A US-based private Membership Organisation, the Wisconsin Historical Society, marked Wednesday, October 11, 2023, as a holiday. The days have been observed in Amish Communities, particularly St Michael’s Day.
The Wisconsin Historical Society further shared some more significance of the day in American History.
Notably, the Wisconsin Historical Society is a state agency and a private membership organisation which aims to maintain, promote and spread knowledge about North America’s history.
The Wisconsin society has effectively preserved Northern America’s records and historical facts. It has been keeping the documents within its four divisions.
The four divisions of the society are the Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections, the Division of Museums and Historic Sites, the Division of Historic Preservation-Public History, and the Division of Administrative Services.
Moving forward, the shared reports by Wisconsin have shared that October 11 marks one of the few holidays observed in Amish communities, St. Michael’s Day.
This is one of the two-day festivals. The Amish receive communion in a year. The other day is around Easter. Amish communion observations can last several hours and are usually done in a community member’s home.
The Amish observance of St. Michael’s Day on October 11 differs from the Catholic observance of Michaelmas on September 29. Both days signify the end of harvest time. In feudal Europe, when many Amish were tenant farmers, they had to pay a per cent of their profits to their landholder each year.
German churches set St. Michael’s Day as the date for this payment since it was after harvest and a good time to assess profits accurately. The tradition of taking off this day from work for post-harvest prayer and reflection continued when they immigrated to America.
Amish are a conservative sect descended from German Anabaptists who started to migrate to the United States in the early 1700s to avoid religious persecution.
Today, Wisconsin has the fourth highest population of Amish in America, with about 24,000 people. The largest Amish community in Wisconsin was founded in 1966 in Cashton. Other Wisconsin communities with sizeable Amish populations are Hillsboro, Tomah, Wilton, Medford, Green Lake County and Clark County.
