Best quote was at the end. "However, human being are such creatures of habit and imitation, that what is necessity soon becomes fashion, and each one wishes to do what everyone else is doing. A lady in the neighbourhood closed all her binds and shutters, on May-day; being asked by her acquaintance whether she had been in the country, she answered, "I was ashamed not to be moving on the first of May; and so I shut up the house that the neighbours might not know it." One could not well imagine a fact more characteristic of the despotic sway of custom and public opinion, in the United States, and the nineteenth century.[29]"

In medieval Italy (and probably most of southern Europe) sharecroppers whose "rental contract" expired were expected to move from one allotted housing/field to another on the 11th of November. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fare_San_Martino

That is absolutely bonkers! Who'd think this was a good idea?!

This essentially happens in Boston to this day (though the date is September 1st).

Montreal still does this—-a huge proportion of leases end on July 1.