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Full Article:
From mediaeval times in England there have been
in the calendar four Quarter Days:
- Lady Day
- Midsummer
- Michaelmas
- Christmas
Traditionally these have been days when
accounts are settled, and typically with
commercial properties these are the Rent Days.
The Quarter Days are the days that mark the
beginning of each quarter of the year. In
England, Wales and Ireland the quarter days
are actually four religious festivals:
- Lady Day - The Feast of the
Annunciation, March 25
- Midsummer Day - The Feast of St. John
the Baptist, June 24
- Michaelmas - The Feast of St. Michael
and All Angels, September 29
- Christmas Day - The Feast of the
Nativity, December 25
In Scotland, the traditional
quarter days are referred to as term days:
- Candlemas - The feast of the
Purification, February 2
- Whitsunday - Pentecost, which is always
on May 15
- Lammas - Long Mass, or the Feast of
First Fruits, August 1
- Martinmas - The Feast of St. Martin,
November 11
However, recent legislation (Term
& Quarter Days (Scotland) Act 1990 c.22) has
specified the new Scottish quarter days
as:
- Candlemas - 28 February
- Whitsun - 28 May
- Lammas - 28 August
- Martinmas - 28 November
These new quarter days will apply to
more recent leases unless otherwise stated.
The modern quarter days now being
adopted in England in some recent leases:
- 1 January
- 1 April
- 1 July
- 1 October
The Legal Tradition of Quarter Days:
The Quarter Days were traditionally days when
debts were settled and when magistrates
would visit outlying districts to administer
their justice.
There is a strong principle of English
justice tied up in this - "debts and
unresolved conflicts must not be allowed to
linger on" past the quarter sessions.
It was deemed that "However
complex the case, however difficult to settle
the debt, a reckoning has to be made and
publicly recorded; for it is one of the oldest
legal principles of this country that justice
delayed is injustice".
On the Way to
the Postmodern - see below.
When the Barons had the unjust King John sign
the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215 one of the
main principles embodied into it was the
promise: "To none will we sell, or deny, or
delay right or justice".
Timeliness applies to this day where
property rents are concerned: landlords and
owners expect the rent to be paid on time.
Mnemonic - Quarter days - Sir,
Assuming you can remember when Christmas occurs,
a useful mnemonic to place quarter days is to
count the letters of the relevant months. Thus,
in March, there being five letters, you can know
that the quarter day is the 25th. June has four
letters and the quarter day is the 24th, and
September, having nine letters, has its quarter
day on the 29th. (Letter to
the Times G. C. M. YOUNG
Fairford, Glos - Times on-line 15 April 2006)
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