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For a Little Luck: Making Sense Out of Goose Day
| Article
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20683 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1992 |
2,850 Words |
| Author
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Mary Margaret Pecht
Mary Margaret Pecht is agriculture editor, religion editor,
columnist, and reporter for the Lewistown, Pennsylvania,
Sentinel. |
New comers think it is a joke. It's not, of course, but then few residents of Mifflin County, tucked into the mountains of south-central Pennsylvania, would admit to taking Goose Day very seriously either. With their mouths full of roast goose each September 29, most would probably deny they eat the traditional fowl to ensure good fortune for the next twelve months. Still, a good-sized gaggle of geese--upward of four tons of the fowl--will be consumed during the county's Goose Day celebration this September. And for the area's business, organizations, craftsmen, and small-scale goose growers, once a year the goose is golden.
Mifflin County is reputed to be the only place in the United States where the medieval Michaelmas feast still is celebrated. The origin of the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (Michaelmas is the archaic name for the holiday) is not difficult to trace. But how geese came to be associated with the day remains something of a mystery.
September 29 been celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church since as early as the fifth century. It is a day to pay honor and respect to the Archangel Michael as guardian and protector of the people. But historically, little is known about the observance before the fifteenth century.
At some point England began electing its civil magistrates on Michaelmas Day, deeming this appropriate since they, too, were guardians and protectors of the people.
Michaelmas is most often mentioned in novels of English rural life. Until the eighteenth century, it was a very popular feast day and a holy day of obligation. Michaelmas had come to be an occasion of feasting and merriment for everyone, but the faithful were still obliged to attend Mass.
At least as far back as the fifteenth century, landlords throughout Europe collected rents from their tenants four times yearly, and one of the perennial rent days, or quarter days, fell on September 29, Michaelmas.
The association of the goose with Michaelmas in traceable as far back as the days of Edward IV of England (1442-1483). Michaelmas fell in the season in which stubble (wild, or greylag) geese were reputed to be in their finest condition, and tenants developed the custom of showing up at the landlord's house with the rent in hand, the lease in pocket, and a fine stubble goose under one arm. A medieval bribe, in effect, the goose was
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