From the abbey to the Otherworld
From the abbey to the Otherworld
March 18th, 2009
September, the season of angels and geese.
September 21st is the Autumn equinox, when the day and night are roughly equal in length. The full moon nearest to the equinox is the Harvest Moon, and this is time when the Chinese celebrate Zhongqiu jie, the Harvest Moon festival. This is when the moon is at its fullest and traditionally, moon cakes are baked to mark the festival.
The feast of St Michael the Archangel, or Michaelmas, is celebrated on September 29th. Also known at the feast of St Michael and All Angels, this was one of the old Quarter Days of the year, when rents were paid – if they had not already been paid at Lammas. The other Quarter Days were Christmas, Lady Day and Midsummer Day. Often, a goose was given by a tenant to a landlord as part of the rent, and goose became the traditional food at Michaelmas. Indeed, it was considered bad luck not to eat goose on Michaelmas Day and Goose Fairs grew up around the country to supply birds to those who didn’t have land to raise their own. One of the most famous of these was the Nottingham Goose Fair, which is over 700 years old. The geese were walked all the way from Lincolnshire and Norfolk to be sold and their feet were coated with a mixture of tar and sand to protect them on the long journey. Goose Fair still takes place each year, though now it has moved from late September to early October, and geese are no longer on sale.
An old saying goes: He who eats goose on Michaelmas Day, shan’t money lack for debts to pay.
Michaelmas is also a harvest festival. The hedgerows and orchards are full of ripening fruit. A curious bit of folklore surrounds the blackberry; it was widely held that Lucifer, when he was thrown out of Heaven, landed in a blackberry bush. He cursed it, and each year he spits on the blackberries at Michaelmas, so it is considered unwise, and unlucky, to pick the berries after this day.
August, the month of feasts and fairs
and harvest time.
1st August: Lammas was one of the old quarter days dividing the year, when rents were due and debts were paid. But there is much more to this day and this time of year than that. The name Lammas comes from the Anglo-Saxon hlafmaesse, or loaf-mass, a celebration of the harvest. In turn, hlafmaesse was preceded by Lughnasadh, the festival of the Celtic god Lugh. This was in part a funeral feast in honour of Lugh’s foster mother Taillte, but it also marked the beginning of harvest time.
In the Christian calendar, Lammas was also the feast of St Peter ad Vincula, or St Peter in Chains.
Lammas was a popular time for fairs in towns and villages. During the medieval period, it was a chance for people in villages and rural areas to meet up, buy and sell harvest surplus, before winter weather made the roads difficult to travel. The village of Yagleah, to the north of Crowfield Abbey, held a three day charter fair at Lammas each year, and it was almost as busy and popular as the larger and more important Michaelmas Fair at nearby Weforde.
24th August: St Bartholomew’s Day was another popular time for fairs. The most famous fair in England in the medieval period was the Bartholomew Fair in Smithfield, London. The priory of St Bartholomew was founded by Rahere, the court jester of King Henry I, after he fell ill on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He vowed he would found a priory if he was spared and on his return to England, King Henry granted him land on the Smooth Field, later Smithfield, just outside the London city wall. Raherefounded an Augustinian priory here in 1123 AD. Bartholomew Fair lasted for three days each year, and was mainly a cattle and cloth fair, but it also attracted traders and entertainers, jesters, travelling musicians, thieves and revellers. It would have been colourful, noisy and exciting, full of interesting smells and strange and wonderful sights. The fair has long since vanished, but part of Rahere’sbeautiful church still stands and it is worth visiting if you are in London and have an hour or two to spare. It is said that occasionally, visitors have glimpsed the ghost of Rahere in this ancient building, still keeping a weather eye on his church, and that somehow makes this place all the more special. (See greatstbarts.com for details.)
The making of a corn or kern baby, or a corn maiden, is a harvest custom going back hundreds of years. The first, or sometimes the last sheaf of corn was used to make the figure. This could be large or small, and could look like a human figure and be dressed in women’s clothes, or just be a plaited shape. It was kept in the farmhouse until the following spring, when it was ploughed back into the earth to bring fertility for the coming year.
