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August 29, 2011
Gone to Pot ..... Autumn 2011
Having had a peppering of bank holidays over the year until now, the horizon looks pretty bleak until Christmas - oh no it doesn't! (It's a bit too early for the panto season). I am a cup half full person and an autumn person so can see plenty of enjoyable treats on the horizon.
The Anglo Saxon word for September was Hoerfestmonath, 'Harvest Month' and in the French Revolutionary Calendar the equivalent was Fructidor, Fruit Month. In former days the bringing in of the last load of corn of the harvest with the harvesters singing the 'harvest home' song and the supper provided by the farmer was followed by a general jollity. I imagine every vegetable gardener reaches the autumn and reflects on the harvests he or she has garnered and hopefully has much to be jolly about.
In Britain, thanks have been given for successful harvests since pagan times. Harvest festival is traditionally held on the Sunday near or of the Harvest Moon. This is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (about Sept. 23). In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. The celebrations on this day usually include singing hymns, praying, and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival, Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving. An early Harvest Festival used to be celebrated at the beginning of the Harvest season on 1 August and was called Lammas, meaning 'loaf Mass'. The Latin prayer to hallow the bread is given in the Durham Ritual. Farmers made loaves of bread from the fresh wheat crop. These were given to the local church as the Communion bread during a special service thanking God for the harvest.
By the sixteenth century a number of customs seem to have been firmly established around the gathering of the final harvest. They include the reapers accompanying a fully-laden cart; a tradition of shouting "Hooky, hooky"; and one of the foremost reapers dressing extravagantly, acting as 'lord' of the harvest and asking for money from the onlookers.
29 September is Michaelmas Day - the festival of St Michael and all Angels, one of the quarter days when rents are due and the day when new magistrates are chosen. The custom of eating goose at Michaelmas goes back many centuries and was probably due to geese being plentiful at this season. Tenants formerly presented their landlords with a bird to keep in their good books. There is a well known rhyme "If you eat goose on Michaelmas Day, you will never want money all year round." Will there be a rush on the local butchers for said bird?
The Anglo Saxon name for October was Wyn-Monat or wine month when the grapes were harvested. Some of our largest vineyards belonged to the great monasteries in the south and long after the popularity of English wines had waned, monks continued to tend their vines and make their wine. Our climate is not entirely suitable for the cultivation on wines, especially this far north. However I did meet someone from Dorrington recently who produces his own wine and of course there are the vineyards at the Bishop's Palace in Lincoln. With all this climate change we have to look forward to I can see we could all be producing our own vintage before too long.
Hallowe'en falls on 31 October - the night on ghouls, ghosties, long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Dressing up at Hallowe'en comes from the myth that wearing masks and costumes will confuse the dark spirits that are abroad on this night and who would otherwise try to kidnap you. In the old Celtic calendar this was the last day of the year.
The Anglo Saxons called November Wint-Monat - the wind month. It was also the month when the people felt the first chill breath of impending winter and meat was preserved by salting.
Floreat Hortus
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