|
|
|
|
This page is big!
If it fails to load fully, please click Refresh on your browser menu.
It's fully loaded when you see the purple menu bar at the foot of the page.
reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
First time here? See the Index for
How it works
Celebrate each and every day with a free subscription to the daily ezine. You can apply by form or send a blank email. Read what the 'Almaniacs' (members) say about Wilson's Almanac.
I request your support if this website pleases and informs you, as this is my livelihood. Thank you, from the bottom of my fridge.
Inquiries from publishers are welcome, but, dear reader, please don't use my work without my written permission. If I've inadvertently used something of yours that you consider not to fall under the fair use doctrine, please tell me and I'll remove it.
Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)
Our news on your homepage (that is, if you use My Yahoo, which we recommend for your start-up page)
|
|
|
Dry
August and warm Doth harvest no harm. Traditional English proverb The
Sun with sultry Sirius now doth rise August
is a wicked month. The
eighth was August, being rich array'd As
August, so next February A
fog in August means a severe Winter and plenty of snow. A
halo around August moon presages rain. Pale
moon doth rain, red moon doth blow. He knew How many beautiful August evenings surround an ear of corn. Robert Sund |
Sigillum Dei Aemeth (The sigil of Dei Ameth, Seal of the truth of God) |
The Emperor
Octavian,
called the August,
I being his favorite, bestowed his name
Upon me, and I hold it still in trust,
In memory of him and of his fame.
I am the Virgin, and my vestal flame
Burns less intensely than the Lion's rage;
Sheaves are my only garlands, and I claim
The golden Harvests as my heritage.
HW
Longfellow (1807
- '82);
The Poet's Calendar for
August
If the first week in August is unusually warm,
the coming Winter will be snowy and long.
Traditional English weather proverb
For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall in Winter.
Traditional English weather proverb
If a cold August follows a hot July,
It foretells a Winter hard and dry.
Traditional English weather proverb
In harvest time, harvest folke, servants and all.
Should make all togither good cheere in the hall;
And fill out the black boule of bleith to their song
And let them be merie all harvest time long ...
Once ended they harvest, let none be begilde,
Please such as did helpe thee, man, woman and childe.
Thus dooing, with alway such helpe as they can,
Thou winnest the praise of the labouring man.
Thomas Tusser
(1524 - '80), Five
hundreth pointes of good husbandrie: as well for the champion or open
countrie, as also for the woodland or severall ; mixed in everie month
with huswiferie, over and besides the booke of huswiferie, London:
'Printed in the now dwelling house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate Street
at the signe of the starre', 1586. August is harvest-time in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Grant, harvest-lord, more by a penny or two,
To call on his fellowes, the better to do;
Give gloves to thy reapers a largess to crie,
And daily to loiterers have a good eie.
Thomas Tusser
It was on a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonnie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held away to Annie:
The time flew by, wi tentless heed,
Till tween the late and early;
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.
The sky was blue, the wind was still,
The moon was shining clearly;
I set her down, wi' right good will,
Amang the rigs o'barley
I ken't her heart was a' my ain;
I lov'd her most sincerely;
I kissed her owre and owre again,
Among the rig o' barley.
I locked her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly!
She ay shall bless that happy night,
Amang the rigs o'barley.
I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear;
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho three times doubl'd fairley
That happy night was worth then a'.
Among the rig's o' barley.
CHORUS
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonnie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Among the rigs wi' Annie.
Robert
Burns (1759
- 1796), Scottish poet
I shall have a fine book of travels, I feel
sure; and will tell you more of the South Seas after very few months than
any other writer has done except Herman Melville perhaps, who is a
howling cheese.
Robert Louis
Stevenson referring (without explaining what a 'howling cheese' is) to
Herman Melville, American author born on August 1, 1819; letter to Charles
Baxter, September 6,
1888, Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vol. 2, Ch. X Source
Now, in the whale ship, it is not every one
that goes in the boats. Some few hands are reserved called ship-keepers,
whose province it is to work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the
whale. As a general thing, these ship-keepers are as hardy fellows as the
men comprising the boats' crews. But if there happen to be an unduly
slender, clumsy, or timorous wight in the ship, that wight is certain to
be made a ship-keeper. It was so in the Pequod with the little
negro Pippin by nick-name, Pip by abbreviation. Poor Pip! ye have heard of
him before; ye must remember his tambourine on that dramatic midnight, so
gloomy-jolly ...
Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright,
with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe; a
tribe, which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer, freer
relish than any other race.
Herman Melville, born on August 1, 1819;
Moby Dick,
Ch. 93, 'The Castaway'
In sum, gentlemen, what the wildness of this canal
life is, is emphatically evinced by this; that our wild whale-fishery contains
so many of its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of mankind,
except Sydney men, are so much distrusted by our whaling captains.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick,
Ch.
54, 'The Town-ho's Story'
August
1
is
the 213th
day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years),
with 152 days remaining.
On
the dating of items in the Almanac Translate
this page Find
your birthday star Daily
Everything NNDB
Time/Date
Google
Calendar
converter Almanacs,
calendars, time, dedicated weeks, etc Almanac
screensavers On
this day Dictionary
I
recommend
IMDB
days IMDB
years Wikipedia
days Wiki
decades Wiki
centuries Timelines
Convert
weights, measures, etc Calendrica
Lunabar
When 'Source' links
on this page move address or
die, I might allow them to stay here, but the
Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
August birthstones: Sardonyx, signifying marital bliss and faithfulness; peridot; aventurine.
Wear a sardonyx or for thee
No conjugal felicity.
Those August born without this stone
'Tis said must live unloved, alone.
Traditional English rhymeGoddess month: Kerea and Hesperis
The month of August
August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days.
August begins (astrologically) with the sun in the sign of Leo and ends in the sign of Virgo. Astronomically speaking, the sun begins in the constellation of Cancer and ends in the constellation of Leo.
August was named in honour of Augustus Caesar (Octavian). The month reputedly has 31 days because Augustus wanted as many days as Julius Caesar's July. Augustus placed the month where it is because that is when Cleopatra died. Before Augustus renamed August in 8 BCE, it was called Sextilis in Latin, since it was the sixth month in the Roman calendar which started in March.
In Brazil, folk superstition associates bad luck to August, with the proverb 'Agosto, o ms do desgosto' ('August, the month of misfortune') being often heard. This may come from the sinister memories of the St Bartholomew's day (August 24), which is particularly dreaded in the North-east of the country. Incongruously, (folklore is rarely neatly consistent) there is also a tradition that August is a lucky month, as it is ushered in by Lammas (August 1) and in the Northern Hemisphere is a time of harvest and bounty. According to legend, the goddess Demeter left Olympus in August to dwell on earth. Her beneficent qualities are most apparent in this harvest month.
Sources: Wikipedia et al
The Anglo-Saxons called it "Arnmonat, (more rightly barn-moneth,) intending thereby the then filling of their barnes with corne" (Verstegan). Arn is the Saxon word for 'harvest'. According to some they also called it 'Woedmonath', as they also called June.
Neopagan tradition calls August the time of the 'Corn Moon' and it is described by Black Elk (Black Elk Speaks, 1932) as the 'Moon of the Black Cherries' or 'Moon when the Cherries Turn Black'.
Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days August poems and folklore
Names of the Month in Various Cultures
Scots Gaelic An Lunasdal, month of Lugh's feast
Aleuts: The Warm month
Ugric Ostiaks: Month of hay harvest
Tatars: Grass month
Karagasses: Month in which the lily-bulb is dug up
Kamchatka: Moonlight month (people fish by moonlight)
Yukon: Swans moult, young geese fly
Eskimos: Velvet-shedding (from the horns of the reindeer)
More at: School of the Seasons
Eight Stations of the Year (Sabbats) in the Book of Days
The Eight Stations are the equinoxes, solstices, and the midway points between them
Spring Equinox/Ostara May Day/Beltaine Summer Solstice/Litha Lammas/Lughnasadh
Autumn Equinox/Mabon Halloween/Samhain Winter Solstice/Yule Brigid/Candlemas/Imbolc
Helpful external links
Wheel of the Year at Mything Links Wheel of the Year at Wikipedia
School of the Seasons Calendars at Wikipedia Almanacs, calendars, time
L Lnasa, the traditional first day of Autumn in Ireland
The modern date for Lughnasadh, as for the other great Celtic festivals, Imbolc, Beltane and Samhain, is only an approximation made necessary by a solar calendar. In Ireland, the festival began in mid-July, and lasted till mid-August, but its main focus was August 1. In the (satr) (Asatru) tradition, that day is sacred to the Norse deities Odin and Frigg; celebrants used to ascend the spiral path of the Lammas hill, on way to Lammas festivities.
What is it?
In the Northern
Hemisphere, halfway between the Summer Solstice and the
Autumn Equinox,
comes the ancient Celtic pagan
festival of Lughnasadh, also called Lughnasa (or the modern Irish
spelling, Lnasa) and Lammas, one of the eight Sabbats one of the
High Holidays, or four Greater Sabbats of the Celtic Wheel of the
Year. (This is the least known of the four seasonal cross-quarter
days. Certainly, Samhain
(Halloween) and Beltane
(May Day) get more press in our age.) In the Southern
Hemisphere, some neo-pagans call this time Imbolc, after the
station of the year directly opposite Lammas on the Wheel.
Lammas comes from Old English hlaf maesse,
meaning loaf mass', the Christian holy repast at which bread baked
from the first wheat of the season was blessed. Many
cultures have the ceremony of the first of the harvest being sacrificially
given to the gods, or god; the ancient Hebrews offered their first
fruits' to Jehovah, just as the Bemanti clan of Swaziland offer theirs
to their king during December's full moon, in the Ncwala
ceremony. When Christianity came to the Celtic lands, most ancient
festivals such as Lughnasadh were imbued by the Church with Christian
symbolism, so loaves of bread were baked from the first of the harvested
grain and consecrated on the church altar on the first Sunday of August, a
tradition still enacted in many churches.
Some have claimed that the word is from
Lamb-Mass, "because on that day the tenants who held lands under the
cathedral church in York, which is dedicated to St Peter ad Vincula, were
bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into the church at high mass;
others derive it from a supposed offering or tything of lambs at this
time" (William Hone, The
Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co.,
London, 1878; 1825-26
edition online).
The similarity of the pre-Christian name Lughnasadh to the Christian name Lammas might be more than coincidental, but it is a contended matter. The etymology might go something like this: the Celtic word nasadh meant commemoration', or to give in marriage'; the Anglo-Saxons called this festival Lughmass; because it took place between the hay harvest and the corn harvest, the name was later confused with hlaf maesse; hence Lammas'. We might, however, as easily assume that Lughnasadh' means the Marriage of Lugh, as Lugh's Mass', a rather common interpretation.
Lammas free e-cards Celtic free e-cards pagans4peace
Lugh, Celtic sun god
The god associated with the season is a Celtic sun god, Lugh, whose name is related to the Latin lux, or, light', and means the shining one' (cf Lucia).
He
was handsome, perpetually youthful, and full of vivacity and energy. Poet
and author Robert
Graves proposed that his name came from the Latin lucus (grove'), and even
perhaps lu, Sumerian for son. Lugh was a deity cognate to Hercules or Dionysus, the Romans'
version of the Greek god Apollo. Another name for him was Lugh
the Long Handed'. In Wales, he was called Lleu, or Lleu Llaw Gyffes,
meaning Lion with the Steady Hand'. Lleu means lion, related to the
Latin leo. (Note that the Zodiacal sign of Leo is now in the sun.)
Although we are uncertain whether the Gauls'
name of this Celtic deity was Romanised to Lugus/Lugos,
(whom they identified with the god Mercury), or vice versa, we do know
that the impact of both the name and the deity were widespread. Lyons in
France, for example, was originally called Lugudunum, or the Fort of Lugus,
and a festival formerly held there on August 1 was later renamed after
Caesar Augustus who had assumed major deity authority. The European towns
of Laon, Leyden and Carlisle (originally
Caer Lugubalion) also were all named after Lugh, and the modern name Hugh
also derives from the deity.
Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days
Let the games begin!
Several important and hugely attended assemblies, all involving Olympics-like games, took place during Lughnasadh in Ireland, and there is growing evidence of such games throughout Europe, because Celtic culture took root from Ireland to as far as Galatia, the Middle Eastern town mentioned in the Bible (St Paul's Epistle to the Galatians the word is etymologically related to Celtia') ...
Read on at the Lughnasadh/Lammas page in the Scriptorium
The Gule of August
The month of August was the first in the Egyptian calendar, called Gule, which when latinized makes Gula, which in Latin signifies throat. Seeing the word at the head of the month's calendar, the Roman Catholic Church made the day a feast to the daughter of the tribune Quirinus, who was cured of a throat disease by kissing the chain of St Peter on the day of its festival. "Forcing the Gule of the Egyptians into the throat of the tribune's daughter, they instituted a festival to Gule upon the festival-day of St Peter ad Vincula."
(William
Hone, The
Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and
Co., London, 1878; 1825-26
edition online)
On the dating of Egyptian festivals and rites
Feast day of St Peter ad Vincula, or St Peter's chains
(Stramony
(Jimson Weed; Jamestown Weed; Thorn Apple; Angel's Trumpet; Zombie's Cucumber), Datura stramonium, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
The Roman Catholic church claimed to have
one of the chains with which St Peter
was bound, and from which the angel delivered him. The empress
Eudocia brought the two chains in 439 from Jerusalem, sending one to
Constantinople and the other to Rome. Over many years, the popes
sent miracle-performing filings of it to devout princes.
"The enthronization of the pope in the Chair of St. Peter, Cathedra Petri, was formerly a very important ceremony, which took place at St. Peter's in Rome, or, exceptionally, in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula, where there was also a Cathedra Petri. This ceremony was performed immediately after the election, if the latter had taken place in the church of St. Peter, or before the coronation." Source
Webcam: Church of St Peter's Chains, Rome (the cleaning of Michelangelo's Moses')
Healing of the insane at Strathfillan
pool, old Scotland
"At Strathfillan,
there is a deep pool, called the Holy Pool, where, in olden times, they
were wont to dip insane people. The ceremony was performed after sunset
on the first day of the quarter, O. S.,* and before sunrise next
morning. The dipped persons were instructed to take three stones from
the bottom of the pool, and, walking three times round each of three
cairns on the bank, throw a stone into each. They were next conveyed to
the ruins of St Fillan's chapel; and in a corner called St Fillan's bed,
they were laid on their back, and left tied all night. If next morning
they were found loose, the cure was deemed perfect, and thanks returned
to the saint. The pool is still (1843) visited, not by parishioners, for
they have no faith in its virtue, but by people from other and distant
places."
New Statistical
Account of Scotland, parish of Killin, 1843; in Robert Chambers,
(Ed.), 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 first day of quarters in Scotland is not same as in England and elsewhere. They are Candlemas, Feb 2; Whitsunday, (arbitrarily set at May 15); Lammas, Aug 1; and Martinmas, Nov 11. It's debatable whether to interpret these dates as OS (Old Style), or new.]
Find an error or dead link?
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda
|
Highly recommended:
To support this project
 John Dee's Conversations with Angels  Last Sorcerers  Sorcerer's Stone  Alchemy & Mysticism  Saint Germain on Alchemy  Fundamentals of Spiritual Alchemy  Cards of Alchemy  The Dictionary of Alchemy  Alchemy  Alchemical Psychology  Isaac Newton: The Last Sorceror
Astro pic of the day
Photo of the day |
 The Games of Lugh
This is an old
Celtic name for the Perseids,
the most familiar of all meteor
showers, that take place at around this time of year. Associated
with the Swift-Tuttle
Comet, the Perseids have been well documented
since at least 830
CE and take their name from the constellation Perseus where shooting
stars appear. We can well imagine ancient Celts looking upon these
wonders and associating them with other phenomena of the season
between the equinox and solstice, including the heat of the last of
the Dog Days.
As is well known, most ancient cultures looked on meteor showers and other phenomena in the sky as having supernatural meaning. In pre-Zoroastrian India, the Perseids were the Pairikas, the prototypes of the Peris, the nymphs or female angels of later Persian tradition, and likewise the Parigs or witches of Manichaeism. The Pairikas, in the form of worm-stars, are said to fly between the earth and the heavens at this time. These shooting stars' fall annually at about the time when Tistrya (Sirius) is supposed to be most active. The remarkable
annual appearance of the Perseids might explain why the
ancient Egyptian Lychnapsia (Festival of Lights', or The
Lights of Isis') at this time of year was revered in the Osirian mysteries. In Arab folklore, shooting stars are traditionally said to be firebrands hurled by the angels against the inquisitive
Jinns or Genii, who are forever clambering up on the constellations to peep into heaven.
In Greek mythology, Perseus (pictured) was the son of mortal Danae and the god Zeus.
More on the mythology and folklore of Perseus and the Perseids on August 10 in the Book of Days.
Festival
honouring Xiuhtecuhtli
(Xiuhtechuhtli; Huehueteotl, old god'), god of fire and the calendar,
Aztec At the end of the Aztec
century (52 years), the gods were thought to be able to end their
covenant with humanity. Feasts were held in honour of Xiuhtecuhtli
to keep his favours, and human sacrifices were burned after the
removal of the victims' hearts. Three Drimes,
Greece Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11) Kalends of August, ancient Rome Day of the
Dryads, ancient Macedonia Honey Day,
Russia Procession
of the Cross, Orthodox
Christianity Feast day of St Aled (Eunid; Elined)
|
