KEY TO THE CALENDAR. 



SEPTEMBER. 



This was the seventh (septeni) month in the 

 Roman year before the Julian reform of the 

 calendar. The first two syllables of the name are 

 thus readily accounted for ; the last, which also 

 figures at the end of the names of the three 

 following months, is an ancient particle of doubt- 

 ful signification. 



i. St Giles's Day. This saint's day figures in 

 the Church of England calendar. A native of 

 Greece, he travelled into France in 715, and 

 became abbot of Nimes. He literally obeyed the 

 Scriptural injunction by selling his patrimony for 

 the benefit of the poor, and on one occasion gave 

 his coat to a sick mendicant, who was cured 

 miraculously by putting it on. St Giles has thus 

 become the patron saint of beggars and cripples. 

 St Giles's Church, Cripplegate, London, and the 

 High Church in Edinburgh, are dedicated to 

 him ; and he is the patron saint of the Scottish 

 capital, as far as it can be said to have one. 



8. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, a grand 

 festival of the Romish Church, and still retained 

 in the Church of England calendar. This fes- 

 tival has been held in honour of the Virgin, with 

 matins, masses, homilies, collects, processions, 

 and other ceremonies, for upwards of a thousand 

 years. 



14. Holy-rood Day, or the day of the exaltation 

 of the Holy Cross, a festival of the Roman 

 Church, still retained in the Church of England 

 calendar. It celebrates the miraculous appear- 

 ance of a cross in the heavens to the Emperor 

 Constantine. The Wednesday, Friday, and Sat- 

 urday after Holy-rood Day, are Ember Days, and 

 the week in which they occur is consequently 

 termed Ember Week. 



21. St Matthew the Apostle, a festival of the 

 Church of England. 



29. The Festival of St Michael and all the 

 Holy Angels; shortly, Michaelmas-day, a grand 

 festival of the Roman and English Churches. 

 St Michael is singled out for particular mention 

 as being the chief of angels, or archangel. 



Michaelmas, besides being one of the quarter- 

 days in England for the payment of rents and 

 wages, has been distinguished from an early 

 period in that and other countries as the time for 

 the annual election of corporation officers, magis- 

 trates, and other civil guardians of the peace. 



It is an ancient and extensively prevalent cus- 

 tom to have a goose for dinner on Michaelmas- 

 day. Queen Elizabeth is said to have been eat- 

 ing her Michaelmas goose when she received 

 intelligence of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. 

 Very curious and recondite origins have been 

 assigned to this custom, but it seems to have 

 arisen simply from the goose being in finest 

 condition for the table immediately after it has 

 had the range of the reaped harvest-fields. 



Natural History. This is often the finest 

 month of the year ; yet, as with other portions of 

 our seasons, it is not to be depended on. In 

 temperature (the general average is 55 degrees) 

 it ranks between May and June, yet the first three 

 weeks are often as warm as any part of the ! 

 summer ; but there is usually a sensible falling-off , 

 in the later part. In Scotland, the bulk of the ! 

 harvest-work of the season is usually effected , 



during this month. It is likewise the time when 

 large fruit comes to perfection. The flower- 

 borders have still a gay appearance, the latest 

 exotic annuals only beginning to flower at this 

 time. The dahlia appears in all its grandeur 

 during September. It has been remarked that 

 at no other period of the year is the house-fly 

 so numerous. 



OCTOBER. 



As already explained, October has its name 

 from having been the eighth month of the Roman 

 year before the Julian reform of the calendar. 

 In the time of the Emperor Domitian it was 

 called Domitianus, in his honour ; but after his 

 death that name was abandoned by general con- 

 sent, from a wish to sink the memory of so exe- 

 crable a tyrant The Saxons called October Win- 

 monath (wine-month), from its being the vintage 

 time on the continent. 



2. The festival of the Holy Angel Guardians in 

 the Roman Church. 



9. The day of St Denis, the patron saint of 

 France. St Denis was put to death, with some 

 companions, in the year 272, upon an eminence 

 near Paris, since called, from that circumstance, 

 Montmartre (Mons Marty rum). According to 

 the legend, his head had no sooner been cut off, 

 than the body rose, and taking up the head, 

 walked with it two miles. Portraits of the 

 martyred saint, carrying his head in his hand, 

 abound in old prayer-books. 



1 8. The day of St Luke the Evangelist, a festi- 

 val of the Church of England. This day was 

 appointed to be St Luke's festival in the twelfth 

 century. 



St Luke was usually represented in the act of 

 writing, with an ox by his side, having wings and 

 large horns. The natural habit of this animal in 

 ruminating upon its food, caused it to be selected 

 as an emblem of meditation appropriate to this 

 evangelist. At Charlton, a village near Black- 

 heath, about eight miles from London, a fair is 

 held on St Lukes day. 



25. The Festival of St Crispin and St Crispin- 

 ian. The name of St Crispin is in the Church 

 of England calendar. Crispin and Crispinian are 

 said to have been two Roman youths of good 

 birth, brothers, who, in the third century, went as 

 Christian missionaries to France, and preached 

 for some time at Soissons. In imitation of St 

 Paul, they supported themselves by working at 

 the trade of shoemaking during the night, while 

 they preached during the day. They were suc- 

 cessful in converting the people to Christianity, 

 until arrested in their course by Rictius Varus, 

 governor under the Emperor Maximian Hercu- 

 lius. Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, says : 

 ' They were victorious over this most inhuman 

 judge by the patience and constancy with which 

 they bore the most cruel torments, and finished 

 their course by the sword about the year 287.' 

 The two young martyrs were of course canonised, 

 and a splendid church was built to their honour 

 at Soissons, in the sixth century. The shoemaker 

 craft throughout the whole Christian world have 

 from an early period regarded Crispin and 

 Crispinian as their patron saints, but particularly 

 the first. They often celebrate the day set apart 

 for these saints in the calendar with processions, 



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