Questionable date of death

[Karen Norwillo]

On GID: 516.50.64600, the date of death of an ancestor is given as Feb 30, looks like buried Mar 6? Now unless they were using a different calendar in 1740-1796, what date would I use as correct? It wasn't a Leap Year the year he died.
Should I just go with Feb. 1791?

[Joakim Jonsson]

Hi,
 
I would go for the 28 of Feb.
And why:
27/2-91 Sunday (day for burial in this parisch)
28/2-91 Monday (last day of month)
6/3-91 Sunday (day for his burial)
Seems like the priest uses the normal calender with 28-days for feb. The person that registered 30/2-91 probably got the time of death as the last day in February and made a mistake when entering the date.
//Joakim

[Karen Norwillo]

Joakim,
  Thank you so much. Interesting that they did burials on a Sunday. That's the one day they rarely would do them here. Then, it makes sense, the one day that people could attend a funeral.

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

Karen,  
 
Today, burials in Sweden are usually on weekdays. When we booked a funeral recently, they said the reason is to avoid the higher cost of weekend wages. Also, weddings are always on Saturdays now.
 
At the moment I can't find an English discussion of it to link to, but in short I've read that earlier, both burials, weddings and christenings were usually held in connection with the Sunday service - i.e. in the presence of the entire parish.  
 
I've also read that the upper classes often were wedded at the parsonage or in their home, in a private ceremony. Guess these people weren't as tied up in the choice of day either.