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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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It has all been most interesting. Until the Yom Kippur War, in 1973, until then Israel
didn't have a chance but to fight for her life. We were attacked
five times, outgunned, outnumbered, on a small piece of land, and
our main challenge was to remain alive. |
Circus Maximus, Rome |
If a problem has no solution, it may not
be a problem, but a fact – not to be solved, but to be coped with
over time.
Shimon Peres
With the religious you can hardly negotiate.
They think they have supreme permission to kill people and go to
war.
Shimon Peres
Keep the bastards honest.
The political philosophy of Don Chipp (b. August 21, 1935), founder of the Australian Democrats, an alternative to the two main Australian parties. The Democrats use it as an unofficial slogan.
He is one of the rarest species on Earth. A popular politician. He entered parliament in 1960 and was the Liberal with so much get up and go, that he ultimately got up and went.
ABC TV's Enough
Rope, on Don Chipp
I
woke up this mornin',
There were tears in my bed.
They killed a man I really loved
Shot him through the head.
Lord, Lord,
They cut George Jackson down.
Lord, Lord,
They laid him in the ground.
Bob Dylan; 'George
Jackson'; George Jackson was killed on August 21, 1971
August 21
is the 233rd
day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (234th in
leap years), with 132 days
remaining.
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the dating of items in the Almanac Translate
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Consualia, Roman
Empire (Jul 7; Aug 21; Dec 15)
Onto our horses and into our chariots today! Today commemorates Consus, Roman mythology's god of harvests, sign of a good harvest later in the month. Consus was also god of secret deliberations (perhaps due to a common misinterpretation of his name). According to Livy (i.9), Neptunus Equestris or Equester (Neptune) was the god so honoured, while Plutarch and others say that Neptunus Equestris and Consus were only different names for one and the same deity.
Perhaps
because of Consus's association with secrecy it's appropriate that
little is known about him, but we do know, or assume from his cellar-like
altar, that he was the god of fertility and underground grain stores.
There was an altar (Ara
Consus) to Consus underground at the first turn in the Circus;
sacrifice was made there in the month of Quinctilis
(Quintilis) by the sacerdotibus publicis,
and in Sextilis by the flamen
Quirinalis and the Vestal
Virgins, the attendants of the goddess Vesta.
Consus was associated with Ops, the Roman goddess of harvests, the wife of Saturn and mother of Jupiter and Juno, from whom the word 'opulent' derives. Her feast day is December 19.
The commemoration was solemnised annually in the Circus Maximus at Rome, where there was a symbolical ceremony of uncovering an altar that had been dedicated to the god and buried in the earth. This ritual came about because Romulus (who was suckled by a wolf, and founded Rome, with his twin brother, Remus) was said to have discovered an altar in the earth on that very spot.
Today the Romans held horse and chariot races, and libations were poured into the flames that consumed the sacrifices. During the period of the festivities, horses and mules were adorned with garlands of flowers and their owners were forbidden to work them.
Consus was eventually identified with Neptunus Equester, the alias and counterpart of Poseidon Hippios (Neptune), who was the founder of Atlantis, where, according to Plato, horses (hippos, equus) originated. Hence the connection with the animal.
His
altar was also placed near the Circus Maximus,
beneath the ground. The altar was unearthed only during the Consualia, his
festival which, according to William Smith (Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1875),
took place on July
7, August 21 and December 15. Mule races were
the main event of the festival because the mule was his sacred animal. As well, the rex sacrorum
(sacred king) would appear in full garb riding his horse-drawn chariot
once around the Circus Maximus.
According to legend, it was at the first celebration of the Consualian Games that the Sabine maidens were carried off. The legend says that the Romans raped (ie, abducted) the Sabine women to populate the new-built town, but modern studies have found many relationships between the two peoples, especially regarding religion and mythology.
Romans fought many wars with the inland Sabines; Horatius is supposed to have defeated them in the 5th Century BCE, and Manius Curius Dentatus conquered them in 290 BCE. The Samnites were possibly a branch of the Sabines. In 268, the Sabines became Roman citizens. Many Sabine deities and cults became established in Rome, and many parts of the city (like the Quirinale) were once Sabine centres.See
Ovid,
Fasti iii.199
and
Roman
calendar
See also the Circensian Games in the Book of Days
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
[If you know of a good picture of Consus, I'd be pleased to know about it.]
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On the Saturday nearest August 24 A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac At the North Yorkshire village of West Witton, people make a straw effigy called Owd (old) Bartle, and carry him through the town in procession. Bartle, who is made secretly, has filthy hair, straw stuffing and flashing red lights for eyes; a Mr Alan Harker had been the Bartle-maker for at least 35 years by the 1980s. Bartle is paraded around West Witton by a 'chief executioner', stopping at certain houses and pubs such as the Fox and Hounds. Before sunset there are flower shows and fancy dress, but when night falls on the village, so does a more sinister ambience. At Grassgill Lane the villagers stab Bartle and burn him on a bonfire in a custom the meaning and origins of which are lost to time. Following the burning, many people retire to the pub. Who was Bartle? The original Bartle might have been a local thief who was killed, perhaps burned at the stake. An often-repeated tale is that a sheep-stealer (some say swine thief) was caught at his trade and pursued from the heights of Pen Hill to the edge of the village, where he was summarily executed. This genealogy page shows that Bartles have indeed lived in Yorkshire. Some say Bartle was a giant who who once roamed the area of West Witton, and was buried on the village side of Pen Hill in a grave large enough to hold ten normal men. Others say that he was a local pagan deity of the harvest; still others suggest that Burning Bartle might not be a bonfire ceremony with ancient pagan roots (such as the England-wide Guy Fawkes Night on November 5), but began as late as the 18th Century. Yet some sources claim that records of Bartetide exist from the 16th Century. In Victorian times Witton Feast lasted three days. August 24, to which this ritual is linked, is the folklore-rich Feast of St Bartholomew, from whom the name Bartle is derived; other British derivatives are Badcock, Badman, Bartlet, Bartlett, Batcock, Bate, Bates, Bateman, Bateson, Batkin, Batson, Batt, Batten, Batty, Tolly, Barson, Batterson, Betterson and Bettison. Monies from a local fund called the Smirthwaite Trust are distributed each Bartletide to anyone born in the town who has attained the age of 70; people born elsewhere must be 75 years of age. The traditional song that is always sung at this event goes:
Mysterious sites of North Yorkshire More on West Witton Lammastide pagan sacrifices (also in August) Robin Hood's Yorkshire grave More European bonfires Yorkshire wassail Mother Shipton, Yorkshire prophetess
Feast day of
St Abraham of
Smolensk Feast day of
St Aria Feast day of
Ss Bonosus and Maxmilian, martyrs Feast day of
St Bernard
Tolomeo (Ptolemy), founder of the Olivetans Feast day of
St Cameron Feast day of
St Cyriaca Feast day of
St Gilbert Feast day of
St Hardulph
Feast day of
St Jane Frances de Chantal, widow and abbess Feast day of
St Joseph Nien
Vien Feast day of
St Our Lady of
Knock Feast day of
St Pius X Feast day of St Quadratus
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1560 James Crichton ('The Admirable Crichton'; d. July 3, 1582), Scottish prodigy and polymath noted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences, of whom it was said he could answer any question on any science or liberal arts subject in 12 languages: Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish or Slavonic 1754 William Murdoch (d. November 15, 1839), Scottish engineer, the inventor of gas lighting who coined the term 'gasometer' and also invented the pneumatic tube message system 1765 William IV of the United
Kingdom (d. 1837), king
remembered for his many love affairs 1811 William Kelly (d. 1888), iron manufacturer, inventor
1872
Aubrey
Beardsley (d.
1898), English
illustrator Aubrey
Beardsley Erotica (Mature
content)
1904 Count
Basie (d. 1984) This jazz orchestra leader was born in New Jersey,
USA. The nickname was given him by a radio announcer in the 1930s.
He worked with legends such as Billie
Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and
Sammy Davis, Jr. 1906 Friz
Freleng, movie animator 1920 Christopher Robin Milne, propotype of the Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh stories 1923 Shimon
Peres, Prime Minister of Israel 1924 Jack Weston, actor (d. 1996) 1928 Art
Farmer, trumpet player 1930 Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom (d. 2002), sister of
Queen Elizabeth II 1932 Melvin Van Peebles, actor, screenwriter 1935 Don Chipp (d. August 28, 2006), AO, Australian politician, one time Minister for the Navy, who left the Liberal Party and founded the Australian Democrats, the nation's third-largest party, with the slogan, "Keep the Bastards Honest", referring to the two dominant parties, Labor on the left, and the misnamed Liberals on the right. The Australian Democrats have declined somewhat in recent years, not because the bastards have become honest, but because the task of keeping them that way has become increasingly onerous. Much of the party's left wing support has gone to the Australian Greens. 1938 Kenny
Rogers,
American C&W singer He was a member of the New Christy Minstrels, which split and a new group called The First Edition was formed, with Kenny Rogers as a member. They released 'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town' under the name of Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. It was an international hit and launched his solo career. 1939 Clarence Williams III, actor 1944 Jackie DeShannon,
(born Sharon Myers), American singer ('What
the World Needs Now Is Love') 1956 Kim
Cattrall, actress 1956 Anne Louise Lambert, Australian actress who played Miranda in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) 1967 Carrie-Anne Moss, actress
Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section
Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year.
29 Lemon Juice Day 29 Chop Suey Day 30 Toasted Marshmallow Day 31 Eat Outside Day September 1 Cherry
Popover Day ... More Events Visit
the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live'
1153 Death of
Bernard of Clairvaux, Christian theologian,
stomper of freethinkers, pagans and Arabs (see his feast day yesterday for profile). 1157 Death of Alfonso VII (b. 1104 / 05), King of Castile. 1192 Minamoto Yoritomo became Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192.) 1614 Death of Elizabeth Bathory (b. 1560), serial killer. 1621 New World: One widow and eleven maidens consigned to the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, were ordered to be sold at the rate of 120 pounds of tobacco for each. 1680 Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe from the Spanish during the |
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