Calendar image (54kb)

In the Middle Ages people who could read - and that was only a very small percentage of people - often wanted their own prayer book for private prayer. They were likely to own a special kind of prayer book called a Book of Hours. As well as prayers it often included a calendar of the months of the year with saints days and other feast days. The calendar pages are not unlike a diary today.

If you were a rich person you would commission an artist to decorate your Book of Hours and the artist would paint scenes appropriate to the month to illustrate the calendar pages.

Do you know why we call special days 'red letter days'? Because in the Middle Ages special days such as saints' days were marked in red ink on calendar pages like this.