Quarter days

In British and Irish tradition, the quarter days were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, school terms started, and rents were due. They fell on four religious festivals roughly three months apart and close to the two solstices and two equinoxes.

The significance of quarter days is now limited, although rents for properties in England are often still due on the old English quarter days.

The quarter days have been observed at least since the Middle Ages, and they ensured that debts and unresolved lawsuits were not allowed to linger on. Accounts had to be settled, a reckoning had to be made and publicly recorded on the quarter days.[1]

In England

The English quarter days (also observed in Wales and the Channel Islands) are

Lady Day was also the first day of the year in British dominions (excluding Scotland) until 1752 (when it was harmonised with the Scottish practice of 1 January being New Year's Day). The British fiscal year still starts on "Old" Lady Day (6 April under the Gregorian calendar corresponded to 25 March under the Julian calendar: the eleven days the new-style calendar advanced in 18th century plus one day due to the twelfth skipped Julian leap day in 1800; however, it was not changed to 7 April when a thirteenth Julian leap day was skipped in 1900). The dates of the quarter days observed in northern England until the 18th century were the same as those in Scotland.[2]

The cross-quarter days are four holidays falling in between the quarter days: Candlemas (2 February), May Day (1 May), Lammas (1 August), and All Hallows (1 November). The Scottish term days, which fulfil a similar role as days on which rents are paid, correspond more closely to the cross-quarter days than to the English quarter days.

There is a mnemonic for remembering the day of the month for the first three quarter-days (Christmas being easy to recall): Every quarter day is twenty-something, and the second digit of the day of the month is the number of letters in the month's name. So March has five letters and Lady Day is 25 March; similarly June has four letters and September nine, so Midsummer Day and Michaelmas are on the 24th and 29th respectively.[3]

At many schools, class terms would begin on the quarter days; for example, the autumn term would start on 29 September, and thus continues to be called the Michaelmas term, especially at more traditional universities.[4]

In Ireland

Prior to the Christianisation of Ireland in the 5th century AD, the Celtic quarter days were observed:

These are now called cross-quarter days since they fall about halfway into each of the English quarters.

In Scotland

The "Old Scottish term days" corresponded approximately to the old Celtic quarter days:

These were also the dates of the Quarter Days observed in northern England until the 18th century.[2]

The dates for removals and for the employment of servants of Whitsunday and Martinmas were changed in 1886 to 28 May and 28 November respectively.[5] The Term and Quarter Days (Scotland) Act 1990 redefined the "Scottish term days", in official use, as 28 February, May, August and November respectively. The Act specifies that the new dates take effect on 13 June 1991 (12 months from the date it was passed).

The new Scottish Term and Quarter Days (Gregorian post-1886):

  • 28 February
  • 28 May
  • 28 August
  • 28 November
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See also

Notes and references
  1. Clines, David J. A. (1998). On the Way to the Postmodern: Old Testament Essays, 1967-1998 (Continuum International Publishing), p. 801.
  2. Fitton, Mike (1994), Quarter Days and Courts, archived from the original on 11 February 2012
  3. Young, G. C. M. (15 April 2006). "Quarter days". The Times. London: Times Newspapers. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019. Assuming you can remember when Christmas occurs, a useful mnemonic to place quarter days is to count the letters of the relevant months. Thus, in March, there being five letters, you can know that the quarter day is the 25th. June has four letters and the quarter day is the 24th, and September, having nine letters, has its quarter day on the 29th.
  4. Staff (9 October 2013). "Lectures and Seminars, Michaelmas term 2013" (PDF). Gazette Supplement. Oxford University. p. 1. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  5. Mairi Robinson (chief ed.): The Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen University Press, 1985
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