It is spring and holiday time when pilgrimages start again. But when did Chaucer’s fictional pilgrims set out from Southwark on pilgrimage?

The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales says April:

‘When in April the sweet showers fall/And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all/The veins are bathed in liquor of such power/As brings about the engendering of the flower.’

Several dates have been suggested including 15, 16 and 17 April

The long poem was written during the 1380s.

Close study of the text finds hints of the zodiac and mention of 18 April. In the introduction to The Man of Laws tale there is:

‘He knew quite well it was the eighteenth day/Of April that is messenger to May.’

If the arrival was on 18 April then they all set out around 12 or 14 April.

Is the year 1389 when Easter Day was 19 April -almost like this year 2025? Did Chaucer imagine them riding during Holy Week?

This year’s first pilgrims arriving in Canterbury on Holy Saturday will find the Easter Vigil and First Eucharist of Easter starting at the cathedral in the gathering darkness at 7.3Opm.