Brewer's: Burnt Candlemas Day

Feb. 2, 1355-6, when Edward III. marched through the Lothians with fire and sword. He burnt to the ground Edinburgh and Haddington, and then retreated from want of provisions. The Scots call the period “Burnt Candlemas.” (See “Epochs of History,” England under the Plantagenets; and Macmillan's series, Little History of Scotland, edited by Prof. Freeman.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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