Michaelmas
September 29
About Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of St Michael and All Angels, falls on Tuesday, 29 September 2026. It is one of England’s four traditional quarter days, marking the end of the harvest, the start of new legal and academic terms, and the due date for rents and leases that has structured British life for over a thousand years.
When Is Michaelmas?
Michaelmas is fixed: it always falls on 29 September. In the Western Christian calendar it is formally the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael (Archangels).
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 29 September | Tuesday |
| 2027 | 29 September | Wednesday |
| 2028 | 29 September | Friday |
The Quarter Days
England’s four quarter days divide the year into roughly equal parts: Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer (24 June), Michaelmas (29 September), and Christmas (25 December). For centuries these were the dates on which rents fell due, servants were hired or dismissed, apprenticeships began, and leases changed hands. The system gave landlords and tenants a shared calendar reference long before printed almanacs were in every household.
Michaelmas marked the close of the harvest. By late September the crops were gathered, livestock had been fattened on the stubble, and accounts could be settled. It functioned, in practical terms, as a financial year-end for much of rural England: a reality that persisted in some formal lease and estate arrangements well into the twentieth century, and that survives in a handful of traditional tenancy agreements to this day.
Michaelmas in Law and Education
The term name survives in two prominent British institutions. The Michaelmas term is the autumn sitting of the UK Supreme Court and the Senior Courts of England and Wales, running from October into December. Oxford and Cambridge both use the same name for their first term of the academic year, which begins in early October. When a student at Oxford says they are “in Michaelmas”, they mean the term running from mid-October to early December.
Many other universities across Ireland and the United Kingdom retain the Michaelmas term name. Trinity College Dublin has used it since the seventeenth century. In the legal calendar, the term structure reflects the historic church year that once governed public life across the British Isles.
UK Traditions and Folklore
The Michaelmas Goose
The most enduring English custom associated with the day was eating a roast goose. Geese fattened on harvest stubble reached their best in late September, and tenants traditionally presented a goose to the landlord when paying the Michaelmas rent. Historic UK traces the custom across several counties and notes the associated proverb: “Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day, want not for money all the year.” Queen Elizabeth I is said to have been at table with a Michaelmas goose when news arrived of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 — a story that, whether or not strictly accurate, helped cement the bird’s association with good fortune.
The Blackberry Prohibition
British folklore holds that blackberries should not be picked after Old Michaelmas Day, 10 October (the date adjusted for the calendar reform of 1752). The legend runs that when the Archangel Michael cast Satan from heaven, the devil fell into a blackberry bush. Enraged, Satan spat upon the fruit and stamped it underfoot, spoiling it for human consumption. The belief is recorded across England, Wales, and parts of Scotland, each region adding its own detail to the fall.
The Michaelmas Daisy
The lilac-flowered aster, native to North America but long naturalised in British gardens and hedgerows, flowers from late August into October and was named the Michaelmas daisy because it blooms around the feast day. It is one of the few British wildflowers associated with a specific calendar date rather than a season.
Michaelmas in the Church Today
In the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, and Anglican churches across the world, 29 September is a principal feast day. Services mark the day in cathedrals and parish churches with readings from the Book of Revelation and the Gospel of John. The collect for Michaelmas asks that angels may defend God’s people on earth: a prayer that reflects the Archangel Michael’s traditional role as leader of the heavenly host and protector against evil.
Choir schools and church foundations traditionally begin or renew their terms around this date, a pattern that connects the academic calendar to the liturgical one in a way that has remained largely unchanged since the medieval period.
Related Dates
Falling on the same date in 2026: International Happy Goose Day (29 September), whose connection to the Michaelmas goose tradition may be more than coincidental. See also: all September awareness days and Arts, Culture and Heritage dates.
Last reviewed: 16 September 2026.
2026 Awareness Days Wall Planner
Every key awareness day at a glance. Perfect for offices, staff rooms, and team planning.
View Calendar →
