Did most "common people" know what date it was on a given day during the middle ages?

by MaddenedMan

If not, did they have some other sort of system for tracking the seasons and years?

By "common people", I mean people who were unable to read, or to need to know the date all the time for their vocation.

I'm also curious to know whether or not this changed over time.

LuneMoth

I don't know about knowing the specific date (June 1, 1307), but they would have known the date in terms of the church calendar at the very least. This would extend beyond simply designating the Sabbath as the beginning/end of each week, but also many feast days would fall in the middle of the week due to their more specific nature, such as St. Valentine's day on February 14. In this case, they would have most likely relied upon the local clergy to inform them of the upcoming date.

Also, months can be easily determined by observing the lunar cycle, which was important anyways for the farming seasons.

Searocksandtrees
scalfin

The Jewish calendar shows how it worked pretty effectively. There are holidays and festivals based on the day of the lunar month, days based on shabbats (which are differentiated by each having its own torah and haftorah portion), and a lot of holidays based off of counting days from a major holiday, complete with a slightly different prayer each day.