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reetings from Australia. 

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Pip Wilson

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Carpe diem! 21 Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search Open links in a New Window

Today is

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are governed by the same laws. I speak of the rich and the poor.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, born on December 21, 1804; Sybil, 1845

And now, how had such a precise man, such a meticulous gentleman, not known what day it was? How had he come to think it was the evening of Saturday, 21 December, when he arrived in London, when it was in fact Friday, 20 December, only 79 days after his departure?
  Here is the reason for the mistake. It is quite simple.
  Phileas Fogg, 'without beginning to suspect', had gained a day on his programme – simply because he had gone round the world eastwards. He would, on the contrary, have lost this day if he had gone in the opposite direction, namely westwards.
  By heading towards the east, Phileas Fogg had gone towards the sun, and consequently his days were four minutes shorter for each degree of longitude covered in this direction. Now there are 360 degrees on the Earth's circumference, and this 360, multiplied by 4 minutes, makes exactly 24 hours – in other words the day gained unconsciously. This means that while Phileas Fogg, heading eastwards, saw the sun cross the meridian 80 times, his colleagues remaining in London saw it cross only 79 times. And this was why, on that very same day, Saturday, and not Sunday as Mr Fogg believed, they were waiting for him in the drawing-room of the Reform Club.
Fictional character, Phileas Fogg, completed his around-the-world trip by arriving at the Reform Club on December 21, 1872. From Around the World in 80 Days, annotated by William Butcher.

... And what does it mean, then to be a poet? It was a long time before I realized that to be a poet means essentially to see, but mark well, to see in such a way that whatever is seen is perceived by the audience just as the poet saw it. But only what has been lived through can be seen in that way and accepted in that way. And the secret of modern literature lies precisely in this matter of experiences that are lived through. All that I have written these last ten years, I have lived through spiritually.
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright, whose play The Doll's House opened on December 21, 1879; 'Speech to the Norwegian Students', September 10, 1874, from Speeches and New Letters, 1910

A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.
Henrik Ibsen; from Ibsen's Workshop, 1912

It is my fondest wish, that some day, every American will get down on their knees and pray to God that some day they will have the opportunity to live in a communist society.
Jane Fonda, American actress, born on December 21, 1937; 1970

Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.
Rock musician Frank Zappa, born on December 21, 1940

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful,
is the basic building block of the Universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the Universe.
Frank Zappa

If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
Frank Zappa; from The Real Frank Zappa Book 

The first hyphen in MAH-JUH-REEN could be used for erotic gratification by a very desperate stenographer.
Frank Zappa; speaking in Sydney Australia, 1974

Don't mind your make-up, you'd better make your mind up.
Frank Zappa

Information is not knowledge, 
Knowledge is not wisdom, 
Wisdom is not truth, 
Truth is not beauty, 
Beauty is not love, 
Love is not music
and Music is THE BEST.
Frank Zappa

It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralize the long-range effects of OUR NATIONAL STUPIDITY.
Frank Zappa

Some people crave baseball – I find this unfathomable – but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing a bassoon.
Frank Zappa

This is Frank Zappa saying, don't do speed. Speed turns you into your parents.
1970 public service announcement regarding drug (namely, speed) use

It's better to have something to remember than nothing to regret ...
Frank Zappa

You've got to be digging it while it's happening 'cause it just might be a one shot deal.
Frank Zappa

Anything played wrong twice in a row is the beginning of an arrangement.
Frank Zappa

You can't be a Real Country unless you have a BEER and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of a football team or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.
Frank Zappa

Yeah, I tell them to change the channel if they see some guy in a brown suit with a telephone number at the bottom of the screen asking for money. 
Frank Zappa; when asked by Tipper Gore (American author, activist for 'Parental Advisory' labels on music) if there was anything on the TV he didn't allow his children to watch

... I think [Abbey Road is] the best engineered, best mastered rock and roll album ever produced ... except that I take exception to stereo placement. 
Frank Zappa; from Frank Zappa talks about Faves, Raves, and Composers in their Graves

Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mundane educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and *educate yourself* if you've got any guts. Some of you like *pep rallies* and plastic robots who tell you what to read. Forget I mentioned it. *This song has no message.* Rise for the flag salute. 
Frank Zappa; liner notes for 'Hungry Freaks, Daddy' on Freak Out!

There's no question in my mind – the beer, the balloons and the bunting all start with ‘B’ for some cosmic reason. 
Frank Zappa; words that start with ‘B’ reminded him of the Republican Party. The Real Frank Zappa Book, page 238

Our planet is on a collision course with something that we, at our present state of knowledge, don't have a word for. A black hole is simply a gravitationally massive object, so massive that no light can leave it. What I'm talking about is something like that, except that it isn't so much gravitationally massive as temporally massive. We are soon to be sucked into the body of eternity. My model points to 11:18 am, Greenwich Mean Time, December 21, 2012 AD.
Terence McKenna (1946 - 2000), theoretician of consciousness   [See below at This day in history, 2012]

December 21 is the 355^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (356^th in leap years), with 10 days remaining.
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Note: The solstice (Yule) can occur either on December 21 or 22. In the Book of Days, our Yule information is on December 22.

Read about the origins and folklore of the festive season at the Wilson's Almanac Christmas page.

(Sparrowwort; Erica passerina is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

This was formerly the Feast day of St Thomas the Apostle; also known as: Didymus, the Twin, and Doubting Thomas.

St Thomas's day fell on the northern Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year (in the Southern Hemisphere, the longest, or Summer Solstice).  Hence the rhyme (above).

Patronage
against doubt, architects, blind people, builders, construction workers, Sri Lanka, East Indies, geometricians, India, masons, Pakistan, people in doubt, Sri Lanka, stone masons, stonecutters, surveyors, theologians

He doubted that Jesus Christ was resurrected after his crucifixion:

Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.
Gospel of St John 20:25

The festival of St Thomas was instituted in the 12^th Century. As the apostle who was given the most direct evidence of the Resurrection, he was given a feast day early in the Christian era.

St Thomas is said to have travelled and spread Christianity among the Parthians, Medes, Persians and Carmenians, and to have been in India (for a discussion of the evidence, see the article at the Catholic Encyclopedia). Preaching there, he raised the hackles of the Brahmins, who stoned him, threw darts at him, and lanced him to death. His body was carried to Edessa.

The bleeding cross of St Thomas's, Malabar

In his church (in which he is said to have preached) at Malabar, India, a cross bleeds on Christmas Eve. Or, so it is said. Pedro de Ribadeneira, who wrote on the saints wrote that a stone cross bleeds on Christmas Eve as soon as the Jesuits start to say mass, and not before. It changes in colour from white, to yellow, to black, to azure, until the end of mass, then back to white. Drops of blood form during this process, and quite a lot flows. If it doesn't happen there is a calamity in the area soon. William Hone says "Perhaps it is further miraculous, that in a country where there is liberty of thought and speech, and a free press, no stone cross will do the like".

When the Portuguese discovered Malabar, they found Nestorian Christians there; believing them to be heretics they passed many decrees to persecute them. Nestorianism is the belief that Jesus Christ consisted of two separate persons, one human and one divine. Its name comes from its leading proponent, Nestorius, who was Patriarch of Constantinople. Nestorianism was rejected as heretical by the Council of Ephesus in 431, which held that Christ consisted of only one person with two natures, one human and one divine. A unique feature of the worship of Nestorians is their “holy leaven”, an altar bread they believe is derived from dough used at the Last Supper. Many of the Malabar people still hold to the Nestorian doctrines, refusing to acknowledge the authority of the Pope. The organised liturgy of the Malabar Church in the first centuries of Christianity was that of Mesopotamia (Iraq). 

In art Thomas is shown with a lance, because it is said that he was martyred with a lance at Mylapore, India. He may also be represented holding a builder's square, and is patron of architects and builders because of the following legend:

Legend of Thomas and King Gondoforus

When Thomas was at Caesaria, the Lord came to him and sent him to Gondoforus, king of the Indies, who wanted skilled architects and builders to make the grandest palace in the world. Gondoforus gave him a fortune in silver and gold, and went abroad for two years, during which time Thomas distributed the treasure among the Indian poor. 

When King Gondoforus returned he was full of wrath and cast Thomas into a dungeon. Meanwhile, the king's brother died, and Gondoforus was making arrangements for a magnificent tomb for him. However, after four days dead, his brother sat up and said ‘The man Thomas whom you persecute is a man of God. I have returned from Paradise, where the angels showed me a grand palace of silver and gold, built in Heaven by Thomas.’ He freed Thomas, who told him that those who care for heavenly things have little concern for things of the world.

(We know, in fact that about the year 46 CE, a king named Gondophernes or Guduphara reigned over that part of Asia south of the Himalayas that we now know as Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the Punjab, and Sind. This we know both from the discovery of coins, some of the Parthian type with Greek legends, others of the Indian types with the legends in an Indian dialect in Kharoshthi characters.)

Since Thomas is the patron saint of architects and builders, you might want to make your Christmas gingerbread house on this day.

After the dispersion of the apostles, Thomas preached among the Medes, Persians, Bactrians, Ethiopians and Indians. He was martyred at Melapoor (Mylapore, or Malabar), India, and buried in the church he founded there. Marco Polo referred to his tomb, which he said was a place of pilgrimage at that time. The local red soil on the spot where he was martyred was carried off for its miraculous healing powers.

The hand of Thomas test of truth

Later the body was taken to Edessa, Mesopotamia. The arm and hand that touched the side of Jesus Christ were displayed separate from the body and used to tell one case from another in  disputes: both arguments were written on separate pages and put successively in the hand, which would automatically cast away the false one and hold tight to the true. People came from far countries to use this test.

St Thomas's Day, Europe

"In Denmark it was formerly a great children's day, unique in the year, and rather resembling the mediaeval Boy Bishop festival. It was the breaking-up day for schools; the children used to bring their master an offering of candles and money, and in return he gave them a feast. In some places it had an even more delightful side: for this one day in the year the children were allowed the mastery in the school. Testimonials to their scholarship and industry were made out, and elaborate titles were added to their names, as exalted sometimes as 'Pope,' 'Emperor,' or 'Empress.' Poor children used to go about showing these documents and collecting money. Games and larks of all sorts went on in the schools without a word of reproof, and the children were wont to burn their master's rod.

"In the neighbourhood of Antwerp children go early to school on St. Thomas's Day, and lock the master out, until he promises to treat them with ale or other drink. After this they buy a cock and hen, which are allowed to escape and have to be caught by the boys or the girls respectively. The girl who catches the hen is called 'queen,' the boy who gets the cock, 'king.' Elsewhere in Belgium children lock out their parents, and servants their masters, while schoolboys bind their teacher to his chair and carry him over to the inn. There he has to buy back his liberty by treating his scholars with punch and cakes. Instead of the chase for the fowls, it was up to 1850 the custom in the Ardennes for the teacher to give the children hens and let them chop the heads off. Some pagan sacrifice no doubt lies at the root of this barbarous practice, which has many parallels in the folk-lore of western and southern Europe."
Clement A Miles, Christmas In Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1912

Mumping Day, England (Old St Thomas's Day)

Old St Thomas's Day is called 'Mumping Day' in some parts of Britain, because on this day the poor used to go about begging, [Mump, to cheat or to sponge on others; probably from Dutch mompen, to cheat] or, as it was called, 'a-gooding', that is, getting gifts to procure good things for Christmas, or begging corn.

In Lincolnshire, the name used to be applied to Boxing Day; in Warwickshire, the term was 'going a-corning'. People would also be said to be going 'Thomasing' on this day.

Women going 'a-gooding' presented their donors with sprigs of palm and branches of primroses. It still was kept up in folklorist William Hone's time (1826) in the area of Maidstone, Kent.

This custom was also still going strong in Staffordshire, England, in 1857. The clergyman expected to give a shilling to each person, and at all houses called on a present was expected. In some parts of Staffordshire, the wealthy donated money to the church, which distributed it to the poor in what was known as St Thomas's Dole, on the Sunday nearest St Thomas's day.

Harrington, Worcestershire, England, children went about singing the verse (above) and would repay gifts by giving a sprig of holly or mistletoe. Old women in red cloaks would go a-gooding, and all the wealthy houses prepared abundant food and presents for them. It was common for the people going about to come home very drunk.

In the market town of Wokingham, Berkshire, England, St Thomas's Day was a day for bull baiting. In 1822, the cruel practice was abolished, causing resentment among the citizens, although the flesh continued to be distributed on this day.

St Thomas's Onion, a love divination

"In England there was divination by means of 'St. Thomas's onion.' Girls used to peel an onion, wrap it in a handkerchief and put it under their heads at night, with a prayer to the satin to show them their true love in a dream."
Clement A Miles, Christmas In Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1912

Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas takes the form of a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus Christ. When a complete copy of it in Coptic was found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt, it was then realized that Greek portions of it had been discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1898. The Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas have been dated to about 200, and the Coptic version to 340. Although the Coptic version is not quite identical to the Greek fragments, it is believed that the Coptic version was translated from a prior Greek version. Origen mentioned it in 233 among the heterodox gospels, as did Cyril of Jerusalem some time later.

Sources and resources

Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers' Book of Days)

William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, Vol., 1, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online

Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition,  2001    Catholic Encyclopedia

Charles Kightly, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames and Hudson, 1987

Patron Saints Index    Golden Legend: ‘St Thomas’    Gospel of Thomas    Wikipedia, et al

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Click stars for Universe today Cafe Diem! For all my Yule needs Highly recommended: Folklore of World Holidays by Margaret Read MacDonald The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion    The Gospel of Thomas Beyond Belief: Secret Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Thomas - revised edition The Harvest of Sorrow By Robert Conquest Stalin Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives Stalin The Unknown Stalin The Secret File of Joseph Stalin The Gulag Archipelago Gulag A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia The Black Book of Communism Stalin's Last Crime Golden Bough Folklore classic Yule Decking the Halls Folklore & traditions of Christmas plants The Winter Solstice The Fires of Yule A Keltelven Guide for Celebrating the Winter Solstice Sabbat Entertaining The Pagan Book of Days Eight Sabbats for Witches Celebrate the Earth A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition Wheel of the Year The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq Be A Goddess The Wiggles - Yule Be Wiggling The Oxford Dictionary of Saints The Book of Saints The Encyclopedia of Saints Daily Everything Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Lord of the Rings   To support this project Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.     Search for posters An Inconvenient Truth By Al Gore; DVD & book The Permaculture Home Garden By Linda Woodrow The Corporation Highly recommended DVD A Question of Torture By Alfred McCoy Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It What Would Jefferson Do? By Thom Hartmann How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World Pagan Christianity Songs in the Key of W For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire By James Yee Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy By Robert F Kennedy, Jr The Price of Loyalty The Torture Debate in America The Culture of the New Capitalism Lawless World The Great War for Civilisation By Robert Fisk The God Who Wasn't There A Question of Torture By Alfred McCoy When Corporations Rule the World Alternatives to Economic Globalization Feminism Without Borders Commercialization of Intimate Life By Arlie Russell Hochschild The Skeptic's Dictionary Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them 365 Goddess Christianity Before Christ Jesus and the Lost Goddess Body Wisdom More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at   Cafe Diem! Celtic Daily Prayer Dude, Where's My Country? Photo of the day Mother Earth Spirituality Bushwhacked Shamanism Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 The Orion Prophecy 2012 The Shaman's Prophecy 2012 Airborne Prophecy Time and the Technosphere José Argüelles The Mayan Factor José Argüelles The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness Elvis and Nixon Click to promote  your blog or website  another excellent  way we do

Christmas beetles, Australia Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera Family: Scarabaeidae Genus: Anoplognathus     Across Australia now, the Christmas beetles are out. Some are rather dull in appearance, but some earn their name well, as their iridescent gold and all the rainbow’s colours make them good enough to hang on your Yule tree. This picture doesn't do justice to the prettiest of them. Unfortunately, the total number of these harmless beetles reported in the Sydney area has declined over the last few decades as the grassy woodland areas have been cleared for housing. "If you suddenly feel something spiky crawl down your shirt or buzz loudly into your hair, chances are it's a Christmas beetle. Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus) range from 15 - 40 mm in size and belong to the Scarab family (over 3000 species in Australia), which also includes flower and cock chafers, and fiddle beetles. What to look for "Mostly active at night, Christmas beetles can be seen flying around lights. They can be green or black, but most are golden brown. Adult Christmas beetles are emerging from now through until February and can strip whole trees to a ragged mess in a feeding frenzy. Those in the northern parts of Australia tend to become active earlier than those further to the south. The grub is crescent-shaped with a pale reddish brown head and three pairs of legs. They can be dug up from lawns and pastures where they feed on roots.  Where to find them "There are 35 species of Christmas beetles right across Australia, but most prefer the moister east and south easterly areas, especially near the coast. Eight species occur in Sydney."   Source     Vendémiaire | Brumaire | Frimaire | Nivôse | Pluviôse | Ventôse | Germinal | Floréal | Prairial | Messidor | Thermidor | Fructidor | Sansculottides   First day of month of Nivôse (Snowy month), French Revolutionary Calendar On October 24, 1793, the French National Convention adopted the French Republican Calendar (French Revolutionary Calendar) retrospectively as from September 22, 1792. Napoleon Bonaparte abolished it and restored the Gregorian calendar on January 1, 1806 (the day after 10 nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. However, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX). It was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the descriptive names of the months. Instead of most days having a saint as in the Catholic Church's calendar, each day has a plant, a tool or an animal associated with it. Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar. Each month lasted 30 days and was divided into three decades. Every day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the 5th (Quintidi) and 10th day (Decadi) of every decade, which had the name of a domestic animal (Quintidi) or an agricultural tool (Decadi). Autumn Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, ‘vintage’), begins Sep 22, 23 or 24 Brumaire (from French brume, ‘mist’), begins Oct 22, 23 or 24 Frimaire (From French frimas, ‘frost’), begins Nov 21, 22 or 23 Winter Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, ‘snowy’), begins Dec 21, 22 or 23 Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, ‘rainy’), begins Jan 20, 21 or 22 Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, ‘windy’), begins Feb 19, 20 or 21 Spring Germinal (from Latin germen, ‘seed’), begins Mar 20 or 21 Floréal (from Latin flos, ‘flower’), begins Apr 20 or 21 Prairial (from French prairie, ‘meadow’), begins May 20 or 21 Summer Messidor (from Latin messis, ‘harvest’), begins Jun 19 or 20 Thermidor (from Greek thermos, ‘hot’), begins Jul 19 or 20 Fructidor (from Latin fructus, ‘fruits’), begins Aug 18 or 19 Sansculottides The Sansculottides (also Epagomenes; French Sans-culottides, Sanculottides, jours complementaires, jours épagomènes) are the end of the calendar. They follow Fructidor and precede Vendémiaire of the next year, belonging to the summer quarter of the year. The Sansculottides, named after the Sansculottes, amend the 360 days of the calendar so that the beginning of the next year is on the Autumnal Equinox. There were five Sansculottides in a common year and six in a leap year (from this derives the French name of the leap year année sextile). The Sansculottides start on September 17 or 18 and end on September 22 or 23.   1re Décade 2e Décade 3e Décade Primidi 1. Pomme (Apple) 11. Salsifis (Salsify) 21. Bacchante (asarum baccharis) Duodi 2. Céleri (Celery) 12. Macre (Water Chestnut) 22. Azerole (Crete Hawthorn) Tridi 3. Poire (Pear) 13. Topinambour (Jerusalem Artichoke) 23. Garence (Madder) Quartidi 4. Betterave (Beet Root) 14. Endive (Endive) 24. Orange (Orange) Quintidi 5. Oye (Goose) 15. Dindon (Turkey) 25. Faisan (Pheasant) Sextidi 6. Héliotrope (European Turnsole) 16. Chervi (Skirret) 26. Pistache (Pistachio) Septidi 7. Figue (Fig) 17. Cresson (Cress) 27. Macjonc (Sweetpea) Octidi 8. Scorsonère (Black Salsify) 18. Dentelaire (Leadwort) 28. Coing (Quince) Nonidi 9. Alisier (Chequer Tree) 19. Grenade (Pomegranate) 29. Cormier (Service Tree) Decadi 10. Charrue (Plough) 20. Herse (Harrow) 30. Rouleau (Roller)   Source: Wikipedia    Website converts Gregorian calendar to FRC (and has desktop program) High resolution image of the calendar by Louis-Philibert Debucourt (951x1098, 486 KB) Antique Decimal Watches    Criticisms and shortcomings of the FRC   Julian day calculator (pop-up) Date converter for numerous calendars, including this one    Calendrica, great calendar comparisons The Book of Days index page shows the current day's date in the French Republican Calendar     Ursids meteor shower (Dec 17 - 26) Xurram, ancient Persia (Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar) Feast of Isis, ancient Egypt (Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar) Commemorations for Heracles and Demeter, ancient Greece Festivals in ancient Greece   Divalia or Angeronalia, feast day of the goddess Diva Angerona, ancient Rome Diva Angerona, a Roman goddess of silence who protects against angina, was commemorated on December 21. In Roman mythology, Angerona was a goddess of secrecy, the Winter (especially the Winter Solstice) and a protectress of the ancient Roman Empire. In art, she was depicted with a bandaged mouth and a finger pressed to her lips, demanding silence. She was worshipped in the Curia Acculeia or the Sacellum Volupiae. The Nobel Prize-winning German classical scholar and historian, Theodor Mommsen (1817 - 1903), connects her name with angerere, ‘to raise up’ (the sun after the Solstice, on the basis of the Fasti Praenestina). This day is also sacred to Dea Dia, the goddess venerated by the Fratres Arvales (Arval priests). Angerona was worshipped at the altar of the goddess Volusia, as was Dia. Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days   Saturnalia, ancient Rome (Dec17 - 23) Halcyon Days, ancient Greece and Rome (Dec 14 - 28) Advent (Nov 30 - Dec 25), season of the coming of Jesus Christ Feast day of St Adrian of Dalmatia Feast day of St Beornwald of Bampton Feast day of St Dioscorus Feast day of St Festus Feast day of St John Vincent Feast day of St Jutta of Diessenberg Feast day of St Severinus of Trèves Feast day of St Themistocles of Lycia Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Day dedicated to Awehai, goddess of Native Americans Las Posadas, Mexico (Dec 16 - 25) Yaldā Festival, Zoroastrian faith The ancient Zoroastrian feast of Yaldā (Yalda) marks the longest night of the year and the start of Winter for many across the globe. Yaldā, also known as Shab-e Cheleh, is celebrated on the eve of the first day of the Winter in the Iranian calendar, which falls on the Winter Solstice. It celebrates the birth of Sun god Mithra. The festival was considered extremely important in pre-Islamic Iran and continues to be celebrated to this day, for a period of more than 6,000 years.         1118 Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, England, who was killed on the orders of King Henry II of England   The uncanny parentage of Thomas à Becket Thomas's father, Gilbert, went in a Crusade to the 'Holy Land' (Israel/Palestine), where he was captured by a Saracen of high rank. The Moslem's daughter found Gilbert attractive and helped him to escape, on the proviso that when he arrived in England he would send for her and make her his wife. After several years, the woman, whose name was strangely said, in an old ballad, to be Susie Pye, had not heard from him, so she made her own way to England. Knowing only that his name was Gilbert and he lived in Cheapside, London, she still tracked him down. One ballad said that she found him in Scotland at the very moment he was about to marry another. The two were indeed married and the celebrated Thomas, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was the only child of the union. Saracen slave girls    More    The Murder of Thomas Becket, 1170    More 1603 Roger Williams (d. April 1, 1683), English theologian, a notable proponent of the separation of Church and State, an advocate for fair dealings with Native Americans, founder of the city of Providence, Rhode Island and co-founder of the colony of Rhode Island 1804 Benjamin Disraeli ('Dizzy'; d. April 19, 1881), Conservative Prime Minister of Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria. He was also a novelist (Vivian Grey; Popanilla; The Rise of Iskander; Sybil, or the Two Nations).  Related: Primrose Day 1815 Thomas Couture (d. 1879), French painter and teacher 1843 Thomas Bracken (d. 1898), New Zealand poet, author of God's Own Country 1857 Sir Joseph Carruthers, (d. September 15, 1932), lawyer, investor, Premier of New South Wales, Australia, 1904 - '07. Before Federation, Carruthers had been a member of George Reid’s Free Trade ministry. He was a strong opponent of federal Protectionist policies and clashed with Alfred Deakin on this issue and on the transfer of land for the Federal Capital Territory. Carruthers was also aligned with Reid in introducing Empire Day in 1905. In 1898, when he was Secretary for Lands, scurrilous editor and politician John Norton won a libel action brought by Carruthers. He was one of ten NSW delegates to the pre-Federation second National Australasian Convention. While Premier, his loose associations with crooked politicians William Willis and Paddy Crick led to strong allegations (largely by Norton) that Carruthers was involved in bribery. The Royal Commission into the Department of Lands scandal reported that "nothing in the evidence … implicated Mr Carruthers". While Leader of the Government in the NSW Upper House in 1922 - '25, Carruthers was a fierce opponent of Henry Lawson's brother-in-law Jack Lang, who proposed to abolish that chamber. Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson 1859 Gustave Kahn (d. 1936), French Symbolist poet 1872 Albert Payson Terhune (d. 1942), American author   1876 Jack Lang (d. September 27, 1975), Australian politician, brother-in-law of Australian poet Henry Lawson. Lang was an early member of the Australian Labor Party, and the Premier of New South Wales for two terms, from 1925 - '27, and again from 1930 - '32. He is the only Premier of any Australian State to have been dismissed by the State Governor (the representative of the British monarch) without there being an election or parliamentary vote of no confidence. This was due to his refusal to pay interest on government loans borrowed from financiers in the United Kingdom at the height of the Great Depression.   Like William Morris Hughes (later Australian Prime Minister), in his youth Lang worked on Arthur Desmond's anarchist journal, Hard Cash. Jack Lang also worked with Henry Tregarthan Douglas, John Dwyer and printer William Mason on another anarchist paper, Justice, appearing as a witness in the trial of those men and Thomas Dodd and printer's assistant George MacNevin at their libel trial of June 12 - 13, 1894, before Justice Sir George Long-Innes in the Central Criminal Court, Sydney. In I Remember, Lang recalled how he picked up a drunk Lawson one evening and hired a hansom cab to take him home: "As we were travelling along George Street West, Harry decided the driver was too slow. So he started to let him have it in good Australian bush oaths. He became louder and louder. The driver pulled in at St Benedict's and said he wouldn't go any further. I was in a real quandary. Finally we compromised. I took out a huge bandanna handkerchief and gagged Henry for the rest of the journey. On arrival at Dulwich Hill, he was completely helpless. We thought he was dead. He was only dead drunk. Finally we managed to get him into the house and put him to bed. Next morning, bright and early, he came out and produced a story he had written overnight. It was 'They Wait on the Wharf in Black' – one of his finest efforts." Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson   1878 Jan Łukasiewicz (d. 1956), philosopher, mathematician   1879 Joseph Stalin (Josef Stalin; d. March 5, 1953), Soviet dictator, one of history's greatest mass murderers (cf Mao Zedong) “We may now conveniently sum up the estimated death toll roughly as follows:   Peasant dead: 1930-37   11 million Arrested in this period dying in camps later   3.5 million TOTAL   14.5 million Of these:     Dead as a result of dekulakization   6.5 million Dead in the Kazakh catastrophe   1 million Dead in the 1932-3 famine:     in the Ukraine 5 million 7 million in the N. Caucasus 1 million elsewhere 1 million "As we have said, these are enormous figures, comparable to the deaths in the major wars of our time."    Source: Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow, Ch. 16, free online "Precise deductions are not possible. Older men died as soldiers in the war. But on the other hand, the mass dispatch to labour camps of prisoners of war returned from Nazi hands in 1945 must have led to an extra, and non-military, death rate among the younger males. So must the guerrilla fighting in the Baltic States and the Western Ukraine, which lasted for years after the war; and so must the deportations from the Caucasus and the general renewal of Purge activities in the post-war period. But in any case, the general effect of the figures is clear enough. The wastage of millions of males in the older age groups is too great to be masked, whatever saving assumptions we may make. We here have, frozen into the census figures, a striking indication of the magnitude of the losses inflicted in the Purge." Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1968, pp. 711-12   Source "According to Conquest, extrapolating plausibly from Soviet statistics, the toll may be an almost unthinkable 14.5 million – some 11 million peasants killed, the majority from the Ukraine, with 3.5 million arrested and dying later in camps.”   Source "Stalin was a true Leninist in that he faithfully followed his patron's political philosophy and practices. Every ingredient of what has come to be known as Stalinism save one – murdering fellow Communists – he had learned from Lenin, and that includes the two actions for which he is most severely condemned: collectivization and mass terror. Stalin's megalomania, his vindictiveness, his morbid paranoia, and other odious personal qualities should not obscure the fact that his ideology and modus operandi were Lenin's. A man of meager education, he had no other source of ideas." Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime Stalin Biography   1889 Sewall Wright (d. 1988), American biologist 1892 Rebecca West (d. 1983), American writer 1908 Pat Weaver (d. 2002), television pioneer 1914 Ivan Generalić (d. 1992), painter naïve art, Croatia 1917 Heinrich Böll (d. 1985), German author (The Train Was on Time; The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum), Nobel laureate 1972  1918 Donald Regan (d. 2003), Chief of Staff and USA Treasury Secretary 1918 Kurt Waldheim, United Nations Secretary-General 1921 Vampira (Maila Nurmi), actress 1922 Paul Winchell, ventriloquist 1935 John G Avildsen, director, editor 1935 Phil Donahue, talk show host 1937 Jane Fonda, actress (Cat Ballou; Klute; Barbarella; The China Syndrome; On Golden Pond), activist, exercise guru 1940 Frank Zappa (d. December 4, 1993), avant-garde American rock musician St Alphonzo's Pancake Homepage    Zappa Quote of the Day Frank Zappa's Musical Language    Frank Zappa Tribute Frank Zappa Memorial Photo Pages, Copenhagen    More Frank Zappa, Lou Reed and Czech President Vaclav Havel, in the Book of Days How Western rock music helped bring down a Communist government Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list 1942 Reinhard Mey, singer 1942 Carla Thomas, soul singer 1944 Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor 1946 Carl Wilson, musician (The Beach Boys) 1947 Paco de Lucia, musician 1948 Samuel L Jackson, actor 1950 Jeffrey Katzenberg, producer 1955 Jane Kaczmarek, actress (Malcolm in the Middle) 1957 Ray Romano, comedian, actor 1961 Francis Ng, actor 1965 Andy Dick, actor, comedian 1966 Kiefer Sutherland, American actor 1967 Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian politician, President of the Republic of Georgia since January 4, 2004 1969 Julie Delpy, actress 1973 Karmen Stavec, Slovenian singer   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section Send free e-cards to friends & family for celebrations & any topic Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year. Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Christmas Tree Light Day [ Dec 22 ] Birthdays Christmas [ Dec 25 ] World Peace Day [ Dec 21 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Buddhist e-cards Varies Christian e-cards Varies Hindu e-cards Varies Jewish e-cards Varies Muslim e-cards Varies Pagan e-cards Varies Peace e-cards Varies Friendship e-cards Varies Hanukkah December 15 Firefighters Day 15 Sleep Comfort Day 16 Beethoven's Birthday 16 Underdog Day 17 Cookie Cutter Day 18 Flake Appreciation Day 18 Bake Cookies Day 19 A Christmas Carol Day 19 Build A Snowman Day 19 Chocolate Pizza Day 20 Dot Your I's With Smileys Day 20 Go Caroling Day 21 Winter Solstice 21 Yule 21 World Peace Day 21 Yalda 21 Look At The Bright Side Day 21 Crossword Puzzle Day 22 Christmas Tree Light Day 23 Popcorn Popping Day 23 Two Days To Go 23 Feast Of The Radishes 24 Eggnog Day 25 Christmas 25 Christmas Around The World 26 Boxing Day 26 Candy Cane Day 26 Coffee Percolator Day 27 Fruitcake Day 28 Chocolate Day 28 Return A Gift For Cold Hard Cash Day 28 Call-A-Friend Day 29 Ice Skating Day 29 Bowling Day 29 Enjoying ESP Day 30 Day Before New Year's Eve Day 31 New Year's Eve ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap Your family and friends will get a kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!! You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)         If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   69 Vespasian became the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the four emperors.   The Castle of the Faithful Wives 1140 At Weinsberg, Germany, the castle had to surrender to King Conrad III after a long siege. The king ordered all men in the castle executed, but the women were free to go, carrying their most beloved possessions on their backs with them. The women chose to carry their husbands out of the castle on their backs and so saved the men's lives. The king allowed it because, he said, a king's word should not be altered. The women came to be known as the Treue Weiber von Weinsberg (Faithful Wives of Weinsberg), and the castle is nowadays known as Weibertreu (Women's Faithfulness). Click the small image to see the larger image in a new window, or see the original at Wikicommons here. Source: Wikipedia    The Castle of the Faithful Wives    Mark Twain on Weibertreu    More   1163 A hurricane hit villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods. 1375 Giovanni Boccaccio (b. 1313), Italian medieval novelist (Decameron) died at 62 in Certaldo, Italy. More 1620 New World: The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on the shores of Massachusetts. "The Mayflower carried enough furniture for 19 cottages, as well as pigs, goats, guns, journals and bibles. Native American tribes had already skirmished with the Pilgrims as they explored the banks of Cape Cod. William Bradford, who became the governor of Plymouth Plantation, wrote that they reached the new continent and found nothing but 'a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men.' "For the first year, the Pilgrims and Indians lived peacefully together. They signed a peace treaty in the spring and had a plentiful harvest. But there was trouble the following January. The chief of a tribe called the Narragansett wanted no part in the peace treaty, and he sent Bradford a sheaf of arrows wrapped inside a snakeskin. Bradford sent the snakeskin back to him, stuffing it with bullets. Then the pilgrims built a wall around their village, eleven feet high and a mile all around."   Source 1719 The first USA newspaper, the Boston Gazette, was published. 1790 Samuel Slater, an American industrialist, opened a water-powered cotton mill, the first of its kind. 1794 William Godwin dined with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Samuel Porson at the home of playwright Thomas Holcroft. Godwin and Coleridge did not meet again until Coleridge called to see Godwin on November 30, 1799, after which they became firm friends. They took tea together at the home of Mary Robinson ('Perdita') on January 15, 1800, and had supper with her on January 18 and February 22, 1800. (Another of Holcroft's friends was Thomas Paine.) Source 1807 Death of John Newton (b. 1725), cleric, hymnist ('Amazing Grace'). 1846 Anaesthetic was used for the first time in a British hospital – Scottish surgeon Robert Liston amputated a leg at University College Hospital in London. 1861 In order to prevent war between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lord Lyons, the British minister to the United States, met with United States Secretary of State William Seward. Their discussions centred on Confederate envoys James Mason and John Slidell, who had been arrested by the United States Navy aboard the British mail steamer Trent. 1861 USA: The Congressional Medal of Honor was first authorized. 1872 Phileas Fogg completed his 80-day around-the-world trip, according to Jules Verne (Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours – Around the World in 80 Days). It was a Saturday night, at 57 seconds past 8:44 pm, when the fictional adventurer walked into the exclusive Reform Club on Pall Mall in London, with three seconds to spare, winning his wager of £20,000 set by the club. "On the fifty-seventh second, the door of the drawing room opened. Before the pendulum could beat the sixtieth second, Mr Phileas Fogg appeared, followed by a delirious crowd forcing its way into the Club. A calm voice was heard. 'Here I am, gentlemen.'" From Around the World in 80 Days, annotated by William Butcher 1872 HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth on the 4-year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography. 1879 Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House opened at the Theatre Royal, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1880 The Isle of Man became the first political entity to allow women to vote, the first women in the world to be given the vote in national elections. (Some sources say 1881.) "Although a number of other territories had enfranchised women before 1893, New Zealand can justly claim to be the first self-governing nation to grant the vote to all adult women."   Source: History of the Vote: Votes for Women A world chronology of women's electoral rights, in the Scriptorium 1894 The South Australian government became the first in the world to grant female suffrage and the right to stand for election (in the colony's parliament). The Bill was given Royal Assent by Queen Victoria on February 2, 1895. See 1880, Isle of Man, above. "The documents shown are the Bill passed by the South Australian Parliament in 1894 to grant women the right to vote and stand for election in the Colony's Parliament, and a letter from the Attorney-General dated 21 December 1894 advising Governor Kintore that Royal Assent would be required to enact the Bill. The Bill was enacted when Queen Victoria signed her Assent on 2 February 1895. "These documents show that South Australian women won the vote in 1895, not 1894 as usually stated. They were the second to gain the vote, after New Zealand women who secured this right in 1893, and the first in the world to gain the right to stand for election. Thus Catherine Helen Spence's candidacy for election as a Federation Convention delegate was the first such in the world. "The Act also had a more generous provision for absent voting by women than by men, in that women could get an automatic postal vote if they were more than three miles from the nearest polling booth or if they felt the state of their health prevented them from voting on the day."   Source 1898 Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium. 1909 American explorer, Frederick Cook, was publicly disgraced when his claim that he was the first person to reach the North Pole was rejected by experts in favour of the claim of Commander Robert Peary. 1913 In the US, the world's first crossword puzzle was published. It was contrived by an Englishman, Arthur Wynne, and published in the New York World. 1914 The first feature-length silent film comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, was released. The director was Mack Sennett. More at IMDB 1916 Australia: Death of William Chidley (William James Chidley, b. 1860), Sydney eccentric. "Philosopher with unconventional theories on sex, diet and clothing. A striking figure in his Spartan tunic, he preached the Answer to living a 'natural' life to Sydneysiders before the First World War. He believed he had made an important scientific discovery that the human race had been living in error. Do nothing which is unnatural however slight was his precept. He preached that we must return to nudity, natural coition and a diet comprising only fruit and nuts. Then and only then, could we be at one with 'nature' and one another. "He suffered constant persecution by the authorities in his day, was committed to various asylums and even jailed. Regarded as a pervert because he dared to mention sex in a repressed society, he was, on the contrary, something of a puritan in his teachings and lifestyle. It was the public who came to his defence. Fond of this harmless crank, they petitioned parliamentarians and the media to get him released. Chidley spawned a band of disciples who continued his vision after his death."   Source Sydney characters and eccentrics Dulcie Deamer    Bea Miles    Rosaleen Norton    Arthur Stace (Mr Eternity)    Quong Tart William Chidley and the BMA    Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson Sydney characters and eccentrics at the Sydney Folklore Project   1916 Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) were outlawed in Australia. 1923 Nepal changed from a British protectorate to an independent state. 1933 Newfoundland became a crown colony. 1933 Death of Dora Montefiore (b. 1851), suffragist, socialist and later communist, poet, journalist, traveller, co-founder of the Womanhood Suffrage League of NSW. 1935 The first screening of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature film. More 1945 American general George ‘Blood and Guts’ Patton died in a car crash. 1958 Charles de Gaulle was elected as the first President of the Fifth Republic. 1962 Rondane National Park, the first national park in Norway, was established. 1964 Britain abolished capital punishment with a bill introduced by Sidney Silverman. 1968 Apollo 8 was launched. 1970 President Richard Nixon appointed Elvis Presley a special agent of the US Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, after Elvis dropped around to the White House that morning and hand-delivered a letter that began: "Dear Mr. President. First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley and admire you and have great respect for your office. I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country. The drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it the establishment. I call it America and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out. I have no concern or motives other than helping the country out ..." This was almost seven years before 'The King' keeled over and expired in his toilet. I refer to the King of Rock 'n' Roll, not the late President of the United States of America. US Archives: When Nixon met Elvis    FBI and Hollywood    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list   1979 The United States government bailed out the Chrysler Corporation. 1983 In Beirut, fifteen French soldiers were killed when a terrorist truck-bomb exploded at their post. 1988 A terrorist bomb exploded and forced the crash of Pan Am flight 103 a Boeing 747, over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground. Secret witness casts doubt over Lockerbie conviction    Do you know the truth about Lockerbie? Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial    Politics and justice: the Lockerbie trial    Police chief: evidence was faked Alternative theories of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103    UN monitor decries Lockerbie judgement 1988 Soviet cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov returned to Earth after a record 365 days in space. 1991 On her 54th birthday, American actress Jane Fonda married media magnate Ted Turner. 1991 The Commonwealth of Independent States replaced the USSR. 1999 The Spanish Civil Guard intercepted near Calatayud (Zaragoza) a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives. The next day, another van loaded with 750 kg was found not far from there. The incident is known as 'la caravana de la muerte' (the caravan of death). Shortly after 9/11, ETA confirmed their plan had been to blow up Torre Picasso. 2000 Death of Al Gross, unsung inventor of important 20th-Century technologies. He invented and patented many important communications devices, including the first walkie-talkie, CB Radio, the telephone pager and the cordless telephone. In spite of the successes of these inventions, his patents expired too early to make any amount of money from them. 2002 Vancouver, British Columbia city council declared 'DOA Day' in observance of the Canadian punk band DOA's decades of influence and accomplishments. and Wilson's Almanac is covering it ;) 2012 Timewave Zero? 4 Ollin? The Mayan calendar ends. End of the great cycle of the Mayan calendar's Long Count, and thus the alleged end of our world (the end of the cycle is dated December 23 by some calculations). Also interpreted as a change in human consciousness, ie. the 'end' of the world as we know it but the start of a new one. More at this page in the Scriptorium.   Terence McKenna (1946 - 2000), theoretician of consciousness, was the originator of the Timewave Zero theory (Novelty Theory), which claims time to be a fractal wave of increasing novelty, which ends in 2012. [McKenna’s Timewave Zero calculations differ from the Mayan calendar’s ‘last day’ only by hours. See tomorrow, December 22, 2012]   “TM: Yes, we've been talking about this as a metaphor ... what makes me, I hope, a little different from some of the other prophets in the marketplace is, I've got a formal mathematical theory that ... you know, I mentioned habit and novelty, this dualistic flow ... well, because it is a dualistic flow, it can be portrayed like the ebb and flow of the price of a stock, or something like that, in other words, it can be portrayed as a line graph. So I've written computer programs which produce what I call novelty waves ... in other words, a time-scale wave that pictures the ebb and flow of novelty. And by fitting known historical and paleontological and geological data into these waves at different scales, I was finally able to discern a best fit. But the conclusion that it led to was very startling to me, which is: this ultimate novelty, this transcendental object at the end of time, isn't millennia in the future, it is in fact slated to collide with historical necessity some time in late 2012. “Now, I know you have some interest in the Mayan calendar ... I didn't know when I calculated this date that it was the same end date as the Mayan calendar ... to the day ... “   Source  The Aztec calendar and the 2012 end of the world "The Mexicans, as all other Meso-Americans, believed in the periodic destruction and re-creation of the world. The 'Calendar Stone' in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Museum of Anthropology) in Mexico City depicts in its central panel the date 4 Ollin (movement), on which they anticipated that their current world would be destroyed by earthquake, and within it the dates of previous holocausts: 4 Tiger, 4 Wind, 4 Rain, and 4 Water."   Source   Resources for 2012 and Mayan  and Aztec calendars     More at this page in the Scriptorium.   Dire Gnosis: A Database on the year 2012 2012: Wilson's Blogmanac will be covering it Apocalypse when? (Failed prophecies) More on McKenna And more on McKenna Calendar Wheels                   Dreamspell 13 Moon Calendar homepage World 13 Moon calendar Change Movement More on the Dreamspell calendar Mayan oracle José & Lloydine Argüelles Excellent Mayan calendar tools page Calendar conversions: 13 Moon, Mayan, Jewish, etc Earth-matriX: Science in Ancient Artwork Virgin of Guadalupe, or Aztec goddess? Aztec Calendar   Mayan and Aztec calendars Aztec civilization How to interpret pre-hispanic calendars Some more on Aztec calendar Earth matrix Mexconnect Calendar links Mayan calendar links Aztec calendar at Crystalinks Books on Cortés and Aztecs The Sad Night, the Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss, by Sally Schofer Mathews The Aztecs/Mexicas Almanacs calendars time links Mayan date calculator     "2012 The world did not end ! The 13th baktun of the Mayan calendar begins.   "Since the world did not end yesterday at the end of the 12th baktun, as the Mayas had predicted, there has to be a 13th baktun, and this is its first day. The Mayan date is therefore: "13 baktun   /    0  katun     /  0  tun  / 0 winal /  0   k'in  //  04  -  ahaw   // 03 -  k'ank'in  /  g2                             "The 13th baktun's last day will be Sunday 25 March 2407. "In the Mayan calendar: 13 baktun 19 katun 19 tun 17 winal 19 k'in 02 kawak 07 dzek g8"   Source How the West got its calendar   Tomorrow: Was Richard Plantagenet, bricklayer, a king’s son?    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search   Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research. I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude. © My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

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