Celtic Calendar....Quarter Days and Cross-Quarter Days

Ever wonder why June is the month of weddings, how Groundhog Day got started, or why we old elections in the fall?The ancient Celtic calendar, divided into quarter days and cross-quarter days, may be responsible for the timing of present day rituals and holidays.

The old Celts divided the year into four major sections and then divided each of these in half to make an eight-part year that reflected the natural procession of the seasons.

The Quarter Days

The days that marked the four major divisions of the year were called Quarter Days; they originally marked the four seasons, fitting readily into the rhythm of the ways people farmed. As the 12-month Roman calendar was adopted for both civil and religious purposes, all of the Celtic days began to conform more closely with the liturgical year of the Christian church and became identified with major religious festivals.

March 25, Lady Day

Lady Day became the traditional day for hiring farm laborers for the planting and harvesting seasons ahead. (In the church calendar, this day became the feast of the Angel Gabriel's annunciation to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Christ.)

June 24, Midsummer Day

This was the midpoint of the growing season, halfway between planting and harvest. (The English church later celebrated this day as the birthday of John the Baptist, who foretold the birth of Jesus exactly six months later.

September 29, Michaelmas

The harvest commenced on this day, and there were great fairs and festivals. This started the custom of early autumnal elections, because it was a convenient time for people to gather. Elections came to be shifted to November in the American climate, where the harvest season was more stretched out.

December 25, Christmas

This day was the grand culmination of the old year and the first festival of the new year. The holiday originated as a solstice festival and celebrated a time of resting and gathering fertility for a new round of sowing and repeating. The Celtic rituals merged easily with the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus. Farm workers were usually paid for their year's labor at Christmas, giving them reason to celebrate and three months rest before the next season.

The Cross-Quarter Days

These days marked the midpoint of each season.

February 2, Candlemas

Candlemas acquired its English name from the candles lit that day in churches to celebrate the presentation of the Christ Child in the temple of Jerusalem, but originally it was called Imbolc (lambs' milk) because the lambing season began. It was also called Brigantia for the Celtic female deity of light, calling attention to the Sun's being halfway on its advance from the winter solstice to the spring equinox.

• It was not held as a good omen if the day itself was bright and sunny, for that betokened snow and frost to continue to the hiring of the laborers 6 weeks later on Lady Day.
• If it was cloudy and dark, warmth and rain would thaw out the fields and have them ready for planting. Our Groundhog Day is a remote survivor of that belief.

May 1, May Day

May Day, or Beltane, was the halfway point between the beginning of spring and that of summer, a day for dance and song to hail the sown fields starting to sprout.

• It was the day for young couples' pairing, though not yet their wedding, which would not come until the next Cross-Quarter Day, after three months of seeing how they suited each other.
• Today's June weddings came from this tradition; given impatience of the couple, the waiting period came to be shortened to a six-week span.

August 1, Lughnasaid

Lughnasaid was the wedding of the Sun god Lugh to the Earth goddess, causing the ripening of crops.

• The church transformed it into an offering from the first fruits of the land; the first loaves baked from the new wheat were offered at the Loaf Mass, which became corrupted in pronunciation to Lammas.

October 31, Samhain

Samhain, or Halloween, was the day when the cattle were brought in from pasture; those needed for the winter's supply of meat would be slaughtered. Since Samhain was the death-night of the old year, it came to be associated with ghosts and graveyards. It has happier associations too, such as apple bobbing, which was a form of telling fortunes for the new year.

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