How To Celebrate Michaelmas – The Feast Day Of St. Michael

Catholic families that live the liturgical year at home look forward to celebrating the feast of the Archangels every year on September 29!  You can find all my my resources for feast days to celebrate in September here. Today, I would like to share with you some ideas and activities to celebrating Michaelmas with your Catholic kids, but first, I want to share a little bit about this day with you.

Who Are The Archangels?

Other traditions celebrate different numbers of archangels, but as Catholics, we celebrate the 3 mentioned in the Bible by name. These are St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael. Saint Michael is known for fighting Satan and casting him into Hell. Saint Gabriel is known in the bible for appearing to Mary at the annunciation to tell her that she was going to have baby Jesus. Saint Raphael is known for being a healer, and is mentioned in the book of Tobit.

How Do You Pronounce “Michaelmas”?

Much like the feast days “Christmas” or “Candlemas”, the name comes from pushing the main word… Michael… into the word “mass”. Henceforth, Michaelmas (pronounced “mick-el-miss”, like nickels, but with an “M”).

Why Do We Call Archangels Saints?

Well a “Saint” is just someone that is in heaven with Jesus, and the Archangels are.

How Can We Celebrate The Feast Of The Archangels With Catholic Kids?

As I explain in my article on living the liturgical year at home, to live liturgically is to live seasonally. Often, these feast days are traditionally connected to seasonal foods and activities, as is Michaelmas. Pick some festivities that appeal to you and your family. This could include prayers, special foods, songs, crafts, or other celebrations. There is no magic formula. Find plenty of ideas below!

Feast Day Food Ideas For Michaelmas

  • Michaelmas Bannock (a traditional feast day bread) Try this recipe from House Of Joyful Noise if you are looking for a St. Michael Bannock recipe that is easy to make and utilizes ingredients you probably already have in your home.
  • Devil’s food cake or deviled eggs- it is said that the devil fell from heaven on this day as Michael battled him there. We love to celebrate with devil’s food cake (see above) For extra fun, poke cocktail swords into either of these treats, or even little toy swords from your action figures. I know you have some! haha
  • Michaelmas Blackberry Pie– part of the legend is that when Lucifer (Satan) fell from heaven, he landed in a blackberry bush and spit on the berries to curse them and make them sour. So now, we eat all the blackberries before he has a chance to do this, which is by September 29. There are a mix of legends about this. Include blackberry pie, crumble, smoothies, or any of your favorite blackberry recipes for this feast day. It can be extra fun to serve them atop angel food cake as well. You can find my recipe for Michaelmas blackberry pie here.
  • Carrots and other autumn foods are traditional for this feast day, and Haley explains why over on Carrots For Michaelmas.
  • Goose is traditional to cook and eat on this day. In our modern day, I could see substituting chicken or Cornish hens.
  • Michaelmas blackberry dragon fruit smoothies– these are easy to make and symbolic for the feast day. You can find my recipe for Michaelmas smoothies here.

Saint Michael And The Archangels Craft Ideas For Catholic Kids

Saint Michael The Archangel Books For Kids

Reading is a great thing to do for feast days! It helps you actually learn about the meaning of the day, it doesn’t take too much extra work for mom, and books stay around your house to utilize year after year.

For the St. Michael story, I highly highly recommend the Catholic Treasure Box Book 18. These books are such a beautiful and amazing resource for Catholic kids, you really should have them all. Because the covers are plain and they’re not well labeled, it’s hard to know when to bring them out. Book 18 is all about the angels, the fall, the battle between Michael and Lucifer, free will, and more! Beautifully explained for children.

I recommend to new Catholic families starting our their at home libraries that a Picture Book Of Saints is a great starter Saint book. It has a lot of common Saint stories, and they’re a good length and all include a full color picture.

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If you have that book, all 3 Archangel stories are in it! 

  • Saint Gabriel’s story is found on page 28
  • Saint Michael’s story is found on page 88 
  • Saint Raphael’s story is found on page 99 

Not to overlook the obvious, you can also about all 3 Archangels straight from your Bible. 😉 

Saint Michael Prayer For Kids

St. Michael printable prayer cards- these are free to print, include beautiful artwork, and have the whole prayer on them. Of course it would be great to include this prayer in your feast day celebration.

Saint Michael Song For Catholic Kids

Me and my kids also have a St. Michael The Archangel Prayer Song that we sing. I find that kids just learn everything easier when it’s to music, so I love to make up songs for them. You can see the video here on my facebook page.

More Resources For Celebrating The Angels

I have a lot more angel resources for Catholic kids on my post about the Guardian Angel Feast Day, which is coming up on October 2!

How do you celebrate? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments!

The feast day of the guardian angels is just around the corner, and you can find all of my angel resources for kids here. You will find rafts, printables, books, recipes, and more! 

You can find even more fun feast days to celebrate with Catholic kids in September here.

Comments

  1. Dear Lacy,
    Great ideas as usual.

  2. I find it funny (divine, perhaps?) that as I was reading this post, Fr. Corapi started talking about the Angels on Relevant Radio.

    That cross-stitch pattern is awesome! 😀

  3. what a marvelous compilation of activities and ways to celebrate those three wonderful Angels!

  4. Thank you for this timely post! We will definitely be using some (or all) of these ideas this year!!!

  5. Tiny Actions says

    My kids adore all things Tomie DePaola. They will be over the moon to make Pascual's Kitchen Angels on the feast. Thanks for the links.

  6. Too cute! Fab post, Lacy.

    I just remembered that I forgot (follow that?) to remind you of my St. Michael the Archangel Paper Dali: http://paperdali.blogspot.com/2010/08/saint-michael-archangel-el-arcangel-san.html

    Yeah. A label in the site index would have helped, huh? Oopsy me.

  7. Amazing_Grace says

    Oooooooooooooo I love the mobile!!! 🙂

  8. Thanks for posting those 3 angel coloring pages! As always, a wonderful collection, Lacy!

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  1. […] few bits of dishonesty and a slammed door, I decided (and remembered) to celebrate, in a small way, Michealmas, a day to celebrate th archangels – St Michael, St Gabriel, St […]