wandering the moorlands
September 14: Roodmas
September’s Roodmas1 feast (one of two historic celebrations known as ‘Roodmas’ - the other being on May 3 & celebrating the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross) is a harvest celebration known more commonly today as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Commemorating the finding of a piece of the Cross by St. Helena (Constantine’s mother), as well as its recovery after it had been taken, this harvest aspect of the twin Roodmas feasts2 is fixed at a pinnacle time in the agricultural year - fitting, as both the agricultural harvest and the the liturgical feast celebrate a fulfillment, a fullness of time made manifest.
Naturally, the harvest season’s weather on this date loomed large in Roodmas celebration & folklore:
If dry by the buck’s horn
On Holyrood morn,
‘Tis worth a kist of gold;
But if wet it be seen
Ere Holyrood e’en,
Bad harvest is foretold.3
Legend says that St. Helena, searching for the Cross for weeks, happened upon a fragrant basil plant growing in an otherwise desolate hillside; when they began to dig at that spot, the True Cross was found. Packing basil pesto into jars to preserve this beautiful herb for colder months, & thinking about these old legends, I imagined the “buck…On Holyrood morn” happening upon the humble basil - a harvest emblem marking a place of holiness & completion.
Many thanks to my friend Sally for joining me in this imagining - she’s offered up a lovely Roodmas poem for us all:
The Belling - A Prayer For Roodmas
by S. E. Reid
we search high and low
for a glimpse of the True Cross,
its pieces scattered here and there
among kingdoms
living and dead;
and all the while,
Christ alone knows the secret.
but He is wandering the moorlands
the hills
and the mountains
among the belling
of the deer;
His footprints
criss-cross
the September fields
where a farmer waits to see
if Roodmas be fine or no.
Christ speaks, sings,
that the harvest is secure,
and in the berried hedgerow
a doe twitches
her softly listening ear.
“Rood” is from the Old English rōd, meaning a pole or cross. Be sure to read the Dream of the Rood, an Old English poem (dating back perhaps to even the 8th century), in which the narrator has a vision that he is speaking to Jesus’ cross.
The Liturgical Calendar has never been static; feast days have shifted over time, and in some cases - as with Roodmas - combinations occur. Today, the Western calendar places the celebration of both the “invention” (finding) of the Cross (previously held on May 3) as well as its recovery & exaltation on September 14.
Yorkshire saying from Weather Lore, compiled by Richard Inwards, 1898
Blessed and Holy Roodmas to everyone. Our day was wet, but the pesto pasta hit the spot.
"Christ speaks, sings,
that the harvest is secure,
and in the berried hedgerow
a doe twitches
her softly listening ear."
Beautiful