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At 11/5/2013 08:15 AM, Justin M. White wrote: > Also, Pope's Day is referred to exclusively as "Pope Day" on the page, and I'm wondering which usage is more common? As it happens, I investigated exactly this question perhaps a half-dozen years ago. There is indeed evidence that "Pope Day" was used in New England in the 18th century, and I concluded that the day was probably very rarely, if at all, called "Pope's Day". I also decided it was much more frequently referred to as "the fifth of November". Unfortunately I do not recall my deductive process, and obtaining quantitative evidence is problematical. Early American Newspapers (Series I) yields 8 instances of "Pope Day" and none of "Pope's Day" (after excluding irrelevant hits). But since the earliest hit is 1785 -- after Washington banned its celebration by his army! -- there must be a number of false negatives. EAN yields 187 instances of "fifth of November" (after excluding advertising), but an unknown number of these are simply use of the date. Google Books search is unreliable, especially when using date ranges. ECCO might be another source, but I can't do that at home. As might Peter Benes. Joel Berson --
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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