Year and day
Year and day denotes a period longer than a year.
Historical legal term
In the Middle Ages, it was a matter of determining a time limit according to the old law of things . It was created by adding the time required for the judicial assertion of a claim or objection to the one-year period.
The deadline was recorded in writing for the first time in the Sachsenspiegel , the oldest German code of law, and was then 1 year, 6 weeks and 3 days. The deadline was made up of the “annual period”, the “court” or “thing period” of 6 weeks (the ordinary court took place every 6 weeks) as well as a court day that lasted 3 calendar days. This period of time - weeks and days - was also called the “Saxony period”; he prevailed over the Frankish time limit of 40 days in the German Reich territory. The entire period was also called the “Saxony Year”.
Use outside of the law
Today, year and day are mainly known from proverbs . For example: city air sets you free after year and day . In the Middle Ages, serfs could evade their master if they escaped into the city and their master had made no claims on them after year and day.
In common parlance, the phrase "before year and day" is synonymous with "a long time ago", for example in a song title by the singer Reinhard Mey ( As before year and day ) or the Cologne band BAP ( Vüür Johr un Daach / Before year and day ).
The phrase year and day is mostly used today in the sense of a longer, unspecified period: "We have been doing this for a year and a day" or "Whether the decision was correct will only become apparent after a year and day".
Web links
- Christian Roth: After year and day, seminar paper on the subject of “German legal proverbs - dusty or more topical than ever?” Ruhr University Bochum, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Year and Day Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 10. Leipzig 1907, p. 152. Zeno.org, accessed on September 7, 2018
- ↑ The history of the city: "City air makes you free" - the city as an opportunity Bayerischer Rundfunk , October 27, 2016
- ↑ Vüür Johr un Daach Band website, accessed on September 7, 2018