There is evidence that the pagan fires at other times of the year were also gradually replaced by candles in the churches.
May 6.
The May festival has been treated by the Church in the same way as the February one. With a fixed Easter Sunday on March 22, 46 days after brought us to a Thursday (May 7), hence Holy Thursday[30] and Ascension Day. With Easter movable there of course was more confusion. Whit Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost, was only nine days after Holy Thursday, and it occurred, in some years, on the same day of the month as Ascension Day in others. In Scotland the festival now is ascribed to Whit Sunday.
It is possibly in consequence of this that the festival before even the change of style was held on the 1st of the month.
In Cornwall, where the celebrations still survive, the day chosen is May 8.
August 8.
For the migrations of the dates of the “pagan” festival in the beginning of August from the 1st to the 12th, migrations complicated by the old and new style, I refer to Prof. Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 418, in which work a full account of the former practices in Ireland and Wales is given. The old festival in Ireland was associated with Lug, a form of the Sun-God; the most celebrated one was held at Tailetin. This feast—Lugnassad—was changed into the church celebration Lammas, from A.S. hl’áfmaesse—that is loaf-mass or bread-mass, so named as a mass or feast of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the corn harvest. The old customs in Wales and the Isle of Alan included the ascent of hills in the early morning, but so far I have found no record of fires in connection with this date.[31]
November 8.
The facts that November 11 is quarter day in Scotland, that mayors are elected on or about that date, show, I think, pretty clearly that we are here dealing with the old “pagan” date.
The fact that the Church anticipated it by the feast of All Souls’ on November 1 reminds us of what happened in the case of the February celebration; later I give a reference to the change of date; and perhaps this date was also determined by the natural gravitation to the first of the month, as in the case of May, and because it marked at one time the beginning of the Celtic year.