key:<date>([A-Z&;][a-z&;]+), ([0-9]{2}) ([0-9]{4})</date>
value:<month>$1</month>
##</code><code>##

$instr = '<date>Jan, 10 1997</date>';
for my $pat (keys %patt1)
{
	print "$pat\t$patt1{$pat}\n";
	$instr =~ s|$pat|$patt1{$pat}|egs;#this is not working
        $instr =~ s|$pat|<month>$1</month>|gs;#this works
}