Tomorrow we shall have St. Michael’s Day (Mikkelinpäivä) in Finland. He is the only angel to have own celebration day in our liturgical year.
His day has been celebrated in Finland as long as we have had the Christian church. The archangel Michael’s day is the 29th of September and spent on that day or if not Sunday, the following Sunday. This has been the tradition since the late 18th century. Before that it was always celebrated on the actual day.
The day used to be very special for the hired help in farms. By law the hired help (maids and hinds) were given one week holiday starting from St. Michael’s day. That was usually also the day, when their contract ended and they could make contract with another farm.
The day was widely celebrated in Finland, because it meant that the harvesting was over, the cows were back in the barn and the long winter period with indoor work was starting. The shepherds (quite often young boys) enjoyed this too, because this time of year they got finally back to the farm from shepherding the whole summer in the woods and meadows. The shepherds on the shore area usually lived whole summer on an island with the herd.
Tomorrow in most of the churches in Finland a family service is held, because angels are thought to be near the children. The day’s gospel sets child as the model of faith.
St. Michael has been quite popular in Finland. He has been the guardian saint of 10 of our medieval churches and even a city in the Eastern parts of Finland has been named after him, Mikkeli.
Back in the old times folks also used to read signs of weather for coming winter and spring on St. Michael’s day.
Mitä ilmaa Mikkeliin, sitä sitten Köyriin.
What weather on St Michael’s day, that we will get until Köyri (1.11.)
They are promising +9 C and partly cloudy for tomorrow. :)
Also it was said, that if the cold weathers have already arrived and the leaves are falling of the trees on St. Michael’s day, the spring will come early and the trees will get leaves back already on 23.4.
The Monday following St. Michael’s Day used to be called old Monday (vanha maanantai) and for long it used to be a holiday. There is even one quite markable event, that has happened on this old Monday. In 1906 the Finnish women were granted the right to vote for the first women in the Europe and third in the world after women in New Zealand and Australia.
