If you wish, you could mark these days by knowing where the Sun would rise as viewed from some specific observing station. Your horizon calendar would be defined by the limiting northern and southern gateways for sunrise or sunset at summer and winter solstices. You could add your own personal anniversaries that you wish to celebrate with the entrance and exit of the Sun on those particular days. Native Americans occupying this land before us were watching the Sun migrate on the horizon. Their rewards were gentle rains, mixed with sunlight.
Calendar keeping people also watch the stars.
In early May the evening sky in the west is marked by an arc of brilliant stars. Sirius in Canis Major, brightest star of the night is low to the southwest, setting in the dusk. Higher and a bit farther north is Procyon in Canis Minor. Then we come to the bright pair, Castor and Pollux, the Twins of Gemini. Still farther north is yellow-cast Capella in Auriga.