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reetings from Australia. 

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Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

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Today is

Ballarat, Dec. 3rd, 6 a.m.
Alas! the fears of disturbance to-day, as expressed in my letter of yesterday, have been but too truly realised! This holy morning has been ushered in with a scene of carnage and death! From what I can learn, the whole strength of the camp ... was marched up to Eureka, where some of the Volunteers had thrown up a barricade; this place was attacked and carried by the military. From the contradictory statements made I cannot as yet say, how the attack was conducted, nor the number of killed and wounded on either side. When hurried out of bed, about half an hour ago ... I found the military and troopers returning to the Camp, with a large number of prisoners, and some wounded and dead soldiers. One or more riderless horses were seen galloping up to the Camp some time before. The 'Australian Flag', used at the late meeting, was carried past in triumph.'
The Age, Melbourne, December, 1854

The diggers were subjected to the most unheard of insults and cruelties in the collection of this tax, being in many instances chained to logs if they could not produce their licence.
Peter Lalor, digger; Lalor, who lost an arm in the Eureka Stockade rebellion that he led, later went on to become a Member of Parliament

But not in vain those diggers died. Their comrades may rejoice.
For o'er the voice of tyranny is heard the people's voice;
It says: "Reform your rotten law, the diggers' wrongs make right.
Or else with them, our brothers now, we'll gather to the fight."
Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922), Australian poet and author; 'Men of Fifty-Four, Forward from Eureka', 1889

"Ah, those were the days," said the digger; "'twas a glorious life that we led,
When fortunes were dug up and lost in a day in the whirl of the years that are dead.
But there's many a veteran now in the land—old knights of the pick and the spade,
Who could tell you in language far stronger than mine 'bout the fight at Eureka Stockade.
Henry Lawson; 'The Fight at Eureka Stockade', 1890

They have gone out, the men of Eureka,
One by one they have passed. Now there is none
Of them left to sit by the fire and talk;
For them, life's journey is over and done.
Digger by digger they marched,
Each man in his order;
As digger by digger they went
Over the border.
Mary Gilmore, Australian poet and author; 'The Men of Eureka'

... I think [Eureka] may be called the finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution – small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for a principle, a stand against injustice and oppression. It was the Barons and John over again; it was Hampden and Ship-Money; it was Concord and Lexington ... It was another instance of a victory won by a lost battle.
Mark Twain, American author; More Tramps Abroad

The extension of women's rights is the basic principle of all social progress.
Charles Fourier (who published Universal Harmony on December 3, 1803), Theory of Four Movements  

To make you hear, to make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see. That – and no more, and it is everything.
Joseph Conrad, Polish-born English author, born on December 3, 1857, defining his task as a writer, in the preface to The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'

Real Swaraj will come not by acquisition of authority by a few but by the capacity of all to resist authority when it is abused.
Mahatma Gandhi, in Young India, 1912

AS Neill's system is a radical approach to child rearing. In my opinion, his book is of great importance because it represents the true principle of education without fear.
Foreword to Summerhill by Erich Fromm

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 - November 6, 1996), Free Speech Movement co-founder; speech delivered at Sproul Plaza, UCLA, December 3, 1964

We were sleeping peacefully that night. I got up to find the children vomiting all over. First I wondered whether it was some thing they had for dinner. Then I too started vomiting. Soon all of us, my husband and me carrying the children were running towards Lily Talkies. My three year old daughter Nazma had swelled up so much like she would burst.
Testimony of survivor, Razia Bee, who was 26 at the time of the Bhopal tragedy (December 3, 1984)

December 3 is the 337^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (338^th in leap years), with 28 days remaining.
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Feast day of Bona Dea  

At around December 3, and also around May 3 - 4 (though as early as May 1; called the Tarentia), the ancient Romans commemorated the 'Good Goddess': Bona Dea, which is the most popular name by which the goddess Fauna or Fatua (Fate) was known. She is also an aspect of the goddess Artemis Calliste, the Lily of Heaven. Angitia, a deity of the Marsii might have been the same goddess. The Good Goddess is also identified with Cybele, Maia, Ge, Ops, Terra, Tellus, Semele, Marica and Hecate, and was thus a fertility and earth goddess. Her priestesses grew medicinal herbs and the sick were tended to in the gardens outside her temples. She was associated with the cornucopia, snakes and coins and her image frequently occurred on ancient Roman coins.

It was said that her father, Faunus, (known to the Greeks as Pan), had tried to seduce her but failed, despite having got her drunk on wine and having whipped her with a myrtle branch. Eventually, her father turned himself into a serpent and in that form succeeded in penetrating his daughter. Another legend says that Faunus was her husband and became incensed at Fauna's drunkenness, so he killed her, but then deified her.

Bona Dea protected against eye-disease and blindness, and it is interesting to note that after the Roman Empire became Christian, the temple of Bona Dea Oclata or Restitutrix in Rome, Santuario della Bona Dea, became converted to a church for St Cecilia, whose name derives from a Latin gens (family) Caecilius, (from kaiko, one-eyed), and was a patron not only of composers, music, musicians, musical instrument makers, poets and singers, but also of the blind.

The December festival to Bona Dea was a women-only affair, and for that reason not included in the Roman calendar; this was also because it fell into a category between private and public ceremonies. Unlike the celebrations of the calends of May, the December rites were by invitation only and private, in that they were not held in her temples on the Aventine Hill and in Trastevere, not attended by the pontiffs nor paid for by the State ('publico sumptu'). They were, however, attended by the Vestal Virgins, held 'pro populo Romano' (i.e., for the Roman people), and the women met in the house of a Consul or Praetor Urbanus. The wife of the pontifex maximus officiated at the ceremony.

Not a lot is known about the nature of the Bona Dea mysteries. We do know that a sacred serpent appeared alongside the goddess and that her tabernacles were covered in vine leaves. The Roman satirist Juvenal said that the rites were orgiastic. A pig was sacrificed (a sow is the usual sacrifice for deities such as Ceres and Tellus), wine under the name of milk was offered to the goddess, the congregation danced to the sound of harps and flutes. Plutarch wrote that myrtle was excluded from the private use in the cult at home, because it was sacred to Venus and could have overtones of sexual impurity, and Macrobius tells us that myrtle was banned from use in the temple.

There were shamanic/witchcraft aspects to the Bona Dea rites, and her devotees said they flew with her through the night sky, entering the houses of the rich to feast. The hawthorn tree, also known as the May tree and white thorn, was sacred to the Good Goddess. This holy bush was associated with sacred wells and shrines and on festive days would be garlanded with ribbons and flowers.

During the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCE, the celebration took place at his house on the night of December 3. Earlier in the day Cicero had made the famous speech which is known as his third Catiline Oration, describing to the people the capture of the conspirators. After the assembly was dismissed, the people accompanied him home, as was usual, but, his house being occupied by the Bona Dea congregation, he was obliged to go to a friend's house to spend the night. There he sat deliberating with a few of his trusted counsellors what to do with the prisoners, when a message came hastily from his wife Terentia (Tarentia) that an auspicious sign had occurred during the mysteries, and that he should take heart. The fire upon the altar had blazed up with great brilliancy, and when the women were terrified, the Vestal Virgins had at once interpreted the event as a good omen, and urged Terentia to send word to her husband to that effect.

"It being evening, [Cicero] went to the house of a friend and near neighbour; for his own was taken over by the women, who were celebrating with secret rites the feast of the goddess whom the Roman call the Good, and the Greeks the Women's Goddess. For an offering is annually performed to her in the consul's house, either by his wife or mother, in the presence of the vestal virgins

"Whilst Cicero was doubting what course to take, a portent happened to the women in their offering. For on the altar, where the fire seemed wholly extinguished, a great and bright flame issued forth from the ashes of the burnt wood .. but the holy virgins called to Tarentia, Cicero's wife, and bade her haste to her husband, and command him to execute what he had resolved for the good of his country, for the goddess had sent a great light to the increase of his safety and glory."
Plutarch; Lives

The Bona Dea affair

During the Bona Dea ceremonies in December, 62 BCE, a notorious senator named Publius Clodius Pulcher (born around 92 BCE, murdered January 18, 52 BCE) entered the house of Julius Caesar (then pontifex maximus), where the mysteries were being celebrated, in order to carry on an intrigue with Pompeia Sulla, Caesar's wife. When word of this blasphemy and scandal leaked out, Caesar divorced Pompeia Sulla, not because she was involved but because of the mere hint that she might have been, saying "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion".

Cicero was particular upset by the affair and made violent political attacks against the culprit, who was tried by a special quaestio that was set up to investigate this sacrilege. Clodius obtained acquittal through flagrant bribery and became Cicero's permanent enemy, seeking revenge against him.

 

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Feast day of St Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies (Indian tree [aka Petroleum plant, Aveloz, Milk bush], Euphorbia tirucalli, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint. It has recently made popular headlines as a potential 'cancer cure' and as an energy source. It is a folk remedy for cancers, excrescences, tumours, and warts in such diverse places as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malabar and Malaysia.) Born on April 7, 1506, in a castle in Spain near the Pyrenees, Francis Xavier later became a student at university, where he met Ignatius Loyola, who was fifteen years his senior. It is recorded that Xavier could not abide the great man. One day Francis delivered a successful lecture on philosophy; while he walked about afterwards in his pride, Ignatius Loyola (1491 - 1556; feast day July 31) whispered in his ear, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Strangely, Xavier was drawn towards Loyola. On August 15, 1534, with others he took vows that led to missionary work. On his 35th birthday, he set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, for India, where he had successes in his vocation. In August, 1549, St Francis landed in Japan, introducing Christianity and eventually Western colonialism to that country. While there, he performed miracles. He had the gift of tongues, raised people from the dead, calmed storms, and was a prophet and healer. He once scolded his patron, King John III ('the Pious') of Portugal (1502 - '57), over the slave trade: "You have no right to spread the Catholic faith while you take away all the country's riches. It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise." Xavier died on December 2, 1552, of a fever while trying to leave for China. His body was disinterred and reburied in Goa, a Portuguese colony in India. Laid out in the Chapel of St Paul in the Cathedral of Bom (Good) Jesus, it was attacked by an enthusiastic pilgrim who bit off one of the good saint's toes. A few years later, another toe was purloined, and then in 1614 Pope Paul V himself took delivery of St Francis's right arm. Xavier's dismembered body was finally enclosed in a sarcophagus which is even yet occasionally opened for the public. There have been expositions of his body for public veneration in 1782, 1859, 1878, 1900, 1922, 1931,1942, 1952, 1961, 1964, 1974, 1984, and 1994. Today remains the most important feast day for Christians in Goa. After the feast, many devotees proceed to the old Goa fair. Here, the participants can purchase many items and foodstuffs such as chonnem (grams), khajem (Goan sweet), chourico-pao (Goan sausage and bread) and sorpotel. St Francis is patron Saint of the East Indies, as well as African missions, Australia, black missions, Borneo, China, foreign missions, Goa, India, Japan, New Zealand, and plague epidemics. Goan rituals    Christianity in Japan (in Japanese)     More Did Xavier introduce Christianity to Japan? The introduction of Christianity to Japan is frequently, one might say usually, credited to St Francis Xavier, and the date given is 1549. For example, Kondansha's Encyclopedia of Japan makes that claim (source, in Japanese), and Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopaedia of Religion seems to accept the received wisdom. However, modern research indicates that the Christian gospel was already ancient in Japan when Xavier first set foot there. Christianity first arrived in Far Eastern Asia about 1,800 years ago along the 'Silk Road,' passing through China to Nara, central Japan. Evidence is found in a copy of the Gospel of St Matthew in ancient Chinese script, dating back to the ninth century, found inside the Koryuji Buddhist Temple in Kyoto, near Nara. That temple was built about 818 on the ruins of a Christian church erected in 603. As for the introduction of Christianity into China, my favourite online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, puts the date at 635: "Nestorianism was the first Christian tradition to reach China (in 635), and about the same time into Mongolia, and its relics can still be seen in Chinese cities such as Xian. An inscribed stone, set up in February, 781 at Chou-Chih, fifty miles south-west of Sai-an Fu, at the time the capital of China, describes the introduction of Christianity into China from Persia in the reign of Tang Taizong." However, archaeology is uncovering Christian relics in Eastern Asia that are pushing back the date closer and closer to the time of Jesus Christ. Another religion from the West that took root in ancient China was Manichaeism (founded in Iran in the 3rd Century). More   Pagan Slavic Day of Remembrance for Bogatir (Great hero) Svatogor "The date refers back to the time of the Great Barrow Gulbishe and the first fight with Pechenegs. Awesome were the honors at the funeral for this great noble warrior. His implements and armor were gigantic, twice as large as the ordinary in size. Today, say a toast to this great warrior."   Source Festival of Neptune and Minerva, ancient Rome Advent (Nov 30 - Dec 25), season of the coming of Jesus Christ   Feast day of St Abbo Feast day of St Agricola Feast day of St Anthemius Feast day of St Attalia Feast day of St Bernard of Toulouse Feast day of St Birinus, first Bishop of Dorchester Birinus (c. 600 - 649 / 650), saint, was the first bishop of Dorchester in England and the 'Apostle to the West Saxons'. His feast day is December 3 in the Roman Catholic Church, but some churches celebrate his feast on December 5. Feast day of St Cassian of Tangiers Feast day of St Claudius Feast day of St Edward Coleman Feast day of St Eloque Feast day of St Hilaria Feast day of St Jason Feast day of St Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer Feast day of St Lucius, king and confessor Feast day of St Lucy the Chaste Feast day of St Maurus Feast day of St Mirocles Feast day of St Sola, hermit Feast day of St Veranus Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Hari Kugo; Daitosai, or Good-Luck Market, Omiya, Japan (Nov 30 - Dec 11) Iyomante Matsuri, Kutcharo, Japan (Dec 1 - 15) International Day of Disabled Persons (UN) Day of Cybele, or Rhea, ancient Greece and Phrygia Great Mother. (Source: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar) Festivals in ancient Greece       1368 Charles VI of France, known as the Well-Beloved, later known as the Charles the Mad (French: Charles VI le Bien-Aimé, later known as le Fol) (d. October 21, 1422), King of France (1380 - 1422) and a member of the Valois Dynasty. Based on his symptoms, doctors believe the king may have suffered from schizophrenia, porphyria or bi-polar disorder. 1684 Ludvig Holberg (d. 1754), historian and writer 1753 Samuel Crompton, inventor of the 'spinning mule for the production of cotton, a spinning machine that improved on the Spinning Jenny invented by James Hargreaves. In 1775 Crompton produced his 'mule', so called because it was a hybrid that combined features of two earlier inventions, the Spinning Jenny and the Water Frame. 1755 Gilbert Stuart (d. 1828), painter 1766 Robert Bloomfield (d. August 19, 1823), English poet Works by Robert Bloomfield at Project Gutenberg 1800 France Prešeren (Franz Prescheren; d. February 8, 1849), Slovenian Romantic poet Prešeren Day, Slovenia in the Book of Days    More 1803 Robert Steven Hawker (d. August 15, 1875), English poet, antiquarian of Cornwall, Anglican clergyman and reputed eccentric; inventor of the Frisbee (according A Jones). His biography was written by Sabine Baring-Gould. Wikipedia says: "Parson Hawker", as he was known to his parishioners, was something of an eccentric, both in his clothes and his habits. He loved bright colours and it seems the only black things he wore were his socks. He built a small hut (that became known as Hawker's Hut) from driftwood on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, where he spent many hours writing his poems and smoking opium. This driftwood hut is now the smallest property in the National Trust portfolio. Other eccentricities included dressing up as a mermaid and excommunicating his cat for mousing on Sundays. He dressed in claret-coloured coat, blue fisherman's jersey, long sea-boots, a pink brimless hat and a poncho made from a yellow horse blanket, which he claimed was the ancient habit of St Pardarn. He talked to birds, invited his nine cats into church and kept a huge pig as a pet.