[1] The word rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning "to ask", which reflects the beseeching of God for the appeasement of his anger and for protection from calamities.

[6] The Christian major rogation replaced a pagan Roman procession known as Robigalia, at which a dog was sacrificed to propitiate Robigus, the deity of agricultural disease.

Their observance was ordered by the Council of Orleans in 511, and though the practice was spreading in Gaul during the 7th century, it was not officially adopted into the Roman rite until the reign of Pope Leo III (died 816).

[8] The faithful typically observed the Rogation days by fasting and abstinence in preparation to celebrate the Ascension, and farmers often had their crops blessed by a priest at this time.

[2] A common feature of Rogation days in former times was the ceremony of beating the bounds, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the minister, churchwarden, and choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year.

[7] Thomas Johnson (1633), speaking of the birch tree, mentions another name: Cross-week: "It serveth well to the decking up of houses and banquetting-rooms, for places of pleasure, and for beautifying of streets in the Crosse or Gang Week, and such like.

[13] Sarum texts from the 13th and 15th centuries show that the dragon was eventually moved to the rear of the procession on the vigil of the Ascension, with the lion taking the place at the front.

[12] During the reign of King Henry VIII, Rogation processions were used as a way to assist crop yields, with a notable number of the celebrations taking place in 1543 when there were prolonged rains.

The then Archdeacon of Essex, Grindal of London, besought the church explicitly to label the tradition as a perambulation of the parish boundaries (beating the bounds), further to distance it from the Catholic liturgy.

Although early Rogation celebrations were associated with rural life, agriculture and fishing, the Book of Common Prayer in many jurisdictions has been expanded to include propers for commerce and industry and the stewardship of creation, as well as a fruitful season, and rubrics were added for their use.