A Dictionary of Saints Days, Fasts, Feasts and Festivals

Family, local and general historians all rely heavily upon dates as they pursue their individual research. But one frequent difficulty concerns documents or accounts that mention Saints' days or other holidays, without giving an actual date according to the calendar. Such days meant a great deal to our ancestors in their daily lives and were referred to in everything from legal documents and newspaper accounts, to private letters and diaries. Unless you know that St Dismas' Day is 25th March, and Collop Monday is the Monday before Shrove Tuesday, you may spend several hours of research finding the answer. To avoid the time and frustration of such puzzles, Colin Waters has compiled this easy to use reference book. It is a handy guide to dating the many special days on which celebrations or annual customs took place, setting them briefly in a historic, religious or social context. The entries are taken from a variety of sources, from individual family documents to learned encyclopedias, and have been collected over many years. They cover a period from Roman times to the present, and are set out alphabetically and in calendar form. There is also a history of the British Calendar.