I have included the main feasts and fasts in the cycle of the church’s year, plus one or two other dates that are mentioned (e.g., Michaelmas and Lady Day when rents were traditionally collected) in these stories.
Advent – begins four Sundays before Christmas.
Christmas – December 25th.
Holy Innocents – December 28th.
Epiphany – January 6th.
Baptism of our Lord concludes Christmastide, Sunday after January 6th.
Candlemas – February 2nd (Purification of Blessed Virgin Mary, Presentation of Christ in the temple).
Lent – Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday – start date varies with phases of the moon.
Holy Week – last week of Lent and the Easter Triduum.
Easter Triduum (three days) of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday.
Lady Day – March 25th – this was New Year’s Day between 1155 and 1752.
Ascension – forty days after Easter.
Whitsun (Pentecost) – fifty days after Easter.
Trinity Sunday – Sunday after Pentecost.
Corpus Christi – Thursday after Trinity Sunday.
Sacred Heart of Jesus – Friday of the following week.
Feast of John the Baptist – June 24th.
Lammas (literally “loaf-mass”; grain harvest) – August 1st.
Michaelmas – feast of St Michael and All Angels, September 29th.
All Saints – November 1st.
All Souls – November 2nd.
Martinmas – November 11th.