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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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Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!
George Gordon Noel Byron (1788 - 1824), British poet; 'Written after Swimming from Sestos to
Abydos' (l.
2 - 4). Gallipoli is near the
Hellespont, or
Dardanelles, scene of the first Anzac Day, April 25, 1915
Those
heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in
peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons
as well. Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk, commander of Turkish forces at Gallipoli,
'father of the Turkish nation', showing great magnanimity to his former enemies
April 25th. When April shall have six days
left, the season of spring will be in mid course … On that day, as I
was returning from Nomentum to Rome, a white- robed crowd blocked the
middle of the road. A flamen was on his way to the grove of ancient
Mildew [Robigo], Straightway I went up to him to inform myself of the
rite. Thy flamen, O Quirinus, pronounced these words: "Thou scaly
Mildew, spare the sprouting corn, and let the smooth top quiver on
the surface of the ground. O let the crops, nursed by the heaven's
propitious stars, grow till they are ripe for the sickle." Ovid, Fasti,
iv, 901Roman calendarSource
Come listen to me, you gallants so free,
All you that love mirth for to hear,
And I will tell you of a bold outlàw,
That lived in Nottinghamshire. Old
English ballad
Anzac Day,
Australia and New Zealand
Scientists have calculated that in each glass of
water we drink, at least one molecule has passed through the bladder of
Oliver Cromwell. Richard
Dawkins;
Enemies of Reason. Oliver Cromwell was born on April 25, 1599
The countrey tho in general well enough clothd
appeard in some places bare; it resembled in my imagination the back of a
lean cow, covered in general with long hair, but nevertheless where her
scraggy hip bones have stuck out farther than they ought accidental rubbs
and knocks have intirely bard them of their share of covering. Sir Joseph
Banks, British botanist, on the coast near Wollongong, NSW, Australia, from
his journal, April 25, 1770
Ah, but he will be able to hear the still,
small voice of the air. Guglielmo
Marconi's mother at his birth (April 25, 1874), after someone rudely commented on
the baby's rather large ears
Women were everywhere, and their presence in the streets, and leavening the lumps of humanity in the crowded polling-places, no doubt had a refining influence. Never have we had a more decorous gathering together of the multitude than that which distinguished the first exercise of the female franchise on Saturday, April 25, 1896; and rarely since the days of open voting has there been so much excitement, albeit well under control. The charming spectacle
of —
Lovely woman, hesitating
Round the booths in sweet dismay
Her gentle bosom palpitating
Lest she cast her vote away
was presented throughout the livelong day, but it would be a base libel upon a sex whose instinct is less liable to err than man's reason to assert that the women failed to realize their responsibilities-quite the contrary; they did themselves infinite credit, displaying a level-headedness and self-possession that called for admiration. From the Adelaide
Advertiser (South Australia), May 2, 1896,
reporting on the first polling day in Australia which included women voters, in South Australia on April 25
The love of country in Australians and New
Zealanders was intense – how strong, they did not realise until they
were far away from home. CEW Bean,
Australian war historian; Official History of Australia in the War of 1914 - 18. Vol I,
p. 606
It
isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts.
Ella Fitzgerald, American jazz singer, born on April 25, 1918
The
only thing better than singing is more singing.
Ella Fitzgerald
I
stole everything that I heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.
Ella Fitzgerald
We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of
deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features
which are of considerable biological interest. James Watson and
Francis Crick, opening sentence of
their article,'A
structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid'. DNA was revealed to
the public on April 25, 1953
Rituals
meant to be preventative against mildew on wheat, in honour of the god Robigus. Some sources say that in Roman mythology, Robigus ('wheat rust'
or 'mildew') was, along with his sister, Robigo or Rubigo, a fertility
deity who protected crops against diseases
– others say that they were the one deity, alternating sex.
Alternatively, Smith,
who seems to try to exonerate Romans of worshipping evil forces, writes,
"A god Robigus or a goddess Robigo is a mere invention from the
name of this festival, for the Romans paid no divine honours to evil
deities (Hartung, Die Religion der Römer, vol. ii p148)"*.
The feast
day, noted in the Esquiline, Caeretan, Maffeian, and Praenestine
calendars, was instituted
by Numa, and celebrated a.d. vii. Kal. Mai. (April 25) (Plin. H.N. xviii.29 s69; Varro, de Re Rust.
i.1 p90, ed. Bip., de Ling. Lat. vi.16, ed. Müll.; Festus, s.v.).
The Romans built a temple to these deities three miles from Rome on
the Via Claudia. For many
years, the Roman Catholic Church litany for St Mark's day followed the
ancient pagan festival.
The Christian Church later adopted
some themes of this festival for the Rogation Days (the three days
preceding Ascension Thursday).
Ovid (Fasti,
iv, 901 - 942) tells us that a white-robed congregation would observe a flamen
(priest) offer up to Robigus a prayer that began: "Thou scaly
Mildew, spare the sprouting corn, and let the smooth top quiver on the
surface of the ground. O let the crops, nursed by the heaven's propitious
stars, grow till they are ripe for the sickle …",
lighting an altar fire and offering the god frankincense and wine.
Those well known preventatives of cereal mildew, the entrails of a dog and
sheep, were sacrificed and thrown into the fire.
"Make the
weapons rust, not the grain"
Today we call a certain disease of
wheat 'rust', and rust is the metaphor used in the flamen's prayer as
recorded by Ovid two millennia ago. The priest urges the deity to rust
not the corn but the weapons of war: "Grip not
the tender crops, but rather grip the hard iron. Forestall the
destroyer. Better that thou shouldst gnaw at swords and baneful weapons.
There is no need of them: the world is at peace. Now let the rustic
gear, the rakes and the hard hoe, and the curved share be burnished
bright; but let rust tarnish the arms, and when one essays to draw the
sword from the scabbard, let him feel it stick from long disuse"
Footraces were held on this day to
honour the mildew gods – separate races for both men and for boys.
It was also the feast day of the puer lenonii (boy prostitutes).
Some sources give April 25 as the Blessing of the Wheat,
in Hungary. Until further information is made available to your
almanackist, I will assume there is a connection with the Robigalia of
old.
*(Bill Thayer
argues against this, citing Pliny the Elder (H.N. 2.v.16):
"there is actually a shrine
to Fever, consecrated by the state on the Palatine, one to Orbona [a
goddess of stillbirths and dead babies] near the temple of the Lares ...
and an Altar to Ill Fortune on the Esquiline".)
Mark was
at various times a companion of the saints
Barnabus,
Paul and
Peter.
In art, he is usually represented as a young man
(but sometimes as an old one, as at left), sometimes
dressed in a bishop's habit, with a lion at his feet and a scroll
with words Peace be to thee, O Mark, My Evangelist. He holds
a pen in his right hand and the Gospel in his left.
He is sometimes represented seated on a throne decorated with lions,
or else helping Venetian sailors.
Mark was the son of Mary, a pious
woman of Jerusalem. It is not known whether he actually wrote the
Gospel
attributed to him.
On St Mark's day, there was an ancient custom in
connection with the admission of freemen of the common. The
persons who were to receive the privilege marched on horseback, in
great ceremony, dressed in white and with swords, to the common,
headed by the Duke of Northumberland's chamberlain's and bailiff. At
the filthy Freemen's Well they walked through it, coming out all
grimy and wet, whereupon they changed their clothes. They then had a
drop of liquor, made a round of the common and proceeded back to
town, where the womenfolk met them, all fantastically dressed. They
called at each other's houses and drank some more. Apparently the
custom came about when King John was in the area and got mired in
the pond. He imposed on the men of the town, in the charter of their
common, an obligation to get as filthy as he had. Alnwick common
lands became enclosed, and the last time the custom was practised
was April 25, 1854.
While it was
traditional in England in the old days to fast on the eve of all
other feast days, there was a fast on St Mark's Day itself rather
than on St
Mark's Eve. However, this was not uniformly observed: on one
side of a street in Cheapside, the side of the street that was in
the diocese of London, people fasted; on the other side of the
street was the diocese of Canterbury, where no fast was expected by
the Church.
English people prayed today for
God's blessing on the growing corn. In North Wales, no ploughman
would work his team for fear of losing an ox.
El zorno del bocolo,
Venice, Italy
This Venetian dialect term means in
English 'the day of the bloom'. On this day, men present their
sweethearts with a red rose in observance of a very old tradition.
According to the legend, a valiant knight was fighting during a
Crusade and was mortally wounded in battle. He was engaged to the
daughter of the Doge and had promised always to love her. Before he
died he entrusted a friend to bring back to his darling a white
rose, which he had held to his heart. Because he was wounded, the
rose turned red, covered with his blood. His friend faithfully
despatched the rose on St Mark's day, so the tradition was born. Source: Sylvia de Vanna, personal correspondence
St Mark's gowk, Britain
The cuckoo, sometimes
in Britain called 'St. Mark's gowk', heralds the arrival of
migratory birds that have wintered in the south, indicating the return of
summer. However, it is just one of a number of claimants to Cuckoo Day,
with April
14 being a strong contender.
(See
also in the Book of Days: April 27's
Marsden, UK, Cuckoo Day, and April 28,
Towednack (UK) Cuckoo Feast.)
Find an error or dead link?
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda
Today we mourn the
dead and the criminal stupidity of those who send them to their
fate. It is the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Turkey at the Battle of
Gallipoli on this day in 1915. (The Anzac
covering force, the 3rd Brigade of the Australian 1st
Division, began
to go ashore shortly before dawn at 4.30 am on April 25.) An estimated
131,000 Allied soldiers were killed and 262,000 wounded (sources
vary widely); about 250,000 (some sources say 450,000) Turkish men were killed or wounded
in an area measured in a handful of square kilometres.
Anzac
(or ANZAC) Day, named from the
acronym of theAustralian
and New Zealand Army Corps, commemorates the landing of British and
ANZAC forces on the beach at
Gelibolu (Gallipoli),
Turkey, on this day in 1915, in a failed
invasion of Turkey
in World War One. In Australia, it is generally commemorated with
more reverence and enthusiasm than practically any public holiday,
including
Australia Day and
Easter, and
it is more honoured than
Armistice
Day.
Perhaps only
Christmas is as widely commemorated.
Gallipoli
was the most heavily defended and best-prepared position in the Ottoman Empire,
and the Allied assault was marred by great incompetence. The British
First
Lord of the Admiralty, Winston
Churchill (1874 - 1965) was responsible
for initiating the debacle. Mustafa Kemal
(1881 - 1938) led the Turks,
and became a hero to his nation; he is better known today as Kemal Atatürk,
or 'Father of Turkey', first President of the Turkish Republic.
In Turkey, the
campaign is known as the Çanakkale Savaşlari. In Britain, it is
called the Dardanelles Campaign, and in Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland, it
is known simply as Gallipoli.
Although the
public holiday commemorates a bloody defeat rather than a victory,
this day is considered one of the most important in the Australian
and New Zealand calendar of holidays. Dawn services are held across
Australia and
politicians make pronouncements that, on the whole, pointedly avoid questioning why
such a large proportion of young Australian manhood died or were
maimed on the other side of the world, on battlefields that had
little or nothing to do with us.
A generation of male youth was decimated: I remember from my
childhood how many old men had limbs missing.
To most
Australians, 'we' fought 'the enemy' bravely at Gallipoli. To the
Turks, a ruthless aggression was courageously turned back. The only
truth is that the actual winners were the manufacturers of armaments
who fuelled the whole calamity called WWI.
Footnote:
In recent years, the Turkish Government has graciously renamed the
landing beach 'Anzac Cove'
and each year on Anzac Day many thousands of international visitors
and Turks commemorate the tragic campaign on the beach at dawn. In
response to the renaming of the beach, in 1985 the town of Albany,
Western Australia, renamed the entrance to Princess Royal Harbour,
'Ataturk Entrance' and in 2002 erected a statue of Kemal Atatürk.
On Anzac Day 2003, the the Mayor of Gelibolu (Gallipoli), Mr
Cihat Bingöl, and
Albany
(Western Australia) Mayor, Ms
Alison Goode, signed a
Friendship Agreement:
"The formation of the Friendship Agreement between Albany and Gallipoli is a key component in progressing Albany's vision to become the quintessential place to commemorate the ANZAC tradition in Australia", Ms Goode
said. "The historical links between Australia and Turkey, and
particularly between Albany and Gallipoli, are as significant today
as they were almost 100 years ago. The connection transcends time
and distance and is a tribute to human endeavour, sacrifice, triumph
over adversity and future optimism."
Gallipoli is a
town in north-western Turkey. Its modern
Turkish name is Gelibolu. The name derives from the Greek:
Kallipolis, meaning 'Beautiful City'. It is located on the Gallipoli
Peninsula (Gelibolu Yarimadasi), with the Aegean
Sea to the west and the Dardanelles
straits to the east. The Dardanelles were formerly called the Hellespont, the
straits that the dashing Lord Byron
swam across on May 3, 1810(deformed
right leg notwithstanding), in an effort to emulate Leander of
the Greek myth.
A tourism
industry has sprung up in and around Gallipoli in recent years,
organizing arrangements for the thousands of people who come to Anzac Cove,
Turkey each year, especially on Anzac Day when the beach is packed
for ceremonies.
This day of days
again we keep – In memory of
those who sleep Away beyond
the quiet sea ... Away in far
Gallipolli.
'Tis Anzac Day – 'tis Anzac Day.. Our soldier
comrades far away, They died in
war – that we in peace May live and
love that war may cease.
"The simultaneous evacuation
of the Anzac and Suvla sectors was certainly a big – and perhaps
the only – Allied success, and was generally considered as a
masterpiece of military planning. At Helles however, the
situation was even more precarious: they had to evacuate three
weeks later, under the eyes of an alerted enemy. Therefore,
additional measures were needed to give the Turks the impression
that the trenches were still fully manned. These dummy troops
are waiting for their orders to go up the line."Source
The bloody toll: how Australia's
young men paid
for the adventurism of European politicians and arms traders
From 'The Band
Played "Waltzing
Matilda"', by
Eric
Bogle
A
'Matilda' was the name given to the pack of an Australian
bushman or swagman. To 'Waltz Matilda' was to carry your pack
around the bush. Fifty-nine thousand soldiers of Australia died at Gallipoli in a
stupid and pointless campaign, which was a staggeringly large number for a small country
like Australia. About the only thing they achieved was a belated
recognition that Australia was 'growing up'; she was becoming a
nation in her own right ...
Every April, marches and dawn services are held on ANZAC DAY to commemorate the
Gallipoli landings during the first
World War, and the dead of the other wars. Like all memorial parades it is both moving and yet
somewhat pointless and pathetic. This song was written after
observing one such parade.
Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover.
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty
outback,
Well, I waltzed my
matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said, "Son,
It's time you stop ramblin', there's work to be done."
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun,
And they marched me away to the war.
And
the band played 'Waltzing
Matilda',
As the ship pulled away from the
Quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.
And
how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water;
And of how in that hell that they call
Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell –
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
But
the band played 'Waltzing Matilda',
When we stopped to bury our slain,
Well, we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again ... Complete
lyrics
Australia has about 16,000 vascular plant species (ferns, gymnosperms, angiosperms) but
Australia's trees are almost entirely evergreen and a species that loses its leaves in Autumn is something of a celebrity.
In fact, there are only three genuine Australian deciduous trees:
Antarctic
Beech,
Nothofagus moorei; the Myrtle
Beech, Nothofagus cunninghamii, and Deciduous
Beech (or Tanglefoot Beech),
Nothofagus gunnii.
Anzac Day gives
a rare opportunity to see Autumn gold in the Aussie bush.
"At the end of autumn, a tree in the
middle of the Tasmanian bush does something unusual. It changes
colour to red, orange and gold. Local people call it the
"turning of the fagus" and it's a spectacular reminder of
Australia's Gondwanan heritage.
"The tree is
the Deciduous Beech Nothofagus gunnii. It's the only
deciduous native tree in Tasmania and it's rather rare.
"Nothofagus is
one of the oldest genera of flowering plants in the world with a
fossil record stretching back 80 million years. It's regarded by
scientists as one of the keys to understanding how vegetation
evolved and migrated throughout the southern hemisphere …
"Traditionally,
the ANZAC Day weekend (April 25th) is when bushwalkers head out to
catch the trees in their autumn blaze."Source
[Note: Gondwanaland
is thehypothetical former composite continent in the
Southern Hemisphere, which included South America, Africa,
peninsular India, Australia, and Antarctica.]
Festival of Resurrection of Adonis, ancient Greece Source: The Phoenix and
Arabeth 1992 Calendar
Feast day of
St Anianus, second bishop of Alexandria HagiographerAlban Butler calls him a shoemaker of Alexandria; his hand was wounded
with an awl, and curedby
St Mark, who made him Bishop of Alexandria during his absence.
Another source says he mended Mark's sandal.
reetings from Australia.
How it works
Feast day of St
Mark the
Evangelist
Anzac Day
