14 SEPTEMBER
Rood Day is said to commemorate the rescue of the True Cross by Emperor Heraclius of Constantinople in 614. There were several proverbs referring to the fact this is the time of deer mating: If the hart and the hind meet dry and part dry on Rood Day fair, for six weeks of rain there’ll be no mair.
On this day in 1752 Britain abandoned the Julian Calendar of Julius Caesar and adopted the Gregorian calendar, meaning that some days had to be dropped to fall into alignment with the new calendar. It meant that they went to bed on 2 September and woke up on 14 September, having ‘lost’ eleven days. Some people really thought that they had been deprived of eleven days of their lives and there were riots in the streets. It is the reason that many of the feast days and calendar customs are elevens days adrift.
Hearth Witchery 