A
red letter day (sometimes
hyphenThe hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign which is also longer...
ated as
red-letter day or called
scarlet dayScarlet day is the term used in the University of Cambridge to designate those days on which Doctors are required to wear the festal form of academic dress. It is so called because of the scarlet elements in the gowns and hoods of the festal full dress worn by Doctors as opposed to the everyday...
in academia) is any day of special significance.
The term originates from Medieval church
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
s.
Illuminated manuscriptAn illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as
rubricA rubric is a word or section of text which is written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The term derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
s. The
First Council of NicaeaThe First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 CE...
in 325 decreed the
saint's daysThe calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as that saint's feast day...
, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on
churchCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
s in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first
Book of Common PrayerThe Book of Common Prayer is the common title of a number of prayer books of the Church of England and of other Anglican churches, used throughout the Anglican Communion. The first book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with...
in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.
Many current calendars have special dates and
holidayThe words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents, but usually refer to one of the following activities or events:...
s such as Sundays,
Christmas DayChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
and
Midsummer DayMidsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place around the 24th of June and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between cultures...
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
robeA robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. A robe is distinguished from a cape or cloak by the fact that it usually has sleeves. The English word robe is borrowed from French...
s (See
court dressCourt dress comprises dress prescribed for courts of law.- Where court dress is worn :Court dress is worn at hearings in open court in all courts of the Supreme Court of Judicature and in county courts. However, court dress may be dispensed with at the option of the judge, e.g. in very hot...
).
A
red letter day (sometimes
hyphenThe hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign which is also longer...
ated as
red-letter day or called
scarlet dayScarlet day is the term used in the University of Cambridge to designate those days on which Doctors are required to wear the festal form of academic dress. It is so called because of the scarlet elements in the gowns and hoods of the festal full dress worn by Doctors as opposed to the everyday...
in academia) is any day of special significance.
The term originates from Medieval church
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
s.
Illuminated manuscriptAn illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s often marked initial capitals and highlighted words in red ink, known as
rubricA rubric is a word or section of text which is written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The term derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
s. The
First Council of NicaeaThe First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 CE...
in 325 decreed the
saint's daysThe calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as that saint's feast day...
, feasts and other holy days, which came to be printed on
churchCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
calendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
s in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first
Book of Common PrayerThe Book of Common Prayer is the common title of a number of prayer books of the Church of England and of other Anglican churches, used throughout the Anglican Communion. The first book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with...
in which the calendar showed special holy days in red ink.
Many current calendars have special dates and
holidayThe words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents, but usually refer to one of the following activities or events:...
s such as Sundays,
Christmas DayChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
and
Midsummer DayMidsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place around the 24th of June and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between cultures...
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
robeA robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. A robe is distinguished from a cape or cloak by the fact that it usually has sleeves. The English word robe is borrowed from French...
s (See
court dressCourt dress comprises dress prescribed for courts of law.- Where court dress is worn :Court dress is worn at hearings in open court in all courts of the Supreme Court of Judicature and in county courts. However, court dress may be dispensed with at the option of the judge, e.g. in very hot...
). Also in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, 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 dressAcademic dress or academical dress is a traditional form of clothing for academic settings, primarily tertiary and sometimes secondary education, worn mainly by those that have been admitted to a university degree or hold a status that entitles them to assume them...
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 always wear scarlet), the significance of scarlet days has all but disappeared.
In Sweden and South Korea and some latin american countries, a public holiday is typically referred to as "red day" (röd dag, 빨간 날), as it is printed in red in calendars.
In the movie
AladdinAladdin is one of the tales of medieval Arabian origin in the The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland .-Synopsis:The original story of...
, Princess Jasmine sings the lyric "...every moment red letter..." in the song
A Whole New World"A Whole New World" is the featured pop single from the soundtrack to the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. It was composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Tim Rice. The song is a ballad between the primary characters Aladdin and Jasmine about the new world they're going to discover together. The original...
referring to her time with Aladdin on the Magic carpet as being extremely special and important
.