One of my favourite sights is the spectacle of a temperature inversion in Bilsdale, when the mist rolls over the Cleveland Hills like a waterfall, spilling into the plain below. Such was the view this morning, on this day of St Michael’s Feast, or Michaelmas.
Michaelmas, celebrated on the 29th of September each year, marks the beginning of autumn and the inevitable shrinking of the daylight hours. In England, it is also one of the traditional “quarter days,” when rent payments were due, and the year was divided into four neat quarters. Yet, the day carries more than just agrarian significance, as it is steeped in legend and custom.
The most famous tale says that on this day, St Michael cast the devil out of heaven, sending him hurtling down to earth where he landed in a bramble bush. Naturally, the devil, being a poor sport, cursed the blackberries. After the 29th of September, it was believed you should avoid eating them, as they were likely tainted by the devil’s spittle or, in another version, worse.
While many of the old customs have vanished, it is perhaps a relief at the demise of some of the stranger ones. In 1790, a writer in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” noted the curious way the people of Kidderminster celebrated Michaelmas. On the 29th of September, when a new bailiff was elected, the townsfolk would gather in the streets and gleefully pelt each other with cabbage stalks. A bell would signal the start of this vegetable warfare, a free-for-all referred to as “lawless hour.” Later in the day, the more respectable members of society would indulge in their own peculiar amusement—throwing apples at the local Corporation. It is recorded that as many as forty pots of apples could be expended at a single house in the process.1Bradford Weekly Telegraph – 29 September 1888
In Bishop’s Stortford, around the same time, a different tradition flourished. A group of “jolly good fellows” would roam the streets playing a game of follow-the-leader, but with a twist: anyone they encountered, regardless of gender, was ceremonially “bumped,” which involved two people grabbing the unfortunate passer-by by the arms and swinging them into each other. Unsurprisingly, the women of the town mostly stayed indoors during this escapade, except for a few bold souls who sought the reward of a gallon of ale and a plum cake provided by the local publicans. These festivities often carried on late into the night.2Ibid.
Though Bishop’s Stortford only held this celebration every seven years, the bailiffs of Kidderminster were annually treated to the generous, if slightly questionable, tokens of their fellow citizens’ affection.
- 1Bradford Weekly Telegraph – 29 September 1888
- 2Ibid.
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