The Church Calendar

Seasons and holy days

August falls in the long season of Pentecost or Sundays after Trinity. The single red-letter saint’s day in August is August 24th for St. Bartholomew, the Apostle who was “geven grace...truly to beleve, and to preach” the word of God (BCP, L6v).

The first black-letter holy day noted in the Book of Common Prayer is Lammas, August 1st, a harvest festival with Anglo-Saxon origins notable for a large number of fairs. August 6th was the Feast of the Transfiguration, and the next day, August 7th, the Feast of the Name of Jesus: how exactly those two vestigial Catholic feasts were celebrated in the early modern period is unclear. August 10th noted the Roman third-century martyr, St. Laurence, August 28th St. Augustine of Hippo, and August 29th was a second commemoration for John the Baptist, celebrating the date of his beheading.

Lectionary

The Old Testament readings for August begin in Jerome, moving from there to Lamentations, then excerpts from Ezekiel, the Book of Daniel, and Hosea. Meanwhile, the Gospel reading completes John on August 2nd; Acts follows until the 30th, with its accompanying Epistle readings of Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude. On the last day of the month, the third cycle of the annual gospel begins again with Matthew and Romans 1.

Fairs

As harvest gets underway the fair season continues in full swing. The most popular days for fairs in August are traditional holy days, with Lammas leading on August 1st, with twenty-six. Other popular days are St. Laurence’s Day, August 10th (twenty-five), and the fourth Lady Day of the year, the Assumption, August 15th (twenty). On St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24th, there were approximately nineteen principal fairs scheduled, including the famous Bartholomew Fair in Smithfield.

Law Terms

The law courts are not in session in August, since Trinity Term ends on July 11th at the very latest, and Michaelmas does not begin until October.

Festive Traditions and Pastimes

Harvest fairs appear to have continued following the Reformation. The festivity associated with the harvest has left more records in literary than historical sources, though as we have seen Tusser recommends harvest feasting and “good cheare in the hall” (100). “Oh, ‘tis the merry time,” Nicholas Breton claims, “wherein honest neighbours make good cheere, and God is glorified in his blessings on the earth.” According to Breton, that “good cheere” might include crowning “Captaine of the Reapers” with a “Garland of Flowers,” as well as music, dancing, and feasting: the “Pipe and the Tabor is now lustily set on worke, and the Lad and the Lasse will have no lead on their heeles: the new Wheat makes the Gossips Cake” (Fantasticks, C3v).

August

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