Michaelmas
The harvest is over and we have done well this year. The sheep and cows will have the run of the stubble fields until ploughing time--a good easy feed for them. Our dues have been paid for the year and still there will be enough food to see us through the winter if we take care.For now there is the feast of St. Michael with mass first thing and the rest of the day given over to races and stone throwing and other like games. The ale will flow freely to celebrate our rest at last, and we will sing and dance and feast until the day's end.
St. Michael is a very special saint. He is the great foe of the devil and it is he who will protect us throughout the long, dark winter months when the devil is at his most wicked.
Whenever I pass the holy cross close-by the church, I make a prayer to St. Michael to spare our village from the devilish works of Satan. He has kept us safe many a dark winter, that I know!
Woodcutting
Chores like woodcutting had to be done at all seasons. Ploughing of the fallow field for the last time before sowing would also have to be done in once the harvest was over. The peasant could be fined heavily if he were caught taking wood from protected manorial forests.