Midsummer

One of the four traditional Quarter Days in the British calendar, falling on June 24th.

Midsummer Day falls on 24 June, the Feast of St John the Baptist, and not on the solstice three days earlier — a gap that has accumulated from calendar drift and from the old practice of counting a feast from its eve.

As the second quarter day it marked the financial midpoint of the year, when half-yearly rents were settled and accounts balanced. In a system where almost all money moved on four days, this was the one that fell when the weather was good and travel was easy, and it was accordingly the busiest.

The celebrations belong to the eve rather than the day. Bonfires on 23 June are recorded across Britain from the medieval period onward, and the night carried a long association with disorder, enchantment and things not being quite as they seem — which is the tradition Shakespeare was drawing on, and why the play is set on that particular night rather than any other.