New Year’s Day normally falls one week after Christmas: If Christmas falls on a Thursday, then New Year’s Day will fall on a Thursday as well.

What is the most recent year in which Christmas and New Year’s Day fell on different days of the week?

Christmas, in the United States which adopted the Gregorian calendar (as a colony of the British Empire) in 1752, became a federally recognized holiday in 1870. The date, long established before, has been set as December 25.
The Calendar Act of 1750 altered the start of the year with the New Style (NS), based on the Gregorian calendar, adjusted from the Old Style (OS). based on the Julian calendar. Before that year, New Year's day was recognized to be March 25 (OS).
In some Eastern orthodox churches, even in the US, Christmas is celebrated December 25 (OS) -- as opposed to (NS), and in some churches, the holiday is January 6 (NS), while, in some, January 6 (OS).

Of course, a standard year is 365 days in length. In the Gregorian calendar, given New Year's Day -- January 1 -- occurring on Nth day of the week, Christmas Day -- December 25 -- will occur 358 or, in leap years, 359 days following which would be on the N+1st or N+2nd day of the week in the same year, and thus there would be no year in the current Gregorian calendar system, in the current federally recognized days of the holidays, where the two holidays fall on the same day of the week.

Given the question applies to the most recent year, the answer would be last year -- 2015 --. (The current year does not apply as it theoretically can still be changed by Congress, also with Christmas not yet having occurred in the current year).

Edited on April 27, 2016, 8:44 am

Posted by Dej Mar on 2016-04-27 08:28:51