I am not aware of any such general statement as early as this in relation to the four festivals of the May year in Great Britain, but in spite of its absence the fact is undoubted that festivals were held, and many various forms of celebration used, during those months. From the introduction of Christianity attempts of different kinds were made to destroy this ancient time system and to abolish the so-called “pagan” worships and practices connected with it. Efforts were made to change the date and so obliterate gradually the old traditions; another way, and this turned out to be the more efficacious, was to change the venue of the festival, so to speak, in favour of some Christian celebration or saint’s day. The old festivals took no account of week-days, so it was ruled that the festivals were to take place on the first day of the week; later on some of them were ruled to begin on the first day of the month. When Easter became a movable feast, the efforts of the priests were greatly facilitated, and indeed it would seem as if this result of such a change was not absent from the minds of those who favoured it. The change of style was, as I have before stated, a fruitful source of confusion, and this was still further complicated by another difficulty. Piers[25] tells us that consequent upon the change “the Roman Catholics light their fires by the new style, as the correction originated from a pope; and for that very same reason the Protestants adhere to the old.” I will refer to each of the festivals and their changes of date. _February 4._ Before the movable Easter the February festival had been transformed into Ash Wednesday (February 4). The eve of the festival was Shrove Tuesday, and it is quite possible that the ashes used by the priests on Wednesday were connected with the bonfires of the previous night. It would seem that initially the festival, with its accompanying bonfire, was transferred to the first Sunday in Lent, February 8. I quote the following from Hazlitt[26]:-- “Durandus, in his ‘Rationale,’ tells us, Lent was counted to begin on that which is now the first Sunday in Lent, and to end on Easter Eve; which time, saith he, containing forty-two days, if you take out of them the six Sundays (on which it was counted not lawful at any time of the year to fast), then there will remain only thirty-six days: and, therefore, that the number of days which Christ fasted might be perfected, Pope Gregory added to Lent four days of the week before-going, viz., that which we now call Ash Wednesday, and the three days following it. So that we see the first observation of Lent began from a superstitious, unwarrantable, and indeed profane, conceit of imitating Our Saviour’s miraculous abstinence. Lent is so called from the time of the year wherein it is observed: Lent in the Saxon language signifying Spring.”