Lentorama 2021: Take Your Holiday To Go

Day 15: Festum Ovorum

Also known as Egg Saturday, this "holiday" occurs on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday at the University of Oxford. I use the quotes around holiday as what little information is out there about the day suggest that it's not a holiday in the same sense of the other days we've looked at so far.

Based on passing mentions of the day in Oxford histories, this was the last day for students to complete their bachelor's degree requirements for the year. There was also apparently a tradition for the degree seekers to provide a meal for the senior bachelor students, which included eggs.

While there's an obvious connection between Easter and the symbolism of eggs. it doesn't appear that the day had any overt religious meaning. Why the editors at Wikipedia decided to include it with their list of moveable feasts of Western Christianity I don't know, but I thank them for giving me a really odd day to talk about.