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If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
Maria Montessori, innovative Italian educator, born on August 31, 1870; The Montessori Method, Ch. 5, 1912

The first idea that the child must acquire, in order to be actively disciplined, is that of the difference between good and evil; and the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.
Maria Montessori; ibid

Discipline must come through liberty ... We do not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.
Maria Montessori; ibid

If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.
Maria Montessori; The Absorbent Mind, Ch. 1, 1949

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori

Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald

 
The Book of Saints

The Encyclopedia of Saints

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints

Golden Bough
Folklore classic

History of the Devil or The Horned God of the West

Pre-order F9/11 now!

Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD or VHS

Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Read Outfoxed review

 

The Da Vinci Code

Breaking The Da Vinci Code

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM

The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Life in a Medieval Village

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Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It

What Would Jefferson Do?
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How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World

Songs in the Key of W

Pagan Christianity

In Praise of Slowness

The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set
By CS Lewis

Hello Laziness!
By Corrine Maier

For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
By James Yee

Medieval Celebrations

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The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites

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The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe

The Murray Bookchin Reader

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Astro pic of the day

American Folklore

Permaculture

Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation: Backstage With Barry Humphries

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The Edible Asian Garden

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Live with Passion!
Anthony Robbins


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Celtic Daily Prayer

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Poor Richard's Almanack
By Benjamin Franklin

Photo of the day

Mother Earth Spirituality

Wheel of the Year

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

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"The last day of each month is sacred to the Goddess Hekate. In ancient times, worshippers would leave a 'Hecate's Supper' with specially prepared foods as offerings to Hecate. The offerings were also gifts to appease the restless ghosts, called apotropaioi by the Greeks. These offerings are best prepared for the goddess on the eve of the new moon, to be left behind at crossroads at night, without looking back."   Source

Ganesh Chaturthi (Hinduism; date varies annually, approx. Aug 20 to Sep 15)

Feast day of St Albertinus

Feast day of St Amatus

Feast day of St Ammia

Feast day of St Aristides the Athenian
A 2^nd-Century Greek Christian author, believed to have died in approximately the year 134. He is primarily known as the author of the Apology of Aristides. See also Saints Barlaam and Josaphat.

More

Feast day of Babolenus of Bobbio (not kidding)

Feast day of St Caesidius

Feast day of St Cyprian of Carthage

Feast day of St Cuthberge, Queen of Northumbria, virgin and abbess

Feast day of St Dominic del Val

Feast day of St Isabel

Feast day of St Optatus of Auxerre

Feast day of St Paulinus of Trier

Feast day of St Raymond Nonnatus, confessor
(Autumnal pheasant's eye, Adonis autumnalis, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Nonnatus, whose name means 'not born' (non-natus), was delivered by caesarian section. He spent his entire estate ransoming Christians from pagans (Moors), then surrendered himself as a hostage to free another. To keep him from preaching the Gospel, his captors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, attaching a padlock.

Feast day of St Richard Bere

Feast day of St Rufina

Feast day of St Theodotus

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Eyo masquerade, Lagos, Nigeria

"In the Nigerian capitol of Lagos, masqueraders called Eyos wander the streets concealed in white robes, carrying long sticks. Each represents an individual family and symbolizes authority. A person crossing the path of an Eyo must remove his hat and shoes as a sign of respect. An offended Eyo will attack with its stick."   Source

 

Sunrise dance, Apache (Aug 31- Sep 3)
The sunrise dance is a puberty ceremony – or na'ii'ees ('preparing her,' or 'getting her ready') – for young women.

"Na'ii'ees is a ritual enactment of the Apache origin myth. Long ago, according to the myths, Is dzán naadleeshe', Changing Woman lived all alone. One day she had sexual intercourse with the Sun, and as a result of this union brought forth Naye' nazgháné (Slayer of Monsters), the foremost Western Apache culture hero. Four days later, Changing Woman became pregnant by Water Old-Man and gave birth to Túbaadeschine (Born of Water Old-Man). As the twins matured, Changing Woman and other powerful figures taught them all of the things Apaches needed to know. As soon as they were old enough, Naye' nazgháné and Túbaadeschine left home and rid the earth of much evil.

"Changing Woman's power grants longevity. Although she grows old, she is always able to recapture her youth by walking towards the east and turning around counterclockwise four times. This power is transferred to the pubescent girl through songs sung by the diiyin ('one who has power'), the medicine man. The 32 or more songs are believed to have first been sung by Changing Woman and are collectively known as gohzhoosih ('songs of beauty and goodness'). This power resides in her for four days after the ceremony. During this period, the pubescent girl personifies Changing Woman and is said to be able to cure the sick and bring rain."   Source

Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Aga-ou (Offerings: particularly goats, peppers, peppermint), (Aug 30, 31) Voudon (Voodoo)   Source    More

Late August, Early September: Freeing the Insects, Japan

An ancient rite held when the "seven grasses of summer" are in full bloom. People buy insects in small bamboo cages from vendors (usually bought on May 28), and free them in public parks. The person listens for the chirpings as they go free.

Usuki Stone Buddhas Fire Festival, Usuki, Oita Prefecture, Japan
"At twilight, the mysterious stone Buddha statues of Usuki are illuminated by flickering torchlight."   Source

Eisa Matsuri, Okinawa City, Japan (Aug 31 - Sep 1)
"Hugely-popular festival of traditional dance, music and drumming that brings Okinawa's bon festival celebrations to a close. Teams from all over Okinawa compete to be the most colourful, exuberant and stylish dancers at the festival. Held concurrently with the Orion beer festival. Climaxes with a spectacular fireworks display."   Source

Rabbits on the last day of the month
In the 1920s, there was a custom in the UK to say the word 'rabbit' three times when going to bed on the last day of the month. The superstition did not end there: on rising, the person was to say 'hare' three times. However, sources differ on this point, with one saying that the words 'rabbit, rabbit, rabbit', and not 'hare' should be said on the morning of the month's first day ...

Read more at Wilson's Almanac http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/ed4.html

International Day of Blogs and Bloggers (Blog Day)

Independence Day, Trinidad and Tobago (1962)

Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra), Moldova

Independence Day, Kyrgyzstan (from USSR, 1991)

Hari Merdeka, Malaysia, a National Day (independence within the Commonwealth, 1957)

On which day of the week were you born? Find out here

12 CE Gaius Caligula (Gaius Augustus Germanicus, died January 15, 41), Roman Emperor renowned for his cruelty. He was tall, a massively sized man, with a hairy body but bald head, and described as having sunken eyes. To save money he fed criminals to the wild beasts he kept for cruel sports.

One well-known anecdote tells that Caligula appointed his horse, Incitatus, as a Senator. Before the emperor got around to having Incitatus made a Consul, as he intended, Caligula was assassinated in 41 by several of his own guards.

161 Commodus (d. 192), Roman Emperor

1811 Theophile Gautier (d. 1872), poet, novelist

1834 Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer

1844 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps [Ward] (d. January 28, 1911), best-selling American spiritualist author (The Gates Ajar) and poet ('The Christmas of Sir Galahad'; 'The Terrible Test'; 'Elaine and Elaine'; 'Guinevere'). She was the daughter of author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1815 - '52).

"In 1868 Phelps published a sentimental and didactic novel entitled The Gates Ajar. It is the story of a girl's struggle to renew her faith despite the death of a beloved brother. The novel was immediately popular, selling 80,000 copies in the United States and 100,000 in England; it was translated into at least four languages. 

"Phelps subsequently wrote 56 more books, in addition to poetry, pamphlets, and short articles. Her later work was often concerned with the domestic status of women. The Story of Avis (1877) and Doctor Zay (1882), for example, focus on the problem of women facing the demands of both career and marriage. Phelps also advocated the causes of labor, temperance, and antivivisection in her novels, which include The Silent Partner (1871), Beyond the Gates (1883), A Singular Life (1895), Walled In (1907), and Comrades (1911). She also wrote a biography of her father, Austin Phelps (1891)."   Source

Bibliography    Click for cover of The Gates Ajar (new window)    More   And more

1863 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (Gorsky; d. September 27, 1944), Russian pioneer of photography. He studied with renowned scientists in Saint Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris, and developed early techniques for taking colour photographs. His own original research yielded patents for producing color film slides and for projecting colour motion pictures. Around 1905 Prokudin-Gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advancements that had been made in colour photography to systematically document the Russian Empire.

Click the thumbnail for Prokudin-Gorskii's amazing self-portrait of 1915; 168kb, opens in new window.

Click for some of his early 1900s colour photographs

Private project by Frank Dellaert including some 1900 realigned colour versions of the images in the Library of Congress archive

Prokudin-Gorskii's Color Photoportraits of Leo Tolstoy    More

1870 Maria Montessori (d. 1952) innovative Italian educator, author of The Montessori Method

1879 Alma Mahler (d. 1969), composer

1880 Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)

1885 DuBose Heyward (d. 1940), playwright

1897 Fredric March (d. 1975), American actor

If Tuesday Weld married Fredric March II, would she be Tuesday, March the Second?

1903 Arthur Godfrey, television host (d. 1983)

1907 William Shawn, editor

1907 Ramon Magsaysay, Philippine president

1908 William Saroyan (d. 1981), American novelist, playwright

William Saroyan Centennial

1913 Sir Bernard Lovell, British radio astronomer, director (until 1981) of the Jodrell Bank Observatory

1914 Richard Basehart (d. 1984), American actor (TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)

1916 Daniel Schorr, journalist

1918 Alan Jay Lerner, American writer of musicals (Camelot; My Fair Lady)

1924 Buddy Hackett, American comic actor

1928 James Coburn (d. 2002), American actor (Our Man Flint)

1935 Eldridge Cleaver (d. 1998), American Black Panther leader

1938 Martin Bell, British journalist and politician

1940 Jack Thompson, Australian actor

1945 Van Morrison, Irish singer (Moondance; Gloria)

1945 Itzhak Perlman, musician

1948 Lowell Ganz, screenwriter and TV sitcom creator/writer

1949 Richard Gere, actor

1970 Debbie Gibson, singer

1977 Craig Nicholls, Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines)

Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section

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Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Artist Appreciation Month [ August ] Birthdays August Flowers [ August ] Pets

Varies Full Moon Day
Varies Friday the 13^th
Varies Hindu holidays
Varies Janmashtami
Varies Ganesh Chaturthi
Varies Onam
1st Sunday in Sep Fathers' Day (Australia)
1st Monday in Sep Labor Day (USA and Canada)

August

27 Banana Lovers Day
29 Lemon Juice Day
29 Chop Suey Day
30 Toasted Marshmallow Day
31 Eat Outside Day

September

1 Cherry Popover Day
3 Football Day
5 Labor Day
5 Be Late For Something Day
5 Teachers' Day (India)
5 Cheese Pizza Day
6 Coffee Ice Cream Day
7 Do It Day
9 Teddy Bear Day
9 Hot Dog Day
11 Grandparents Day
12 Chocolate Milkshake Day
13 Positive Thinking Day
13 Programmers' Day
14 Cream-filled Donut Day
16 Independence Day (Mexico)
18 Women's Friendship Day
19 Thank You Day
20 Student Day
21 International Day Of Peace
22 Ice Cream Cone Day
22 Autumnal Equinox / Spring Equinox

  ... More Events

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651 Death of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary.

1056 Byzantine Empress Theodora died suddenly without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty.  

1057 Death of Leofric, husband of Lady Godiva.

1422 Nine-month-old Henry VI acceded to England's throne on the death of Henry V who died of dysentery in France.

 

1688 Death of John Bunyan, poet, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, the first part of which was published on February 18, 1678.

Bunyan was a Dissenter, or Nonconformist, more specifically a Baptist, and thus a member of a persecuted minority. The Nonconformist denominations came to include the Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Quakers, Unitarians, Congregationalists, and Salvation Army. 

In Britain in 1662, the Act of Uniformity required episcopal ordination for all ministers. As a result, nearly 2,000 clergymen left the established church. The Test and Corporation Acts, which lasted until 1828, excluded all nonconformists from holding civil or military office. They were also prevented from being awarded degrees by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The term 'Dissenter' came into use, particularly after the Toleration Act (1689), which exempted nonconformists who had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy from penalties for non-attendance at the services of the Church of England (Wikipedia).

It has been said that his famous allegory about Pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City is second only to the Bible in number of copies sold through the ages and throughout the world. He died at the age of nearly 60 at the house of a friend in Holborn, from a cold caught riding through the rain from Reading to London in order to reconcile a father and son. He is buried in Bunhill Fields, in the City of London.

Bunhill Fields is a former Dissenters' burial ground of 1.6 ha (4 acres). It is the last resting place for an estimated 120,000 bodies, including some of Britain's most eminent Nonconformists – William Blake and Daniel Defoe among them.

Musical Bunyan

While he was in Bedford Gaol for years, to pass away the hours, he fashioned a flute out of a rail of the stool in his cell, whittling it with his knife. His jailers searched, but could never find the source of the music. 

The Pilgrim's Progress    A Book for Boys and Girls

Christian Behaviour    A Discourse Upon the Pharisee and the Publican

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners    The Holy War

 

1846 Australia: A committee was established in Sydney to organise a relief appeal for An Gorta Mór, the Great Irish Famine.

1852 Martyrdom of Fátimih Baraghání (aka Qurratu'l-`Ayn, and Táhirih; b. c. 1814), influential poet and theologian of the Bábí faith in Iran. She is often mentioned in Bahá'í literature as an example of courage in the struggle for women's rights.

1864 American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T Sherman launched an assault on Atlanta, Georgia, defended by troops under Confederate General John Bell Hood.

1867 Death of Charles Baudelaire, writer.

1876 Ottoman sultan Murat V was deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.

1886 Earthquake killed 100 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

List of earthquakes

1888 Mary Ann Nichols was murdered. She was perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.

1890 Australia's Great Maritime Strike: Despite heavy military intimidation (such as machine guns) 60,000 protesters attended a strike meeting in Melbourne. See yesterday.

1893 USA: Scheduled to speak to the unemployed, Emma Goldman was arrested in Philadelphia on NY warrants charging her with incitement to riot for an August 21 speech.

1897 Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, the first movie camera. On November 30, 1894 a Kinetoscope Parlour had opened at 148 Pitt Street, Sydney, Australia. In the first 5 weeks, 22,000 people went to at 148 Pitt Street to watch a 2-second continuous-loop film.

According to the history, Edison's idea for the Kinetoscope was inspired by a visit with Eadweard Muybridge in 1888.

1900 Coca-Cola went on sale in Britain for the first time.

1907 England, Russia and France formed the Triple Entente.

1909 Spanish anarchist teacher Francisco Ferrer (b. 1859) was captured after hiding for five weeks in caves on his farm. He was executed on October 13.

The government and clerics hated him and were intent on destroying him. The prelates of Barcelona sent a letter to Maura openly demanding vigorous action against Ferrer and the Escuela Moderna. Maura publicly replied that the government "will act in the spirit of your letter and follow the line of conduct you indicate".

Illustration by Flavio Costantini

More    More   And more    And more

Francisco Ferrer and the Escuela Moderna

Francisco Ferrer by Voltairine De Cleyre, from her Collected Works

Francisco Ferrer Collection at University of California, San Diego

Ferrer Modern School in Stelton, New Jersey

Source: The Daily Bleed    Early progressives in the Book of Days

 

1920 The first radio news program was broadcast in Detroit, Michigan. USA.

1928 Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, with lyrics by Bertholt Brecht, debuted in Berlin to critical panning but audience enthusiasm.

1939 Attack on Sender Gleiwitz: an excuse used by Nazi Germany to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.

1943 Commissioning of USS Harmon, the first United States Navy ship to be named for an African American sailor.

1954 The 'Sea Fury' UFO incident near Nowra, New South Wales, Australia.

"Lieutenant J.A. O'Farrell was returning to Royal Australian Navy Air Station Nowra after a night cross country in a Sea Fury aircraft. After contacting Nowra at about 1910 hours, O'Farrell saw a very bright light closing fast at one o'clock. It crossed in front of his aircraft taking up position on his port beam, where it appeared to orbit. A second and similar light was observed at nine o'clock. It passed about a mile in from of the Sea Fury and then turned in the position where the first light was observed.

"According to O'Farrell, the apparent crossing speeds of the lights were the fastest he had ever encountered. He had been flying at 220 knots. O'Farrell contacted Nowra who in turn confirmed that they had two radar 'paints' in company with him. The radar operator, Petty Officer Keith Jessop, confirmed the presence of 2 objects near the Sea Fury on the G.C.I. remote display. The two lights reformed at nine o'clock and then disappeared on a north easterly heading. O'Farrell could only make out 'a vague shape with the white light situated centrally on top.'

"The Directorate of Naval Intelligence at the time wrote that O'Farrell was 'an entirely credible witness' and that he 'was visibly "shaken" by his experience, but remains adamant that he saw these objects'."

Source

More on Australian UFOs, Tully and Aboriginal experiences, at the Book of Days

   

1955 General Motors demonstrated a solar-powered car.

1957 Malaya gained independence from the United Kingdom.

1961 Construction began on the Berlin Wall, erected by the East German communist government in an attempt to stem the exodus of citizens fleeing to the West.

1962 Trinidad and Tobago became independent from Britain.

1967 Planning for 1968 Democratic Party National Convention: "Five-day convention of the National Conference for a New Politics opens in Chicago. 3,000 delegates from some 200 left, community, and civil rights groups convene to discuss an electoral strategy for 1968. Some want a third-party slate with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., running for President and Dr. Benjamin Spock for Vice-president. But the conference breaks up in rancor and division. Leftists who want to be active in a national race have nowhere to turn but the Democratic Party."   Source

1969 Bob Dylan performed with The Band at the three-day rock festival on the Isle of Wight, his first public appearance since his motorcycle accident three years previously.

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list

1974 USA: In federal court, John Lennon testified that the Richard Nixon administration had tried to have him deported because of his involvement with the anti-war demonstrations at the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami.

Source: The Daily Bleed    The USA Vs John Lennon, free movie in full at Google Video

1978 Symbionese Liberation Army founders William and Emily Harris pleaded guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.

1980 Solidarity labor union was formed in Poland.

1982 Israeli forces drove the PLO out of Beirut, Lebanon.

1985 USA: Richard Ramirez, the 'Night Stalker' killer, was arrested in Los Angeles, California.

1986 The Soviet sea-liner SS Admiral Nakhimov collided with the bulk carrier Petr Vasev and sank almost immediately, killing 448.

1989 Buckingham Palace confirmed that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips were to be separated.

1991 Kyrgyzstan declared independence from the USSR.

1992 Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo after a multi-party presidential election, ending a long history of one-party Marxist rule.

1994 The Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire.

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris.

1999 The first of a series of Russian Apartment Bombings in Moscow, killed one person and wounded 40 others.

2005 A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad killed 1,199 people.

Tomorrow: September folklore

 

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