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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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It is the
universal custom, among the common masses as well as among the
distinguished, for men to soak the women on Easter Monday. On Tuesday,
and every day thereafter until the time of the Green Holidays –
Pentecost – the women doused the men. Barely had the
day dawned on Easter Monday when I woke the boys and gathered some
water to start throwing it on the girls. Up with the Piwezyny!
(eiderdown)! There was screaming, shouting, and confusion. The girls
are shrieking and hollering, but in their hearts they are glad because
they know that she who isn't gotten wet will not be married that year.
And the more they are annoyed, the more we dump water on them calling,
Dyngus – Smigus! Then we had to change our clothes because there
wasn't a dry thread on the girls and we boys were not better off. It is not the mark of a wise man to hate those
that err; indeed, if he does, he should hate himself. Joyful poverty is an honourable
thing. Poverty conducted in accordance
with the laws of nature is great wealth. This I wrote not for money, but for
you; for we are enough of an audience for each other. |
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You must be the slave of philosophy
if you would enjoy true freedom.
Seneca; ibid, VIII, 7
Whoever does not regard what he has
as the amplest wealth, though he be lord of the whole earth, yet is he
wretched.
Seneca; ibid, IX, 20
We ought to cherish some man of good character
and have him always before our eyes, thus living as if he were watching
us, and fashioning all our actions as if he could see them.
Seneca; Moral Epistles, XI, 8
The
heat triggered a 'dreadful whirlwind', which blew down nearly every
house in the village, tossing the roofs and lighter parts high into the
air. In the neighbouring sea-port the effects were even more violent, the
largest trees having been torn up by the roots and whirled aloft. Before
such a furious tempest no living thing could stand. Men, horses, and
cattle were whirled into the air like so much chaff, and then dashed
violently down on the ground. The sea rose nearly twelve feet above the
highest tide-mark, sweeping away houses, trees, everything within its
reach. This whirlwind lasted about an hour.
From a contemporary account of the Mt Tambora eruption, 1815
The
concussions produced by its explosions were felt at a distance of a
thousand miles (1600km) all round; and their sound is said to have been
heard even at so great a distance as seventeen hundred miles (2700km). In
Java the day was darkened by clouds of ashes, thrown from
the mountain to that great distance (three hundred miles (500km)), and the
houses, streets, and fields, were covered to the depth of several inches
with the ashes that fell from the air. So great was the quantity of ashes
ejected, that the roofs of houses forty miles (65km) distant from the
volcano were broken in by their weight. The effects of the eruption
extended even to the western coasts of Sumatra, where masses of pumice were
seen floating on the surface of the sea, several feet in thickness and
many miles in extent.
From a contemporary account of the Mt Tambora eruption, 1815
Revolution is not something fixed in ideology,
nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual
process embedded in the human spirit.
Abbie
Hoffman, American Yippie
leader, who was found to have committed suicide, April 12, 1989, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture
"It all started in Wanamaker's in
Philadelphia", he said, opening his diary to June 3, 1969. "I
was autographing copies of my book, Beautiful Thoughts, when I
looked up and saw this angel who wanted me to sign two books! She said her name was
"Miss Vicki." I froze in the clutch and forgot to give her my
address. That night I wrote in my diary: 'Will I meet her again? I think I
will.'"
Through a local newspaper, Tiny and Vicki were reunited on June 5. On
August 18, he proposed marriage, but only if her parents approved. "I
may seem a little abnormal to them" he said. Replied the happy parents:
"We all have our little eccentricities."
Tiny Tim, born on April 12, 1932 Source
TINY: When I look at great singers like
Sinatra,
[Tony] Bennett and
[Tom] Jones, I see great performers that can really move an audience. I really consider myself a troubadour privately and a song-plugger publicly. If I can bring back the magic of say
Rudy Valee, even for a moment, I have done my part. I'm there to pay tribute to these old song and the writers. And if a young couple comes up to me after the show (or a young lady), I love to serenade them!
PAISLEY: In the 60's everyone was picking up electric guitars, but you held on to your ukulele. How did you know this was the way to go?
TINY: I didn't. I had simply been inspired by Arthur Godfrey (40s) and Ukulele Ike and Cliff Edwards (20s). In
their day, they were huge in this country. I bought Godfrey's book
You Too Can Learn To Play Ukulele and taught myself. It's a very romantic instrument. You can take it on a canoe.
PAISLEY: Do you feel you have been misunderstood?
TINY: I came on the scene that way, so I had to expect that. If I had to label myself, I'd say I was the
"Master Of Confusion". Nobody knows. Nobody knows me.
Tiny Tim, interviewed by Paisley Yankolovich in November 1995 for Entertainment
magazine
These voices really live within me.
Tiny Tim
April
12 is
the 102nd
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (103rd
in leap years), with 263
days remaining.
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Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
Easter Monday (2004)
A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac
Poland's
Dyngus Day, and other Easter Monday customs
At Bellingen, NSW, Australia,
where I live, it is an ancient Easter Monday custom (dating from about
last year) to
put away the washing, microwave Friday's
hot
cross buns, make a cup of tea and write to one's friends abroad with
tales of ancient folk customs.
However,
Australia is not the only country with a heart-warming sense of culture
and community: thankfully there are other places of the world where Easter
Monday is commemorated just as richly. Poland is one of these, and Dyngus
Day is its Easter Monday. It is also called: Smigus, Smingus, Smyngus, Splash Monday, or Wet Monday (Mokry Poniedzialek
or Lany Poniedzialek).
Poland's Dyngus, or Smigus, Day is said to hark back to the baptism of the founder of Polish Christianity, Prince Mieszko I (c. 935 - 992), and his entire court, on Easter Monday, 966. Dyngus is an ancient celebration which is still observed both in country villages and the big cities, with singing, pranks, visiting friends' houses, and the custom of dousing.
The
custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing,
purification, and fertility – at this time of year there are
drenching customs enacted in Sri Lanka and Thailand during their
respective New Year celebrations. In a
Spring custom of pagan
(pre-Christian Slavic) times, the Poles 'confronted' (dingen)
Nature with their pouring of water and switching with pussy willows
to purify themselves for the year ahead. The alternative name for
the day comes from smiganie, meaning 'switching'.
Boys, don't do this at home. On Easter Monday, at around 5 am, the men creep through a neighbour's window or chimney, often with the collusion of the male family head, into the rooms where the sleeping womenfolk are abruptly awakened by being doused with water. The girls, naturally enough, reciprocate in kind. In cities, where people are refined and perhaps girls more aware, this custom tends to be practised by the use of a sprinkle of water or cologne.
What does
'Dyngus' mean?
According to
Zygmunt Gloger's 19th-century
Encyklopedia
Staropolska, the name for this day can be traced back to a
medieval form of the word dingnus, meaning 'worthy, proper, or
suitable', and perhaps the German usage of dingen, 'to come to
an agreement, evaluate or buy back' – there is an association here
with the German word dingeier, meaning 'the eggs which are
owing'.
The arrival of Christianity in Poland had a profound effect on this nation that is still overwhelmingly Catholic. Prince Mieszko I (duke of the Polans, c. 935 - 992; grandfather of England's famous King Canute) was baptised on Easter Monday, 966, uniting all of Poland under the banner of Christianity, and in the first millennium, baptisms were celebrated exclusively during Eastertide, particularly on Holy Saturday and the Octave of Easter ...
More Easter Monday customs and folklore at the Easter Monday page at the Scriptorium
The Biddenden Dole
The Biddenden Maids and the Chulkhurst Charity
The
Biddenden
Maids,
Elisa
(or Eliza)
and Mary Chulkhurst, were
conjoined twins
(sometimes called Siamese twins) who were born in Biddenden, Kent, England, in
1100. In the
popular imagination of the time, the death of King William
Rufus (King William II of England) was associated
with the Maids and other 'anomalous' occurrences.
They were joined at the hip, although illustrations also depict them joined at the shoulder. Mary and Elisa died in 1134 and left their estate for an unusual charity, associated with Easter Monday. It is said that the death of one was followed in a few hours by the death of the other.
On Easter Monday (some sources say Easter Sunday) some six hundred so-called Biddenden cakes are distributed among parishioners who attended the afternoon services at the church, as well as some about hundred loaves of bread, each of three and a half pounds weight, and each accompanied by a pound and a half of cheese. Beer also used to be distributed until the seventeenth century but the bread, cheese and cakes are still allocated. As well as the picture of the sisters on the cakes their names appear, and on the apron of one is written the number 34 – the age at which Elisa and Mary died.
The endowment comes from the earnings of an estate known as the Bread and Cheese lands, which, according to the best authorities, were some centuries ago left to the parish for this purpose by the Chulkhurst sisters (some sources give their surname as Preston).
The Biddenden cakes have impressed on them the figures of the sisters. What we know of the story of the Biddenden Maids largely comes from a handbill that used to be printed and sold on the spot, entitled 'A Short but Concise Account of Elizabeth and Mary Chalkhurst'.
We note, too, that a similar story has been told of two females whose figures appear in the pavement of Norton St. Philip Church in Somersetshire, England. Edward Hasted in his History of Kent (1798) has examined the Biddenden myth, and decides that it arose simply from the rough impression on the cakes, which had been printed in this manner only within the preceding fifty years.
Folklore, customs, pre-Christian origins of:
Epiphany Candlemas/Imbolc Hall Sunday Collop Monday Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day
Ash Wednesday & Lent Mid-Lent Care Sunday Painful Friday Lazarus Saturday
Palm Sunday Spy Wednesday Maundy Thursday Good Friday Easter Saturday Easter
Easter Monday Easter Tuesday Hocktide Ascension Rogation Days Whitsunday/Whitsuntide
Corpus Christi May Day/Beltaine Lammas/Lughnasadh Michaelmas Halloween/Samhain
Martinmas Advent Christmas Eve Christmas More at Articles Index
Hundreds of feast days of saints, gods and goddesses at Wilson's Almanac Book of Days
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Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda
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Highly recommended:
 A Guide to the Passion
 Spellcraft
To support this project
By Thom Hartmann
By Robert Fisk
Photo of the day
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Beginning today, an approximately eight-day Roman festival for Ceres, goddess of the earth and its fruits, ending with the Cerealia. The goddess was prayed to for peace, plenty and good government. Ceres, in Roman Mythology, is equivalent to the Greek Demeter, and is the daughter of Saturn and Rhea, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina, and patron of Sicily. According to Virgil, her name was derived from the word creare, 'to create'. Ceres is the goddess of growing plants (particularly grain) and of motherly love. Personified and celebrated by women in secret rituals at the festival of Ambarvalia, held during May. There was a temple to Ceres on the Aventine Hill. She was depicted in art with a sceptre, a basket of flowers and fruit, and a garland made of wheat ears. The Romans had a common expression, 'fit for Ceres', which meant splendid. The asteroid 1 Ceres is named after this goddess. It was a festival celebrated at Rome in honour of the goddess whose wanderings in search of her lost daughter Proserpine (Persephone) were represented by women clothed in white, running about with lighted torches (Ovid, Fasti. IV. 494). Games were celebrated in the Circus Maximus (Tacitus Ann. xv.53), the spectators of which appeared in white (Ovid, Fasti. IV. 620); but on any occasion of public mourning the games and festivals were not celebrated at all, as the matrons could not appear at them except in white (Liv. XXII. 56; XXXIV. 6). Sources vary as to the duration of the Festival of Ceres, which culminated on a feast called the Cerealia. Sources have placed it in the ten days of April 10 to 19 inclusive. Some think the Cerealia was on the ides or 13th of April, others the 7th of the same month (Ovid, Fasti, IV.389). At time of writing, Wikipedia says: "Cerealia was a 7-day holiday celebrated in ancient Rome in honor of the goddess Ceres. The festival started on April 12 and ended on April 19." It would appear that although the Cerealia occurred on the 19th, the name was generally applied to the long festival, as we do with 'Christmas', 'Christmas-time' or 'Christmas-tide'.
See also Jejunum Cereris, the Fast of Ceres, in the Book of Days CERES Community Environment Park
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Circensian games, ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19)
The Circensian games (Circenses
Ludi) were celebrated at the Circus Maximus in
Rome on this day in honour of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. They were also celebrated from September 4 - 19. The games included chariot
racing, hunts of wild animals, public executions and, in the latter
period of the Republic,
gladiator fights. Located in the valley between the Palatine
Hill and Aventine Hill, the Circus was probably built by
the Etruscan kings of Rome, and was the site
of public games and festivals influenced by the Greeks in the 2nd
century BCE. The Circensian games, according to legends, were
instituted by Romulus
(legendary founder of Rome) in order to attract the Sabine population to Rome for
the purpose of furnishing the Romans with wives. These were first called
Consuales (Consualia),
in honour of the god Consus.
After the construction of the Circus Maximus the games were called
indiscriminately Circenses, Romani, or Magni. The games began with a grand procession, in which all those who were about to exhibit in the Circus, as well as persons of distinction, bore a part. The horse-races, either in two-horse bigoe
or four-horse chariots, quadriga, were the earliest form of games;
but others were added from time to time, such as wrestling, boxing and
footraces. The Ludus Trojoe, described in the fifth book of Virgil's Æneid, was one of these. Originally the games occupied a single day, and often not the whole of that; by degrees they were lengthened, until in the time of the Empire, they lasted a week or more, and scenic games, ludi scenici, that is theatrical performances, were added to those in the Circus. The Circensian games regularly came last. Of the wild animal hunts (venatio), Sir William Smith (1813-1893), English classical lexicographer, writes: "It is mentioned as a proof of the growing magnificence of the age that in the Ludi Circenses, exhibited by the curule aediles P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus B.C. 168, there were 63 African panthers and 40 bears and elephants (Liv. xliv.18). From about this time combats with wild beasts probably formed a regular part of the Ludi Circenses, and many of the curule aediles made great efforts to obtain rare and curious animals, and put in requisition the services of their friends (compare Caelius's letter to Cicero, ad Fam. viii.8). Elephants are said to have first fought in the Circus in the curule aedileship of Claudius Pulcher, B.C. 99, and twenty years afterwards, in the curule aedileship of the two Luculli, they fought against bulls (Plin. H.N. viii.7). A hundred lions were exhibited by Sulla in his praetorship, which were destroyed by javelin-men sent by king Bocchus for the purpose. This was the first time that lions were allowed to be loose in the Circus; they were previously always tied up (Senec. de Brev. Vit. 18). The games, however, in the curule aedileship of Scaurus B.C. 58 surpassed anything the Romans had ever seen; among other novelties he first exhibited an hippopotamos and five crocodiles in a temporary canal or trench (euripus, Plin. H.N. viii.40)." Source Sources: Walsh, William S, Curiosities of Popular Customs And of Rites, Ceremonies, Observances, and Miscellaneous Antiquities, JB Lippincott Company, Philadelphia; copyrights 1897 and 1925, et alRoman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Feast day of St Alferius Feast day of St Angelo Carletti di Chivasso Feast day of St Constantine Feast day of St Julius I, Pope Feast day of St Sabas, the Goth, martyr Feast day of St Victor, of Braga, martyr Feast day of St Wigbert Feast day of St William Ward Feast day of St Zeno, bishop of Verona
Nagasaki Takoage, or
Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan (Apr 3 - 29) Tsurugaoka Hachiman (Shrine) Spring Festival,
Japan (Apr 7 - 14) Today, Cohumatan Indians conduct a ceremony to preserve corn from frost by using prayers to chase the frost into a crack in the mountain and then sealing the crack with mortar. Chu-Si-Nu festival,
Taiwan Space Probe Day, Russia (celebrating Yuri Gagarin's first manned orbit of earth, in 1961; see below) Yuri's
Night
812 Muhammad at-Taqi (d. 835), Shia Imam 1748 Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (d. 1836), French botanist 1777 Henry Clay (d. 1852), American statesman and orator 1799 Henri Druey (d. 1855), member of the Swiss Federal Council 1816 Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (d. February 9, 1903), Irish nationalist and Australian colonial politician, was the 8th Premier of Victoria and one of the most colourful figures in Victorian political history. Duffy was a member of the 'Young Irelanders' who became a member of the Irish Confederation. In July 1848, he was arrested, placed in Newgate prison, Dublin, and tried for treason. In 1850, he was engaged in the organization of a tenants' league to secure fair rents and permanent tenure for Irish farmers, and, in 1852, was elected a member of the House of Commons, where he sat in opposition as one of fifty Irish members hoping to do much for their country. But they found themselves unable to agree among themselves, nothing could be done, and Duffy, dispirited at the turn of events, decided to retire from parliament and emigrate to Australia. In 1871, he became Premier and Chief Secretary of the State of Victoria, Australia. In 1874, Duffy visited England and was offered a seat in the House of Commons but declined it. Duffy wrote Young Ireland: A Fragment of Irish History (1880); Four Years of Irish History (1883).
Some of the above text is from the public domain Dictionary of Australian Biography, 1949 1832 Hugo Adolph Steinheil (d. 1893), optician 1856 William Martin Conway (d. 1937), English art critic and mountaineer 1867 Sindo Garay (d. 1968), Cuban singer and musician 1869 Henri Landru (Henri Désiré Landru; d. February 25, 1922), notorious French serial killer and real-life Bluebeard. Between 1914 and 1918, Landru claimed 11 victims: 10 women plus the teenaged son of one of his victims. 1884 Otto Meyerhof (d. 1951), biochemist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1922) 1888 Cecil Kimber, founder of MG 1892 Johnny Dodds (d. 1940), jazz musician 1895 Lily Pons (d. 1976), opera soprano 1902 Louis Beel (d. 1977), Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1903 Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, awarded the first Nobel Prize in Economics in 1969, which he shared with Ragnar Frisch for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes 1903 Sally Rand (d. 1979), fan dancer1904 Paul Dahlke (d. 1984), actor 1907 Felix de Weldon (d. 2003), sculptor 1916 Beverly Cleary, writer 1926 Jane Withers, American actress 1928 Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
Although Tiny Tim achieved not only great fame but a kind of international iconic status following his 1960s hit, 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips', that song only made Number 17 on the charts (June, 1968), hardly a world-shattering status, and he did not again achieve such sales. He brought out the album God Bless Tiny Tim the same year; it sold more than 200,000 copies. On one track, a version of 'I Got You Babe', he sang a duet with himself, taking one part in falsetto, and the other in the baritone range (he had a fine baritone voice). God Bless Tiny Tim was quickly followed by Tiny Tim's Second Album. His third album, For All My Little Friends, released in 1969, sold poorly and by 1970 Tim was relegated to the one-hit wonders shelf, despite having a unique and significant talent that is probably recognised these days more than at the time. Something about Tim's eccentric good nature struck a chord with Americans and people around the world and his popularity at that time was enormous, perhaps because in 1968 so much of the news was about tragedy, violence and revolution in many countries. A born-again Christian since 1953, Tiny Tim's message was about innocence and innate human goodness. Before hitting the big time, he had gone by the stage names Larry Love and Gary Dover before one of his managers, George King, gave him the 'Tiny Tim' name. His
wedding
on December 17, 1969, to 17-year-old Vicki Budinger of Haddonfield, NJ, or
"Miss Vicki", as he
called her and the world came to know her, was broadcast live nationwide on
the
The Tonight Show
Starring Johnny Carson, and viewed by an astounding
45 million-plus viewers. While the
individualistic entertainer was not taken seriously by all people,
Australian artist Martin Sharp
(well known in Australia and the UK as the artist from
Oz magazine, which
was central to Britain's longest-running obscenity trial, the famous
Oz Trial case of the
1960s, as well as his many famous rock
posters) took up the performer's cause with passion. Sharp, like some
others, believed that Tim's prodigious knowledge of old-time songs
qualified him as more than just a novelty act. Your almanackist values a
copy of a Tiny Tim album produced by Sharp, received as a gift from and
autographed by the producer. I call it "my retirement fund". Tim is
pictured above in a Martin Sharp poster from Kinsela's nightclub, Sydney. Tiny Tim collapsed and died of a heart-attack just
after singing his famous song 'Tiptoe through the Tulips'. His widow, his
third wife Miss Sue, has been maintaining an effort
for Tiny Tim to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which has
been a controversial issue. Tiny Tim's daughter (born May 10, 1971) is
named Tulip. Tiny Tim's year of birth is unclear – he lied about his age on a number of occasions, and various sources give 1933, 1932, 1930, 1926, 1923, or 1922, although shortly before his death he said he was 64 years old, which would put his year of birth at 1932. According to www.tinytim.org, and photos taken of his passport and birth certificate, Tiny was born on April 12, 1932.
When a young Bob Dylan first arrived in New York City on his quest for fame, he played in clubs like Café Wha?, the daytime show of which he describes in the first volume of his autobiography, Chronicles*, as "an extravaganza of patchwork, [which] featured anybody and anything – a comedian, a ventriloquist, a steel drum group, a poet, a female impersonator, a duo who sang Broadway stuff, a rabbit-in-the-hat magician, a guy wearing a turban who hypnotized people in the audience, someone whose entire act was facial acrobatics ... At about eight o'clock, the whole daytime menagerie would come to a halt and then the professional show would begin. Comedians like Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Lenny Bruce ... One of the guys who played in the afternoons was the falsetto-speaking Tiny Tim. He played ukulele and sang like a girl – old standard songs from the '20s ... Tiny Tim and I would go in the kitchen and hang around ... Ricky's (Ricky Nelson's) song ended and I gave |
Festival
of the goddess 
