In British and Irish tradition, the quarter days were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, school terms started, and rents were due. They fell on four religious festivals roughly three months apart and close to the two solstices and two equinoxes. The significance of quarter days is now limited, although rents for properties in England are often still due on the old English quarter days. The quarter days have been observed at least since the Middle Ages, and they ensured that debts and unresolved lawsuits were not allowed to linger on. Accounts had to be settled, a reckoning had to be made and publicly recorded on the quarter days.
Lady Day was also the first day of the year in British dominions until 1752. The British fiscal year still starts on "Old" Lady Day. The dates of the quarter days observed in northern England until the 18th century were the same as those in Scotland. The cross-quarter days are four holidays falling in between the quarter days: Candlemas, May Day, Lammas, and All Hallows. The Scottish term days, which fulfil a similar role as days on which rents are paid, correspond more closely to the cross-quarter days than to the English quarter days. There is a mnemonic for remembering the day of the month for the first three quarter-days : Every quarter day is twenty-something, and the second digit of the day of the month is the number of letters in the month's name. So March has five letters and Lady Day is 25 March; similarly June has four letters and September nine, so Midsummer Day and Michaelmas are on the 24th and 29th respectively. At many schools, class terms would begin on the quarter days; for example, the autumn term would start on 29 September, and thus continues to be called the Michaelmas term, especially at more traditional universities.
These were also the dates of the Quarter Days observed in northern England until the 18th century. The dates for removals and for the employment of servants of Whitsunday and Martinmas were changed in 1886 to 28 May and 28 November respectively. The Term and Quarter Days Act 1990 redefined the "Scottish term days", in official use, as 28 February, May, August and November respectively. The Act specifies that the new dates take effect on 13 June 1991. The new Scottish Term and Quarter Days :
