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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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Pretending to be disgusted by the drab old buildings and narrow,
winding streets of Rome, he [Nero] brazenly set fire to the City; and
though a group of ex-consuls caught his attendants, armed with oakum
and blazing torches, trespassing on their property, they dared not
interfere. He also coveted the sites of several granaries, solidly built in stone, near the Golden House [Nero's palace]; having knocked down their walls with siege-engines, he set the interiors ablaze. This terror lasted for six days and seven nights, causing many people to take shelter in the tombs ... Nero watched the conflagration from the Tower of Maecenas, enraptured by what he called "the beauty of the flames"; then put on his tragedian's costume and sang 'The Fall of Ilium' from beginning to end. Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, on the Great Fire of Rome, July 18, 64; it is from this that we get the phrase, 'fiddling while Rome burns'. This account is disputed by many historians. Nero himself blamed the Christians (who declared that the world would end in fire) and persecuted them without mercy. Our
country is the world – our countrymen are all mankind. The universe is made of stories, not of
atoms. Whether it is
a speaker, taut on a platform, |
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TI
came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me: he said
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to get back to the land
And get my soul free ...
Joni
Mitchell; 'Woodstock'.
Max Yasgur,
Woodstock farm owner, was born on December 15, 1919
his was
in late December, 1936...The anarchists were still in virtual control of
Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing ... when one came
straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and
overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where
the working class was in the saddle.
George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia. Orwell left for Spain on December 15, 1936
Let me be
a free man,
free to travel, free to stop,
free to work, free to trade where I choose,
free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my
fathers,
free to talk, think and act for myself – and I will obey every law
or submit to the penalty.
Chief Joseph (real name: In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat – Thunder coming up over the land from the water), of
the Nez Percé (Nimiputimt). In 1970, the Nimiputimt finally won USA
government compensation for stolen lands.
From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.
In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat
After
Walt died, in December 1966, the future of the project was in doubt.
"When he died, we all said, 'There goes Disney World,'" recalled
Marvin Davis. While big brother Roy insisted that the company go through
with most of the plans for Disney World – even making sure it was named
Walt Disney World – the dreams of a city of tomorrow didn't survive.
Without Walt, the vision simply lacked the visionary.
The Walt Disney
Family Museum Site
December 15 is the 349th day
of the year in the Gregorian calendar
(350th
in leap years), with 16 days remaining.
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die, I might allow them to stay here, but the
Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
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 a subterranean altar (Ara
Consus) to Consus 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 Sabines (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 BCE, 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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