QUARTER DAYS - PART III - CROSS QUARTER DAYS OF CANDLEMAS, MAY DAY, LAMMAS, AND ALL HALLOWS

Between the Quarter Days are the cross-quarter days of Candlemas (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas (August 1), and All Hallows (November 1).  When Simeon greeted the Holy Family in the temple, he declared Jesus to be the light of the world.  This image is celebrated by the lighting of candles on Candlemas.  Candlemas falls during the Anglo-Saxon month of Solmonao when the power of the sun’s light was celebrated paralleling the celebrating of Christ’s light in the world.  During Solmonao, ploughs were blessed before the first tilling.  Soil from the farm’s four quarters were ceremoniously collected paralleling the priest beating the parish’s bounds on Rogation Sunday.  It was a bad omen if the day was sunny, for that predicted snow and frost to continue until the hiring of laborers six weeks later on Lady Day.  Groundhog Day is a remote survivor of this belief.  May Day was halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice marking the beginning of summer for ancient Celts.  It was celebrated with dancing and singing to greet the sprouting seeds.  The power of light over darkness was celebrated with dancing around the May pole.
~ Dr. Gil Haas, St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church