Until relatively recently the Gaelic Scots tended not to refer to the months and days of the year, but instead marked the time according to how many days before or after a certain season or festival the event they were referring to was.¹ These seasons and festivals were an integral part of the social calendar, and were important in marking the cycle of the agricultural calendar as well.

The year was broken up into four quarters, with each quarter starting at the beginning of a new season. These were earrach (spring), samhradh (summer), fogharadh (autumn), and geamhradh (winter), and the first day of each season was known as a Quarter Day.² These are known as (in Scots Gaelic):

• Samhainn (November 1) - beginning of winter
• Là Fhèill Brìghde (February 1) - beginning of spring
• Bealltainn (May 1) - beginning of summer
• Lùnastal (August 1) - beginning of autumn

These Quarter Days were often marked by feasting, merriment, processions and great social gatherings, and localised, family customs, and there is strong evidence to suggest that they were pre-Christian in origin. Other important festival days fall roughly on the equinoxes and solstices, and these are Lady Day (March 25), when Beira (who had been deposed by Bride) was said to finally admit defeat and concede to Bride, allowing spring to triumph and winter finally to withdraw; Midsummer on June 25 (celebrating the festival of St John the Baptist, and traditionally the day when rents were paid to Manannan on the Isle of Man); Michaelmas on September 29, which celebrates the carrot harvest; and the period of Yule/Christmas/Hogmanay at the end of December into the beginning of January.

There is less concrete evidence to show that these were originally based on Celtic pre-Christian festivals, mainly because of their lack of mention in early medieval Irish myths as important days in the seasonal calendar, and the fact that many of the traditions associated with them seem to have been copied or transferred from the preceeding Quarter Days - thus many of the traditions of Midsummer can be seen at Bealltainn as well, and the importance of divination at Samhainn is also emphasised at Hogmanay. F Marian McNeill suggests that this was the result of deliberate transference from the Quarter Days to lessen the pagan associations with the practices - in other words, retaining the traditions but repackaging them in a more acceptably Christian context that the Quarter Days couldn't offer.

It's been suggested that some, if not all of these 'lesser' festivals, have their origins with invading Norse or Anglo-Saxon cultures, which then had Christian holy days attached to them and came to be an important part of the seasonal calendar in Scotland and Ireland through Christianity or direct cultural contact with the pagan Norse, for example. As a result, few CRs celebrate these in-between festivals, or if they do, celebrations tend to be more low-key than those of the Quarter Days. 

Given the close historical ties between Ireland and Scotland, it's inevitable that early Irish sources are an important source for our understanding of these origins and many of the traditions that are associated with them. Early Irish myth clearly divides the year in the same way, and this can be seen most explicitly in the tale The Wooing of Emer where the year is split up into “...Samain, when the summer goes to its rest...Imbolc, when the ewes are milked at spring's beginning...Beltine at the summer's beginning and...Brón Trogain, earth's sorrowing autumn.”³

Looking at the early Irish myths and other sources like the Dindshenchas (placename lore), Bealltainn and Samhainn are most frequently referred to, whereas Lùnastal and Là Fhèill Brìghde (or Lugnasad and Imbolc/Oimelc) receive far fewer mentions. From the Irish sources in particular there is evidence to suggest that the year was further seen as being divided into the dark half of the year, between November and April, and the warm half of the year between May and October. During the dark half, when there was little agricultural work to be done that required a lot of help, youths would spend their time being educated, while the warmer months were dedicated to the more intensive efforts of herding, milking and harvesting.⁴

In Scottish lore, which tends to be later than much of the historical sources available from Ireland, evidence of this sort of divide also exists. The winter months were often referred to as the period of the ‘little sun’, or else they were called na tri miosa marbh (the three dead months), an raithe marbh (the dead quarter) or else raithe marbh na bliadhna (the dead quarter of the year).⁵ MacKenzie expands further on this and says that the time between Bealltuinn to Samhuinn was known as the 'big sun'. The Cailleach, known as 'the daughter of Grianan' (the 'little sun'), ruled over the winter months, keeping the weather harsh and cold. In some versions she transforms herself into a boulder as the time of the 'big sun' starts, or else she is transformed from an old hag into a beautiful maiden.⁶ This is discussed in further detail *here*.

This section will look at each of the four festivals, as well as the lesser known festivals (at some point), giving some practical ideas on how to go about celebrating them for yourself. Given the close cultural connection between Scotland and Ireland, both countries are considered (though with a bias towards Scottish practice and lore, admittedly).