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Cerealia, for
goddess Ceres,
ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19)
Ides of April: This was the second
day of the approximately week-long festival held in honour of Ceres,
culminating in the Cerealia
proper, on the 19th. Ceres,
in Roman Mythology,
is equivalent to the Greek Demeter
and the
daughter of Saturn and
Rhea,
wife-sister of Jupiter,
mother of Proserpina (Persephone),
and patron of Sicily.
Circensian games, ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19; Sep 4 - 19)
Ides of April,
ancient Rome
Libertas, ancient Rome
The springtime festival of
Libertas
was held in honour of the Roman goddess of
Liberty.
National Day,
Chad
Today is a public holiday in the
African nation of Chad. Following an army coup d'état, President
François Tombalbaye was assassinated on this day in 1975.
John Hanson Day,
Maryland, USA
John Hanson Day is observed in Maryland to honour
one of the state's most important leaders of the revolutionary
period.
Huguenot Day
Today is observed by the
Huguenot
Society of America as Huguenot Day, the anniversary of the signing
of the Edict of Nantes on this day in 1598. In the edict, French
King Henry IV promoted peace between
Catholics and
Protestants.
Thomas Jefferson
Day holiday, Alabama, USA
Feast day of St
Caradoc, priest and martyr
Feast day of Ss Carpus and Papylus, martyrs
Carpus was a bishop of Gordus in Asia
Minor; Papylus was a deacon at Thyatira. When ordered by the Roman
governor at Pergamum to sacrifice to the pagan gods, or else face
torture, they refused and were burnt alive.
Feast day of St Edward Catheriek
Feast day of St Guinoc
(Guinoch) of Scotland
Feast day of
St Hermengild,
martyr
(Green narcisse, Narcissus viridiflorus, is
today's plant, dedicated to
this saint.)
Feast day of St Ida of
Boulogne
Feast day of St Ida of
Louvain
Feast day of St James of
Certaldo
Feast day of St John
Lockwood
Feast day of St Margaret of
Castello
Feast day of St Martin I
(St Martin the Confessor) in the
Greek
Orthodox Church
More
Feast day of St Martius
Feast day of St Maximus
Feast day of St Ursus of
Ravenna
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Kamo-Tama-Yori-Hime, Japan
Today, Japanese observe the sacred
fertility marriage of the god O-yama-kui-no-kami and goddess
Kamo-tama-yori-hime, from which issued the offspring Kami. The
goddess has her counterpart in other religions, and may be equated
with Demeter, Aphrodite, Sheela, Mary and so on.
Tsurugaoka Hachiman (Shrine) Spring Festival,
Japan (Apr 7 - 14)
Seven centuries ago,
Kamakura was the first seat of feudal
government. At Hachiman Shrine, Kamakura, today is a cherry blossom
festival. In this festival, which is popular with tourists, there are
parades and all the fun of the fair.
Arashiyama Jusanmairi, or Thirteen Pilgrims Event,
Japan
Thirteen-year-old children make
pilgrimage to Horinji Temple,
Kyoto, to gain some of the attributes
of Kokuzo,
a Buddhist god of Wisdom.
Zōjō-ji (Zojoji)
Matsuri,
Tokyo,
Japan (Apr 13 - 15)
At
Zōjō-ji Temple, Shiba Park,
Tokyo, devotees ceremonially observe the death of Honen, founder of
the Jodo sect of Buddhism. On each of three days there are large
procession of hundreds of priests, laymen and children dressed in
traditional costumes. Processions are led by firefighters, chanting
their vocational song, Kiyari. About thirty men follow,
dressed in blue traditional garb.
Offerings on a red tray are offered to him, and
about sixty priests move about, scattering red, green, white and
gold artificial lotus leaves.
Nagahama
Yamakyogen, Japan (Apr 13 - 16)
Today and for the next three days
there will be silk floats on parade at
Hachiman-gū Shrine, Nagahama,
Japan, with rituals leading up to the lantern-lighting ceremony on
the final day.
The Shinto shrine
is dedicated to
Hachiman, the god of war.
Yayoi Matsuri,
Japan (Apr 13 - 17)
Today a portable shrine is carried
from the Futaarasan Shrine at
Nikko (Tochigi Prefecture) along the
main road.
Nagasaki
Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event,
Nagasaki,
Japan (Apr 3 - 29)
Bpee Mai
(Songkan; New Year),
Laos (c. Apr 13 - c.
16)
The Lao New Year, called 'Bpee Mai' or 'Songkan', is celebrated
every year around this time.
Chaul
Chnam Thmey (New Year),
Cambodia (c.
Apr 13 - c.
15)
Moha Songkran is the name of the first day of the new
year celebration. People dress up and light candles and burn incense
sticks at shrines.
Lao New Year traditions
New Year
Water
Splashing Festival,
China, Thailand,
Burma,
Cambodia,
Laos (Apr 13 -
15)
Like Poland's
Dyngus Day,
people throw water at one another on this day. Traditional dance,
singing and cultural shows are performed together during the
festival. Religious activities in the tradition of
Theravada
Buddhism are also carried out at both
pagoda and
monastery. Young people visit elders to pay respect during this
period.
"The
festival was inspired by a legend about seven beautiful Dai
women who destroying [sic] a fire fiend. For three days, girls
sprinkle water on each other and throw scented, decorated,
fringed bags at prospective lovers. Dragon boat racing, young
girls' peacock dance, giant hot air balloons at night. (Jinghong
City, Xishaungbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province)"
Source
"The
beautiful area of Xishuangbanna celebrates this Buddhist
festival in pomp and splendour. The festivities, centred on the
town of Jinghong, begin with a market, but the fun begins in
earnest with swimming and dragon boat-racing on the second day.
"Each night
the parks and streets move to the graceful rhythms of the
peacock dance, said by the Dai people to bring good luck, and
the more driving pace of the Elephant-drum dance. The second day
is reserved for 'splashing'. In reality this is a comprehensive
soaking for which anyone is fair game (no exceptions for
foreigners in other words - protect your camera!).
"On the third day there is a more sedate custom of throwing
miniature beanbags, or Diu Bao."
Source
Baisakhi (or Vaisakhi), Sikh
festival
"This
festival day or the Gurpurb celebrating the birth of the 'Khalsa'
usually falls on the 13th of April. Baisakhi was originally
celebrated to mark the beginning of the New Year (according to the
ancient Indian Lunar Calendar).
"To the Sikhs, the importance of this day
is both historical and religious. It was on this day on 13th April,
1699 when Guru Gobind Singh gave the Sikhs a new name (Singh) and a
new identity of being a nation, by making them distinctively
different in physical appearance and personal behavior. Hence forth,
along with 'inner discipline' the Sikhs were asked to keep an 'out
discipline' too by wearing the 5K's.
"Baisakhi is also an important harvest
festival in the Punjab. All over the Punjab farmers are happy
because they have 'gathered in' the wheat, the most important crop
of the season. Now they can perform Bhangra (folk dance) and sing.
The folk lore goes like this-
"'O,
Jatta aayee visakhi,
Kanka di muk gayee rakhi.'
"Meaning- Hey! Farmer! the Baisakhi has come and you
no longer need to worry about and watch your wheat."
Source
University of Virginia Founders Day (annually on
Jefferson's Birthday)
Varushapirapu, Tamil New Year
(c. Apr 13 - 14)
"It is a time for celebrating new and prosperous beginnings. The 13th or 14th of April is the beginning of the first month Chittirai of the Tamil year, which is celebrated as the New Year and is also known as
'Chittirai Vishu'. Varusham is the Tamil word for 'year' and 'Pirapu' can be translated as the
'birth' or 'beginning' or 'commencement' of an event.
The Legend Behind The Celebrations
"There are many legends behind the celebrations, according to one it is said that the
'Chaitra Vishu Day' or the opening day of the first fortnight of the waxing moon was the occasion chosen by Brahma to create this world. Hence this day is also known as
'Yugadhi' or the beginning of a Yuga.
"This festive day is said to have acquired further importance by the fact that Sri Ramachandra, the hero of the epic Ramayana, had his triumphal entry into Ayodhya after the destruction of the rakshasas, and was crowned there on this day.
"A unique way of welcoming the New Year, the excitement begins about two weeks before the New Year. Families go shopping for new clothes. The house is thoroughly cleaned and even repainted at times. Mothers and grandmothers make loads of sweet and savoury snacks in preparation for the big celebrations when relatives and friends will make their rounds of visits to each home, passing on their wishes for a prosperous and healthy Happy New Year."
Source
1519 Catherine de
Medici, queen of France (d. 1589),
wife of King Henry
II of France.
The corset, which
narrowed an adult women's waist to 17, 15 or even fewer inches, is
attributed to Catherine, as during the 1550s she enforced a ban on
thick waists at court attendance. For nearly 350 years, women's
primary means of support was the corset, with laces and stays made
of whalebone or metal.
1570 Guy
Fawkes (d. 1606), Gunpowder Plot
conspirator1593 Thomas
Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (d. 1641), English statesman 1618 Roger
de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, (d. 1693) French writer 1713 Frederick
(Lord) North (d. 1792), King George III of
England's 6th
prime minister 1729 Thomas
Percy (d. 1811), Bishop of Dromore and magazine editor 1735 Isaac
Low (d. 1791), New York delegate
to the Continental
Congress
1743 Thomas
Jefferson (d. 1826), 3rd
President
of the United States
Accomplished man
The third
president of the US was born in Shadwell, Virginia, the son of a
civil engineer. He not only helped to draft the Declaration of
Independence; he was accomplished in fields as varied as the
humanities, science, architecture and education.
Thomas Jefferson's wine
There's one
waiter who should not have expected a tip. In April 1989 at the Four
Seasons Restaurant, at a gathering of wine buffs, a waiter
accidentally smashed a bottle of Château Margaux wine which was valued at
$US433,000 because it had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.
Was
the USA founded on Christianity?
1747 Louis
Philip II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793)1769 Thomas Lawrence
(d. 1830),
English painter 1771 Richard
Trevithick (d. 1833), mechanical engineer and developer of the first
locomotive 1780 Alexander
Mitchell (d. 1868), Irish engineer 1787 John
Robertson (d. 1873), US congressman 1808 Antonio Meucci
(d. 1896),
Italian inventor 1825 Thomas
D'Arcy McGee (d. April
7, 1868),
Canadian
journalist
and 'Father of Confederation'
who earlier in life was one of the 'Young
Irelanders'. In 1868, D'Arcy McGee was assassinated in Ottawa,
Ontario. 1828 Joseph
Barber Lightfoot (d. 1889), English theologian and Bishop of Durham 1832 Juan Montalvo
(d. 1889),
Ecuadorian author 1850 Arthur
Matthew Weld Downing (d. 1917), British astronomer 1852 FW Woolworth
(d. 1919),
merchant/businessman, founder of Woolworth's stores.
Born in New York
State, Woolworth founded the modern 'nickel and dime' stores and
made millions by so doing. He died in 1919. In Australia, the name
and goodwill of Woolworth's were cunningly appropriated by a local
company, and Woolworth's
is still one of the major retail chains (domestic and grocery
lines), despite having no connection with the American firm, nor any
Woolworth person.
1860 James
Ensor (d. 1949), painter1866 Butch Cassidy
(d. 1908),
Wild
West outlaw
1869 Vida Goldstein
(d. August
15, 1949), Australian early feminist reformer and politician
From Wikipedia:
In 1902
she addressed the United
States Congress as a delegate from Australia and New
Zealand to the International
Woman Suffrage Conference. In 1903,
as an Independent with the support of the Women's Federal Political
Association, she became the first woman in the British
Empire to stand for election to a national parliament. Her bid
for a Senate seat failed, but she stood for parliament again in 1910,
1913
and 1914;
her fifth and last bid was in 1917
for a senate seat on the principle of international peace.
Her campaign secretary in 1913 was Doris
Blackburn who was later successfully elected to the Australian
House of Representatives.
Goldstein was a speaker, writer and
campaigner. Throughout the First
World War she was an ardent pacifist,
became chairman of the Peace Alliance and formed the Women's Peace
Army. She recruited Adela
Pankhurst, recently arrived from England as an organiser. Her
continuing political activism included leadership of the Women's
Political Association and editing the Women's Sphere between 1900
and 1908.
She contributed to the foundation of many
women's organisations including the National
Council of Women.
"Worked with the Women's Political Association and also edited
Women's Sphere (1900-1908). Ran for parliament five times between 1903 and 1917, in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Helped found the National Council of Women, and was the Delegate from Australia and New Zealand to the International Woman Suffrage Conference, Washington D. C. in 1902. Throughout her life Goldstein
campaigned on many social issues including women's franchise, the Queen Victoria women's
hospital, peace, birth control and naturalisation laws."
Source
Biography compiled by
Friends of St Kilda cemetery
National
Library of Australia Federation Gateway site
Australian
Women's Biographies published by the National Foundation for
Australian Women
Australian
War Memorial Federation site recognising Goldstein as a peace
activist
A
world chronology of women's suffrage
US
chronology Louisa
Lawson, Australian suffragette
Lawson
& Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson
1872 Alexander
Roda Roda (d. 1945), writer 1873 John W Davis
(d. 1955),
American politician 1875 Ray Lyman
Wilbur (d. 1949), 31st United States Secretary of the
Interior 1880 Charles
Christie (d. 1955), pioneer film studio owner in Hollywood 1881 Ludwig
Binswanger (d. 1966), existential psychiatrist 1885 Georg Lukács
(d. 1971),
philosopher and literary critic 1887 Gordon S
Fahrni (d. 1995), Canadian physician and President of the Canadian Medical
Association 1889 Herbert
Osborne Yardley (d. 1958), cryptographer 1890 Frank Murphy
(d. 1949),
American public servant 1891 Nella Larsen
(d. 1964),
Afro-American novelist
1892 Arthur
Travers 'Bomber' Harris
(d. 1984), commander of RAF's Bomber Command in
World War II.
What price fame and glory?
The English Commander-in-Chief of the RAF Bomber
Command in World War II authorised the 'firestorm' bombing raids
on the citizens of Dresden, Germany, yet disinformation surrounding
the massacre was, and remains, immense, and to some, Bomber
Harris retains some kind of heroic stature.
Tens of
thousands of people were killed (sources vary from between 35,000 to
200,000) in the February 13, 1945, Allied
firebombing of Dresden. It remains a little-known event even
today, as the British, Americans and other Allies downplay this
slaughter of innocents and devote propaganda to the atrocities of
the Germans and Japanese.
In a
three-day period, 3,400 tons of explosives and incendiaries were
dropped, reducing six square miles of the beautiful city of art and
architecture, to rubble. Many Allied officials were outraged –
Germany was clearly on the verge of collapse anyway, the war was
almost over, and Dresden was not a war production city. Dresden had
been famous for its artwork and historic buildings until it became
the victim of the single most destructive air raid of World War II.
"Low-flying
planes machine-gunned the fleeing population along the banks of
the Elbe river. A fourth attack on Dresden concentrated its bomb
load on the roads used by the fleeing population."
Source: The
Truth about the 1945 Bombing of Dresden
More
1892 Sir Robert
Alexander Watson-Watt (d. 1973), inventor of
radar
1892
Gladys
Moncrieff, Australian singer, known as 'Our Glad'.
Born in
Bundaberg,
Queensland, Gladys Moncrieff was a hugely popular opera
singer of her day. In 1952, she gave more than 3,000 performances.
'Our Glad', as she was affectionately known, was awarded the
OBE
(Order of the British Empire) for her contribution to the performing
arts.
1894 Arthur Fadden (d. 1973),
13th Prime
Minister of Australia1897 Werner
Voss (d. 1917), WWI German flying ace 1900 Pierre Molinier
(d. 1976),
painter and photographer 1901 Jacques Lacan
(d. 1981),
psychoanalyst and semantician 1902 Philippe
de Rothschild (d. 1988), Grand Prix racing car driver and wine grower 1904 Sir David
Robinson (d. 1987), British philanthropist and entrepreneur 1906 Samuel Beckett
(d. December
22, 1989),
Irish
playwright
(Waiting
for Godot), novelist
and poet,
winner of the | reetings from Australia.
How it works
Festival of Songkran, Thai New Year (Apr 13 - 15)
