Michaelmas at the Biltmore Estate

   Michaelmas (mikl-mus), a shortened version of Michael's Mass, is the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, traditionally celebrated on Sept. 29. St. Michael is said to be the prince of the heavenly host who waged war against Satan in Heaven and threw him into Hell. In the Book of Revelations there is an account of the battle with the dragon--the symbolic depiction of Satan. In art, Michael is usually shown with the dragon under his feet. Michael is honored by Christians, Jews, and Muslims and is also the patron saint of the US military with the prayer that begins "St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...."
   Because of the date of his feast, St.Michael is also associated with harvest festivals, particularly in England and Ireland. It is a time of celebration and thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest but also a recognition that the long battle with the hard days of winter lie just ahead.
   The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC includes the largest privately owned house in the US at 178,926 square feet. What the heck, let's just call it 179,000. George Washington Vanderbilt, grandson of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt and son of William Henry Vanderbilt, had visited the North Carolina mountains and was impressed by the scenery and the climate as a setting for a summer home. His older siblings had opulent summer "cottages" in Newport, RI and Hyde Park, NY. George's purchase of 125,000 acres in North Carolina made his summer home into an American version of a European nobleman's manor house. Which was exactly the point.
   Vanderbilt hired architect Richard Hunt to design a French Renaissance chateau and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park in New York, to create 75 acres of formal gardens. Construction took from 1889 until the house warming at Christmas 1895. A wood-working factory and brick kiln were built on site and a three-mile railroad spur was laid to bring still more materials. About a thousand laborers and craftsmen were employed by the project.
   Meanwhile, George and his wife Cornelia toured Europe to purchase furnishings. Paintings, chandeliers, tapestries, statues, hundreds of carpets. They had a lot of floor space that needed covering.
   Vanderbilt also hired Carl Schenck to manage the forest lands so that the approach road passes through a managed park that looks like something out of a PBS Masterpiece Theater production. Schenck established the first school of forestry in the US. Today, much of the original woodlands of the estate are part of Pisgah National Forest.

 

Corn dolls are woven from the last sheaves of grain in the harvest.

 The warrior saint recruits willing young men to battle the dragon.

And rescue the fair young maiden.

Numerous craftsmen and artisans are on hand to demonstrate and share hands-on activities.