The start of the year in January was part of the celebrations of the twelve days of Christmas. However, from the twelfth century onwards in many parts of Europe, New Year was actually 25 March. Nevertheless, early January was a time of feasting and a chance to rest from the usual grind of work.
The celebrations involved community get-togethers and in many areas, a boy bishop, or lord of misrule, was chosen to lead the festivities and in some cases, could choose other ‘churchmen’ to carry out his orders, however foolish.
The Christmas celebrations ended with the feast of Epiphany on 6 January, and minds then turned to the next celebration on the calendar; plough Monday.
The Winter Festivals of Plough Monday and Candlemas
The first Sunday after Epiphany was known as Plough Monday, the day when ploughing started off the farming year. Because the success of a harvest was so crucial to survival in medieval times, certain customs were followed to ensure a good year ahead. The plough could be blessed or pulled through a fire to purify it.
The celebration of Candlemas, on 2 February, was celebrated in a similar spirit; all church candles for the year ahead were blessed and some were taken into individual houses to be used when blessings were needed.
Lent and Easter in the Middle Ages
The forty days of Lent were a time of serious sacrifice during the Middle Ages. Many things were forbidden on this run up to Easter, including meat, dairy products, sexual intercourse and the ceremony of marriage.
This time of self-sacrifice came to an end on the feast of Easter, the high point of the medieval church calendar. This was a time for celebrating re-birth and looking ahead to the warmer and lighter days to come.
Summer Festivals in the Middle Ages
The next major celebration of the year was May Day, with dancing, the crowning of a May queen and/or king and later in the period, dancing round a maypole. This was followed by midsummer, a feast with pagan origins which often involved bonfires and dancing.
Lammas Day
1 or 2 August, depending on the area, was Lammas Day, a celebration of the harvest. The name Lammas comes from the word ‘loaf-mass’ and the festival involved giving thanks for the first fruits of harvest. The first loaf produced from the new harvest was blessed in church and the day was also one of the quarter days, when rents were due.
This feast was followed by a harvest festival, usually in September, which celebrated a successfully gathered harvest. Communities would gather in their parish church for a service of thanksgiving and there would be a harvest supper when food and drink would be in plentiful supply, in contrast to the ‘hungry gap’ of the previous months, when food stocks were at their lowest.
Winter Feasts and Festivals in Medieval Times
As the days became shorter and darker, there were still a number of high-points in the medieval calendar. The feasts of All Hallows Eve and All Souls Day came within a day of each other and celebrated the souls of the dead, who were believed by some to walk the earth on 31 October, the day before All Souls Day.
The final part of the cycle was the start of Advent, on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, another period of fasting in preparation for the prolonged celebration of the birth of Christ.
Many medieval feasts and festivals have continued, in some form, to the present day. Then as now, they provided people with a way to break up their daily routine and gave a reason for communities to come together and share news, celebrate successes and mark the changing months and seasons.
Source
Rowling, Marjorie, Life in Medieval Times [Perigree,1973]
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