Another old popular custom in Scotland on Candlemass day was to hold a football match...

From The Book of Days discussion of Candlemass (February 2) (read the whole thing at the link):

Another old popular custom in Scotland on Candlemass day was to hold a football match, the east end of a town against the west, the unmarried men against the married, or one parish against another. The 'Candlemass Ba', as it was called, brought the whole community out in a state of high excitement. On one occasion, not long ago*, when the sport took place in Jedburgh, the contending parties, after a struggle of two hours in the streets, transferred the contention to the bed of the river Jed, and there fought it out amidst a scene of fearful splash and dabblement, to the infinite amusement of a multitude looking on from the bridge.

*The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection With the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History Curiosities of Liter

was published in 1869.