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The last couple of weeks I’ve given a few talks on growing vegetables and turning them into good food. These “Plot to Plate” talks also include a look at some of the more obscure festivals that celebrate growing and eating and I thought I’d recount one of those stories as part of this week’s newsletter.
Let’s talk about Goose Day or as it’s more correctly known Michaelmas
Michaelmas, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels, is celebrated on the 29th of September every year. It falls near the equinox, and is one of the “quarter days” in the year the others being Lady Day on 25th March, Midsummer 24th June, and Christmas Day.
Traditionally these are the days when servants were hired, rents due or leases begun. It was said that Michaelmas marked the end of the productive season of gardening / farming and the beginning of a new cycle of growing.
Traditionally, in the British Isles, a well fattened goose, fed on the stubble from the fields after the harvest, is eaten to protect against financial need in the family for the next year; and as the saying goes:
“Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,
Want not for money all the year”.
Consequently Michaelmas also became known as “Goose Day” and goose fairs were held. It is told that the reason goose is eaten is because this is what Queen Elizabeth I was eating when she heard of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and she resolved to eat it on Michaelmas Day each year thereafter. Perhaps more believable is because that a goose was offered in lieu of payment of rents or debts and a way of gaining a delay in payment if you couldn’t afford your bills or dues.
Interestingly when I had an allotment our site fees were always due around this time, but I never tried to bribe the site manager with a goose! In modern financial terms a Goose is probably more expensive than my allotment fees ever were!
It’s also said that Michaelmas is the last time of the year when wild blackberries should be picked and eaten. Old English Folklore says that when Lucifer was expelled from Heaven, he fell from the skies, straight onto a blackberry bush. He then cursed the fruit, scorched them with his fiery breath, spat and stamped on them and made them unfit for consumption!
More recently Michaelmas has become less celebrated. This could be because when Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church and the more commonly celebrated Harvest Festival took its place, but there are many other stories of what you should do on Michaelmas which you might also want to check out.
Thanks for reading.