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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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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.
If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children,
for the children are the makers of men.
|
Maria Montessori |
A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, American spiritualist author, born on
August 31, 1844
Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
It is not the straining for great things that is most effective; it is the doing the little things, the common duties, a little better and better.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
What an immense power over the life is the power of possessing distinct aims. The voice, the dress, the look, the very motion of a person, define and alter when he or she begins to live for a reason.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Who originated that most exquisite of inquisitions, the condolence system?
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
The judicial murder of Ferrer was an act not only of gross injustice but political stupidity. The case led to demonstrations throughout Europe and contributed directly to the downfall of Maura's ministry. … Although he had a majority in the Cortes, he was dropped because his handling of the
'Tragic Week' and the Ferrer case had deepened the split within the country and turned world opinion against Spain.
Murray Bookchin, The Spanish Anarchists;
Spanish anarchist teacher Francisco Ferrer was captured
on August 31, 1909
The people have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.
Emma Goldman,
anarcho-feminist arrested on August 31, 1893
August
31 is
the 243rd
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (244th
in leap years), with 122
days remaining.
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Feast day of St Aidan (Aedan),
Bishop of Lindisfarne,
confessor
Born
in Ireland, Aidan became the founder and first bishop of the monastery
on the island of Lindisfarne
(also called Holy Island), a tidal island
off the north-east coast of England
that is one of the best known sacred sites of the world.
He performed many
miracles and prophecies; once, when he was driving an ox-drawn cart laden
with wood, it fell off a cliff into the sea. St Aidan made the sign of the
cross as they fell, and cart and beasts were retrieved safe and sound out
of the water (William
Hone, The
Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co.,
London, 1878; 1825-26
edition online).
In 651,
according to the Venerable
Bede (who is lavish in
his praise of the episcopal rule of Aidan), a few months before
Aidan died on August 31, he was asked by Utta, a priest, to bless his
journey to Kent. Aidan gave some holy oil and said "When you set sail,
you will encounter a storm". He
said if Utta poured the oil on the water it would calm the sea -
the storm occurred and Aidan's remedy worked.
In religious art, he is depicted calming a storm, extinguishing a fire, holding up a lighted torch and/or with a stag at his feet. Aidan is said to have saved a stag from a pack of hounds by miraculously making the stag invisible (more on stags and Christian saints).
Bede wrote that Saint Aidan "was a man of remarkable gentleness, goodness, and moderation, zealous for God; but not fully according to knowledge ... " By this he meant that Aidan's Celtic Christianity lacked Continental European liturgical and disciplinary traditions. In recent years, Lindisfarne has become the centre for the revival of Celtic Christianity in the North of England.
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Highly recommended:
 Breaking The Da Vinci Code
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Hekate, or Hecate
"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 Feast day of St Albertinus Feast day of St Amatus Feast day of St Ammia Feast day of St
Aristides the
Athenian 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 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 Feast day of St Waldef (Waltheof) of NorthamptonEyo 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)
Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar Aga-ou (Offerings: particularly goats,
peppers, peppermint), (Aug
30, 31) Voudon
(Voodoo) Source More
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 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
Bibliography Click for cover of The Gates Ajar (new window) More And more
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 Collection Profile at the Library of Congress The Empire that was RussiaPrivate 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
1903 Arthur Godfrey, television host (d. 1983) 1907 William Shawn, editor 1907 Ramon Magsaysay, Philippine president 1908
William
Saroyan (d. 1981) 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 1972 Chris Tucker, actor1977 Craig Nicholls, Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines)
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 |
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