MICHAELMAS DAY, &c. The festival of St. Michael and all Angels has been celebrated with great solemnity by the Christian church ever since the fifth age, and was certainly kept sacred in Apulia as early as 493. The dedication of the great church of Mount Gorgano, in Italy, to St. Michael, gave rise to the celebration of this feast in the West. It obtained the common name of Michaelmas; and the dedication of numerous churches at Rome, and other parts of Italy, subsequently took place on this day, a practice followed in other countries. The churches dedicated to St. Michael are usually to be found on elevated spots, in allusion to this Saint's having been the highest of the heavenly host. St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, and that in Normandy, are confirmations of this remark. Michaelmas-day is one of the regular quarter-days for settling rents; but it is no longer remarkable for the hospitality which once attended this anniversary. At Martinmas, the old quarterday, the landlords used formerly to entertain their tenants with geese, then only kept by opulent persons. But these birds being esteemed in perfection early in the autumn, most families now have a goose dressed on St. Michael's day; for "At Michaelmas, by custom right divine, Geese are ordain'd to bleed at Michael's shrine." Very many inquiries have been made by antiquaries into the origin of "eating goose" on this festival, none of which, however, prove satisfactory, and, in our opinion, it had no particular meaning, except that stubble geese are now in perfection. People like to do things that are pleasant on holydays; and feasts, both among Polytheists and Christians, make up a great part of the miscellaneous customs attached to their calling. Geese are eaten likewise at Martinmas; and in Denmark, and other countries where they are later in being ready for the table, this is usually the time when they are in vogue. As matter, however, of antiquarian information, we shall cite the various explanations of this custom from different authors. It has been ascribed to the accidental circumstance of Queen Elizabeth's* being at dinner on a goose at the time she heard of the defeat of the Spanish armada, and that in consequence she ate of goose every year on that anniversary. In Gascoigne's Flowers we find,— "And when the tenauntes come to paie their quarter's rent, They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent; At Christmas a capon, at Michaelmas a goose; And somewhat else at Newyere's tide, for feare their lease flie loose." A writer in The World, No. 10, probably Lord Orford, remarking on the effects of the alteration of the style, says, "When the *See Origin of Goose on Michaelmas Day. reformation of the Calendar was in agitation, to the great disgust of many worthy persons, who urged how great the harmony was in the old establishment between the holidays and their attributes, and what confusion would follow if Michaelmas Day, for instance, was not to be celebrated when stubble geese are in their highest perfection; it was replied that such a propriety was mere imaginary, and would be lost of itself, even without any alteration of the Calendar by authority; for if in it the errors were suffered to go on, they would, in a certain number of years, produce such a variation, that we should be mourning for good King Charles on a false thirtieth of January, at a time of year when our ancestors used to be tumbling over head and heels in Greenwich Park, in honour of Whitsuntide; and at length be choosing king and queen for Twelfth Night, when we ought to be admiring the London 'Prentice at Bartholomew Fair." It is a popular saying, that "if you eat goose on Michaelmas Day, you will never want money all the year round." In the British Apollo the proverb is thus discussed: "Supposing now Apollo's sons, Know when and how t'improve their land." ALL SAINTS' DAY. This day is thus denominated in the Calendar, because it celebrates the commemoration of those worthies whom, on account of their number, particular days could not be appropriated to their individual honour. ST. MARTIN'S LITTLE SUMMER. In Time's Telescope for 1825, we are told that the few fine days which sometimes occur about the beginning of November, have been denominated "St. Martin's Little Summer:" to this Shakspeare alludes in the First Part of King Henry IV. (Act I. Scene 2nd), where Prince Henry says to Falstaff, "Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, allhallewn summer!"-and in the First Part of King Henry VI. (Act I. Scene 2nd), Joan la Pucelle says,— "Assign'd I am to be the English scourge, ALL SOULS. A Romish festival, set apart to offer up prayers for souls in Purgatory. ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. Consecrated wine was anciently sold by the priests on the 27th of December, the festival of St. John the Evangelist, to prevent the effects of poison, storms, &c.; because St. John had been forced to drink poison. LADY DAY. The festival of the Annunciation is commonly called in England, Lady Day, an abridgment of the old term Our Lady's Day, or the day of our blessed Lady. MAUNDY THURSDAY. The term Maundy, as applied to the Thursday before Easter, has occasioned some trouble to antiquaries. Öne writer conceives Maundy to be corrupted from the Mandate of Christ to his disciples, to break bread in remembrance of him: or, from his other mandate, after he had washed their feet, to love one another.* With better reason it is conceived to be derived from the Saxon word Mand, which afterwards became Maund, a name for basket, and subsequently for any gift or offering contained in the basket. Thus then Maundy Thursday, the day preceding Good Friday, on which the sovereign distributes alms to a certain number of poor persons at Whitehall, is so named from the Maunds in which the gifts were contained. According to Ducange, it derives its origin from St. Augustine. CANDLEMAS DAY. A Church festival held on the 2nd of February, to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary. The name probably arose from the number of lighted candles used in the processions of the day; or perhaps from a custom of consecrating candles on that day for the rest of the year. This practice was abolished in England in the second year of the reign of Edward VI. It is to be noted, that from Candlemass the use of tapers at vespers and litanies, which prevailed throughout the winter, ceased until the ensuing All-Hallow-Mass; and hence the origin of an old English proverb in "Ray's Collection" "On Candlemass day Throw candle and candlestick away." *Dunton's British Apollo. Archdeacon Nares' " Glossary," where the various authorities are set forth at large. TWELFTH DAY. There is a difference of opinion as to the origin of Twelfth Day. Brand says, "That though its customs vary in different countries, yet they concur in the same end, that is, to do honour to the Eastern Magi." He afterwards observes, "That the practices of choosing King on twelfth day, is similar to a custom that existed among the ancient Greeks and Romans, who, on the festival days of Saturn, about that season of the year, drew lots for kingdoms, and like kings exercised their temporary authority." The Epiphany is called Twelfth Day, because it falls on the twelfth day after Christmas day. Epiphany signifies Manifestation, and is applied to this day because it is the day whereon Christ was manifested to the Gentiles. QUARTER DAY. If he who runs may read, surely, he who does either, wants not to know that Quarter day is the termination of a quarter of a year, and needs no further derivation than what it carries with it: but, however simple this may be, yet the origin or data from whence it was made the Rent-day, or day for paying and collecting rents, may not be so generally known. It was not till the fifteenth century, in the reign of Henry VII., that rents were paid or collected quarterly; prior to that period, they were paid by the week, month, or year. His Highness, who was very fond of money, and who perhaps left more ready money behind him than any British monarch either before or since, stipulated with his own immediate tenants that they should pay their rents quarterly; this system, however, did not become the law of the land until the Revolution in 1688; from which period, of course, it became usual throughout the land. PLOUGH MONDAY. The first Monday after Twelfth Day is so called, because the husbandman then resumes the plough for the first time after Christmas. On this day, and for some days afterwards, in the northern counties, particularly Yorkshire, there is a procession of rustic youths dragging a plough, who, as they officiate for oxen, are called plough-stots: they are dressed with their shirts outside of their jackets, with sashes of ribbons fastened on their shirts, and on their hats. Besides the plough-draggers, there is a band of six in the same dress, furnished with swords, who perform the sword-dance, while one or more musicians play on the flute or violin. The sword-dance, probably introduced by the Danes, displays considerable ingenuity, not without gracefulness. The dancers arrange themselves in a ring, with their swords elevated, and their motions and evolutions are at first slow and simple, but become gradually more rapid and complicated: towards the close, each one catches the point of his neighbour's sword, and various movements take place in consequence; one of which consists in joining or plaiting the swords into the form of an elegant hexagon or rose, in the centre of the ring, which rose is so firmly made, that one of them holds it up above their heads without undoing it. The dance closes with taking it to pieces, each man laying hold of his own sword. During the dance, two or three of the company, called Toms or Clowns, dressed up as harlequins, in most fantastic modes, having their faces painted or masked, are making antic gestures to amuse the spectators; while another set, called Madgies or Madgy Pegs, clumsily dressed in women's clothes, and also masked or painted, go from door to door, rattling old canisters, in which they receive money-when they are well paid they raise a huzza; when they get nothing, they shout out "hunger and starvation." When the party do not exceed forty, they seldom encumber themselves with a plough. Egton Bridge has long been the principal rendezvous for sworddancers in the vicinity of Whitby. INNOCENTS' DAY. It was a popular superstition, which, in the remote parts of the island, is not yet extinct, that no undertaking could prosper which was begun on that day of the week on which Childer-mass or Innocents' day last fell. The custom is thus alluded to, in the old play, by some attributed to Shakspeare, of "Sir John Old castle." Children were flogged by our ancestors not only for punishment, but to fix things in their memory. Accordingly, the children were whipped in their beds on the morning of Innocents' Day, by their parents, "in order that the memorie of Herod's murder of the Innocents mighte stick the closer." There were also processions of children on that day. LAMMAS DAY. The first of August is by some supposed to have received this appellation from the following circumstance: During the superstitious days of Popery, the priests at this time of the year began to say masses for the sheep and lambs, that they might be preserved in the time of the cold season, being recently deprived of their woolly covering by the hands of the shearer. Hence it obtained the name of Lamb mass Day, and for the sake of a smooth |