 1676 it was decided that the big böndagar (prayer days) would be four in number. They were celebrated then on Fridays, but from 1773 on Saturdays. For a time they switched between Saturdays and Sundays, and were after 1807 only held on Sundays.
Dates for the prayer days were set for one-year terms by the so-called böndagsplakatet (prayer day proclamation). During the period 1676-1807 the prayer days were distributed as follows:
- 1st prayer day occurred usually in March or April, but sometimes in May
- 2nd prayer day occurred usually in May or June, but sometimes in April
- 3rd prayer day occurred usually in June or July, but sometimes in August
- 4th prayer day occurred usually in August, September or October, but sometimes in November.
The four prayer days were:
1. Botdagen (repentance day?)
2. Reformationsdagen (Reformation Day)
3. Missionsdagen (Mission Day)
4. Tacksägelsedagen (Thanksgiving Day)
Of these, only Thanksgiving still has its own Sunday in the national Swedish church calendar.
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For dates, see: http://www.genealogi.se/tid.htm#Då_inföll_böndagarna
// Bo Johansson
(Meddelandet ändrat av Bojoha 2012-02-20 14:56)
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Bo,
That is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much! It's been astonishing to me how difficult it was to learn about these böndagar.
Jeff
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Hi again.
I have another question related to this topic. I have noticed that other parish scribes sometimes used other Latin terms for the prayer days. In particular, I sometimes see in Älvdalen records this written (in this example, for 1st prayer day):
Die 1 Public: Suppl:
I found a very few records that print out the first abbreviated word entirely: Publicarum. However, I have yet to figure out the Latin word associated with the abbreviation, Suppl:. What is it? Does anyone know?
As an aside, it appears that in Rättvik parish (Dalarna) prayer days were sometimes written as, for example, Die 1 Rogatonium. Apparently that name is derived from that of the prayer day, Rogate.
Thanks again for any reply.
Jeff