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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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A bill of rights is what the people are
entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular,
and what no just government should refuse to rest on inference. Thomas Jefferson, US statesman,
in a letter, on December 20, 1787
I have a
higher and greater standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I
can lie but I won't. Mark
Twain, Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1871
The legal subjection of women is
thought to be justified by an assumed natural dependence on man. The
old claim of tyranny, "The king can do no wrong", is reasserted by
that many-headed monster, the majority, which widens the circle of
despotism, but retains the fact. As people were to the king, so woman
is now an appendage of man, who claims to be her "head,"
though nature seems not to have limited heads to the exclusive
possession of either sex. Ezra Heywood (1829 - 189?), North American anarchist and abolitionist who was pardoned by US President
Rutherford Hayes on December 20, 1878;
'Uncivil Liberty:An
Essay to Show the Injustice and Impolicy of Ruling Woman Without Her
Consent', 1873
Retributive justice has emancipated
and enfranchised black men, but the insincerity of the fathers
reappears in the dogma of exclusive male sovereignty, which rules
one-half of our adult citizens – the women – against their
consent. This rude resistance to the logic of events affronts the
essential principles of liberty ... Ezra Heywood; ibid
... the rich and powerful: those who control great funds and enterprises, and are as a rule able to protect themselves - though it must be said that in a political sense they have as a rule shown neither comprehension nor competence. Robert Gordon Menzies, Australian Prime
Minister born on December 20, 1894; from his speech known as 'The
Forgotten People', May
22, 1942
...salary-earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers and so on. These are, in the political and economic sense, the middle class. They are for the most part unorganised and unself-conscious. They are envied by those whose benefits are largely obtained by taxing them. They are not rich enough to have individual power. They are taken for granted by each political party in turn. They are not sufficiently lacking in individualism to be organised for what in these days we call "pressure politics." And yet, as I have said, they are the backbone of the nation. Robert Gordon Menzies, ibid
Indeed, there is much more in slavery in Australia than most people imagine. How many hundreds of thousands of us are slaves to greed, to fear, to newspapers, to public opinion
– represented by the accumulated views of our neighbours! Robert Gordon Menzies, ibid
I don't want to change the world,
I'm not looking for a new England,
I'm just looking for another girl ... Billy
Bragg, English working class singer/songwriter and
activist, born on December 20, 1957
When
one voice rules the nation
Just because they're on top of the pile
Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest
The voices of the people
Are falling on deaf ears
Our politicians all become careerists
They must declare their interests
But not their company cars
Is there more to a seat in parliament
Then sitting on your arse
And the best of all this bad bunch
Are shouting to be heard
Above the sound of ideologies clashing. Billy
Bragg;
'Ideologies'
With my own hands
When i make love to your memory
It's not the same
I miss the thunder
I miss the rain
And the fact that you don't understand
Casts a shadow over this land
But the sun still shines from behind it.
Thanks all the same
But i just can't bring myself to answer your letters
It's not your fault
But your honesty touches me like a fire
The polaroids that hold us together
Will surely fade away
Like the love that we spoke of forever
On st swithin's day Billy
Bragg;St Swithin's Day
An
ancient tradition that, since 1983, has been commercialized within an inch
of its life. It is wholly celebrity- and pop culture-oriented, but I have
to give them credit for putting on a great lightshow.
Expect to see Mickey Mouse and other costume characters, especially
mascots from corporations.
About 100,000 Sydneysiders and visitors
park themselves on
Sydney's Domain, a park near the
harbour and
Botanic
Gardens. It is de rigeur for the audience to bring a picnic dinner
and a blanket with maybe a bottle or two of plonk (wine) and little
folding chairs for the oldies.
This and smaller
carols nights in suburban parks and beaches, usually run by groups such as
churches or Rotary and Lions clubs, or coalitions of such groups, are very
common and have superseded church-sponsored house-to-house carolling which
was still a feature of Sydney life as late as the 1970s.
"The event, sponsored by
RAMS Home Loans, is also a major fundraiser for charity. For example, in
2001, sales of the Myer Grace Bros Spirit of Christmas CD raised
A$400,000 for the Salvation Army, and the Candle Bags available at the
event sold out, raising a further A$85,000 for the Oasis Youth Support
Network."Source
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Corrigenda
St Thomas's Eve
is a special night for love prognostications. For a prophetic dream
that will reveal your future true love, stick a pin precisely in the
centre of an onion and then stick eight more pins around the first
in a circle while saying:
Good St
Thomas, do me right
And let my true love come to-night
That I may see him in the face
And in my arms may him embrace.
"St. Thomas's Eve is in certain regions
one of the uncanniest nights in the year. In some Bohemian
villages the saint is believed to drive about at midnight in a
chariot of fire. In the churchyard there await him all the dead
men whose name is Thomas; they help him to alight and accompany
him to the churchyard cross, which glows red with supernatural
radiance. There St. Thomas kneels and prays, and then rises to
bless his namesakes. This done, he vanishes beneath the cross,
and each Thomas returns to his grave. The saint here seems to
have taken over the character of some pagan god, who, like the
Teutonic Odin or Woden, ruled the souls of the departed. In the
houses the people listen with awe for the sound of his chariot,
and when it is heard make anxious prayer to him for protection
from all ill. Before retiring to rest the house-father goes to
the cowhouse with holy water and consecrated salt, asperges it
from without, and then entering, sprinkles every cow. Salt is
also thrown on the head of each animal with the words, 'St.
Thomas preserve thee from
all sickness.' In the Boehmerwald the cattle are fed on this
night with consecrated bayberries, bread, and salt, in order to
avert disease.
"In Upper and Lower Austria St. Thomas's Eve is reckoned as one
of the so-called Rauchnaechte (smoke-nights) when houses
and farm-buildings must be sanctified with incense and holy
water, the other nights being
the Eves of Christmas, the New Year, and the Epiphany.
"In Germany St. Thomas's, like St. Andrew's Eve, is a time for
forecasting the future, and the methods already described are
sometimes employed by girls who wish to behold their future
husbands. A widely diffused custom is that of throwing shoes
backwards over the shoulders. If the points are found turned
towards the door the thrower is destined to leave the house
during the year; if they are turned away from it another year
will be spent there. In Westphalia a belief prevails that you
must eat and drink heartily on this night in order to avert
scarcity.
"In Lower Austria it is supposed that sluggards can cure
themselves of oversleeping by saying a special prayer before
they go to bed on St. Thomas's Eve, and in Westphalia in the
mid-nineteenth century the same
association of the day with slumber was shown by the
schoolchildren's custom of calling the child who arrived last at
school Domesesel (Thomas ass). In Holland, again, the
person who lies longest in bed on
St. Thomas's Day is greeted with shouts of 'lazybones.' Probably
the fact that December 21 is the shortest day is enough to
account for this."
Clement A Miles, Christmas In
Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan,
T. Fisher Unwin,
London, 1912
In Christian times, from now until
December 25, no work was
undertaken nor amusements enjoyed after sunset, and Tammasmass E'en
(December 20) was regarded as particularly sacred.
Those
who broke this taboo were sure to have bad luck:
The very baby unborn,
cross oh dul! dul!
For the breaking o' Tammasmass nicht
five nichts afore Yule.
Baking
and brewing were forbidden at this time, so preparations for the
year's greatest drinking feast had to be completed long before
Christmas (Yule). To the early
Norse settlers, and their ancestors,
ale was a sacred drink and the Yule ale was a rather strong drop.
Yule ale was so important to Orkey Islanders that
penalties were imposed on those who refused to drink on Holy Night.
One unfortunate teetotaller who would not drink at Yule on three
successive years was stripped of all his worldly goods, right down
to his last penny.
The most celebrated family festival of the year. In old China
prisoners were allowed to go home for the day. At the feast, places
are set for deceased family members. Fruit trees are given offerings
of rice. Source: The Daily Bleed
Cozcacuauhtli
(Vulture), Aztec
Aztec world: The protector of
day Cozcacuauhtli (Vulture) is Itzpapalotl. Cozcacuauhtli signifies
long life, wisdom, good counsel and mental equilibrium. A good day
to confront the discontinuities, disruptions, failures and deaths
one suffers in life. A day for tricking the Trickster. Source: The Daily Bleed
1851Dora Montefiore (d.
December 21,
1933),
women's suffragist, socialist and later communist, poet, journalist,
traveller, co-founder of the
Womanhood
Suffrage League of NSW with
Maybanke
Anderson,
Rose Scott and
Louisa
Lawson. The first WSL meeting was at her home at 77 Darlinghurst
Road, Sydney, on
May 6,
1891. A wealthy
widow, she was shocked to learn that on her husband's death she had
no rights as guardian of their two children, so she turned to
political action. She left Australia in
1892 and spent some
years in France before returning to England and, by
1905, joined the
Women's Social and Political Union, which was led by
Emmeline
Pankhurst. In
1906, Montefiore was arrested and imprisoned for demonstrating in the
Lobby of the House of Commons. She served seven days before being
released after suffering a breakdown. In
1907, she joined the
Adult Suffrage Society, becoming its honorary secretary in
1909. In
1924, she went to
Moscow representing the
Communist Party of Australia.
1890 Sir
Keith
Smith,
KBE (Keith Macpherson Smith;
d. December
19, 1955), Australian
aviator, who along with his brother, Sir
Ross Smith,
and two other men, became the first people to fly from England to
Australia.
The conservative, one might say patrician,
politician was inordinately proud of his Highland ancestry – his
enduring nick-name, Ming, came from 'Mingus', the Scots
pronunciation of 'Menzies', although it was also very much
influenced by the cartoon character Ming the Merciless.
His
well-known 'The
Forgotten People' speech of May
22, 1942, delivered in the middle of WWII, is a manifesto of his
faith in thrift, work, savings and what he saw as an historically
pivotal role of the middle class.
Well I was humping my bluey,
on the dusty Oodnadatta road,
When along came a semi,
With a high and canvas covered load,
"'ere, if ya goin' to Oodnadatta mate, urr
With me ya gunna ride".
So I climbed up in the cabin,
And settled down inside ...
I've been everywhere man,
I've been everywhere man,
I've crossed the deserts bare man,
I've breathed the mountain air man,
Of travel of had my share man,
I've been everywhere.
I've been to Tullamore, Seymour,
Lismore,
Maroochydore, Kilmore, Nambour, Mooloolabah, Birdsville,
Emaville, Wallaville, Cundamunda, Cundabine, Strathpine,
Proserpine, Ulladulla, Darwin, Gin Gin, Deniliquin, Muckadilla,
Emmaville, Kullavilla
I'm a killer
I've been everywhere ...
I've been to Ettalong, Dandenong,
Woodenbong, Ballarat, Canberra, Mildura, Unanderra, Captain's
Flat, Cloncurrie, River Murray, Kurri Kurri, Girrableen, Terrigal,
Stockinbingal, Collaroy, Narrabeen, Bendigo, Darraglow, Bangalow,
Indapirrie, Urabilli, Kirribilli, Wallumbilli,
Don't be silly ...
Versions have been sung for
different countries (including Japan) by various artists,
including Hank Snow and
Johnny
Cash.
1946Uri Geller,
Israeli-British magician whose spoon-bending trick and penchant for
suing skeptics brought him fame and fortune. American magician
James Randi, who also bends spoons,
is quoted as saying, "If Uri Geller bends spoons with divine
powers, then he's doing it the hard way".
1957Billy
Bragg, English working class singer/songwriter and
activist.
Stephen
William Bragg,
known as Billy Bragg,
has been described as being amongst the best-known and best-loved
popular musicians, with a career spanning 20 years. His music is a
fine blend of poetry and political comment, with a dash of romance,
demonstrating his musical flexibility. He has collaborated with many
other musicians, from Jonny Marr of The
Smiths, and protest folk singer Leon Rosselson, to REM
and Kirsty MacColl.
"On one of my visits, Woody had told me about some boxes of songs and poems that he had written that had never been seen or set to
melodies – that they were stored in the basement of his house in Coney Island and that I was welcome to them. He told me that if
I wanted any of them to go see Margie, his wife, explain what I was there for. She'd unpack them for me. He gave me directions on how to find the house.
"In the next day or so, I took the subway from the West 4th Street station all the way to the last stop, like he said, in Brooklyn, stepped out on the platform and went hunting for the house. Woody had said it was easy to find.
I saw what looked to be a row of houses across a field, the kind he described, and
I walked towards it only to discover I was walking out across a swamp. I sunk into the water, knee level, but kept going
anyway – I could see the lights as I moved forward, didn't really see any other way to go. When
I came out on the other end, my pants from the knees down were drenched, frozen solid, and my feet almost numb but I found the house and knocked
on the door. A babysitter opened it slightly, said that Margie, Woody's wife, wasn't there. One of Woody's kids, Arlo, who would later become a professional singer and songwriter in his own right, told the babysitter to let me in. Arlo was probably about ten or twelve years old and didn't know anything about any manuscripts locked in the basement.
I didn't want to push it-the babysitter was uncomfortable, and I stayed just long enough to warm up, said a quick good-bye and left with my boots still waterlogged, trudged back across the swamp to the subway platform.
"Forty years later, these lyrics would fall into the hands of
Billy Bragg and the group Wilco and they would put melodies to
them, bring them to full life and record them. It was all done
under the direction of Woody's daughter Nora. These performers
probably weren't even born when I had made that trip out to
Brooklyn." Bob
Dylan, Chronicles:
Volume One, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2004, pp 99 - 100
reetings from Australia.
How it works
An
ancient tradition that, since 1983, has been commercialized within an inch
of its life. It is wholly celebrity- and pop culture-oriented, but I have
to give them credit for putting on a great lightshow.
Expect to see Mickey Mouse and other costume characters, especially
mascots from corporations.
![Christmas [ Dec 25 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_edec_c_1_11.jpg)
![Seasons Greetings [ Dec - Jan ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_ejan_seasonsgreetings_1_13.jpg)
![Winter [ Dec - Jan ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_winter_1.gif)
