Michaelmas

Origin and history

Michaelmas, short for 'Michael's Mass', is the feast of the archangel Michael, and in many churches also of Gabriel and Raphael and all angels. In the Bible's book of Revelation, Michael leads the angels in battle against Satan, and he is honoured as a protector of the Church. In medieval England, Michaelmas came at the end of the harvest and marked the end and start of the farming year. It has been one of the four quarter days of the English and Irish financial, legal and academic year.

Customs

• A traditional meal of goose, fattened on the stubble of the harvested fields.
• British folklore says that Michaelmas is the last day for picking blackberries, because when Michael threw the devil out of heaven he landed in a bramble bush.
• The Michaelmas daisy, or aster, is one of the few flowers still blooming at this time of year.

How traditions differ

Michaelmas is kept by Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches on 29 September. Eastern churches honour Michael and the other heavenly powers on 8 November.

In the library

Works: The Bible · Paradise Lost

Great Lives: John Milton

More in After Pentecost

Trinity Sunday · Corpus Christi · Nativity of St John the Baptist · Sts Peter and Paul · All Hallows' Eve · Reformation Day · All Saints' Day · All Souls' Day · St Martin's Day (Martinmas) · Christ the King