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Michaelmas
On September 29, Mrs. Sharp's family observes the first of the autumnal festivals-Michaelmas, which is the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel. This is an ancient harvest festival dating back to the sixth century, but it is still celebrated today in the Celtic provinces from Cornwall in England to Brittany in France. Legend tells us that England's patron saint, Saint George, was the Archangel Michael's earthly representative. In Heaven Saint Michael was the angel who threw Lucifer out for his treachery, and on earth Saint George was famous for slaying dragons and rescuing princesses. During the nineteenth century, English harvest or Michaelmas fairs offered Victorian families a well-deserved opportunity to enjoy themselves after months of strenuous labor. These gatherings included food, music, dancing, games, and festive costume parades. Michaelmas was also considered the time to settle up accounts and pay rents. A children's verse tells the story:
In Victorian English homes the celebration of Michaelmas meant the pursuit of serious merrymaking from the nursery to the kitchen as children reenacted the legend of Saint George and the dragon. Modern children will enjoy Mrs. Sharp's tradition of making a sweet-dough dragon, much better than slaying a sibling. Create him with refrigerated dough, available at grocery stores, and fill his stomach with apples and dried fruit. Use sliced almonds for his scales. No matter what he looks like, children will be delighted with the outcome. By tea time our dragon is removed from his fiery red lair to be slain and consumed along with a selection of delicious blackberry jam from our pantry. This is the last time of the year we will enjoy blackberry jam, for legend has it that after the devil was thrown out of heaven he landed in the blackberry brambles. After Michaelmas, it is said the blackberries turn bad! Over tea we tell the tale of Saint George, and Mrs. Sharp ceremoniously lights the parlor hearth, signaling autumn's true arrival, another Michaelmas tradition. Soon the children are lost in play, as knights and princesses in castles far, far away. Mrs. Sharp lingers over her cup of tea, savoring the contentment that always comes when she makes a special effort to keep an old tradition alive. Frequently Mrs. Sharp is asked by her younger friends, Are traditions worth all the time they take? Does a modern family really need to observe Michaelmas? Ah, dear Reader, you must look into your own heart to discover that answer. |
Copyright © 1990 by Sarah
Ban Breathnach. Copyright © 2001 by Simple Abundance®, Inc.
Mrs. Sharp's Tradtions® is a registered trademark of Simple Abundance®,Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published by The Simple Abundance Press/Scribner
Sarah Ban Breathnach
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