Happy Michaelmas Day

Michaelmas (pronounced Mickel-mas) - or the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels - is celebrated on the 29th of September every year. As it falls near the equinox, the day is associated with harvest, the beginning of autumn, and the shortening of days.

Harvest Home and Golden Corn, 1875. David Payne, Annan Museum

In England, it is one of the quarter days - traditionally the four quarter days in a year are: Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September), and Christmas (25th December). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes.

St. Michael, the warrior archangel

Michaelmas is still observed in Waldorf schools, which celebrate it as the “festival of strong will” during the autumnal equinox. Rudolf Steiner considered it the second most important festival after Easter — Easter being about Christ (“He is laid in the grave and He has risen”).

Michaelmas is about man once he finds Christ (“He is risen, therefore he can be laid in the grave”), meaning man finds the Christ (risen), therefore he will be safe in death (laid in the grave with confidence).

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Much of Christian practice throughout the west has indeed been corrupted into sentimental humanitarianism due to a rejection of fundamental points of doctrine rather than the inevitable consequence of them.

A prevalent version of Christianity essentially places its highest value upon mankind and strives to achieve an egalitarian utopia on earth - to immanentize the eschaton, as Eric Voegelin put it. The same applies to communism, socialism, and other leftist ideologies that critics such as Nietzsche trace to Christianity.

The victorious Christ, Christus victor (slice of mosaic in Ravenna, 500s)

Michaelmas is traditionally the last day on which you should pick and eat blackberries, as folklore has it that when Saint Michael expelled Lucifer from heaven, the fallen angel landed in a patch of blackberry vines and, unhappy with the way things turned out, he peed on them, rendering the berries unfit for consumption.

St Michael’s Bannock, or Struan Micheil (a large scone-like cake) is prepared. This used to be made from cereals grown on the family’s land during the year, representing the fruits of the fields, and is cooked on a lamb skin, representing the fruit of the flocks.

Constantine defeats Maxentius, detail from 9th-century Byzantine manuscript

The cereals are also moistened with sheep’s milk, as sheep are deemed the most sacred of animals. As the Struan is created by the eldest daughter of the family, the following is said: “Progeny and prosperity of family, Mystery of Michael, Protection of the Trinity.”

Celebrating the day in this way, the prosperity and wealth of the family is supported for the coming year. Thus the custom of celebrating Michaelmas Day as the last day of harvest lives on.

art by Mahala