red letter day

• red-letter day

An allusion to the practice, dating to classical antiquity, of marking important days in red on calendars.

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red letter day (plural red letter days)

1. A day marked in red on calendars; a church feast day.
   • 1825, Christian Gleaner and Domestic Magazine, Volume 2, page 161:

     The only red-letter day occurring in July, is the twenty-fifth, called St James's Day.

   • 1893, Thomas De Quincey, “Conversation and Coleridge”, in Alexander H. Japp, editor, The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey‎, volume II, London: William Heinemann:

     But the monsters who interrupt men in the middle of a sentence are to be found everywhere; and they are always practising. Red-letter days or black-letter days, festival or fast, makes no difference to them.

2. (idiomatic) A particularly significant day; a day of personal or sectarian celebration.

   Monday was a red letter day for her. She accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.

   We saw losses for days in a row, but Black Tuesday was the worst red letter day of them all.

   • 1975, John Ankenbruck, Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne, page 286:

     "In the meantime, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre at Chicago was a red-letter day in the gangster wars."

   • 2007, Clyde Wilton, Wilton's Wit, iUniverse, page 3:

     So I assume that we all have some red letter days that are precious to our memories—maybe a first date, a wedding, a gift, a word of encouragement, a vacation, a graduation or a trip to an interesting place.
     I had one of those red letter days when I was a young boy, perhaps five or six years old.

   • 2010, Eric Braun, Doris Day, Hachette, Revised and updated edition, unnumbered page,

     That was, indeed, a red-letter day in my filmgoing life, and a red-letter day in my literary life was when I was asked to write a new biography of Doris Day.

• Usually used to refer to a notably positive, favorable occasion, but sometimes used with a negative sense.

• day of days
• red letter date

• black letter day

• Scarlet Day