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I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity. I am at ease in my generation.
Emile Zola; My Hates, 1866

Damn me if I do!
England's Admiral Horatio Nelson at Copenhagen, April 2, 1801, ordered by his commander-in-chief to withdraw

I saw that everything in the world that is famous and beautiful, if we rely on the descriptions and drawings of writers and artists, always loses when we go to see it and examine it up close.
Giacomo Casanova, Italian soldier, librarian and author, born on April 2, 1725; History of My Life

Real love is the love that sometimes arises after sensual pleasure: if it does, it is immortal; the other kind inevitably goes stale, for it lies in mere fantasy.
Giacomo Casanova

The law is a ass, a idiot.
Charles Dickens, who began his unhappy marriage on April 2, 1836; Oliver Twist

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.
Charles Dickens

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies.
Charles Dickens; Bleak House ch. 6

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
Charles Dickens; A Tale of Two Cities, ch. 15

The task of the right eye is to peer into the telescope, while the left eye peers into the microscope.
Max Ernst, German Dada painter, born on April 2, 1891 

The splendour of the stars is not reserved for those who have tickets.
Max Ernst; Dream of a Little Girl Who Wanted to become a Carmelite

Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin], your concrete actions are completely unworthy of the ideas you pretend to hold.
Kropotkin

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Mahavir Jayanti (late March or early April)

On the dating of items in the Almanac

From Wikipedia: In Jainism, Mahavir Jayanti is the most important religious holiday. It celebrates the birth of Mahavira, the last Tirthankara. He was born on the 13^th day of the rising moon of Chaitra, in either 599 BCE or 615 BCE (depending on religious tradition).

The holiday occurs in late March or early April on the Gregorian calendar.

On Mahavir Jayanthi, Jain temples are decorated with flags. In the morning the idol of Mahavira is given a ceremonial bath called the 'abhishek'. It is then placed in a cradle and carried in a procession around the neighbourhood. The devotees will make offerings of milk, rice, fruit, incense, lamps and water to the Tirthankar. Some sections of the community even participate in a grand procession. Lectures are held to preach the path of virtue. People meditate and offer prayers. Donations are collected to save the cows from slaughter. Pilgrims from all parts of the country visit the ancient Jain Temples at Girnar and Palitana in Gujarat on this day.

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

The Friday before Palm Sunday known as 'painful Friday'. Palm branches are blessed. Pussy willows are bound around a large branch – as many as can be fitted on, because after the service, the housewife will give children as many eggs for the egg-tapping game as there are strands of pussy willow.
Venetia Newall, An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971, p. 345

Feast of Acan, the Mayan God of Wine

Mule Day, Columbia, Tennessee, USA

Feast day of St Abundius

Feast day of St Agnofleda

Feast day of St Amphianus

Feast day of St Apian (Appian), of Lycia, martyr

Feast day of St Bronacha (Bronach), abbess, of Ireland

Feast day of B. Constantine, King of Scotland

Feast day of St Ebba, or Abba, abbess, martyr

Feast day of St Francis of Paola (Francis of Paula), founder of the Order of Minims
(White violet, Viola alba, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

This St Francis (c. 1418 - 1507 or '08) was a Calabrian Italian who at 15 years of age shut himself up in a cave. He was a mendicant friar and the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of the Minims (the 'least' of the friars). No meat, milk or eggs were to be eaten in this monastery.

A legend says that, in the year 1464, he was refused passage by a boatman while trying to cross the Strait of Messina to Sicily. He reportedly laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff as a sail, and sailed across the strait with his companions.In Sicily, St Francis wrought miracles and built monasteries. "He prophesied, held burning coals in his hand without being burnt, restored his nephew to life, cured people of the plague," according to one hagiographer. He also walked on fire, entered a burning oven without harm, and made a sea voyage on his cloak, with a companion. He was so troubled by Satan once that he stripped and beat himself with a hard cord, saying "thus brother ass thou must be beaten". He ran into the snow and made seven snowballs, which he swore to swallow if the devil had not left him.

St Francis was a bird lover. According to legend, at Venice with his companions, he commanded the loudly singing birds to be quiet so the canonical hours could be sung, and he was obeyed.

When one of his friars committed a fault it was St Francis's custom to take the friar's hood and put it in fire, and then restore it to him unburnt. Or, so it is said. It is also believed by some that he foretold the capture of Otranto by the Ottoman Turks in 1480, and its subsequent recovery by the King of Naples.

St Francis, a patron saint of boatmen, mariners and naval officers, died on Good Friday, April 2, 1507 (some sources say 1508) in Plessis, France, aged 91. Some believe that in 1562, a group of Huguenots in France broke open his tomb and found his body incorrupt. They dragged it forth, burnt his bones with the wood of a crucifix. The bone remnants were gathered by Catholics and distributed as relics enshrined in various churches of his order.

St Francis of Paola, due to his great humility, is the known as the adversary of the demon, Belial.

More    More    And more

Feast day of St Musa

Feast day of St Nicetius, Archbishop of Lyons

Feast day of St Pedro Calungsod

Feast day of St Polycarp of Alexandria

Feast day of St Theodosia, of Caeasrea, martyr

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Kanamara Matsuri, Kanamara Shrine, Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo
The human penis forms the central theme of the event: in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decoration, a parade of mikoshis, and so on.

"Kanamara Matsuri. More than two centuries ago, the city's prostitutes supposedly prayed for protection from syphilis and successful business. The Festival of the Steel Phallus responds to the second wish: celebrants parade images of huge penises and eat penis-shaped lollipops. Today, this Shinto fertility festival raises money for AIDS research."   Source

Kanamara Matsuri videos    Photos on Flickr    See also Jibeta Matsuri (Metal Phallus Festival)

International Children's Book Day
Commemorated since 1925 on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday.

Malvinas Day, Argentina

World Autism Awareness Day (United Nations)

747 Charlemagne (Charles the Great; d. January 28, 814), King of the Franks from 771 to 814, nominally King of the Lombards, and Roman Emperor; the elder son of Pippin the Short (reigned 751 - 768).

He was anointed with his father and his brother Carloman by Pope Stephen II in 754 and crowned first Holy Roman Emperor, sovereign of Christendom in the West, by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV (cultus confirmed) and his feast day is January 28.

Charlemagne has many descendents. It is possible that George Washington is one.

Up until the mid-20^th Century, Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 2, 742, but several factors led to reconsideration of this traditional date.

1527 Abraham Ortelius (Abraham Ortel; d. June 28, 1598), cartographer and geographer, generally recognised as the creator of the first modern atlas

1725 Giacomo Casanova (d. 1798), Italian soldier, spy, diplomat, writer, adventurer, chiefly remembered from his autobiography, which has established his reputation as the most famous erotic hero. In 1760 he fled from his creditors and travelled across Europe. Between 1774 and 1782 he worked as a spy for the Venetian inquisitors of state, ending his last years as a librarian.

1798 August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (d. 1874), lyricist, writer of 'Das Lied der Deutschen'

1805 Hans Christian Andersen (d. 1875), son of a cobbler, Danish writer who combined folk legends with the fruits of his own active imagination to produce fairy tales popular in many nations. Most English (and German and French) sources use the name 'Hans Christian Andersen', but in Denmark and Scandinavia his name is 'HC Andersen'.

1809 Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894), German physician, director of the state mental hospital in Frankfurt am Main and writer best known for Slovenly Peter, the story of a boy with bad manners.  

1827 William Holman Hunt, English Pre-Raphaelite painter

1834 Frédéric Bartholdi (d. 1904), French sculptor (Statue of Liberty)

1840 Émile Zola (Emile Zola; d. September 29, 1902), French realist novelist and activist. He was the author of J'Accuse, published on January 13, 1898, which accused the French government of anti-Semitism and of falsely imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

This famous open letter was published by Zola's friend Georges Clemenceau in the Paris daily, L'Aurore. Zola published an open letter to the Président de la République Félix Faure, entitled J'Accuse (I Accuse), attacking the French Army over its treatment of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer. Dreyfus was accused of treason, but in fact he had never given information to the Germans as it was said – he was a victim of anti-Semitism.

In 1902 Zola died under mysterious circumstances, overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in his sleep.

"The fact that national security was repeatedly asserted as the reason for the secrecy of the Dreyfus trial should make us cautious about that claim. But for the gradual emergence of the truth, the army and many other powerful interests in France, would have closed the Dreyfus case. Gradually, most people would have forgotten him. He would have rotted away on Devil's Island. Politicians of all persuasions, and the demonstrators on the streets, would have continued to denounce Dreyfus as a traitor. It was only a band of supporters, and the gradual emergence of the truth, that saved this innocent man from that fate. That was not the outcome of the closed and secret trial which officialdom wanted ...

"What changed the outcome of the Dreyfus case was the gradual adherence of intellectuals and civil libertarians to the Dreyfus side."
The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG   Source: The Dreyfus Case a century on: Ten lessons for Australia (PDF)

"Many Australians, particularly women, also sent telegrams and letters to Dreyfus' wife expressing their support.

"The churches joined the chorus of outrage against the case, calling it one of the 'foulest crimes' and 'bitterest outrages' of the 19th century and 'the most appalling prostitution of justice that the modern world had ever known' (The Argus, September 18, 1899)."   Source

1860 Fred Broomfield (d. May 22, 1941), English-born Australian writer, friend of author Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922) and co-member with him of the Dawn and Dusk Club

"A flamboyant dresser, Broomfield sported 'a peaked beard and upbrushed moustache, a Cavalier hat with a swirling brim', and a cane with which he made rapier thrusts at friends upon meeting. His conversation, like his correspondence, was ornamented by picturesque phrasing and medieval oaths but he had a 'high falsetto voice, and a wobbling, gobbling utterance, as if he had a plum in his mouth' ... But behind the melodramatic Bohemian stood the kindly, practical friend who helped 'Price Warung' fight drug-addiction, assisted Victor Daley's widow, and defended Lawson in Henry Lawson and his Critics (1930)."   Source

'Henry Lawson and His Critics', an address by Fred Broomfield, 1930

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

1867 Eugen Sandow (d. 1925), German-born circus performer

1875 Walter Chrysler (d. 1940), automobile pioneer

1884 Florence Blanchfield (d. May 12, 1971), American nurse; the first woman to become a fully ranked officer of the US Army

1891 Max Ernst (d. 1976), German Surrealist painter, a founder of the German Dada movement, "a one- man early-warning system who over and over again suggested that Europe was in a bad way and likely to get worse" (NY Times obituary). This is how he described the event of his birth, in his mythic autobiography:

The 2nd of April (1891) at 9:45 a.m Max Ernst had his first contact with the sensible world, when he came out of the egg which his mother had laid in the eagle's nest and which the bird had brooded for seven years.

"Dada in Cologne was a matter of intense exasperation both to the British army of occupation and to the German police. Ernst was delighted when the police closed the Cologne Dada exhibition, and even more delighted when they came to him a few days later and said: 'Would you mind opening up again? Having to shut it down has given the police such a bad name.'"
NY Times obituary

1908 Buddy Ebsen (d. July 6, 2003), American dancer/actor who is remembered fondly for his portrayal of Jed Clampett in The Beverley Hillbillies. He danced with Shirley Temple in the 1936 film Captain January. In the 1930s, Disney animators would film Buddy Ebsen dancing in front of a grid to 'choreograph' Mickey Mouse's dance steps in the Silly Symphony cartoons.

"Originally cast as the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz, The (1939), Buddy was hospitalized as a result of inhaling aluminium powder used as part of his make-up. Because of the prolonged hospitalization, he was replaced by Jack Haley (whose make-up used pre-mixed aluminium dust), and his scenes were re-shot using Haley. Footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man still exists, and was included as an extra with the U.S. 50^th anniversary video release of Wizard of Oz, The (1939). Ebsen's voice can still be heard in the song 'Off to see the Wizard'.

"After seeing Ebsen in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' the creator of 'The Beverly Hillbillies' wanted him to play family patriarch Jed Clampett. At the time, Ebsen was thinking of retiring, but the producers sent Ebsen a copy of the script, and he changed his mind."  Source

1914 Sir Alec Guinness (d. 2000), British Oscar-winning actor

1920 Jack Webb (died dum-da-dum-dum 1982), American actor, director, producer; Joe Friday in the popular early American TV series, Dragnet

"Jack Webb did not believe in masturbation. Consequently he was plagued for years by infections resulting from his enormous accumulation of unspent semen. Fearing permanent prostate damage, he finally started visiting a doctor who drained him on a monthly basis. He was careful never to miss one of these appointments. Often he would leave the Dragnet set in the middle of a shoot, looking at his watch and matter of factly announcing that it was time to go get drained."   Source: The Daily Bleed

1923 George Spencer Brown, mathematician

1925 Hans Rosenthal (d. 1987), showmaster

1925 George MacDonald Fraser, author

1927 Kenneth Tynan (d. July 26, 1980), British theatre critic, and writer of the controversial 1969 review, Oh! Calcutta

1928 Serge Gainsbourg (d. 1991), singer

1934 Paul Joseph Cohen, mathematician.

1939 Marvin Gaye (d. 1984), American singer

1940 Penelope Keith, English actress

1942 Leon Russell, American singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist; played with Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Cocker, Phil Spector and The Rolling Stones. His first songwriting hit was Cocker's 1970 cover of "Delta Lady", and Russell went on to organise Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1945 Linda Hunt, actress

1947 Camille Paglia, feminist writer

1947 Emmylou Harris, American country and pop singer

1962 Mark Shulman, children's author

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