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“And there was warre in heauen, Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon, & the dragon fought and his angels, and preuailed not, neither was their place found any more in heauen. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the deuill and Satan, which deceiueth the whole world: hee was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7-9For the last several years, our family has been attempting to recapture something of the richness of the traditional church year. We started small by celebrating things like St. Lucy Day, St. Nicholas Day, and Shrove Tuesday. Then we tried to ramp up our Eastertide celebrations as well. Over the last two years, we’ve done away with making Christmas a day to open a ton of presents and have instead given a big gift on Christmas followed by eleven more days of small things (the twelve days of Christmastide), all culminating in a Twelfth Night/Epiphany party when we bake a three kings cake and add the wise men to our nativity. This year, we’ve decided to try a new holiday: Michaelmas.
Michaelmas is this Saturday, September 29, and in the Middle Ages was the traditional beginning of winter. The harvest was in, and the hedges were opened on Michaelmas in order to let the cattle and sheep graze on the stubble of the harvested fields. In the followings weeks, the fields that had lain fallow the previous year were plowed and sown with rye. This was also the beginning of the fiscal year and the day when accounts were settled and workers were paid. So, yeah. Time to party.Most importantly though, Michaelmas was chosen as a day to commemorate St. Michael the archangel and his victory over the dragon described in Revelation 12 when the dragon/devil and his fallen angels were cast out of heaven. This was an especially popular holiday in the British Isles as St George, the dragon-slaying patron of Merrie England, was sometimes portrayed in art as an earthly manifestation of St. Michael.
So how are we in the Davis house going to go about celebrating the warrior-angel who cast Satan out of heaven? Well, there will of course be food. That’s kind of a given. But also, unbeknownst to our children, I’m working on a secret project to surprise them with on Saturday. Shh… Don’t tell anyone…
Comments
This is one of those interesting cases of several holidays being combined into one or two events.
The earliest recorded feast dedicated to St. Michael was on September 6 in the third century.
In Constantinople there were multiple feasts dedicated to Saint Michael and the Archangels: June 9 commemorated the appearance of Michael to Constantine; others were celebrated on June 18, October 27, Nobember 8, and December 10. These were eventually subsumed in the 4th century into one celebration of Michael and all the angels on November 8. The Egyptian Christians celebrated the same feast on November 12.
The date of the Western feast comes from a basilica in Rome dedicated in honor of St. Michael in the 5th century on September 30; the celebration came to be held on the eve of that day, September 29. The Normans traditionally celebrated a feast to St. Michael on October 11, but eventually the Roman date pushed the old one out. Oct. 11 is still celebrated in some places as Old Michaelmas Day, though.
Anyway, lots of free information that might be interesting.
-Rick
http://oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=102517
(for your viewing pleasure ;) )
Very occasionally different EO Churches will celebrate the saints Name Day on a different date. St.Photini/Svetlana (the woman at the well) comes to mind. She is primarily celebrated in Feb. in the Greek tradition and on Mar. 20th in the Slavic traditions. The dates are too far apart to blame that one on the Old calendar/New Calendar issue! LOL.
I do find it all quite interesting. I hadn't known about the Old Michaelmas day. I'll have to store that in my "If I'm ever on Jeopardy" memory bank.