From the June 2024 Magazine
Fr Stan writes:
Last month I wrote about the Rogation Days and their significance. This month I want to consider the Quarter Days.
From my childhood I recall that almost every diary marked the Quarter Days but that is rarely the case now. The Quarter Days fall on the following dates:
March 25th, June 24th, September 29th and December 25th.
You will know the last one as Christmas Day, when we remember the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ but are you aware of the significance of the others as regards Jesus?
March 25th is observed as the Feast of the Annunciation when we remember that an angel appeared to Mary to tell her she was to give birth to Jesus. It is not a coincidence that this feast falls just nine months before Christmas.
June 24th is St John the Baptist’s Day, when we honour the one who came to prepare the way of the Lord and September 29th is St Michael and All Angels Day recalling the significance of angels in Jesus’s life: as well as Gabriel bringing the news to Mary, angels appeared to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus and angels ministered to Jesus when he was in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil.But as well as having a Christian religious significance the Quarter Days had a secular connotation. In the past March 25th was observed as New Year’s Day. I first became aware of this when studying 17th century history. King Charles the First was executed on January 30th 1649, we are told; but look carefully at the warrant for his execution and it is dated January 1648. June 24th is popularly known as Midsummer’s Day. As June 21st is called the first day of summer (unless you are a meteorologist), as a child I presumed that summer was only seven days long: first day June 21st, midsummer June 24th – therefore last day June 27th.
Another secular significance is that is times past rents were paid and tithes were collected on the Quarter Days. And have you ever wondered why the tax year begins on April 6th?
It used to begin on March 25th when that was new Year’s Day but when eleven days were “lost” in 1752 as we moved from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar so the date for the start of the tax year changed.
So the sacred and the secular become conflated. For most people the Quarter Days have little importance but they are Christian Feast days reminding us that the God whom we worship, who came to us as Jesus, enters into all human life.
May God bless us in all we do to make his love known.
