The summer half of the year began on St. George's Day (April 23th), the commemoration day of St. George's martyrdom. In the course of centuries this day had become so important that it also merged the old customs observed on the 1st of April, when cattle were turned out of sheds for the first time, and on Ploughing Day (April 14th). St. George's Day was the day when field work began and cattle started grazing in pastures. It introduced the weeks of spring sowing.
On manors St. George's Day marked the beginning of the economic year, when workers changed lodgings with new contracts of employment coming into effect. The tradition of changing lodgings on St. George's Day continued also after peasant farmers had bought their lands from manor-holders for perpetuity, for on this day met young men and women in taverns to hire them as farm-hands for the coming summer season. Starting from St. George's Day three meals were again served on working days and this lasted during the whole half-year up to Michaelmas Day on the 29th of September. There was a saying: "St. George binds you and Michael sets you free".
The customs observed on St. George's Day were concerned with the future, with the whole of the coming summer. Borrowing things and walking barefoot were avoided, it was also forbidden to make any noise or to engage in work causing noise lest thunder should strike the house in summer. The beginning of the harvesting time and the likely abundance of the crop yields were predicted on the basis of the spring greenery. St. George's bonfires were lit.
The next day worth mentioning was St. Philip's Day on the 1st of May, which in some other countries was regarded as the beginning of summer. This was the day when leguminous plants, particularly beans, were sown. Also May bonfires were lit, but these were made on the ground, differently from Midsummer Eve bonfires, which were usually built high up on top of a pole. Bonfires were a custom common to Midsummer, St. Philip's and St. George's Days.
The last of the spring holidays is Whitsuntide or Pentecost, in Estonian also called birch holiday. As a movable feast, it comes seven weeks after Easter. Rooms were tidied up and decorated with birch-trees for the occasion, everybody had a good wash in the sauna bath. The herdsboy was given a day off, young people went to the dance round the large swing on the village common. Differently from other movable feasts, much attention was paid to weather forecasts, especially for the yuletide. With its prevailing mood of merriment and the absence of any special taboos Whitsuntide either has lost its earlier more serious customs or is of later origin.