The Old and the New: then and now

Today is Michaelmas Day.  Put liturgically, it's the Feast Day of St Michael and All Angels, but here is not the place to go into that.  In terms of my own recollections and present experience, it's more particularly Old Michaelmas.  That's to distinguish it from New Michaelmas, of course.  Although it's known as 'New', the term is actually 260 years old and, to be fair, is probably not in very common use at all today.  Some of my readers will have already done the maths, realised that 260 years ago was 1752, and made another quick calculation to find out when New Michaelmas is (... or was.)

For the benefit of those less intuitive, let me put you out of your misery and tell you that it's 11th October.  Significantly, that's in twelve days' time, reflecting the fact that, in 1752, the day after 2nd September was 14th September, as Great Britain took a major step in international relations and leapt from the old Julian calendar to join our European neighbours in the Gregorian system that they had been using since Elizabethan times.  However, we British are a stubborn race, and heels were dug in to preserve certain aspects of our national heritage from the effects of that change.  That's why our tax year ends on 5th April.

Until then, New Year's Day was celebrated on 25th March, liturgically the Feast of the Annunciation - supposedly the day on which the Angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her that she was going to have a baby, who would be Jesus, the Christ.  So, if 25th March was New Year's Day, the year would have ended on 24th: 24th March 1751 - already known for (confusing) clarification as 1751/2 - had been followed by 25th March 1752.  However, the British (and stubborn) Government, while re-naming the dates to align with the rest of the world, didn't want to lose out on tax revenue, even for one year, so they tacked those twelve 'lost' days onto the end of the year, making their books up to the 5th April.  And if one year ... then all years had to follow suit.  And while we were about it, why not declare that for all other purposes the year would henceforward begin at the beginning, on 1st January, right in the middle of winter - which was when most people were celebrating it anyway, since there was little else to do at that time.

So, what was the significance of Michaelmas - whether old or new?  Simply, it was half-way between one year-end and the next; being just after the harvest, and thus at the end of the farming year, it was also a convenient point for land to change hands, for rents to be calculated and for workers to move from one boss to another.  For financial reasons, workers were often taken on from Michaelmas to the end of harvest.  Since entitlement to welfare payments depended on their being in employment for more than a year with the same employer, it was important to be able to declare that you had been in post for 'a year and a day.'  Hence there were 'hiring fairs' across the country, where men - and sometimes women, too - would gather, carrying symbols of their trade, and farmers could take their pick of the available talent.  Terms would be agreed, and a new year's work begun.

In my own childhood, being the son of a farm worker who, while not directly affected by these affairs, was aware of them through family talk and the culture in which he had grown up, I heard comments and phrases that were part of that culture too.  For instance, as today's date was noticed on the daily paper, my father might comment, 'Old Michaelmas today.'  Occasionally, if I had been helping him in the garden, and had done well what had been asked of me, he might tell me, 'you'll be kept on.'  In other words, going back to those times long past, a good worker would be spared the uncertainty of the hiring fair, and an appreciative employer would promise him in advance the security of another year's engagement.

And what of today?  As I wrote the last paragraph, I realised that in some ways the same practice persists in the matter of professional footballers and the transfer market.  At the end of the season, a contract might be offered to a good player to keep him with the team for whom he had performed well, rather than risk losing him to another club whose manager had noticed his prowess with admiration and envy.  For me, personally, it's also a time of renewal and/or re-engagement, for on 'New Michaelmas' eve' my annual subscription to Find my Past expires, and on the same day the insurance on my van is due for renewal.  I've already had the papers, and this year I'm facing an almost 20% premium increase - Ouch!

More news next week, when I've recovered from the £-shock!