THE flowering of Aster novi-belgii or Michaelmas daisy in my garden, a big mauve sister to the common little white daisy, was timely, occurring as it did around the September 29, the feast day of St Michael and All Angels, more commonly known as Michaelmas day.
Historically this was a significant day in the calendar of medieval Britain and Ireland, marking as it did the end of the harvest season, followed by preparations for the dark days of winter ahead. It was known as one of the ‘quarter days’ which were spaced three months apart, on religious festivals (or fire festivals in the case of pre-Christian Ireland), usually close to the solstices or equinoxes. On these days, debts were settled and rents paid, new servants were hired and the new legal and university terms began.
Fortunately, many customs associated with the day have not been lost, such as the eating of goose for dinner on Michaelmas, a practice thought to have originated from tenants offering a goose to their landlords when paying rent, hoping to receiving some leniency, something George Gascoigne wrote about in 1575:
And when the tenants come to pay their quarter’s rent,
They bring some fowl at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent,
At Christmas a capon, at Michaelmas a goose,
And somewhat else at New-year’s tide, for fear their lease fly loose.
Indeed in Ireland and northern England, it was thought that eating a well-fattened goose on Michaelmas day would protect against financial need in the family for the next year as hinted at in the saying, 'Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,/Want not for money all the year'.
Another respected custom was to avoid picking blackberries on or after Michaelmas day because it was on this day that Lucifer, having been cast out of heaven by St Michael, fell from the skies only to land on a bramble bush.
He cursed the fruit of the prickly plant, scorched them with his fiery breath, stamping on them, spitting on them and thus making them bitter and tasteless, unsuitable for human consumption. Legend suggests he renews his curse annually and therefore it is unlucky to gather blackberries after this date.
Although St Michael, the Archangel or chief angel isn’t mentioned much in the Bible, he is regarded as one of the principal angelic warriors who rescues souls of the faithful and protects against darkness and evil. St Jude talks of him fighting with the devil over the body of Moses and Daniel refers to his fighting for the Jewish church against Persia.
As Michaelmas day signals darker nights, colder days and the edge into winter, it’s no surprise that Michael, often pictured as a winged angel warrior with Lucifer under his foot, is associated with giving us protection during the dark months ahead.
The Michaelmas daisy, like the protecting saint who gives the flower its name, fights the advancing gloom of winter by providing colour and warmth to the garden when the majority of flowers are coming to an end. As the old verse says:
The Micaelmas Daises, among the dede weeds,
Bloom for St Michael’s valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood,
Till the feast of S. Simon and St Jude
Good timing is very important in the natural world as it sustains well-established life cycles and whether this involves a departing swallow or the flowering Michaelmas daisy, it also provides us with the comforting thought that our world still moves and works as it should.
