>>194512, >>194513, >>194514, >>194515, >>194516
Boze Herrington, Library Owl @SketchesbyBoze - Today is Michaelmas, or the feast day of St Michael. I’m fascinated by the history, lore and legends surrounding this holiday; let’s learn together.
St Michael was highly esteemed in the Middle Ages and played many roles: warrior, psychopomp, defender of souls against the devil whom he was often depicted battling. His feast day was known as Michaeles Maesse.
As Eleanor Parker writes in her excellent book Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year, “He was a hero to suit the Anglo-Saxon imagination. His feast was a high point in the church year … while an Anglo-Saxon homily speaks of St Michael himself as a harvester: ‘the holy archangel St Michael, the prosperous sower of Christ's fields and the reaper bearing the fruit of the bright lands, who fills his Lord's barns with the purest wheat.’”
In England, Michaelmas was a quarter day, or “settling day” when rents were paid and accounts settled, when great hiring fairs were held and farm laborers, their terms of service having expired, went in search of new jobs and lodgings.
This aspect of Michaelmas may have been slyly referenced in Sir Gawain & the Green Knight. Shortly before Gawain begins his journey, he sees the “Meghelmas mone” or Michaelmas moon, the full moon of harvest. It reminds him he has an account to settle with the Green Knight.
Traditionally, blackberries were not eaten after Michaelmas Day because the devil was said to have kicked, trampled or spat on them. When the devil fell from heaven he landed in a blackberry bush, making the berries too wet or sour to eat.
Landlords were given geese at Michaelmas, and the eating of geese became as indelibly linked with the holiday as turkey now is with Christmas. In some places this was seen as bringing good luck: Jane Austen wrote in a letter of eating a goose in hopes of improved book sales.
https://x.com/SketchesbyBoze/status/2104872522508542208

Brendan Carr @BrendanCarrFCC - Nearly 70 Democrats in Congress are pushing to prevent parents from having any say over their children being exposed to controversial gender identity ideologies.
They want parents to remain in the dark when children’s television programs—shows that are specifically rated as appropriate for kids 7 years old and younger—promote these agendas.
Democrats argue that transparency and parental choice would be inconsistent with “self-acceptance” because, in their view, “many recognize their gender identity at a young age.”
This comes after a significant uptick in shows on Disney Jr., Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network going around parents to promote gender ideology.
But preventing parents from deciding what is appropriate for their own sons and daughters puts these Democrats on the wrong side.
https://x.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/2104615177501168084