The Quarter Days & Cross Quarter Days

The Quarter Days

The major festivals which divide the year into four are known as quarter days. These roughly correspond to the two solstice’s at winter and summer and to the two equinox’s in March and September. Whilst they are not commonly celebrated nowadays, they were very important festivals in the medieval Church. In the middle ages they were the days on which servants were hired and rents were paid. Rents for business premises are often still paid on these days. They have strong connections to our folk traditions as they are rooted in the pre-Christian religion of our ancestors. As such, they are important aspects of our indigenous folk Christianity and should once again be celebrated as major festivals.

Lady Day – 25 March

This is the traditional name for the feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady and is the first of the four Quarter days. It is the festival of the incarnation, the moment of conception when God became flesh within Mary’s womb, and precisely nine months before His birth into our world on Christmas day. The date was calculated retrospectively once Christ’s official birthday had been set during the Yuletide celebrations of the winter solstice. As the feast of the start of the incarnation, it used to be celebrated as New Years day in England until 1752, when it was replaced by January 1^st following the move from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. As it marked the end of the old year and beginning of the new, and because it did not fall either within or between the ploughing and harvesting seasons, it became the traditional day on which annual contracts were drawn up between landowners and tenant farmers. This sometimes meant farmers changing farms and so it was not unusual for people to be travelling from their old farm to the new one on this day. Lady Day is a time for reflection on the power of God, who’s spirit came together with the flesh of Mary to create the new life in Jesus – God in human form. This symbolism is reflected in our ancient mythology that revolves around the coming together of divine spirit and earth to form the new life and the start of the agricultural year. Lady Day is a powerful reminder of these ancient folk beliefs. It is the traditional feast day of Our Lady of Walsingham who is given special reverence by Anglo Saxon Anglicans.

Midsummer – 24 June

The festival of Midsummer is a celebration of the summer solstice, which usually falls on 21^st June. It is also known as Liþa in Anglo Saxon English, stemming from the old name for June. Midsummer Eve is an extremely important festival to this day in many North European countries and is traditionally associated with bonfires, feasting and merrymaking. Originally a pagan celebration, it was Christianised during the middle ages and came to be celebrated as St John’s Eve on 23^rd June and St John’s day on June 24^th. In the late fifteenth century, John Mirk of Lilleshall Abbey, Shropshire, gives the following description: "At first, men and women came to church with candles and other lights and prayed all night long. In the process of time, however, men left such devotion and used songs and dances and fell into lechery and gluttony turning the good, holy devotion into sin." The church fathers decided to put a stop to these practices and ordained that people should fast on the evening before, and thus turned waking into fasting. He adds, "in worship of St John the Baptist, men stay up at night and make three kinds of fires: one is of clean bones and no wood and is called a "bonnefyre" (bonfire); another is of clean wood and no bones, and is called a "wakefyre", because men stay awake by it all night; and the third is made of both bones and wood and is called, "St. John's fire".

Michaelmas - 29 September

Michaelmas is the feast of St Michael the Archangel. It corresponds roughly to the autumn equinox which marks the shortening of days and the onset of winter. It was traditionally celebrated in England as the end of the harvest cycle and was associated with much feasting. With the crops safely gathered, Michaelmas marked the time for landowners to stock barns and sheds full of food, ready for the winter ahead. Meats and fishes were salted, to be eaten during the cold months ahead and a new accounting and farming year officially began. Michaelmas also marked an end of many activities which could only be carried out during the summer months, such as fishing and fruit picking. On the day after the feast, farm labourers and domestic servants presented themselves at a ‘mop fair’, where they could be hired for work in the coming farming year. Many villages celebrated Michaelmas with a harvest feast, which offered all the best of what had been gathered and anticipated good times to come, with cupboards full for the coming months. The traditional meal for the day includes a harvest goose or ‘stubble-goose’ and a special kind of oatcake called a St Michael's bannock.

St Michael is the warrior Archangel and is honoured as the protector of the individual against evil forces. He is also honoured as a healer. A winter curfew came into operation in many communities from Michaelmas Day and the church bell was sounded early in the evening from Michaelmas onwards, for the town gates to be closed to incomers until morning. Michaelmas is also sometimes also known as the "festival of strong will". This reflects the association of St Michael in many Germanic countries, including England, with Woden or Odin and sometimes also with Thor. Churches dedicated to St Michael, especially in Germany, are often found on hills and other high places which would originally have been sacred places dedicated to Woden. An ancient practice, from well before the Christian era, is the corn dolly. This was made from the last sheaf of wheat of the harvest and was woven into a human shape, to take the place of honour on the harvest feast table. It was believed to bring good fortune for the new farming year. The dolly is likely to represent mother earth, or Eartha, who in mythology would be fertilised each year by Sky Father to bring forth the new crops of the new season. In time, she became associated with the Holy Mother of God who brought forth the incarnation of God himself into our world.

Michaelmas day was traditionally a day of reckoning, as quarter days marked the times when rent was collected.

Yuletide - 25 December

Although Yule is nowadays thought of as being the same as Christmas, and specifically Christmas day, it is actually a period of 12 days beginning with the winter solstice which usually occurs on 21^st December. The 12 days of Yule have now become the 12 days of Christmas. Yuletide is one of the best known of our native, pre-Christian traditions. The word Yule (Geole in Anglo Saxon English) is probably linked to the word wheel. This is certainly logical because Yule marks the turning point of the year when the sun begins to return and days slowly grow longer. Indeed, the start of the Yule season was the start of the Anglo Saxon new year for these reasons. The first day of Yule was also known to the Anglo Saxons as Mother Night – Modranecht – and was a celebration of the goddesses and of mother earth. It was a time of great merry making with much feasting, story telling and games playing. It was also one of the times for laying down weapons and a period of guaranteed peace. So when we talk of Christmas being a time of peace and goodwill, we are referring to a tradition that goes back a long time before Christ. The original traditions have in many respects survived into our present day and present us with one of the most longstanding and strongest practical examples of how our ancient heathen traditions have been merged with Christianity to produce something uniquely English. It is therefore a good time to honour the birth of Christ as we celebrate the start of the new year.

The Cross-Quarter Days

In between each of the quarter days are the four cross-quarter days of Candlemas, May Day, Lammas and All Hallows. These have even stronger associations with the old pre-Christian festivals and to English Folk Christianity.

Candlemas – around 2 February

Jewish law required a mother to be ritually cleansed before she could enter the sanctuary of the temple, and so after forty days, infants would be presented to the temple and the mother be purified. For these reasons, Candlemas is also known as the Presentation of Christ at the Temple and the feast of the Purification of the Virgin. It is also sometimes known as the Naming of Jesus, although in practice this would have occurred at his circumcision at eight days old. On seeing the holy family in the temple, the prophet Simeon the Righteous, of whom it is said had been promised that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah, declared the infant Jesus to be the light that would illumine the nations. This image of Christ as the light of the world has come to be celebrated in the west by the lighting of candles – hence its name. In the east, it is known better as ‘The Meeting’ because of the meeting between Christ and Simeon.

As Candlemas is forty days after Christmas day, its precise date alters each year but it is usually around the 2^nd February. In Anglo Saxon English, the month of February is known as Solmonað. The main festival period of Solmonað was called Ewesmeolc as it was the lambing season and the time Ewe’s milk became available. This festival is much the same as the Celtic festival of Imbolc, which also refers to the start of the lambing season, and its Christianised equivalent of St Brigid’s day. The Celtic goddess Brigid is associated with sacred flames, holy wells and healing. Ewesmeolc must have been a particularly important festival to the Anglo Saxons as it was one of the most persecuted by the Church. One of the few surviving ceremonies from pre-Christian times is called the charming or blessing of the plough. This was an elaborate ritual to bless the ploughs and fields before the first tilling of the soil. The ceremony itself would have been preceded by a torch lit procession around the bounds of the farm at which clumps of soil from the four corners of the farm would be collected. This is a very ancient Germanic custom which symbolised the reclaiming of the land and which still exists today in the ceremony of beating the bounds of the parish. The next day, before sunset, the collected soil would have been mixed with milk, honey and candle wax and replaced back into the earth. On the following dawn, the plough would have been blessed and used to dig its first furrow, into which was buried the first seed and a cake, probably after another procession through the village. The well known Acer Bot is associated with this rite.

The association of Solmonað soil or mud month) with cakes is attested by Bede, but is also a known feature of Saxon soil fertility rites and also alluded to in the Anglo Saxon Charms. Some people believe that ‘sol’ means sun and that the cakes offered at this time were known as sun cakes – perhaps in anticipation of the growing power of the sun and on set of spring and the new farming year. In any event, Solmonað is clearly a celebration of the growing power of the sun and an anticipation of the coming spring. This presents us with a powerful and plausible synergy with the celebration of Candlemas as Christ the light of the world and also Christ the new life.

May Day – May 1^st

May Day marks the beginning of summer and has been celebrated in northern Europe as far back as we know. The night before May Day was considered to be a time of weakness in the boundaries between the living and the dead. Bonfires were lit and noisy celebrations were held to ward off mischievous spirits that were thought to roam amongst the living. The pagan Norse called this night the ‘enclosure of the fallen’ and commemorated Odin retrieving the Runes from the World Tree – Yggdrasil. Traditions of lighting bonfires and carrying our mischievous acts at this time remain popular in many parts of North Western Europe. In England, these traditions have largely been either moved to the end of October (mischievous night in parts of the country) and to bonfire night on 5^th November. However, there are still existing traditions carried out in May at this time elsewhere in Britain – perhaps the best known being the Up Helly Aa in the Shetlands. May Day’s Eve has come to be known as Walpurgis Night or Walpurgis Nacht, after the Anglo Saxon princess St Walpurga, whose feast day is 1 May.

May Day itself is a time for celebrating the summer and the power of light over darkness. In England it is celebrated with traditional Maypole dancing, Morris dancing and crowning the May Queen. May is strongly associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus. There is therefore a connection between the celebration of the May Queen and the onset of summer, which is a celebration of Mother Earth, and Mary as the mother of God.

Lammas Day – 1 August

Lammas Day, or Loaf Mass, is the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this day, it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop and in many parts of England tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords. In Anglo Saxon times, it was also called the ‘feast of the first fruits’ and the new harvest would be blessed. In medieval times the feast was known as the "Gule of August". The meaning of Gule is no longer known for certain. It could either mean the Yule of August, which was spelt ‘Geole’ in Anglo Saxon English, or be an Anglicisation of the Welsh words for the 1^st of August gŵyl aust, literally meaning the ‘feast of August’. Some writers have associated Lammas with the Celtic pagan festival of Lughnasadh, named after the god Lugh who is also reputed to have given his name to London. The festival is celebrated with bonfires and merry making, overseen by a period of peace – reflecting the similar practice over Yuletide. In Ireland it was traditionally the time for handfastings which were trial marriages lasting for a year and a day after which the couple would decide whether to formalise the marriage or part company.

All Hallows or Hallowmas – 1 November

All Hallows Day is more commonly known as All Saints Day. In the western tradition it is celebrated on 1 November and honours all the saints, known and unknown. It is preceded by Halloween (Eve of All Hallows) and followed by All Soul’s Day. The specific celebration of All Saints in the west dates from May 13^th 609 or 610 when Pope Boniface iv consecrated the Pantheon, originally a pagan temple, to the Blessed Virgin and All Martyrs. May 13^th itself was a very ancient pagan celebration, being the culmination of a three day celebration called the Feast of the Lemures (Lemuria). This was a period when the restive spirits of the dead were appeased. The feast was moved to 1^st November in the eighth century by Pope Gregory iii, where it usually fell at a similar time to the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which had a similar theme to Lemuria but was also a harvest festival. 1^st November was also an important feast of All Saints in the Germanic world, going back at least to the time of Charlemagne in the eighth century. Our modern Halloween has grown out of this. Halloween itself is the eve of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day and has clear connections to the ancient festival of the dead. In many respects, it mirrors the Walpurgis Nacht and May Day celebrations, but occurs at a time when the sun is weakening rather than growing stronger.

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