Guest Author - Linda J. Paul
Throughout the Celtic lands, Michaelmas was celebrated on September 29, the day which marked the end of the second Harvest. Originally, this day was the time when the farmers would decide how many animals they could afford to feed and shelter over the long winter months, and how many would need to be sold. The rest would be slaughtered and salted down to preserve the meat. This was also the time of the hiring fairs. This opportunity for winter employment until the spring planting was especially important to the laborers in the farming communities.
Traditionally on Michealmas, many Irish families sat down to roast goose dinner. Geese played a very important role in traditions of this holiday. This was due to the fact that in Ireland this day was one of the quarter-days when rent and other accounts were due to be paid. Since this was also the time of the “goose harvest” it was not unusual for a farmer to make his payment in the form of a brace or two of plump geese. Geese that hatched in the spring were ready for market beginning on Michaelmas. This harvest was also know as Fomhar na ngean.
The family goose was by tradition completely eaten by September 30th. The breastbone was used to foretell the weather for the coming winter by holding up to the light. If it was translucent, it meant that the coming winter would be mild. A thick breastbone meant it would be a tough winter, and a mottled breastbone meant the weather would be variable. The front of the breastbone was used to predict the weather up until Christmas, and the back of the bone was used to predict the weather after Christmas until the planting in the spring.
In some parts of Ireland, farmers would give geese to the poor or sold the down for mattress or pillow stuffing. Eating a goose on Michaelmas Day was also thought to bring abundance and prosperity for the following year.
In the Celtic lands Michaelmas was the end of the fishing season, and the beginning of the hunting season, as well as a time to harvest apples and make cider. Michaelmas also marked the ending of the tourist season. In one part of Ireland, the local merchants would hold a procession to the ocean, and cast an effigy of St. Michael into the waves as a symbolic protest against the loss of earnings due to the departure of the warm weather visitors.
The traditional symbols of Michaelmas are glofe, gees and gyngeuer. The glove represented the open-handedness and generosity of the village lord, eating a goose brought prosperity and good luck, and ginger was thought to provide protection against infection.
Other customs on this holiday include the planting of trees. “A tree planted at Michaelmas will surely not go amiss.” And, there is also a daisy named for this day:
“The Michaelmas Daisies, among dede weeds,
Bloom for St. Michael’s valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood,
Till the feast of St. Simon and St Jude.”
So, how did St. Michael the Archangel get involved with the harvest, paying of debts and geese? Folklore has it that when St Michael cast Satan out of heaven, Satan landed on a patch of blackberry brambles. Every year he returns to spit (or worse) on the plant that tortured him, breathing his foul breath upon it and trampling it. Therefore it is considered to be very unwise to pick blackberries after Sept 29. The victory of St. Michael over Satan became a day of feasting in St. Michaels honor.
