Michaelmas is in just under two weeks -- are you doing anything?

Last year I made the children mummers' gowns and they put on impromptu passion plays for us. This year, one of my co-workers is throwing a barbecue on the 29th. We do gourmet potluck for these things, so I think I'll take one or two of the medaeival recipes I found while surfing the web -- the idea from the Steiner site about a dragon-shaped apple pie sounds pretty impressive!

My Liturgy discussion group brought up the custom of "Saint Michael's Lent" -- a short fast held before the feast of Saint Michael. One site I found referred to this being on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Michaelmas; but in Anglican tradition it seems to me that the Autumn Ember Days would take that role. I think we will make some effort to keep the Ember days this year -- perhaps just reading the Collect for table-grace or at evening prayer, and fore-going dessert this week on Wednesday and Saturday (in addition to Friday, when we forego dessert anyway).

For your interest, here are some of the links I found:
 http://sacredspiral.topcities.com/saints/smikael.html
 http://www.steiner98.org/Festivals/MichaelCeli.html
 http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/gosfeast.htm
 http://home.nyc.rr.com/mysticalrose/michaelm.html
 http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gedburnell/michaelmas.htm
 http://www.manotick.org/stjames/Archival%20pages/michael_and_all_angels.htm
http://www.panix.com/~wlinden/osm.html
 http://www.wf-f.org/Michaelmas.html (nice prayers, but leaves
                                      out the Arch-angel Uriel, alas!)

So, anyone want to join me in celebrating a merry feast-day?

Some Episcopalians have never heard of Michaelmas. There is a good reason for this. Different forces in the church have been trying to stamp out celebrating the seasons since about the seventh century. First the Roman Catholic missionaries weren't too happy to arrive and find a thriving church with its own customs -- Rome has never been big on allowing diversity and freedom of worship throughout the far-flung church. The value of conformity over the historic practice of the British church is what the Council of Whitby was all about, and was subsequently a factor in the Pope's sponsoring William the Conquerer's invasion of the British Isles.

Later, the Puritans tried to eradicate anything that smacked of either papacy or paganism -- in fact, to eradicate nearly any observance but the Sabbath, and that they made as dreary as possible (note -- highly prejudiced Jacobite perspective here!)

Now we have right-wing conservative Christians who are trying to convince us to "keep the Christ in Christmas" but vociferously deny the "Hallow" in Hallowe'en.

I say, bring on the Yule Log, the candles, the coloured eggs, the bonfires, the cider and the feasting -- and praise God for his many gifts, the greatest of which is our Lord Jesus Christ: the means of Grace and the Hope of Glory!