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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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Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

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Today is

Good Friday comes this month: the old woman runs.
With one a penny, two a penny, "hot cross buns",
Whose virtue is, if you believe what's said,
They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread.
Poor Robin's Almanack, 1733
 
If it rain on Good Friday or Easter Day,
T'will be a good yar of grass but a sorrowful year of hay.
English traditional proverb

I class Rabelais with the great creative minds of the world, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, andc.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Rabelais died on April 9, 1553

Let down the curtain, the farce is over.
Last words of François Rabelais

I have nothing. I owe much. I leave the rest to the poor.
From the will of Rabelais

No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
Francis Bacon (b. 1561), English Renaissance polymath, who died on April 9, 1626; 'Of Truth'

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Death'

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Revenge'

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Adversity'

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Marriage and Single Life'

Men in great place are thrice servants,—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Great Place'

Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."
Francis Bacon; 'Of Boldness'

The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Goodness'

The remedy is worse than the disease.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Seditions'

I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Atheism'

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Travel'

There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Cunning'

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic [medicine]. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Regimen of Health'

Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Fortune'

Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Youth and Age'

Virtue is like a rich stone,—best plain set.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Beauty'

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis Bacon; 'Of Studies'

We sailed from Peru, where we had continued by the space of one whole year, for China and Japan, by the South Sea, taking with us victuals for twelve months; and had good winds from the east, though soft and weak, for five months' space and more.
Francis Bacon; opening sentence of New Atlantis, 1626

In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior, for it is a prince's part to pardon. 
Francis Bacon

For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages.
Francis Bacon; from his will

In his adversity, I ever prayed that God would give him strength, for greatness he could not want.
Ben Jonson, writing of the disgraced Sir Francis Bacon

Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any country, ever produced.
Alexander Pope, 1741

Genius is childhood recaptured.
Charles Baudelaire, French poet, born on April 9, 1821

Be drunken always with wine, poetry ... even with virtue.
Charles Baudelaire

It would be useless and therefore cruel to provoke the further effusion of blood, and I have arranged to meet with General Grant with a view to surrender.
Robert E Lee, on the morning of April 9, 1865, speaking of Ulysses S Grant

When compared with the suppression of anarchy every other question sinks into insignificance. The anarchist is the enemy of humanity, the enemy of all mankind, and his is a deeper degree of criminality than any other. No immigrant is allowed to come to our shores if he is an anarchist; and no paper published here or abroad should be permitted circulation in this country if it propagates anarchist opinions.
US President Theodore Roosevelt, 'Message To the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Regarding Transmission Through the Mails of Anarchistic Publications', April 9, 1908

A brilliant man has passed away,
   John Norton was his name;
He made the tyrants shake with fear,
   The coward blush with shame.
For wowsers, quacks, and hypocrites
   He had not time at all,
He hated cant and humbug,
   And those who cringe and crawl.
Patrick Francis Collins ('Paddy the Poet'), street poet, on the occasion of John Norton's death on April 9, 1916

I'd like to take you now, on wings of song as it were, and try and help you forget for a while your drab, wretched lives.
Tom Lehrer, born April 9, 1928; 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park'

All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Every Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.
Tom Lehrer; ibid

Life is like a sewer – what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
Tom Lehrer

Oh, soon we'll be out amid the cold world's strife.
Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life.
Tom Lehrer 

April 9 is the 99^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (100^th in leap years), with 266 days remaining.
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Good Friday (2004)

On the dating of items in the Almanac

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good Friday is a special day celebrated by Christians on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion. Many Christians view Jesus Christ's crucifixion as a voluntary and vicarious act by which death itself was conquered, not as a temporary defeat overturned by His resurrection on the third day.

In Early Modern English, good had a meaning of "holy". A "good tide" is, for example, Christmas or Shrove Tuesday.

Eastern Orthodox Christians spend all this day in fasting from all food, to the extent that their health permits. It is the one day of the year they are forbidden from celebrating the Divine Liturgy, thereby fasting from the Eucharist as well. Instead, they meet up to three times during the day for prayer: in the forenoon, to pray the Royal Hours appointed for that day; in the afternoon, the Vespers of Holy Friday; and in the evening, the Matins of Holy Saturday.

The people relive the events of the day through public reading of the Psalms, Gospels, and singing the hymns about Christ's death. Visual imagery and symbolism is also often used: in the morning, a large cross is moved to the front or center of the nave (where the congregation gathers), and a two dimensional painted body of Christ or corpus is placed on it. During the afternoon prayers, it is removed from the cross and taken to the altar in the sanctuary, and an epitaphion is brought down to a low table in the nave representing the tomb; it is often decorated with an abundance of flowers. The epitaphion itself represents the body of Jesus wrapped in a burial shroud, and is a roughly full-size cloth icon of the body of Christ. During the evening prayers, the shroud is part of a procession outside the church, and is then returned to the tomb.

During this reliving of Christ's death, the hymns do not forget the coming resurrection. Holding both events in tension, the following troparion (type of hymn) is sung during the afternoon prayers while the shroud is being carried to the tomb:

The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy most pure Body from the tree, wrapped it in fine linen, and anointed it with spices, and placed it in a new tomb.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

The angel came to the myrrh-bearing women at the tomb and said:

Myrrh is fitting for the dead, but Christ has shown Himself a stranger to corruption.

In many historically Christian countries, such as New Zealand, the day is celebrated with the eating of hot cross buns, the withdrawal of advertising from television and radio, and the closure of most shops for the day. Eastern Orthodox Christians eat as little as possible on this day.

The term 'Good Friday' has been adopted recently by The Karma Army to denote the day of the week they perform Random Acts of Kindness, but has no connection to the Christian celebration.

Good Friday Prayer    The trial of Jesus Christ, in Crime Library

Related in the Book of Days: Feast day of St Longinus, who speared the side of Jesus Christ with the Spear of Destiny; Friday the 13^th folklore and origins; Feast day of Pontius Pilate

 

Hot-cross buns! Hot-cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot-cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot-cross buns!
But if you have none of these little elves,
Then you may eat them all yourselves.
English street vendors' cry, and nursery rhyme

 

Hot cross buns

It's Good Friday in the Christian world (except for Orthodox), and traditionally today, in much of the Anglophone world, is the day to eat hot cross buns (see recipe), and they are still very popular in many countries such as Australia. In the Museo Borbonico in Rome is an ancient sculpture representing the miracle of the five barley loaves. Each loaf is marked with a cross, which is remarkable, as hot-cross buns are not eaten in Europe.

It might have started as a pagan custom, as suggested by both the early folklorists E Cobham Brewer (Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) and Robert Chambers (The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 [1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days]). The worship of the Queen of Heaven with cakes may well have been, as Chambers notes, "a custom to be found alike in China and in ancient Mexico, as well as many other countries. In Egypt, the cakes were horned to resemble the sacred heifer, and then called bous, which in one of its oblique cases is boun – in short, bun!"

The Greeks offered cakes with 'horns' on them to Apollo, Diana, Hecate and Selene (the moon). Such a cake was called a bous, and (it is said) never grew mouldy. The round bun represented the full moon, and the cross symbolised the four quarters.

Brewer says that Good Friday's hot cross buns were traditionally made of the dough kneaded for the host (as used in church ritual), and were naturally enough marked with a cross. They were said to keep for twelve months without turning mouldy, and some people would hang up one or more in their house as a talisman against evil.

We also note that bous was the word the Greeks used for cattle (cf English 'bull' and Latin 'bovis'). Many Middle Eastern female deities from Astarte (Ishtar/Innana) and Isis to the Virgin Mary are frequently depicted with the crescent moon or similar-shaped horn emblems. (See also Horned God.)

Diogenes Laertius, speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed. "He offered one of the sacred Liba, called a Bouse, which was made of fine flour and honey." It is said of Cecrops that he first offered up this sort of sweet bread. Hence we may judge of the antiquity of the custom from the times to which Cecrops is referred. The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he is speaking of the Jewish women at Pathros, in Egypt, and of their base idolatry; in all which their husbands had encouraged them. The women, in their expostulation upon his rebuke, tell him: "Did we make her cakes to worship her?" Jerem. xliv. 18, 19; vii. 18.
Knowlson, T Sharper, The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs, T Werner Laurie, Ltd, London, 1930

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Ireland: sow parsley

Good Friday is traditionally the time to sow parsley which, if it grows thick and strong, brings prosperity to the mother of the household.  

A Good Friday curse

"It is said that a countess of Henneberg accused a beggar of adultery because she carried twins, whereupon the beggar prayed that the countess might carry as many children as there are days in the year. According to the legend, this happened on Good Friday, 1276. All the males were named John, and all the females Elizabeth. The countess was forty-two at the time."
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

Born on Good Friday

Washing Molly Grime

"In the church of Glentham, Lincolnshire, there is a tomb with a figure, popularly called Molly Grime; and this figure was regularly washed every Good Friday by seven old maids of Glentham, with water brought from Newell Well, each receiving a shilling for her trouble, in consequence of an old bequest connected with some property in that district. About 1832, the property being sold without any reservation of the rent-charge of this bequest, the custom was discontinued."
Robert Chambers, op cit

Easter cakes, Dorset and Devon, UK

On Good Friday it was once the custom, in Dorset and Devon, that a clerk carried to each house a few white, bitter-sweet cakes as an Easter offering. They were about one eighth of an inch thick, and about five or seven inches in diameter. The clerk would receive a gratuity for this annual ritual.  

Display in Medieval Durham, England

William Hone (The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, Vol., 1, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online) tells us that in Durham Cathedral, over Our Lady of Bolton's altar, was an image called Our Lady of Bolton, made to open from the breast downward, and there in the picture was an image of Christ "marvellously finely gilt", holding up his hands, between which was a large crucifix, all of gold. Every Good Friday the men of the village crept up to it. Two of the old monks took a crucifix, lay it on a velvet cushion, with St Cuthbert's heraldic arms on it, all embroidered in gold, and took it to the lowest steps in the choir, each monk on either side of the image. One monk rose, and went away, crawling on his knees back to the cross, barefooted, and kissed the crucifix; the other monk then did the same. At this point the prior came down and did likewise. All during this time, the church choir was singing. Then the cross was carried to the sepulchre.

Jesus and the errands – April Fool forerunner?

The April 1 tradition of sending someone on a 'fool's errand' might be linked to Jesus Christ being sent uselessly back and forth between Annas, Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate and Herod before the Crucifixion.

Good Friday, until 16^th Century, England

Before the Reformation in England, a dressed figure of Jesus Christ on a crucifix was carried around the altar by two priests who laid it on ground and kissed its hands and feet with tears and sighs. People came bearing gifts, such as corn and eggs. They buried the image amidst incense burning, and placed flowers on grave.

The King blessed rings (cramp-rings), which were given to people, and said to be able to cure of cramp. The monarch came in state to his chapel, where he found a crucifix on a cushion and a carpet spread before him. He would crawl towards the crucifix, and there bless the rings in a silver basin, kneeling all the time. Afterwards, the queen and her ladies would also creep to the cross.

Bread baked on Good Friday was kept by family whole year. Crumbs from it dropped into water would help any ailment, particularly diarrhoea. Or, so it is said.

Creeping to the cross

It is a Catholic tradition to approach the altar rails and render homage to the cross. In Europe, as late as the 16^th Century, 'creeping to the cross' was made with offering of eggs, bacon and other foods. The custom derives from the veneration of the True Cross at Jerusalem.

Serbia: Easter eggs in vineyards

Today, Easter eggs are traditionally put in vineyards to ensure a bountiful crop. 

The Tyrole

Tyrolese believe a Good Friday egg is fresh for a year, and cannot be broken even if thrown over a house. 

Good Friday egg remedy, Dauphiné  Region, France

To cure infantile stomach-ache: a Good Friday-laid egg was cooked, inserted in an acorn, and hung around the patient's neck.

The game of competitive marbles has been played at Tinsley Green in a tradition that goes back at least to 1600. Notes and Queries in 1879 records that:

From time immemorial, marbles playing has been popular in Sussex; in some parts of the county Ash Wednesday, as well as Good Friday, has been known as 'Marbles Day'.

Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection    Lunar phase info (pop-up)     More Good Friday folklore at School of the Seasons

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Hiketeria, ancient Greece "Supplication of Apollo at Delphinion for the rescue of Theseus and youths from the Minotaur." Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar Derivation of 'Hiketeria' "… for suppliants approached the one whose aid they would implore holding an olive branch entwined with white wool and fillets, to signify that they came as suppliants. "  Source Festivals in ancient Greece   Festival of Megalesia (Magna Mater) of Cybele (Apr 4 - 10), ancient Rome   Feast day of St Acacius Noted for his work with, and charity to Persian prisoners of war, to pay their ransom, St Acacius melted down the altar pieces and sacred vessels of his church. This so impressed the Persian King Bahram V that he ended the persecution of Christians in his domain. Feast day of St Brogan Feast day of St Casilda of Toledo Feast day of St Demetrius Feast day of St Dotto, abbot in Orkney Feast day of St Eupsychius, martyr Feast day of St Francis of Paola This prophet and miracle worker was reputed to read minds. In 1464 he desired to cross the Straits of Messina to reach Sicily, but a boatman refused to take him. Francis laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff to make a sail, and sailed happily across with his companions. The good saint died on Good Friday while still at court in France. In 1562 Huguenots opened his tomb, found his body incorrupt, and burned it. The bones were salvaged by Catholics, and distributed as relics to various churches. Feast day of St Gaucherius (Gautier), abbot in Limousin Feast day of St Hedda Feast day of St Benedictine abbot. He and 84 of his brother monks were martyred by invading pagan Danes. Feast day of St Heliodorus Feast day of St Hilary Feast day of St Hugh of Rouen Feast day of St Innocent of Berzo Feast day of St James of Padua Feast day of St John of Vespignano Feast day of St Madrun Feast day of the Martyrs of Croyland Feast day of the Martyrs of Pannonia Feast day of the Massylitian martyrs in Africa Feast day of St Mary of Cleophas Mother of Saint James the Lesser, sister of Mary. Feast day of St Mary of Egypt (Red polyanthus, Primula polyantha rubra, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.) Feast day of the Roman captives, martyrs in Persia Feast day of St Thomas of Tolentino Feast day of St Waltrude Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Procession of the Penitents and Entombment, Lessines, Belgium Ceremony on Greek island of Hydra An especially moving and colourful ceremony which is accompanied by old local folkways. Festival in Corfu, Greece The faithful proceed through the streets of the town with lighted candles, following the Epitaphios, or pall. Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan (Apr 3 - 29) Tsurugaoka Hachiman (Shrine) Spring Festival, Japan (Apr 7 - 14) Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor, celebrated as Bataan Day in Bataan) in the Philippines Today is a Philippine national holiday commemorating the Bataan Death March, a war crime involving the forcible transfer of prisoners of war, with wide-ranging abuse and high fatalities, by Japanese forces in the Philippines, in 1942, during World War II. (See below: 1942, On this day in history.) More Feast of Jalál (Glory) - First day of the second month of the Bahá'í Calendar, Bahá'í Faith Day of National Unity, an annual public holiday in Georgia Education and Sharing Day (date varies) On the dating of items in the Almanac Education and Sharing day is a day made by the United States Congress in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson's efforts for education and sharing. It was inaugurated on April 18, 1978 and since proclaimed annually on the Jewish birthday of Schneerson. In 2006 it was on April 9.     1802 Elias Lönnrot (d. 1884), collector of folklore, linguist, medical doctor, professor in Finnish philology. He compiled the Finnish national epic Kalevala  for which he travelled among the Lapps, the Estonians and the Finnish for about ten years, interviewing and writing down their stories, poems and songs. He also compiled a Finnish-Swedish dictionary and began the first magazine in Finnish, Mehiläinen (The Bee). He also wrote and arranged psalms. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used Kalevala's meter and style in his poem The Song of Hiawatha. Dear my kinsman, friend fraternal, You my fairest foster-brother! Come and sing with me in concord, Let us sing and say together, Since together we have got here Coming from two different quarters! Seldom do we see each other, Rarely reap the fruits of friendship, Here within these barren borders, In these careful Northern confines. From the Kalevala, trans. by Cid Erik Tallqvist   Other writers inspired by the Kalevala: JRR Tolkien, Eino Leino, Matti Kuusi, Lennart Meri More   1806 Isambard Kingdom Brunel (d. 1859), British engineer. The absent-minded Brunel A most remarkable man, often thought of as the greatest engineer in history, he was so absent-minded he caressed the hand of a lady, not his wife, at dinner. He would get on the wrong coach and not realise till he had travelled a long way. He would forget his own name; hand out other people's calling cards. But he had great presence of mind, too: once he was inspecting the Birmingham railway, and found himself between two lines when two trains were approaching from opposite directions. While spectators stood in horror, he buttoned up his coat, brought the skirts close to his body, and stood firmly between the two railway lines. The trains swept past and left him unscathed.   1821 Charles Baudelaire (d. 1867), French poet. Baudelaire was one of the greatest of 19th-Century French poets, who formed with Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine the so-called Decadents. His translations of Edgar Allan Poe made Poe better known in France than in Poe's home country at the time. When his Les Fleurs du Mal appeared in 1857 all – author, publisher and printer – were prosecuted and found guilty of obscenity and blasphemy. In law college, Baudelaire became addicted to opium and hashish and also contracted syphilis, which proved lethal. After a lecture tour in Belgium he became seriously ill and died in Paris in his mother's arms.