{6}
It might be thought that the festivals of popular patron saints would be spread fairly evenly throughout the year, perhaps making allowances for the major festivals of Christmas and Easter. This is not so. If Essex is typical, then the great saints’ days of the Middle Ages were celebrated in the summer, between sowing and harvest, or in the early part of the winter. To illustrate this concentration of dates, here are the relevant festivals of the most popular patron saints:
| Holy Trinity | Trinity Sunday | (May or June) |
| St. John the Baptist | June 24th | (Midsummer) |
| St. Peter (with St.Paul) | June 29th | |
| St. Margaret | July 20th | |
| St. Mary Magdalen | July 22nd | |
| St. Laurence | August 10th | |
| St. Mary the Virgin | August 15th | (Assumption) |
| September 8th | (Nativity) | |
| St. Michael | September 29th | (Michaelmas) |
| All Saints | November 1st | (Hallowmas) |
| St. Andrew | November 30th | |
| St. Nicholas | December 6th |
The pattern is reinforced if the festivals of the lesser saints are added to the list:
| St. Botolph | June 17th | |
| St. James (& St.Christopher) | July 25th | |
| St. Giles | September 1st | |
| Holy Cross | September 14th | (? or early May) |
| St. Leonard | November 6th | |
| St. Martin | November 11th | |
| St. Edmund | November 20th | |
| St. Clement | November 23rd | |
| St. Katherine | November 25th | |
| St. Thomas | December 21st | |
| St. John | December 27th |
It can be seen that the festival season effectively began after Easter with Trinity Sunday and continued until the harvest fairs at Michaelmas. October was an empty month, but a winter season began with Hallowmas and continued through Christmas until the new year.Two periods can be identified as particularly suitable for holidays, one towards the end of July and the other in November. There seems little doubt that the underlying structure of this ‘calendar’ was agricultural and related to seasonal patterns of activity. Weather and work presumably ruled out holidays in the first four months of the year. In a few cases (notably All Saints), the festivals were probably chosen to coincide with the customary seasonal rites of the earlier pagan calendar.
{7}{Maps 1–4}
{8}{Maps 5–8}