The days of the year are sometimes designated letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G in a cycle of 7 as an aid for finding the day of week of a given calendar date and in calculating Easter.
A common year has a dominical letter, which is simply the dominical letter of its first Sunday.
Hence leapyears have two dominical letters: the first for January and February and the second for March to December.
The Romans were accustomed to divide the year into nundinæ, periods of eight days; and in their marble fasti, or calendars, of which numerous specimens remain, they used the first eight letters of the alphabet to mark the days of which each period was composed.
This is expressed by saying that a leapyear has two Dominical Letters, the second being the letter which precedes that with which the yearstarted.
The first of January, 1908, was a Wednesday, the first Sunday fell on 5 January, and E was the Dominical Letter, but as 1908 was a leapyear, its Sundays after February came a day sooner than in a normal year and were Ds.
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