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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to
this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations,
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'Tween Martinmas and Yule
Water's wine in every pool. Scotch traditional proverb
At Christmas, play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year. Tusser,
Thomas (1524
- 1580),
Five hundreth pointes of good husbandrie: as well for the champion or
open countrie, as also for the woodland or severall ; mixed in everie
month with huswiferie, over and besides the booke of huswiferie, London:
'Printed in the now dwelling house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate
Street at the signe of the starre', 1586
I heard the bells of Christmas Day,
Their old familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way. JF Pierpont wrote
the secular carolJingle Bells in 1857 for his Sunday school class
Some say
that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. William
Shakespeare, Hamlet,
I, i 157
So now is come our joyful feast; Let every man be jolly;
Each room with ivy leaves is drest, And every post with
holly.
Though some churls at our mirth repine,
Round your foreheads garlands twine;
Drown sorrow in a cup of wine, And let us all be merry. George Wither
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Sir Isaac
Newton, who was
born on December 25, 1642. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27)
Who, by vigour of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated. Epitaph of Sir Isaac Newton
All quiet on
the Western Front, nobody saw
A youth asleep in the foreign soil, planted by the war
Feel the pulse of human blood pouring forth
See the stems of Europe bend under force
All quiet
All quiet
All quiet on the Western Front Music by Elton
John, lyrics by Bernie
Taupin(see On This Day in History, 1914, below)
There was no need to do any housework at
all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse. Quentin Crisp, English writer, born on December 25, 1908
An autobiography is an obituary in
serial form with the last chapter missing. Quentin Crisp
Of course I lie to people. But I lie
altruistically – for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building
block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist – but
then what isn't? Quentin Crisp
Never keep up with the Joneses; drag
them down to your level. It's cheaper. Quentin Crisp
I didn't
practise. I was already
perfect. Quentin Crisp, when asked at the US Embassy before his departure from
England, if he was a practising homosexual
and from Pip Wilson, your Almanackist
So
this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so this is Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fights
A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
Ich schau'
dir in die Augen, Kleines. (“I look into your eyes,
little one”). The version of “Here's looking at you kid” as spoken
by Humphrey Bogart (born on December 25, 1899) in the dubbed German
version of Casablanca
Hollywood's a great place to live ... if
you're a grapefruit. Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone TV show ideas man who was born on
December 25, 1924
I was a Christmas present that was
delivered unwrapped. Rod Serling
It is difficult to produce a
television documentary that is both incisive andprobing when every twelve
minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet
paper. Rod Serling
I have spent a lot of time searching through
the Bible, looking for loopholes. WC
Fields (b. 1880), American comedian,
who died
on
Christmas Day, 1946, spoken on his deathbed
Compassion
and love – those are the real jewels. Put the most beautiful dress on a
closed face and it serves no purpose. The Dalai Lama, who fled his holy city of Lhasa on Christmas day, 1950
Note: The
solstice (Yule) can occur either on December 21 or
22.
In the Book of Days, our information is on December 22.
Are you looking for
more origins and folklore of Yuletide? Click for the big
Christmas page at the Scriptorium.
Also, this Book of Days has Christmas Eve
folklore from many lands.
While the big shops put up enormous wreaths and the little shops spray on the Santa Snow window stencils, churches iron out the creases on the Put Christ Back Into Christmas posters for the glass cases on the street front.
Their struggle is not new. The Church, or at least Cromwell's puritan Commonwealth, tried to stamp out Christmas, all feast days and anything fun more than three centuries ago. A tract author with the central casting-puritan name of Hezekiah Woodward wrote, in 1656:
The old heathens' Feasting Day, in honour of Saturn, their Idol-God, the Papists' Massing Day, the Profane Man's Ranting Day, the Superstitious Man's Idol Day, the Multitudes' Idle Day, Satan's
– that Adversary's
– Working Day, the True Christian Man's Fasting
Day ...
Picture that on the notice board outside St Chad's.
The fact is, old Hezekiah Woodward, in part, made a pretty fair point. Christmas was, indeed, in its origins a heathen day of feasting for
Saturn. And Baal. And
Mithras.
Christmas, ironically, antedates
the Nativity of Christ, and December 25 is a fudge. In the third century
CE the Church fathers chose that day as Jesus Christ's birthday, with good
reason. It happens to fall approximately on the Northern Hemisphere's
Winter Solstice, and December 25 (Midwinter's
Day/Winter Solstice/Yule) has been from time immemorial a day sacred
to the rebirth of the light of the sun in the depths of winter.
This day was the Festival of
Natalis Sol Invictus (the Birth of the Undefeated Sun) in ancient Rome.
Ancient peoples also commemorated the Babylonian Queen of Heaven, Osiris
in Egypt, Dionysus,
Helios, Adonis, the Celtic horned god
Cernunnos, the Syrian Baal, Attis, Mithras, Balder and the Norse god Frey – all
celebrated on the ancient Winter Solstice, and mostly solar saviours and
dying gods. Most of these deities were given similar titles: the Light
of the World, Sun of Righteousness, and Saviour. (More on
ancient Gods and saviours similar to Jesus.)
Origins of customs
The Roman Empire gave the world the tradition of gift-giving in late December, with its citizens giving clay dolls (sigillaria) at the festival of the
Saturnalia. Like modern revellers, too, they ate their fill of fruits, nuts, breads, pies and star-shaped cakes. They gave us decorations as well, decorating their temples with greenery for the festive Saturnalia celebrations at this time of year. Later, the Saxons at Winter Solstice time decorated their homes with two of the scarce bits of natural colour in the winter
snowscape, the red-berried holly and the evergreen ivy.
Meanwhile, the Celtic Druids gathered mistletoe, a parasitic plant that grows on trees. On the sixth day of the new moon a fasting, white-clad Druidic priest cut the holy parasite from an oak tree with a sacred golden sickle held in his left hand. A virgin had to catch the falling plant, for it was not allowed to touch the ground. Mistletoe was believed by these ancient Britons, and other Europeans, to promote fertility and ward off evil. Today, of course, the fertility connections are clearly seen when a kiss is snatched under the mistletoe; the modern quest is to find a virgin to catch it should it fall. Mistletoe
figured prominently in Celtic
and Norse
mythology – the Viking god Baldur was killed with a weapon made of mistletoe.
Unable to stamp out the widespread pagan 'Yule' (Midwinter) customs, early Church leaders pragmatically put a Christian spin on them. Throughout Europe, the celebration of
Christ's birth grew in stature and became, with
Easter, one of the two great festivals of the calendar. Gradually, traditions grew up, growing and changing over the centuries, even until today, layer upon layer like sedimentary levels in an archaeological
dig...
Orkney Islands As in
Norway (across the water from the Orkneys), there was a tradition that
women could not spin or card wool from the beginning of Yule until
Twelfth
Night, and spinning
and carding were forbidden in the household of any man
who owned sheep.
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.
"A stately ceremony took place in England in the Middle Ages at the end of
Christmas Matins – the chanting of St. Matthew's genealogy of Christ. The
deacon, in his dalmatic, with acolytes carrying tapers, with thurifer and
cross-bearer, all in albs and unicles, went in procession to the pulpit or the
rood-loft, to sing this portion of the Gospel. If the bishop were present, he it
was who chanted it, and a rich candlestick was held to light him. Then followed
the chanting of the 'Te Deum'." Clement A Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T
Fisher Unwin, London, 1912
Online
"On Christmas Day in the Vatican the Pope blesses a hat
and a sword, and these are sent as gifts to some prince. The practice is said to
have arisen from the mediaeval custom for the Holy Roman Emperor or some other
sovereign to read one of the lessons at Christmas Matins, in the papal chapel,
with his sword drawn." Clement A Miles, ibid
Early morning services in
Wales "At Tenby at
four o'clock on Christmas morning it was customary for the young men
of the town to escort the rector with lighted torches from his house
to the church. Extinguishing their torches in the porch, they went
in to the early service, and when it was ended the torches were
relighted and the procession returned to the rectory. At St. Peter's
Church, Carmarthen, an early service was held, to the light of
coloured candles brought by the congregation. At St. Asaph, Caerwys,
at 4 or 5 a.m., Plygain, consisting of carols sung round the church
in procession, was held. The Plygain continued in Welsh churches
until about the eighteen-fifties, and, curiously enough, when the
Established Church abandoned it, it was celebrated in Nonconformist
chapels." Clement A Miles, ibid
Slavonic Christmas morning
"A beautiful rite called the “Peace of God” is performed in Slavonic
churches at the end of the 'Liturgy' or Mass on Christmas morning – the people
kiss one another on both cheeks, saying, 'Christ is born!' To this the answer is
made, 'Of a truth He is born!' and the kisses are returned. This is repeated
till everyone has kissed and been kissed by all present. Clement A Miles, ibid
Christmas in the news
Jesus, Odin, Mithras, Bacchus ...
Virgin birth, cross, Lamb of God
... How are the ancient gods similar? Read all about it
here
Christmas Day "Transferred from the 6th of January to the 25th of December by
Julius I. (337 - 352).
"Old
Christmas Day. January 6th. When Gregory XIII.
reformed the Calendar in 1582, he omitted ten days; but
when the New Style was adopted in England in 1752, it was necessary
to cut off eleven days, which drove back January 6th to
December 25th of the previous year. So what we now call January 6th
in the Old Style would be Christmas Day, or December 25th." Evans, Ivor
H, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988
Christmas tree
"Christmas
Trees and Maypoles are remnants of the Scandinavian
Ash, called Yggdrasil,
the Tree of Time, whose roots penetrate to heaven, Niffheim and
Ginnungagap (the gap of gaps). In Ginnungagap the frost giants
dwell, in Niffheim is the great serpent Nidhögg; and under this
root is Helheim, the home of the dead.
"We
are told that the ancient Egyptians, at the Winter Solstice, used a
palm branch containing twelve leaves or shoots to symbolise the
'completion of the year.' [cf Twelve days of
Christmas, PW] The modern custom comes from Germany." Evans, Ivor
H, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988
Yawning for the Cheshire
Cheese, Cheshire, UK This was a game for tired
Christmas revellers. Late in the night this game of yawning
commenced more or less automatically. The one who yawned the widest
and longest, but so naturally as to set the others yawning, was
declared the winner and given a Cheshire cheese as a reward.
Kiss under the
mistletoe According to a Christmas custom, any two people who meet under a
hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss. The custom is of
Scandinavian origin.
From
Wikipedia: In Norse mythology, Baldr was a god of vegetation.
His mother,
Frigga, prompted by a prophetic dream, made every plant, animal
and inanimate object promise not to harm him. But Frigga overlooked
the mistletoe plant – and the mischievous god
Loki
took advantage of this oversight, tricking the blind god Höðr into
killing Baldr with a spear fashioned from mistletoe. Baldr's death
brought winter into the world, until the gods restored him to life.
Frigga declared the mistletoe sacred, ordering that from now on it
should bring love rather than death into the world. Happily
complying with Frigga's wishes, any two people passing under the
plant from now on would celebrate Baldr's resurrection by kissing
under the mistletoe.
"The word
'mistletoe' (Old English mistiltan) is of uncertain
etymology; it may be related to German Mist, for dung and
Tang for branch, since mistletoe can be spread in the
faeces of birds moving from tree to tree. However, Old English
mistel was also used for basil." Source
The tree that sprang from a staff placed in the
English soil at Glastonbury by Joseph
of Arimathea, the uncle of Jesus, blooms on Old Christmas
Day, January
5 – the miracle will be a topic in this Book of Days for that
day. Before the calendar
change of 1752 the miracle occurred annually on December 25.
Pilgrims have visited the sacred town of Glastonbury to see this
every year for centuries.
From Wikipedia:
Newtonmas is a secularholiday
celebrated on 25 December each
year in honor of Sir Isaac
Newton's birthday. Newton was born 25December, 1642. He
made important advances in science and mathematics,
held a professorship at Trinity College
without joining the clergy, and has a
connection with apples. Since his
birthday coincides with Christmas, his
birthday is considered by some to be the perfect choice for a
non-religious holiday. This is ironic because, despite his fame as
one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived, the Bible was Sir
Isaac Newton's greatest passion. He devoted more time to the study
of Scripture than to science, and said, "I have a fundamental
belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were
inspired. I study the Bible daily."
Traditions
The Newtonmas Tree is an apple tree, but
because it's not nice to kill trees, Newtonmas trees are usually
something green
and treelike with apples, preferably synthetic ones, on
them. Living
apple trees are better, but they should be left where they are
growing, although decorations
like lights
and ornaments
are okay.
Newtonmas morning everyone gathers around
the Newtonmas Tree—although not before everyone has showered,
dressed, and brushed their teeth and had a bite to eat—and
exchanges gifts
of knowledge. These
gifts are usually books, but CDs, videos,
and other media are okay so long as they substantially contribute to
the recipient's intellectual
development. People with a lot of time and patience may also give
free lecture passes, good for a free lecture on some topic in the
near future. Creativity is encouraged.
7 -
4 BCE
(observed): birth of Jesus, considered to
be the Son of God
(by Christians);
also considered an asceticprophet of Islam. The date of
Jesus' birth is celebrated on several different days worldwide.
In three words: not likely. The story that an apple falling on the great English scientist's head led to his brilliant theories on gravity is appealing but apocryphal. An associate of Newton's, John Conduitt, wrote
"In the year 1666 ... whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth..." The apple was just an aside in the story.
Voltaire (1694-1778) popularised the account and over the centuries the colourful myth of the falling fruit took shape.
Thaw was jealous of Nesbit, and was
especially sensitive about her prior relationship with White. After
a trip to Europe with Thaw, Evelyn accepted his proposal and they
married on April 4, 1905.
On June 25,
1906
Evelyn and Harry saw White at a restaurant (the Café Martin) and
ran into him again in the audience of the old Madison Square Garden's roof
theatre at a performance of Mamzelle Champagne. During the
song, 'I Could Love A Million Girls', Thaw fired three shots at
close range into Stanford White's face, killing him.
After a series of sensational trials,
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw's career was largely unsuccessful (vaudeville
performer, actor, dancer, café manager) and her life marred by
suicide attempts. Evelyn Nesbit eventually died in a nursing home in
Santa Monica, California, at age 82. In her later years, she taught
ceramics and served as a technical consultant to a 1955 movie about
the White shooting, The
Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, in which she was portrayed by Joan
Collins. She was also portrayed by Elizabeth
McGovern in the movie Ragtime.
Evelyn had one child, Russell William Thaw (October 25,
1910 - 2002), a noted aviator who sometimes appeared in Hollywood
films; the identity of his father remains in doubt. Harry K Thaw
swore he was not the child's father.
Lauren
Bacall, his wife, said that he was born on this day, though sources vary – some
say his real birthday was January 23, 1899, but Warner Brothers
'changed' it to December 25, probably for publicity purposes.
This may be an urban myth.
Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB)
says it's today: "New York Times reported on 12/25/2000 that
'Humphrey Bogart was born on 23 January 1899, but Warner
Brothers publicity decided that a Christmas birthday would be far
more advantageous because "a guy born on Christmas can't be all
bad."' However, copies of two 1900 census forms prove this to
be incorrect."
1908Quentin Crisp
(d. 1999),
author, activist.
He was born Dennis Pratt – a distant relation of Boris Karloff,
who was born William Henry Pratt. The expatriate English writer
wrote The
Naked Civil Servant and became a gay cult figure. It is rumoured that he
was the role model for Sting's song Englishman in New York.
(He and Sting worked together in the 1985 movie The Bride.)
1924Rod
Serling (d. 1975), scriptwriter,
host of the classic TV series, The
Twilight Zone, whichfeatured forays into controversial grounds like racism, Cold War
paranoia and the horrors of war. His maverick attitude eventually
drove him from regular network television.
1929Irish McCalla,
born in Pawnee City, Nebraska, USA; d. February 1,
2002). Although she is mostly known for her work
in the title role of the 1950s American adventure TV series, Sheena,
Queen of the Jungle, she played in several movies (eg, The Beat Generation)
and was also a successful men's magazine
pin-up model in the early 1950s doing a lot of work for Night and
Day magazine. She even did some nude modelling work for famed
pin-up painter Alberto Vargas. After her TV career, she devoted much
of her time to her own painting.
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)
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Click for the big
Christmas page at the Scriptorium
for the folklore and origins of the West's biggest festival
440 CE The
Christian Church fixed the date of Christmas at December 25, the Roman
celebration of the winter
solstice.
597Thousands of Saxons were baptised in the waters of the Swale, at
the mouth of the Medway River, England, in the first mass baptism in England,
after Augustine established Christianity in the island. Their king, St Ethelbert,
had already been dunked on June 2.
1085 King William I ('the
Conqueror') ordered a complete survey of England, known as
the 'Domesday Book', named after the Christian concept of a Book of
Judgement at Doomsday in which all names are recorded. This was a landmark of
Western demography.
1100 Boudouin I of
Boulogne was crowned king of Jerusalem.
1101 Henry I of
Limburg became duke of Neth-Lutherans.
1121 St Norbertus van Xanten founded
the order of the Norbertines or
Premonstratensians, a community of Augustinian canons in France, starting a reform movement that swept
through European monastic houses.
1130 Anti-pope
Anacletus II crowned Roger II the Norman, king of Sicily.
1156 Peter
Venerabilis, theologian and Ninth abbot of Cluny, died at about 61.
1223 or
1224SaintFrancis of Assisi
arranged for the construction of the first presepio (nativity scene), at
Greccio, Italy. In Germany,
about the 14th Century, became established the extremely popular
Christmas custom of Kindelwiegen (cradle rocking); the
infant Jesus' crib in the nativity scene became a cradle (wiege) that
could be rocked by priests and layfolk.
"A woodden childe in clowtes is on the aultar set,
About the which both boyes and gyrles do daunce and trymly jet,
And Carrols sing in prayse of Christ, and, for to helpe them
heare,
The organs aunswere every verse with sweete and solemne cheare.
The priestes do rore aloude; and round about the parentes stande
To see the sport, and with their voyce do helpe them and their
hande."
Today, nativity scenes may be found each
Christmas in churches, homes and public spaces such as shopping
malls.
"About fifteen days before the Nativity, according to Thomas
of Celano, the blessed Francis sent for a certain nobleman, John
by name, and said to him: 'If thou wilt that we celebrate the
present festival of the Lord at Greccio, make haste to go before
and diligently prepare what I tell thee. For I would fain make
memorial of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, and in some
sort behold with bodily eyes His infant hardships; how He lay in
a manger on the hay, with the ox and the ass standing by.'" Clement A Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T
Fisher Unwin, London, 1912
Online
1611New World:Settlers under Sir Thomas Dale destroyed Apamatuks village on the
lower Appomattox River in Virginia; settlers erected the town site of Bermuda
Hundred on the site.
1621New World: Massachusetts
halted all sinful game-playing and confiscated toys.
1866Arthur Orton, alias
'Roger Tichborne', landed in England
and soon afterwards claimed the Tichborne baronetcy.
The Tichborne Case
This was a celebrated English impersonation
case. In March, 1853, Sir Roger Charles
Doughty Tichborne, heir to an ancient Hampshire
baronetcy, sailed for South America. On April 20 he left South America on the Bella
for Jamaica. The ship sank, and Tichborne was not heard of again. In October,
1865, 'RC Tichborne' showed up in Wagga Wagga, an Australian inland town, in
the person of a man known locally as Tom Castro.
On Christmas Day, 1866, this
man landed in England where he promptly claimed the Tichborne baronetcy. The
real Roger's mother, Lady Tichborne, confirmed the impostor as her son, though
the rest of the family was not deceived. Finally he lost in court, and was
revealed as Arthur Orton, son of a Wapping, UK, butcher; he was sentenced to 14
years jail.
1868 New South Wales, Australia: Bushranger Captain Starlight
(Frank Pearson or Pierson; b. 1837) was captured on a rock ledge near a waterhole
in the Gundabooka Range, now part of
Gundabooka National Park, near
Bourke.
Source
"Although Captain Starlight was the name attributed to the character in Rolf Boldrewood's (aka Mr T.A. Browne's) fictional novel
'Robbery Under Arms' it was a widely held view at the time that the character was based on the exploits of a real bushranger, although the identity of this bushranger was unknown. Captain Starlight was something of an Elvis Presley of the day, with many stories circulating as to his true identity and the circumstances surrounding his demise.
"According to correspondence in WA Police Department files a claim was made by Inspector Treadgold in 1939 that Captain Starlight had not died in a shootout as claimed in
'Robbery Under Arms', but had served out a term in prison before being released and travelling to Perth to take up a position as a minor public servant.
"This fascinating story first came to light following the unfortunate demise of Major Patrick Francis Pelly, a civil servant with the Mines Department who died after mistakenly swallowing poison in 1899. Routine inquiries into the death soon had local police convinced that Major Pelly was not a Major at all, but in fact a Captain … Captain Starlight the notorious bushranger of the 1860s.
"Police files reveal that the deceased man was in fact one Frank Pearson, a horse thief and confidence trickster who had borrowed the
'Pelly' name from a former cell mate, the real Major Patrick Edward Pelly. Major Pelly appears to have been the last of a number of aliases taken by Pearson who was also known as Frank Gordon, Dr Pearson, and Rutherford).
"The records show that Frank Pearson was a bushranger and horse thief in New South Wales during the 1860s. His most notable exploit was the bailing up of a Shearer's Public House in 1868, which resulted in a shootout in which a policeman was fatally wounded. Pearson served 16 years for the murder and had apparently boasted later to Pelly in prison that he was the inspiration for Captain Starlight."
Source
"Captain Starlight was tried at Bathurst on 3
May 1869. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. However, this
was subsequently commuted to Life Imprisonment with the first three years to
be served in irons. Pearson did not serve Life. In 1884 he was released.
"Pearson seems to have remained out of trouble
for a few years. However, on 11 December 1891 he was convicted in Brisbane
(under the alias of Walter Gordon) of two charges of forgery and sentenced to
two years' gaol. After his release in 1893 he became a confidence trickster
and continued a life of petty crime until he accidentally killed himself on 22
December 1899 by drinking potassium cyanide while drunk instead of a
prescribed medicine." Source
1913 In New York,
a man and woman were arrested for kissing in the street.
Silent Night,
Christmas 1914
One of the most
heart-warming true Christmas tales
1914Just after midnight on Christmas morning, the
majority of German troops engaged in WWI ceased firing guns and artillery, and
commenced to sing Christmas carols. Crossing the No
man's land, they traded gifts with the enemy forces that faced them. An estimated two-thirds of the British/German
front line held local ceasefires. And the top military brass were not happy
about it at all, making sure it never happened again.
At certain points along the Eastern and Western
fronts, the soldiers of Russia, France, and Britain even heard brass bands
joining the Germans in their joyous singing. The British responded in places with
carols of their own. Those German soldiers who understood and could speak
English called across greetings to 'Tommy' (the
popular name for the British private); similar greetings were shouted over to
"Fritz".
At the first light of dawn, many of the German soldiers
emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no man's land,
calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues. At
first the Allied soldiers suspected it to be a trick, but soon climbed out of
their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers. The men exchanged
presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs; the
Christmas Truce lasted a few days.
Meanwhile,
Scots and Huns were fraternizing in the most genuine possible manner. Every
sort of souvenir was exchanged, addresses given and received, photos of
families shown etc. One of our fellow offered a German a cigarette; the German
said, "Virginian?" Our fellow said, "Aye, straight-cut."
The German said, "No thanks, I only smoke Turkish!" Captain Sir Edward Hulse, Bart., 2nd Scots
Guards
The Germans, whose nation had originated the tradition of
bringing Christmas trees into their houses and decorating them (introduced into
England by Queen Victoria's Consort, Prince Albert) brought Christmas trees into
their trenches and dugouts in various places, and had decorated some parts of
their parapet.
We got into conversation with the Germans who were
anxious to arrange an Armistice during Xmas. A scout named F. Murker
went out and met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some
cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn't fire at them they
would not fire at us. Edward Hulse, a 25-year old
lieutenant in the Scots Guards, writing in his battalion's war history
The truce was fully publicised from the moment news of
it reached home. Throughout January 1915 numerous local and national newspapers
in Britain printed letter after letter from soldiers who took part; in addition
they ran eye-catching headlines ("Extraordinary Unofficial Armistice",
"British, Indians and Germans shake hands"), and even printed
photographs of the Britons and Germans in No Man's Land. Germany also gave the
event press publicity, though on a smaller scale and for a shorter period of
time.
Reaction to the Christmas Truce from various sources
came in numerous forms. The Allied governments and military high command
reacted with indignation (notably among the French).
I issued
immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct, and called the
local commanders to strict account, which resulted in a good deal of trouble. British Commander-in-Chief, Sir John French
The Corps
Commander, therefore, directs Divisional Commanders to impress on all
subordinate commanders the absolute necessity of encouraging the offensive
spirit of the troops, while on the defensive, by every means in their power.
Friendly
intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices (e.g. 'we won't fire if you
don't' etc.) and the exchange of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting
and occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien,
the then-British commander of II Corps
Documentation is fragmentary since it was contrary to
direct orders and the legal penalty for such fraternizing with the enemy was
death! But even in this brutal war, peace was found on this day by ignoring
political and military authority. For
the most part the truce was observed by British and German soldiers in the
southern part of the Ypres Salient in Belgium.However it was observed elsewhere on the
Western Front and by other combatants. Reaction from on top brass was so intense
that special precautions were taken during the Christmases of 1915, 1916 and
1917, even to the extent of actually stepping up artillery bombardments.
The Khaki
Chums In 1999, nine British friends in a WWI re-enactment
group calling themselves the Khaki
Chums had the "blatantly daft idea" of commemorating the
Christmas Truce and spent five days near St Yvon, Belgium in trenches they
dug themselves to 1914 British army regulations, wearing army issue and
eating from tins in period labels.
1930 Australia: Wealthy merchant, Sidney Myer, started a long
tradition of feeding needy Melbourne people when he provided Christmas dinner
for 12,000 people at the Exhibition Building.
“Mohandas
Karamchand "Mahatma" (Sanskrit:
"great soul") Gandhi (October 2, 1869 - January 30,
1948) was one of
the founding fathers of the modern Indian state and an influential advocate of pacifism as a
means of revolution. (See also: Mahatmas.)”Source
When
Tibet's spiritual and political leader fled, he was forced to leave behind one
of the world's most magnificent buildings, the Potala, winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century
(with the Norbulingka
being the summer residence).
Pictured: The Potala
Palace, HH The Dalai
Lama's former residence and one of a few monasteries not destroyed by the Chinese Communists. There were more than 6,000 monasteries in Tibet where over 20 per cent of the male population was resident. The Chinese invasion destroyed all but a handful of these monasteries and allowed only some of the most famous to
remain, for the purposes of propaganda and tourism income.
The
Potala consists of the White and the Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings,
and is built on the Red Mountain in the centre of the Lhasa valley, at an altitude of 3,700 m.
At the time of the invasion, many of its treasures were looted by the
Communists.
It is
now a popular tourist attraction and an UNESCO World
Heritage Site, and the Chinese government is believed to have taken active
interest in its preservation, as it is a tourist attraction bringing much-needed
foreign income to the regime.
In fact, the Communists have cynically turned this
wonder of the world into a corporate logo that helps sell Lhasa Beer, computer
equipment and plastic packets of dried yak meat. Today in stalls outside the
Potala, tourists can buy posters of the
the palace itself, as well as portraits of Hollywood film stars and China's dictator
Mao Zedong. A sign,
erected inside the palace near exquisite Buddhist murals exhorts: “When
visiting the Potala Palace, the Sitting Room of the Red Palace is an ideal place
for you to have a rest, as well as to do some shopping”.
The palace today also enjoys a kind of propaganda value for its
Marxist-Leninist masters. “When the 14th Dalai (Lama) ruled Tibet, 95 percent
of the Tibetans were serfs and slaves, with no human rights at all,” notes a
Beijing-published magazine. Indeed, there is quite some truth in this appraisal,
and it is clear from the lavishness of the building compared with the poor homes
of the citizens, and the luxurious lifestyles of the former residents compared
with the poverty of the Tibetan people, that the Potala is a symbol not only of
Tibet's glory but of Tibet's shame. It is in fact, Tibet's version of Italy's
Vatican and the pyramids of Egypt (and, one might add, the mansions of today's
rich world): a thing of beauty and wonder, yet a cause for reflection upon
inequality, injustice and human suffering over centuries.
The palace is a maze of galleries and halls with more than 1,000
rooms and 10,000 shrines. It contains 200,000 statues, 246 gold paintings,
20,000 scrolls, hundreds of murals (698 in just one hall) and 615 volumes of
sacred Buddhist texts written in gold text. It took 7,000 workers and 1,500
artisans 50 years to build the towering, gold-roofed Potala, which is about 275
metres (900 feet) from
east to west.
During torrential rains in 1998 and 2000, some parts of the building collapsed
and restoration continues.
“Perched upon Marpo Ri hill, 130 meters above the Lhasa
valley, the Potala Palace rises a further 170 meters and is the greatest
monumental structure in all of Tibet. Early legends concerning the rocky hill
tell of a sacred cave, considered to be the dwelling place of the Bodhisattva
Chenresi (Avilokiteshvara), that was used as a meditation retreat by Emperor
Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century AD. In 637 Songtsen Gampo built a palace
on the hill. This structure stood until the seventeenth century, when it was
incorporated into the foundations of the greater buildings still standing
today. Construction of the present palace began in 1645 during the reign of
the fifth Dalai Lama and by 1648 the Potrang Karpo, or White Palace, was
completed. The Potrang Marpo, or Red Palace, was added between 1690 and 1694;
its construction required the labors of more than 7000 workers and 1500
artists and craftsman. In 1922 the 13th Dalai Lama renovated many chapels and
assembly halls in the White Palace and added two stories to the Red Palace.
The Potala Palace was only slightly damaged during the Tibetan uprising
against the invading Chinese in 1959. Unlike most other Tibetan religious
structures, it was not sacked by the Red Guards during the 1960s and 1970s,
apparently through the personal intervention of Chou En Lai. As a result, all
the chapels and their artifacts are very well preserved.” Source:
sacredsites.com
“This is what The Dalai Lama had to say on the
millennium. Think of how great the world would be if everyone followed these
simple rules.
1. Take into account that great love and great
achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility
for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of
luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll
be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones deal only with the current situation. Don't
bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go some place you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other
exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.”
1950 The
Coronation Stone, the Stone of Scone (Stone of Destiny), was stolen by Scottish
nationalists from the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. (Found April 13,
1951)
1953 A fire broke out in Shek Kip
Mei, Hong
Kong, destroying all the makeshift homes of the immigrants from Mainland China
who had fled to Hong Kong, resulting in the creation of a public housing
program.
2002The Washington Post reported on the USA's use of torture at Bagram Air
Base, Iraq.
Persons being held in the CIA interrogation center at Bagram air base who
refuse to cooperate, "are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours in black
hoods or spray-painted goggles, according to intelligence specialists familiar
with CIA interrogation methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful
positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights—subject to
what are known as 'stress and duress' techniques ...
"'If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably
aren't doing your job,' said one official who has supervised the capture and
transfer of accused terrorists. 'I don't think we want to be promoting a view of
zero tolerance on this.'
"According to one official who has been directly involved in rendering
captives into foreign hands, the understanding is, 'We don't kick the
[expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the
[expletive] out of them.'
"Bush administration officials said the CIA, in practice, is using a narrow
definition of what counts as 'knowing' that a suspect has been tortured. 'If
we're not there in the room, who is to say?' said one official conversant with
recent reports of renditions."
reetings from Australia.
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