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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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Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd
steam! afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the field of air. Erasmus Darwin, English physician, scientist and poet, born on December 12, 1731, The Botanic Garden, Part i. Canto i. Line 289 Hence without parent by spontaneous
birth Philosophers have …been called
unbelievers; unbelievers of what? of the fictions of fancy, of witchcraft,
hobgoblins, apparitions, vampires, fairies; of the influence of the stars
on human actions, miracles wrought by the bones of saints, the flight of
ominous birds, the predictions from the bones of dying animals, expounders
of dreams, fortune-tellers, conjurors, modern prophets, necromancy,
cheiromancy, animal magnetism, metallic tractors, with endless variety of
folly? No, Sir, because I have
time to think before I speak, and don't ask impertinent questions. Erasmus Darwin was likely a deist, a
fervent believer in democracy, and a practitioner of what some would call
"free love." These characteristics were tolerated, if not
admired, while England enjoyed social stability. Once the British found
themselves at war with Napoleon, however, Erasmus Darwin's ideas looked
dangerously subversive, and as England's population became more
anti-intellectual, he quickly fell out of favor. |
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No radiant pearl which crested Fortune
wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.
Erasmus Darwin;
'The
Botanic Garden', Part ii. Canto iii. Line 459
A fool ... is a man who
never tried an experiment in his life.
Erasmus Darwin; in
FV Barry (ed.) Maria Edgeworth: Chosen Letters (
(1931)) To Sophy Ruxton, 9 March 1792
Hear him, ye Senates, hear this truth
sublime;
He who allows oppression shares the crime.
Erasmus Darwin
He was much in advance of his age in his
ideas as to sanitary arrangements — such as supplying towns with pure
water, having holes made into crowded sitting and bed-rooms for the
constant admission of fresh air, and not allowing chimneys to be closed
during summer.
Charles Darwin, on his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin
Our
country is the world – our countrymen are all mankind.
William Lloyd Garrison (b.
December
12, 1805),
American slavery abolitionist and
journalist; December 12, 1837
I am aware that many object to the severity of
my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as
truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to
think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose
house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue
his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually
extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me
not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I
will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single
inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make
every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the
dead.
William Lloyd Garrison; from the Inaugural
Editorial in the January 1, 1831 The
Liberator
December 12 is the 346th day
of the year in the Gregorian calendar (347th
in leap years), with 19 days remaining.
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Feast
day of Our Lady of
Guadalupe
(Read the full story here)
From Mexico comes a quaint story involving a goddess and the Roman Catholic Church's holiest woman, Mary, mother of Jesus.
On December 9, 1531, a 57-year-old Mexican Indian farmer by the name of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec who had converted to Christianity, was minding his own business as he walked to early morning Mass, passing by the hill known as Tepeyac, between his village and Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City).
Juan Diego was born in 1474 in the calpulli or ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan, which was established in 1168 by Nahua tribesmen and conquered by the Aztec lord Axayacatl in 1467, and was located 20 kilometres (14 miles) north of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). Tlatelolco, Juan Diego's village, was once an Aztec centre and the place where the final battle of the Spanish conquest had taken place just a decade earlier.
Tepeyac had for centuries been of significance to the people of what is now called Mexico – the Aztecs and their descendants – because it was the site of a shrine to the goddess Tonantzin.
Tonantzin, associated with the snake goddess Coatlique, or Coatlicue (perhaps cognate with the Judaeo-Christian Eve), was worshipped in the Winter Solstice celebrations at around this time of year. Tonantzin wore a white robe covered in feathers and seashells, which adorned her as the goddess promenaded among the worshippers and was ceremonially killed in a scene reminiscent of the apparent death of the sun of winter. The goddess was also known by the name of Ilamatecuhtli ('a noble old woman') and Cozcamiauh ('a necklace of maize flowers').
It has been suggested that the name 'Guadalupe' is actually a corruption of a Nahuatl name, 'Coatlaxopeuh', which has been translated as 'Who Crushes the Serpent'. In this interpretation, the serpent is Quetzalcoatl, one of the chief Aztec gods, whom 'the Virgin Mary' crushed by inspiring the conversion of the natives to Catholicism. (Note the Roman Catholic concept of Mary crushing the serpent under her heel. Source 1; Source 2; Source 3; Image 1; Image 2)
December 12, 1531 (Tuesday). At a very early hour, Juan Diego is rushing toward Tlatelolco to find a priest for his dying uncle. Being busy, he tries to avoid her, but she comes down the hill to meet him and listens to his excuse for not keeping his appointment. She tells him: "Your uncle will not die of this sickness; be assured that he is healthy". (That morning, the Lady also appears to his uncle and cures him.) Juan Diego is greatly relieved. Then the Lady tells him to go to the top of the hill and gather the flowers he finds there. He does as she says, and discovers a miraculous garden of roses. He gathers them and takes them to the Lady who arranges them in his mantle and instructs him to take them to the bishop as the sign he had requested.
When Juan Diego finally arrives before the bishop, he opens his mantle and lets the roses fall to the floor. But then comes the greatest sign of all: a beautiful portrait of the Lady appears on the coarse fabric of the Indian's mantle. The bishop and his whole household are filled with amazement. And before long a temple is built in Mary's honour.
Source (adapted)The celebrations
Feast
day of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin is December 9
Beatified Apri1 9 1990 by Pope John Paul II
at Vatican City; confirmed and ceremony held on May 6 1990 at
Mexico City, Mexico.
More
Feast day of Our Lady of
Guadalupe is December
12
Ten million
visitors a year come to see Juan Diego's mantle with the Virgin's image.
Other
apparitions of Mary More
See also:
Monagahan, Patricia, The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Llewellyn 1990; Waverly Fitzgerald's article at School of the Seasons
Get your Virgin of Guadalupe lamp
'Mysterious images' inside the
eye of the Virgin of Guadalupe
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Yuletide Lads – 
Feast
day of St 
Rejection
by society did not stop him, and he wrote a long, precognitive poem,
'
