August Bank Holiday, FW. Make those babies out by the cartload! :-)
Ah, memories.

Anyway, my argument is thus: When our friends the Christians came along and rebabtised all the old festivals with a middle eastern nuance, they would have chosen the most important dates in the old calender to correspond with the most important events in their own.

I would imagine that the three most traumatic events in the life of any selfrespecting god are BIRTH and DEATH and RESURECTION. I presume that the birth of Christ being the most important they chose the most important old event, that being Yuletide, to represent the birth of their deity; and for His death/resurrection they chose the spring festival of Easter.

I don't think that if Harvest Festival was such a big event in antiquity they would have given this date it to celebrate the birth of John the Babtist, who, although important, is solely a supporting act to the main players in the New Testament.

Intreresting stuff.