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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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Anon after this came the three kings in to Jerusalem, and demanded where the king of Jews was, that was new born. Herod when he heard this, he had great dread lest any were born of the true lineage of the kings of the Jews, and that he were the very true heir, and of whom he might be chased out of the realm. And when he had demanded of the three kings how they had had knowledge of the new king, they answered by a star being in the air, which was not naturally fixed in the heaven as the others were. Then he prayed them that they would return to him after that they had worshipped and seen this new king, that he might go after and worship the child. This said he fraudulently, for he thought to slay him.
After that the three kings were gone without bringing him any tidings, he thought that anon he would do slay all the children newly born in Bethlehem and thereabouts, among whom he thought to slay Jesu Christ. Aurea Legenda(The
Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints.
Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First
edition published 1470. Englished by William
Caxton, first edition 1483); 'The History
of the Holy Innocents'
Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Gospel of St Matthew, ii, 16-18
It is better to be Herod's hog [ous], than his son [houios]. Roman emperor Augustus allegedly said this when he heard that amongst the boys of two years and under, Herod's own son also had been massacred; from
Macrobius, Saturnalia, IV, xiv, de Augusto et jocis ejus (but this "infant" mentioned by Macrobius, is
Antipater, the adult son of
Herod, who, by command of the dying king was decapitated for having conspired against the life of his father.)
… buds, killed by the frost of persecution the moment they showed themselves. St Augustine, on the innocents killed by Herod
I shall retire early; I am very tired. Last words of Lord Macaulay, British reformer, who died on
December 28, 1859
It must have been an awful
sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed. William Topaz McGonagall, often claimed to be the
world's ‘best bad poet', 'The Tay Bridge
Disaster', 1879
Not a plumber fired a salute
or hung out a flag. Not a governor proclaimed a day of prayer. Not a
newspaper called attention to the day. HL Mencken, American
journalist, on December 28, 1917 in a hoax article lamenting the passing
without notice of the 75th anniversary of the introduction of
the bathtub into America
The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity ... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions. HL Mencken;
Introduction, A Mencken Chrestomathy, Alfred A Knopf, 1949
In a society where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation. Guy Debord, situationist
theorist, born on December 28, 1931
The world at once present a absent which the spectacle makes visible is the world of the commodity dominating all that is lived. The world of the commodity is thus shown for what it is, because its movement is identical to the estrangement of men among themselves & in relation to their global
product. Guy Debord
The spectacle is ideology par excellence, because it exposes
and manifests in its fullness the essence of all ideological systems: the impoverishment, servitude & negation of real life.
Guy Debord; La société du spectacle (Society
of the Spectacle)
FIRST OF ALL, we think the world must be
changed. Guy Debord; 'Revolution and
Counter-revolution in Modern Culture'
Why on earth would any parent call their child ‘Clive'? They might as well just hang a sign around his neck that says ‘We don't like this boy”. Clive Robertson, Australian broadcaster, born on December 28, 1945
The next war will be fought with stones. Albert
Einstein, on December 28, 1949
One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world. Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, whose Gulag Archipelago was published on December 28,
1973
Wherever else it fails, art always has won its fight against lies, and it always will. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Childermas (Mass of the Holy Innocents; el
Día de los Santos Inocentes)
(Bloody heath, Erica cruenta, is
today's plant,
dedicated to the innocent children massacred by King Herod.)
This
feast commemorates Herod's
massacre of the innocents – when the ruler of Israel heard that 'the
King of the Jews' had been born in a manger in Bethlehem, he killed all
the infant boys in that town, and Joseph, Mary and the
baby Jesus,
warned by an angel,
took flight to
become refugees in Egypt.
The Greek Liturgy
asserts that Herod
killed 14,000 boys, while the Syrians speak of 64,000 and many medieval authors of
144,000. Modern writers reduce the number considerably, since Bethlehem
was a rather small town.
Childermas is supposed
to be a day of bad omen, and one should never marry on it, nor put on new
clothes, pare the nails, nor begin anything important. It was once
actually considered to be the unluckiest day of the year; the day of the
week on which it falls is unlucky throughout the coming year. In Cornwall, housewives and cleaners
refrained from scrubbing on this day, as late as the 1860s. The coronation
of England's King Edward IV (1442 - '83) was postponed till the following Monday.
The Roman Station of
December 28 is at the
Basilica of Paul Outside the Walls, because that church is believed
to possess the bodies of several of the Holy Innocents. Numerous other
churches also preserve bodies which they claim to be those of some of
these martyrs.
"In consequence probably of the feeling of horror attached to such an act of atrocity, Innocents' Day used to be reckoned about the most unlucky through-out the year, and in former times, no one who could possibly avoid it, began any work, or entered on any undertaking, on this anniversary. To marry on Childermas Day was especially inauspicious. It is said of the equally superstitious and unprincipled monarch,
Louis XI., that he would never perform any business, or enter into any discussion about his affairs on this day, and to make to him then any proposal of the kind, was certain to exasperate him to the utmost. We are informed, too, that in England, on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward IV., that solemnity, which had been originally intended to take place on a Sunday, was postponed till the Monday, owing to the former day being in that year the festival of Childermas. This idea of the inauspicious nature of the day was long prevalent, and is even yet not wholly extinct. To the present hour we understand the housewives in Cornwall, and probably also in other parts of the country, refrain scrupulously from scouring or scrubbing on Innocents' Day.
In
France, people believed that spectral huntsmen in the sky on stormy
evenings were the spirits of the Holy Innocents being pursued by King
Herod. This is a pre-Christian motif found throughout Europe, a YuleOdinist belief
known in Britain as the Wild Hunt, also
called in northern Europe the 'Furious Host' and in Mecklenburg, Germany,
the Wohl. In Belgium, children
play all sorts of tricks on their elders, including stealing their keys
and locking them up.
Boy Bishops
In many churches in England, Germany, and
France on the feast of St Nicholas (December 6) a boy
bishop was elected (and still is, in some places), who officiated on the feast of that saint and of the
Holy Innocents.
Like the Lord of Misrule, who rules at Saturnalia (and
again on Twelfth Night, January 6), the Boy Bishop ordered around his
superiors and made fun of their authority. He wore a mitre and other
pontifical insignia, sang the collect, preached, and gave the blessing. He
sat in the bishop's chair whilst the choir-boys sang in the stalls of the
canons. They directed the choir on these two days and had their solemn
procession.
It was once the custom
on Childermas to whip the
children (and even adults) "that the memory of Herod's murder of the
Innocents might stick the closer", a practice that forms the plot of
several tales in the Decameron.
Child soldiers are used by armed opposition forces, although many are used by government armies.
Children are uniquely vulnerable to military recruitment because of their emotional and physical immaturity. They are easily manipulated and can be drawn into violence that they are too young to resist or understand.
Technological advances in weaponry and the proliferation of small arms have contributed to the increased use of child soldiers. Lightweight automatic weapons are simple to operate, often easily accessible, and can be used by children as easily as adults.
Children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a combat zone or have limited access to education. Orphans and refugees are particularly vulnerable to recruitment.
Many children join armed groups because of economic or social pressure, or because children believe that the group will offer food or security. Others are forcibly recruited, "press-ganged" or abducted by armed groups.
Both girls and boys are used as child soldiers. In case studies in El Salvador, Ethiopia, and Uganda, almost a third of the child soldiers were reported to be girls. Girls may be raped, or in some cases, given to military commanders as "wives."
Once recruited, child soldiers may serve as porters or cooks, guards, messengers or spies. Many are pressed into combat, where they may be forced to the front lines or sent into minefields ahead of older troops. Some children have been used for suicide missions.
Children are sometimes forced to commit atrocities against their own family or neighbors. Such practices help ensure that the child is "stigmatized" and unable to return to his or her home community.
Few peace treaties recognize the existence of child soldiers, or make provisions for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Many former child soldiers do not have access to the educational programs, vocational training, family reunification, or even food and shelter that they need to successfully rejoin civilian society. As a result, many end up on the street, become involved in crime, or are drawn back into armed conflict.
"The daily news reminds us that there is always a war
going on someplace in the world. One subsides, another breaks
out. Often lost in the sheer magnitude of global violence is
its devastating and increasing impact on children. An
estimated 2 million children have died in the last decade
..."
Runic half-month of Eoh commences
Represents the dead, and the yew tree, sacred to Winter shamanism. Nigel
Pennick, The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont,
USA, 1992
Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or
dies mala), unlucky day in
Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord"
was the associated saying.)
El Día de los Santos Inocentes,
All Fools' Day,
Mexico
Day of the
Weavers, Grandmothers' Day of Wareo Tribe of South America (Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992
Calendar)
Kwanzaa,
African-American holiday (Dec 26 - Jan 1); Day
3: Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
Flour fight, Ibi, València, Spain "Durant les celebracions del
Dia dels enfarinats a Ibi (València), el dia dels Sants Innocents,
28 de desembre es produeix una batalla de farina combinada amb una
carnavalesca sàtira al poder establert."Source
1861Walter
Head (alias Walter Woods; d. February
28, 1939),
Australian poet, journalist, editor, parliamentarian and organizer for
the New
Australia communal settlement in Paraguay established in 1893.
The son of the first white man born in the Melbourne district, he became involved in the trade union movement and worked as an organizer for the Shearer's Union. He co-founded (with
Arthur
Rae) The Hummer, a labor newspaper originally published in Wagga Wagga, NSW, for which Mary Cameron was a freelance journalist from Sydney. Head moved to Sydney in 1893 and renamed his newspaper
Worker.
Mary Cameron (later known as Dame Mary
Gilmore) introduced him to William
Lane's movement and he not only became active in it, his office at 111 Elizabeth St,
Sydney became the headquarters and from 1892-3 he edited
New Australia. Just before Head and his family were due to leave for Paraguay, his infant son Rowland was lost and never found in the bush at Gippsland, Victoria where his wife was visiting relatives.
(Henry Lawson
wrote a fictional story about lost children, 'The
Babies in the Bush', and used the name of his associate Walter Head as that of the main character, a drover.
"His name was Head – Walter Head. He was a boss drover on the overland routes.") This tragedy, and controversy surrounding New Australia finances (following the split at New Australia – it is unlikely he did anything unethical), disrupted Head's life immeasurably, leading to the end of his marriage. He found it necessary to ‘disappear' and he fled first to New Zealand
under the alias Walter Ashe Woods, and soon after to Tasmania under the alias of Walter
Alan Woods. 'Walter Woods' became one of the founders of the
Tasmanian Labor Party, holding a seat in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1906 until 1931, becoming known as the Father of the Tasmanian Parliament (Speaker of the House 1914 -
'16, and 1926 - '28). His also edited the influential Labor newspaper
The Clipper. He remarried in 1910 and had two further children. His son, Wally, emigrated to New Australia, never returning to Australia and eventually settling in North America.
Surname:WOODS Given Names:Walter Alan Title and Honours:Mr Qualifications: Date and Place of Birth:28 December 1861 -
Oakleigh, Victoria Date of Death:28 February 1939 - Hobart,
Tasmania
House of Assembly: (1) 29 March 1906 (2) 30 April
1909 (3) 3 June 1925 Electorate: (1) North Hobart (2) Denison
(3) Denison Party: ALP Positions Held:Chair Committees
1925-26; Speaker 1914-16, 1926-28 Date of Departure: (1) 30 April 1909 (2)
21 March 1917 (3) 9 May 1931 Reason for Departure: (1) Seat
abolished. Stood for Denison. Successful. (2) Resigned to contest
Senate election. Unsuccessful. (3) Defeated.
Comments:Born Walter William Head; used various
names in course of sometimes mysterious life.
House of Assembly Long Room Picture:299/365
Source:
Tasmanian Parliament
"... his mind,
the amulet on which he had always been able to rely, was
becoming less dependable. Then came complete psychological
breakdown; panic, screams of uncontrollable terror every night.
His friend Edward Teller said, 'I think that von Neumann
suffered more when his mind would no longer function, than I
have ever seen any human being suffer.'
"Von Neumann's
sense of invulnerability, or simply the desire to live, was
struggling with unalterable facts. He seemed to have a great
fear of death until the last ... No achievements and no amount
of influence could save him now, as they always had in the past.
Johnny von Neumann, who knew how to live so fully, did not know
how to die."
reetings from Australia.
How it works
Boy Bishops
Facts About
Child Soldiers
