Red letter day

Red letter day

A red letter day (sometimes hyphenated as red-letter day or called scarlet day in academia) is any day of special significance.

The term originates from Medieval church calendars. Illuminated manuscripts often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as rubrics. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed the saint's days, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on church calendars in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first Book of Common Prayer in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.

Many current calendars have special dates and holidays such as Sundays, Christmas Day and Midsummer Day rendered in red colour instead of black.

On red letter days, judges of the English High Court (Queen's Bench Division) wear, at sittings of the Court of Law, their scarlet robes (See court dress). Also in the United Kingdom, other civil dates have been added to the original religious dates. These include anniversaries of the Monarch's birthday, official birthday, accession and coronation.

In the universities of the UK, red letter days are called scarlet days. On such days, doctors of the university may wear their scarlet 'festal' or full dress gowns instead of their undress ('black') gown. This is more significant for the ancient universities such as Oxford and Cambridge where academic dress is worn almost daily; the black undress gown being worn on normal occasions as opposed to the bright red gowns. Since most universities now only use academic dress on graduation day (where doctors wear always scarlet), the significance of scarlet days has all but disappeared.

The term "red letter day" is colloquially used to indicate any date of personal significance.

In Sweden and South Korea, a public holiday is typically referred to as "red day" (röd dag, 빨간 날), as it is printed in red in calendars.

Alternative

"Red letter day" was a 19th century naval term used to distinguish between gunpowder charges used for gunnery practice stored in boxes marked with black letters and the more powerful charges used for engagement, marked with red letters.Verify source|date=July 2007


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Red Letter Day — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Red Letter Day EP de The Get Up Kids Publicación 1999 Género(s) emo rock alternativo …   Wikipedia Español

  • Red-letter day — Red letter Red let ter ( l?t t?r), a. Of or pertaining to a red letter; marked by red letters. [1913 Webster] {Red letter day}, a day that is fortunate or auspicious; so called in allusion to the custom of marking holy days, or saints days, in… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • red-letter day — red letter days N COUNT A red letter day is a day that you will always remember because something good happens to you then …   English dictionary

  • red letter day — A red letter day is a one of good luck, when something special happens to you …   The small dictionary of idiomes

  • red-letter day — ► NOUN ▪ a noteworthy or memorable day. ORIGIN from the practice of highlighting a festival in red on a calendar …   English terms dictionary

  • red-letter day — n informal a day that you will always remember because something special happened that made you very happy …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • red-letter day — red letter ,day noun count INFORMAL a very happy or exciting day …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • red-letter day — noun a memorably happy or noteworthy day (from the custom of marking holy days in red on church calendars) • Hypernyms: ↑day * * * noun, pl ⋯ days [count] informal : a very happy and important day Yesterday was a red letter day for the graduating …   Useful english dictionary

  • Red Letter Day (EP) — Infobox Album | Name = Red Letter Day Type = EP Artist = The Get Up Kids Released = July 20, 1999 Recorded = Red House Studios Genre = Indie rock Length = 16:45 Label = Doghouse Records Producer = Ed Rose Reviews = *Star Pulse Music Rating|3|5… …   Wikipedia

  • red-letter day — {n. phr.} A holiday; memorable day (usually printed in red on calendars). * /The Fourth of July is a red letter day./ * /It was a red letter day for Felix, when he won the lottery./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”