Moveable Feasts

This page is about things that are celebrated at the same time each year, but not on the same date.

Part 1 gives the name of the 'feast', and asks (in most cases) when it is; in Part 2, the name of the feast is in the answer. There's no definitive logic to this distinction; it just depends how I feel the question makes more sense and/or is more answerable.

In each part, the feasts are listed in calendar order.

Part 1

Plough Monday (the traditional start of the English agricultural year)		1st Monday after Epiphany
Commonwealth Day is normally celebrated on the		2nd Monday in March
Mothering Sunday or Refreshment Sunday		4th Sunday in Lent
Low Sunday or Quasimodo Sunday		1st Sunday after Easter
Pentecost or Whit Sunday		7th Sunday after Easter
Mother's Day (USA)		2nd Sunday in May
Fathers' Day (in the UK, USA and over 70 other countries)		3rd Sunday in June
Thanksgiving (Canada); Columbus Day (USA)		2nd Monday in October
Remembrance Sunday (in the Commonwealth)		2nd Sunday in November
Thanksgiving (USA)		4th Thursday in November
In the USA, Thanksgiving commemorates the first		(Successful) harvest
Number of Sundays in Advent (in the West)		4

Part 2

3rd Monday in January (USA)		Martin Luther King Day
Last Sunday before Lent		Quinquagesima
2nd Monday in March		Commonwealth Day
The day before Ash Wednesday – also known in the UK as Pancake Day (when pancakes are traditionally eaten to use up foods that may be foregone in Lent)		Shrove Tuesday
First day of Lent		Ash Wednesday
Sunday before Easter		Palm Sunday
Wednesday before Easter (the day on which Jesus was betrayed)		Spy Wednesday
The day before Good Friday; commemorates the washing of the feet, and the Last Supper		Maundy Thursday
First Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon		Easter Day
Fifth Sunday after Easter – the Sunday before Ascension Day		Rogation Sunday
The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday preceding Ascension Day		Rogation Days
If Easter Day is the first day, Ascension Day is the		Fortieth
Known as Holy Thursday (for Beating the Bounds)		Ascension Day
Sunday following Whit Sunday		Trinity Sunday
Roman Catholic celebration of the Eucharist: Thursday after Trinity; gives its name to a city in Texas, as well as colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge universities		Corpus Christi
USA: traditionally 19 April, but since 1969 the third Monday in April (commemorating the start of the War of Independence)		Patriots' Day
Last Monday in May, in the USA (since 1971)		Memorial Day
First, second or third Saturday in June		The King's Official Birthday
USA & Canada: 1st Monday in September		Labor Day
The Sunday before Advent Sunday (officially because of the opening words of the Collect for that day; colloquially, because it's when families traditionally mix the ingredients for their Christmas puddings)		Stir–up Sunday
Advent Sunday (the first day of Advent) is the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which is the Sunday nearest to		30th November

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24