Festivities for Michaelmas:

The 29th of September, Michaelmas Day (the Feast of St Michael and all Angels)  once acted as a kind of administrative new year in Britain: annual rents were due, annual employment terms expired, and new mayors elected. 

 Michaelmas is still the date upon which the Lord Mayor of London is elected each year (a post that has existed since 1192, as opposed to the post of the Mayor of London, created in 2000). Local courts would be held and new school terms began in England and Wales, the children that had been needed to help with the harvest having finally been released (in Scotland the term began earlier, as the harvest ended sooner).  Michaelmas Day was a day for pomp and ceremony, sorting, paperwork and new beginnings.

While the Islamic new year Muharram was celebrated in August this year, September   is one of the four Jewish new years. Rosh Hashanah is the new year for people, animals and for legal contacts. It can fall any time between 5th September and 5th October.  As well as being the start of the economic year- again, likely tied to the end of the harvest originally- it involves a more spiritual kind of account-keeping , a period of self-examination and repentance. On Rosh Hashanah God opens the Book of Life and the Book of the Dead, 10 days of prayers and repentance follow, and then on Yom Kippur the judgement is sealed. 

 There is a prevailing wind of fresh opportunities, self-reflection and renewed productivity in September, of personal admin for self-improvement. Catch it if you can. It is the time to take out newly sharpened pencils and brand new stationery, to look at the achievements and failures of the year past, set them aside, then start work on new ideas and new plans.

 Members of the Parish of the Isle of Dogs should note that 55 years ago, at Michaelmass-tide, our dear friend Revd Peter Turner was ordained. Many congratulations to him for this anniversary.