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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

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Today is

Of all sounds of all bells, most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the old year. I never hear it without a gathering up of my mind to a concentration of all the images that have been diffused over the past twelvemonth; all that I have done or suffered , performed or neglected, in that regretted time.
Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834), English poet

Ring out the old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lusts of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old;
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet

Wassail! Wassail! over the town,
Our toast is white, our ale is brown:
Our bowl it is made of the maplin tree,
We be good fellows all: I drink to thee.
Traditional Gloucestershire wassailing song

Love and joy come to you,
And to your wassel too,
And God send you a happy New Year,
    A happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year!
Our wassel cup is made of rosemary-tree,
So is your beer of the best barley.
English traditional children's wassailing song

Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers,
And dinna think that we are beggars;
For we are bairns come out to play,
Get up and gie's our hogmanay!
Traditional Scottish wassailing song

Hogmanay
Trollolay
Give us of your white bread, and none of your grey.
Traditional Scottish children's soliciting rhyme

My feet's cauld, my shoon's thin,
Gie 's my cakes, and let me rin!
Traditional Scottish children's soliciting rhyme

If New Year's Eve night and wind blow south,
It betokeneth warmth and growth;
If west, much fish in the sea;
If north, much cold and storms there will be.
If east, the trees will bear much fruit;
If north-east, flee it, man and brute.
Traditional Scottish weather prediction rhyme

… the prefect Tarquinius supposed that Timothy had had great plenty of riches, which he demanded of Silvester, threatening him to the death but if he delivered them to him. And when he found certainly that Timothy had no great riches, he commanded to Saint Silvester to make sacrifice to the idols, and if he did not he would make him suffer divers torments. Saint Silvester answered: False, evil man, thou shalt die this night, and shalt have torments that ever shall endure, and thou shalt know, whether thou wilt or not, that he whom we worship is very God. Then Saint Silvester was put in prison, and the provost went to dinner. Now it happed that as he ate, a bone of a fish turned in his throat and stuck fast, so that he could neither have it down ne up, and at midnight died like as Saint Silvester had said, and then Saint Silvester was delivered out of prison.
'The Life of St Silvester', The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275, (' Englished by William Caxton, 1483')

I was awakened to the knowledge that I possessed a magical means of becoming conscious of and satisfying a part of my nature which had up to that moment concealed itself from me. It was an experience of horror and pain, combined with a certain ghostly terror, yet at the same time, it was the key to the purest and holiest spiritual ecstasy that exists.
English occultist Aleister Crowley, 'The Beast', describing an experience he had on December 31, 1896; Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An autohagiography

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.
Abbie Hoffman, at whose New York home the Youth International Party (Yippies) was formed on December 31, 1967

Abbie Hoffman is something akin to an American prophet.
President Jimmy Carter

In the late sixties we were so fed up we wanted to destroy it all. That's when we changed the name of America and stuck in the 'k.' The mood today is different, and the language that will respond to today's mood will be different. Things are so deteriorated in this society, that it's not up to you to destroy America, it's up to you to go out and save America. The same impulse that helped us fight our way out of one empire 200 years ago must help us get free of the Holy Financial Empire today. The transnationals – with their money in Switzerland, headquarters in Luxembourg, ships in tax-free Panama, natural resources all over the emerging world, and their sleepy consumers in the United States – do not have the interest of the United States at heart. Ronald Reagan and the CIA are traitors to America, they have sold it to the Holy Financial Empire. The enemy is out there, he's not in this room. People are allowed to have different visions and different views, but you have to have unity.
Abbie Hoffman; 'Reflections on Student Activism'

All the isms lead to schisms which lead to wasms.
Abbie Hoffman; ibid

More Abbie Hoffman quotes

There was the Youth International Party (yippies), minions of the absurd whose leaders failed last fall to levitate the Pentagon but whose antics at least leavened the grim seriousness of the New Leftists with much-needed humor.
TIME, September 6, 1968

By the end, everybody had a label – pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary ... If you had everything but a gun, you were a radical but not a revolutionary.
Jerry Rubin, Yippie leader

Supposing one day trucks travelled through the city announcing, "The war in Vietnam is over! The war is over! Turn on your radio for further information." Within two minutes everybody would be calling their mothers, "Hey Mom! The war's over!" Nixon would have to go on TV to reassure the American people that the war was still on.
Jerry Rubin

We create revolution by living it.
Jerry Rubin

Spread ideas that undercut the content world of Amerika. We must alienate middle-class Amerika. All watches and clocks will be destroyed; barbers will go to rehabilitation camps where they will grow their hair long.
Jerry Rubin

Free Speech is the right to yell theater in a crowded fire.
Yippie! proverb

December 31 is the 365^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (366^th in leap years), and the last day of the Gregorian year.
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Auld lang control

'Auld Lang Syne' (Times Long Gone)

By Robbie Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,   And never brought to min'? Should auld acquaintance be forgot,   And auld lang syne! CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear,   For auld lang syne, We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet   For auld lang syne.   We twa hae run about the braes,   And pu'd the gowans fine; But we've wander'd mony a weary fit   Sin' auld lang syne.   We twa hae' paidl'd i' the burn,   From mornin' sun till dine; But seas between us braid hae roar'd,   Sin' auld lang syne.   And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!   And gie's a hand o' thine! And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,   For auld lang syne.   And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!   And surely I'll be mine! And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet   For auld lang syne.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,   And never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot,   And times gone by!   CHORUS: For times gone by, my dear,   For times gone by, We'll take a cup of kindness yet   For times gone by.   We two have run about the hillsides,   And pulled the daisies fine; But we've wander'd many a weary foot   Since times gone by.   We two have paddled in the brook,   From dawn till dinner; But seas between us broad have roared,   Since times gone by.   And there's a hand, my trusty friend!   And give a hand of thine! And we'll take a right good-will drink,   For times gone by.   And surely you'll pay for your pint-cup!   And surely I'll pay for mine! And we'll take a cup of kindness yet   For times gone by.

(Thanks Diana Schuetz)

"Robert Burns forwarded a copy of the original song to the British Museum with the remark, "The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man's singing, is enough to recommend any air." (Gavin Grieg: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads.) The verses were set to a pentatonic air, "I fee'd a lad at Michaelmas." Verses 2 and 3 are by Robert Burns; the others, much older, are anonymous."   Source

"Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired Poet who composed this glorious Fragment" wrote Burns to Mrs Dunlop on December 7, 1788

New Year's Eve

In many parts of the world the New Year is greeted with a lot of noise, sometimes made by church bells. Originally this was to frighten away evil spirits which might try to sneak into the New Year and try to spoil it. People in the Northern Hemisphere sometimes lit bonfires for the same reason.

New Year is celebrated at different times according to various calendars, eg Jewish, Chinese, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu.

In Denmark the New Year is brought in with even more noise than in most countries. Young people go around pounding on their friends' front doors. To raise the New Year spirit even more, they throw shards of pottery, collected throughout the previous year, against the sides of houses. And we thought we had it loud!

Greece

On New Year's Eve (Eve of St Basil in the Eastern Orthodox calendar), children sing kalanda, from door to door; traditionally, they carry an apple, an orange, a paper ship, a paper star and a green rod cut from a cornel-tree. They tap the family members on the back with the rod for luck. The householders give them treats. On New Year's day this continues, sometimes with customary acts such as stoking the fire and sprinkling wheat in the yard.

New Year's Resolutions

We have records from 4,000 years ago in Babylon of resolutions, as part of their New Year festivities. Often these were made publicly. To make good any outstanding debts and return anything borrowed were the most common. 

Today to lose weight and give up smoking are the most common, followed by – making good any outstanding debts and returning borrowed goods.

The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all had the tradition of parading the first babies born in the year. In the 14^th Century, the custom of showing a baby with a banner of the New Year around it began, in Germany. 

Watchnight (watch night) service

Eighteenth-century British evangelist John Wesley introduced the December 31 service among the Methodists; other denominations took it up. Watch night can actually be traced back to a sect of Christians known as the Moravians who held the first Watchnight Service in Herrnhut, Saxony, Germany, in 1732. A misconception has it that the custom began with African-Americans in 1862.

All over the world, people love to make a noise on the last midnight of the year. Church bells ring out in England (fitted with muffles until midnight, then allowed their full voice), and in Thailand the temple bells peal at midnight as people call out Kwam Suk Pee Mai (Happy New Year!). 

An old Icelandic custom has it that if the pantry window is left open on New Year's Eve, the pantry drift (a frost which is fine-grained and sweet to the taste), will come in and, when gathered and saved in a pot marked with a cross, will bring prosperity to the home. Icelanders used to believe that elves moved house on this night, and could be coerced into giving treasure to those who intercepted them at crossroads. 

The People of Nigeria allowed their Ndok ceremony, held biennially in December, to merge with Western New Year customs, as Ndok was a rite of renewal. Only the men engage in Ndok, which sees, as everywhere on New Year's Eve, much noisy, rowdy behaviour and, as in Iceland, people meeting at crossroads which are believed to be places of assembly for spirits. 

In Russia, Grandfather Frost (D'yed Moroz), who looks suspiciously like Santa Claus, and his assistant the Snow Maiden, Snegurochka (Snegourka), will pay a New Year's visit to children, bringing with them gifts. In Greece, however, children will have left out sweets, cakes and drink for St Basil, another Santa-like character, for it is his feast day. They'll even put a log in the fireplace so he can step easily down the chimney. In Armenia on December 31, goodies are lowered down the chimney on a rope.

New Year's revelling, however, has been most shaped by the otherwise generally sensible Scots, who really know how to kick up their heels to say "good riddance!" to the old year and "welcome!" to the new. The singing of 'Auld Lang Syne', is, of course as Scotch as whisky, and was recorded from the oral tradition by the Scottish national poet, Robbie Burns. Now, all over the world, people mouth the words like football players pretending the national anthem before a game. Despite its difficult words, it is one of the world's best known songs. 

The Scots call this season the "daft days" or Hogmanay, a word which might derive from practically anything if you listen to the experts, such as the Greek for 'holy month' and the French for 'man is born'. 

While some New Year's customs go back to ancient Europe and even the Middle East – we know, for example, that 4,000 years ago the Babylonians made New Year's resolutions – the Scots put their stamp on it, for they always thought it was a bigger deal than Christmas. They have yet to convince the rest of the world, however, to indulge in the Hogmanay sport of 'first-footing', in which it is thought to be good luck if the first person over one's threshold in the New Year comes in the front door, is male, without eye trouble, not splay- or flat-footed, fair haired, carrying a lump of coal and a bottle of Scotch, and leaves by the back door. (In 1966, 19-year-old first-footer Alex Cleghorn was walking on Govan Rd, Glasgow, with his two brothers, when suddenly he disappeared and was not seen again. Daft days indeed!) According to one source, "It was traditional for men to dress in animal skins, wear horns or antlers, and smoke sticks called Hogmanays to ward off evil spirits." Over on the Greek island of Carpathos it is a white dog they have to rush inside at the stroke of midnight.

Australians, with their keen sense of culture and modernity, tend not to bother with the lumps of coal, white dogs, elves and crossroads, tending instead to get blithering drunk (like the wassailers of old England, the door-to-door drinkers whose name came from the cry Wass hael!, which approximates to Cheers!) and to pretend to have an ab-fab time. A few, however, will see the New Year in at Watch Night services in churches, a custom more or less started by the abstemious John Wesley.

"The Eve of New Year [in Scotland] was known as Oidhche Challuinn, and New Year's Day as La Challuinn. First Footing is still carried out, as in other parts of the Highlands, although, as elsewhere, it is a dying custom. Up to the beginning of the century at least, the festivities of New Year's Eve were fully in operation and people went round the houses in every town shop carrying dried cow-hides and chanting special rhymes continuously. They beat the skins with sticks and struck the walls of the houses with clubs; this ritual was believed to have an apotropaic effect and to keep at bay the fairies and evil spirits and hostile forces of every kind. The part of the hide used was the loose flap of the beasts neck; this was called in Gaelic caisean-uchd. This they used to singe in the fire and present it to the members of the family, each in turn; every member of the household was required to smell it as a charm against all things evil and harmful."   Source

"... Sir John Rhys in his examination of Manx folklore stopped short in his explanation of the superstition of the first-foot, because he had heard that, while in the Isle of Man it was attached to a dark man, elsewhere it was attached to a fair man. Of the examples where, on New Year's morning, it is held to be unlucky to meet a dark person, I may mention Lincolnshire, Durham, Yorkshire, and Northumberland. It is, on the contrary, lucky to meet, as first-foot, a dark-haired man in Lancashire, the Isle of Man, and Aberdeenshire. In these cases we get the element of 'dark' or 'fair' as the varying factor of the superstition; but instances occur in Sutherlandshire, the West of Scotland, and in Durham, where the varying factor rests upon sex—a man being lucky and a woman being unlucky."   Source: Folklore as an Historical Science

Hogmanay website    More on Hogmanay    Times Square, New York City, NYE celebrations

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Wassail

   The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, keeps wassail.
      Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis, 697

The head of the house used to assemble his family around a bowl of spiced ale, nicknamed 'lamb's-wool'. He drank their healths, then all did so from the bowl as it passed around. The wassail bowl's ingredients are hot ale, spices, sugar, eggs and roasted apples. Try this old recipe:

Wassail cup

Ingredients
2 of 7.5 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves
3 blades mace
1 ginger root
1 level teaspoon nutmeg
4 apples
125 g sugar
300ml cups brown ale
300ml cider
 
Method
Core apples and sprinkle with sugar and water. Bake at 190 C for 30 mins or until tender. Mix ale, cider and spices. Heat but do not boil. Leave for 30 mins. Strain and pour over roasted apples. Serve in a punch bowl.
Nicholas Culpeper; Herbal

Alternatively, here's a recipe for Sylvester Punch, from Austria:

Red burgundy (count one bottle for 6 people)
Equal amount of hot tea
12 cloves
Rind of 1 lemon
2 tbsp sugar to each bottle of wine
2 cinnamon sticks to each bottle of wine
 
Pour the liquid into an enamel pot, add the cloves, the thinly pared rind of 1 lemon, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Heat over a low flame but do not allow to boil. At the last moment add the tea. Serve hot.
Trapp, Maria Augusta, Around the Year with the Trapp Family, NY, Pantheon, 1955, p69

The word 'wassail' comes from the Old English waes hael, be whole, be well. It's a salutation, especially over the cup ('wassail bowl') of mulled wine at New Year.

There is a legend to explain its origin: a beautiful Saxon maiden named Rowena presented Prince Vortigen with a bowl of wine while toasting him, using the words "Waes hael". The wassail bowl was carried about by young women who went from door to door, singing songs composed for the purpose; they presented the liquor to the householders, who were expected to pay for the favour.  

The custom was kept in the monasteries. The poculum caritatis, or large wassail bowl, was placed in front of the abbot at the upper end of the refectory table. The same ritual was observed.

In Scotland, the wassail custom lasted longer than in England, well into the 19^th Century. As midnight approached, a hot pint was prepared, ie spiced and sweetened hot ale, with an  infusion of spirits. As the clock struck, the bowl was passed around and all said "Happy New Year". There was also a song:

Wel may we a' be,
Ill may we never see,
Here's to the king
And the gude companie!  etc

The elders of the family would take the kettle as well as shortbread, buns, bread, cheese and so on, and visit neighbours. If they met others on the way, they would taste from each other's kettles. Then first-footing would happen, to those who were first in a house.  

More on Scottish customs, and wassailing, and more on wassail, in the Book of Days

The Wassail page

Japan: Beethoven's Ninth is Japan's Number One

Japanese people love Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and regularly play it at New Year's celebrations. In December, 1987, there were 139 performances of the symphony. One TV station broadcasts weekly lessons at this time of year on how to sing the Ninth.

When did this start? Nobody seems to know. Possibly from German prisoners-of-war imprisoned in Japan in WWI.

Such is the Japanese love for this piece of music, the world standard for compact discs, a maximum of 72 minutes of playing time, was set in 1970 by the Japanese, to be sure that the Ninth could fit on a single CD.

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The Twelve Days of Christmas Day 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings. Four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves And a partridge in a pear tree.     Feast day of St Sylvester I, pope Sylvester (or Silvester) was the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church (in the reign of Emperor Constantine I [Constantine the Great]) who built the Lateran and other churches. He sent legates to the First Council of Nicaea, and was involved in the controversy over Arianism. The spurious Donation of Constantine was supposedly given to Saint Sylvester. St Sylvester was pope for twenty-one years and eleven months (January 31, 314 - December 31, 335). He died on this day in 335 after a life of fighting dragons and so on (see from Golden Legend, above). On January 31, 314, Sylvester, a Roman citizen, became Pope, a few days after his election and after Emperor Constantine granted toleration to the Christian Church by enacting the Edict of Milan in 313. It was an easy succession. Sylvester did act as counsellor and spiritual director of Constantine. His long pontificate of twenty-one years is remembered in particular for the Council of Nicaea, but the story of his having baptised Constantine is pure fiction, as contemporary evidence shows the emperor to have received this rite near Nicomedia at the hands of Eusebius, bishop of that city. Constantine, while still pagan, was attacked by a kind of leprosy which soon covered his entire body. It is said that Constantine had been told by his doctor that the best way to cure leprosy was to bathe in the blood of children. One night Saint Peter and Saint Paul, shining with light, appeared to him and commanded him to call for Pope Sylvester, who would cure him by giving him Baptism. In effect, Pope Sylvester instructed the royal neophyte and baptised him. According to this tale, the emperor was healed, and in gratitude granted the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica (of course this is not true; Constantine postponed his baptism until his deathbed). These lands became known as the Donation of Constantine and formed the basis of the future Papal States. In art, St Sylvester is shown in various scenes with Emperor Constantine. He might also be shown trampling a dragon; with an angel holding a cross and olive branch (the peace of the Church); with Saint Romana. Sylvester and the dragon "In this time it happed that there was at Rome a dragon in a pit, which every day slew with his breath more than three hundred men. Then came the bishops of the idols unto the emperor and said unto him: O thou most holy emperor, sith the time that thou hast received christian faith the dragon which is in yonder fosse or pit slayeth every day with his breath more than three hundred men. Then sent the emperor for Saint Silvester and asked counsel of him of this matter. Saint Silvester answered that by the might of God he promised to make him cease of his hurt and blessure of this people. Then S Silvester put himself to prayer, and Saint Peter appeared to him and said: Go surely to the dragon and the two priests that be with thee take in thy company, and when thou shalt come to him thou shalt say to him in this manner: Our Lord Jesu Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, buried and arose, and now sitteth on the right side of the Father, this is he that shall come to deem and judge the living and the dead, I commend thee Sathanas that thou abide him in this place till he come. Then thou shalt bind his mouth with a thread, and seal it with thy seal , wherein is the imprint of the cross. Then thou and the two priests shall come to me whole and safe, and such bread as I shall make ready for you ye shall eat. Thus as Saint Peter had said, Saint Silvester did. And when he came to the pit, he descended down one hundred and fifty steps, bearing with him two lanterns, and found the dragon, and said the words that Saint Peter had said to him, and bound his mouth with the thread, and sealed it, and after returned, and as he came upward again he met with two enchanters which followed him for to see if he descended, which were almost dead of the stench of the dragon, whom he brought with him whole and sound, which anon were baptized, with a great multitude of people with them. Thus was the city of Rome delivered from double death, that was from the culture and worshipping of false idols, and from the venom of the dragon." The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275, ('Englished by William Caxton, 1483');'The Life of St Sylvester' Saints, dragons and serpents in the Book of days    List of popes   Forged 'Donation of Constantine' From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The so-called Donation of Constantine was long ago shown to be spurious, but the document is of very considerable antiquity, and might have been forged in Rome between 752 and 777. The Donation of Constantine (Latin, Constitutum Donatio Constantini) is a fraudulent Roman imperial edict, supposedly issued by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 324 CE, which purported to grant Pope Sylvester I and his successors sovereignty and spiritual authority over Rome, Italy, and the entire Western Roman Empire. The legend claims that the donation was Constantine's reward to Sylvester for curing him of leprosy by a miracle. Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, which became the centre of power of the Eastern Roman Empire, later the Byzantine Empire. Were the document genuine, the popes would have ruled as emperors in the West; a succession of Western Emperors who were not popes after Constantine suggests that the document was false. The Popes used the Donation to bolster their powers and their territorial claims as prince bishops in medieval Italy. The Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla proved that the Donation could not be genuine in 1440 by analysing its language, and showing that the Latin in the document could not have been written in the year 324. Currently it is thought that the document was written during the papacy of Stephen II, around 752, when the Roman Catholic Church needed something to bolster its authority against threats by secular powers.   Sylvesterabend: Austrian celebrations    Austrians traditionally consider this a rauchnacht, or smoke-night, on which all animals and rooms in houses must be ritually purified with holy water and the smoke of incense. Major towns host Sylvester balls. Before the ball, Schweinebraten für Glück (roast pork for luck) and afterwards Sülze, little pig-shaped cakes. Villages too small to hold balls have Glühwein (Gluehwein, or glow-wine, much like English mulled wine) parties, and have fireworks. A masked figure called the Sylvester (a kind of Green Man) hides in the corners of inns and leaps out when a young man or woman passes to give them a kiss. The Sylvester wears a wreath of mistletoe, perhaps an emblem of fertility which he bestows with the kisses. When midnight comes, he is driven out of the room as a representative of the old year.   Hot Apple Wine "Heisse Ebbelwei" (Traditional Frankfurt Recipe) Ingredients 1 Liter Apple Wine 1/8 Liter water 60 grams sugar (approx 2oz) 1/4 stick cinnamon 3 cloves Peelings of half a lemon or two lemon slices Preparation Bring the sugar, spices and water to a boil. (instead of the water experts say that you really should use apple wine for a better flavor) Then let this mixture steep for 30 minutes. finally, mix in the remainder of the apple wine and carefully reheat to just under the boiling point. Gluehwein (Traditional Glow Wine)   Use the same ingredients and methods, but substitute a good red wine for apple wine.  If desired, flavor with lemon or orange juice to taste. Glühwein is sometimes also made from raspberry, blueberry and blackberry wines.   Source Tyrol Men dressed like bears dance in the streets. If they strike the shoulder of a man, it's acceptable, but if they touch a woman she will be pregnant within the year. Switzerland Traditionally, whoever is last to rise is Silvester in the home, and whoever comes last to school is Silvester there.   Silvesterkläuse (Silvesterklause), Urnäsch, Switzerland (Dec 31 and Jan 13) "The tradition of the Urnäsch Silvesterkläuse, a custom over 200 years old, has developed from simple begging in disguise into an expression of creative handwork. Today, the Kläuse wear robes and masks which require a great deal of time and effort to make. "Three very different groups must be distinguished: the Schöne (beautiful), of whom more will be said, the Wüeschte (ugly), who wear natural disguises in the form of pine branches, moss, and frightening masks, and the Schö-Wüeschte (less ugly), who use the same materials for their disguise as the 'ugly ones' but look less so. "In the evening, most of them meet in small groups and proceed from house to house. Singing and ringing their bells, they wish the families a prosperous year. They receive small gifts of money which help to cover the cost of the costumes and refreshments ... "The event takes place in similar form on two separate days, New Year's Eve and January 13."   Source Silvesterklause photos at flickr   Day of Sekhmet, Kemet, ancient Egypt Today was the Lucky Day of Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess whose cult centre was Memphis. Nursing mothers prayed to her to let down their milk. Aztec Malinalli Day A day for persevering against all odds and for creating alliances that will survive the test of time. The New Year baby The custom of showing a baby wrapped in a banner proclaiming the New Year began in 14th-Century Germany. The old man on so many New Year postcards is Father Time, who was known to the Greeks as Chronos (Kronos) and to the Romans as Saturn. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all had the tradition of parading the first babies born in the year. Feast day of Iemanja (Yemaya; Yemaja; Yemanja; Yemayah; etc), Brazil In a New Year's Eve ritual made famous at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, but practised in thousands of places worldwide, devotees of the goddess throw flowers and votive boats into the sea. It is considered a good omen for the coming year if the boat is accepted by the deity and carried out to sea. However, if the votive vessel is washed back upon the shore, the following year is not presumed to have good auguries. Yemayá-Olokun (Iemanja), in Yoruba mythology, is Mother of the Sea, and is honoured tonight with casting of flowers onto the sea. A particularly large gathering assembles on Copacabana Beach at Rio de Janeiro for the Iemanja ceremony. In Yoruba mythology, Yemayá is a mother goddess, patron deity of women, especially pregnant women, and the Ogun River (the waters of which are said to cure infertility). Her parents are Odudua and Obatala. She had one son, Orungan, who raped her successfully one time and attempted a second time; she exploded instead, and fifteen Orishas came forth from her. They include Ogoun (Orungán), Olukum, Shakpana and Shango (Changó). Yemayá is also venerated in Vodun (Voodoo; Voudon). Among the Umbandists, Yemaja is a goddess of the ocean and patron deity of the survivors of shipwrecks. In Santeria, Yemayá is the equivalent of Our Lady of Regla. She is one the three of the 'Supreme Trilogy' of the Yoruba gods: Changó, Obatalá, and Yemayá. She is associated with the Virgin Mary, and sometimes with La Siren, an aspect of Erzulie, a loa of Voudon. Alternative Spellings: Yemanja, Jemanja, Yemoja, Imanja, Ymoja, Iemanja, Yemaja. Her colours are blue and white. Other days of this goddess include April 26 and around June 20/21/22 (Winter Solstice in Southern Hemisphere countries such as Brazil where Yemaya is widely worshipped). Her main feast day is February 2 (qv).   Feast day of St Attalus Feast day of St Cornelius Feast day of St Hermes of Rome Feast day of St Hilaria Feast day of St Rustica Feast day of St Sabinian Feast day of St Serotina Feast day of St Simplician Feast day of St Zoticus of Constantinople Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Kwanzaa, African-American holiday (Dec 26 - Jan 1) Today participants celebrate with a banquet of food, often cuisine from various African countries. Participants greet one another with "Habari gani" which is Kiswahili for "how are you", or "how's the news with you?" Strenia, Sicily Fire Dance, Samoa Allandale Baal Fire Festival – Tar Barrel Burning, Northumberland A version of burning out the old year: people walk down the street with blazing tar barrels on their heads, some of which are then thrown to light a bonfire. The barrels, not the heads. Okera Matsuri, Sacred Fire Rite, Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto, Japan "A sacred fire of the medicinal herb (Okera) is lit on New Year's Eve, and in the early hours of January 1st visitors can take home some of the fire kindled on lengths of special rope. To cook the first meal of the year with the sacred fire from these embers is believed to prevent illness."   Source Namahage Devil Festival, Oga-shi, Akita, Japan Omisoka Day, Japan   Rabbits on the last day of the month In the 1920s, there was a custom in the UK to say the word 'rabbit' three times when going to bed on the last day of the month. The superstition did not end there: on rising, the person was to say 'hare' three times. However, sources differ on this point, with one saying that the words 'rabbit, rabbit, rabbit', and not 'hare' should be said on the morning of the month's first day ... Read more at Wilson's Almanac http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/ed4.html   Republic Day, Congo Independence Day, Comoros Revolution Day, Ghana Cowbellion de Rakin Revel, Alabama, USA In the Netherlands the traditional food tonight is oil-dumpling. Feast of Sharaf (Honour), First day of the 16th month of the Bahá'í Calendar, Bahá'í Faith Fireworks show, Madeira, Portugal New Year's Eve celebrations that feature a spectacular fireworks display, which is the largest in the world according to Guinness World Records (2007). Madeira fireworks videos at Google Video    More   Swinging the Fireballs, Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland The aim of this ancient custom has traditionally been to drive out the 'deil' (devil) and ward off evil spirits that might harm the prosperity or wellbeing of Stonehaven and its inhabitants. Up until the 18th Century, a similar fire festival was also performed annually at Cairnhill, near the neighbouring village of Newtonhill. "Every year at midnight, the Hogmanay celebrations in the town of Stonehaven centre around a large, fireball-swinging procession which marches through the town down to the harbour and then throws the flaming orbs into the sea."   Source "The fireballs are baskets made of wire-netting, stuffed with driftwood, pine cones and twigs and attached to a stout length of wire with a handle at the end. Before they are lit, they are doused with paraffin. Anyone interested enough can make their own and join in."  Source "With 60 marchers (who must reside in the Burgh) all whirling 16-pound balls of fire above their heads on strong, five-foot long wire ropes, the parade makes an impressive and faintly terrifying spectacle.   "The festival is said to date to a fisherman's festival in the 19th century, but easily preserves much older pagan traditions, such as the fireball-swinging ritual being a purification rite, warding off evil spirits."   Source     Celebrate New Year Every Month of the Year Big page of New Year lore       1378 Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458) 1514 Andreas Vesal (d. 1564), physician 1712 Peter Böhler (Peter Boehler; d. April 27, 1775), German-born Moravian missionary and bishop who was influential in the Moravian Church in the Americas and England during the 18th Century; he was instrumental in founding the towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA 1720 Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie; d. January 31, 1788), unsuccessful claimant to the Scottish throne 1738 Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (d. October 5, 1805), British general and colonial governor. In America, he is most remembered for his role in the American Revolutionary War. 1869 Henri Matisse (d. 1954), painter and graphic artist Upside-down Matisse? "In 1961, the  Museum of Modern Art in New York hung Le Bateau by Henri Matisse upside-down for 47 days before discovering their mistake." It's estimated nearly 116,000 people passed in front of the painting before the error was noted. John May, The Book of Curious Facts, Collins and Brown, London, UK, 1993 (Not true. This is an urban myth you might have heard before.)   1880 George Marshall (d. 1959), Secretary of State of USA, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan 1881 Max Pechstein (d. 1955), German expressionist painter and graphic artist 1894 Pola Negri (d. 1987), Polish actress 1903 Nathan Milstein (d. 1992), Ukrainian violinist 1905 Jule Styne (d. 1994), composer 1908 Simon Wiesenthal, concentration camp survivor, activist 1910 Carl Dudley (d. 1973), American movie director 1920 Rex Allen (d. 1999), actor, singer 1930 Odetta, singer 1932 Mildred Scheel (d. 1985), physician, founder of cancer support group Deutsche Krebshilfe 1932 George Schlatter, television producer 1937 Anthony Hopkins, British actor (The Silence of the Lambs) "The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lecter] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book The Girl From Petrovka by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins travelled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn't one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was The Girl From Petrovka. That in itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one – containing his own annotations – to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. 'Is this the one?' he asked, 'with the notes scribbled in the margins?' It was the same book."   Source Log your coincidences at ::Aha!:: Synchronicity Central ::   1941 Sarah Miles, actress 1943 Ben Kingsley, actor (Gandhi) 1943 John Denver (d. 1997), Amerian country/pop musician 1944 Taylor Hackford, producer, director 1945 Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer 1947 Burton Cummings, musician (The Guess Who) 1947 Tim Matheson, actor 1948 Donna Summer, singer 1951 George Thorogood, musician 1958 Bebe Neuwirth, actress 1959 Val Kilmer, actor 1960 John Allen Muhammad, convicted Beltway sniper 1963 Scott Ian, lead singer (Anthrax)   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 Hogmanay Birthdays New Year's Resolutions [ Dec 31 ]   Happy New Year New Year's Eve 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 21 Yule 22 Christmas Tree Light Day 23 Popcorn Popping 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 January 1 New Year 1 Bad Hangover Day 1 Universal Hour Of Peace 1 Daydreamers' Day 1 Solemnity Of Mary 1 Bloody Mary Day 1 New Year's Day Parade (Wisconsin, USA) 2 Science Fiction Day 2 Get Over It Day 3 Drinking Straw Day 3 Start Your New Year's Resolution Day 3 Festival Of Sleep Day 4 Flower Basket Day 4 Spaghetti Day 4 Trivia Day 4 Blender Day 5 Take The Cake Day 5 Get On The Computer Day 5 Turn Up The Heat Day 5 Bird Day 6 Cuddle Up Day 6 Twelfth Night / Epiphany 6 Smith Day 6 Three Kings Day Parade (New York) 6 Orthodox Christmas 7 Nordic Festival (Montana, USA) ... 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   192 CE Murder of Commodus (b. 161), Roman Emperor. 335 St Sylvester I ended his reign as Catholic Pope. 406 Eighty thousand Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. 765 The coffin of Ho-tse Shen-hui was interred in a stupa built in China. 870 Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beat the invading Danish army. 1164 Death of Margrave Ottokar III of Styria. 1194 Leopold V of Austria was killed at a tournament in Graz. 1384 Death of John Wyclif (b. 1328), theologian. 1492 About 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily. 1502 Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI, he of the orgy known as the Banquet of Chestnuts) occupied Urbino. 1564 William I of Orange (William the Silent) demanded freedom of conscience/religion. 1568 Death of Shimazu Tadayoshi (b. 1493), Japanese daimyo. 1600 The British East India Company was chartered. 1687 The first Huguenots emigrants to South Africa set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope. 1695 A window tax was imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax. 1772 Grain riots in Perthshire, Scotland, erupted. The clamour for food had begun around Christmas time and lasted several days, and on the evening of January 5, a troop of dragoons from Linlithgow arrived in the town and the rioting and mobbing ended. 1775 American Revolutionary War: British forces repelled an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec. 1790 Twenty-five bushels of barley were harvested in the new colony of New South Wales, the first grain harvest and a boon to Sydney which was suffering severe food shortages.   1857 Queen Victoria chose Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada. 1862 American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signed an act that admitted West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two); meanwhile, the Battle of Stones River was fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.   1879 Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey). 1879 The Pirates of Penzance had its American premiere, New York. 1888 Death of Samson Raphael Hirsch (b. 1888), rabbi. 1896 While holidaying in Stockholm, Sweden, 22-year-old English occultist and all-round nasty nutter Aleister Crowley ('The Beast'; 1875 - 1947) had a profound experience that changed his life.  He wrote, in The Equinox of the Gods, that he had been "Admitted to the Military Order of the Temple". His biographer, Lawrence Sutin (Sutin, Lawrence, Do What Thou Wilt: A life of Aleister Crowley, St Martin's Griffin, NY, 2000, p. 38) writes: "The part of Crowley's 'nature' that had until now been concealed from him was his bisexuality, revealed through his first homoerotic experience." Author JC Fuller, in a book editorially supervised by Crowley (The Temple of Solomon the King, 1909), referred to this event: Then came the great awakening. Curious to say, it was toward the hour of midnight on the last day of the year when the old slinks away from the new, that he happened to be riding alone, wrapped in the dark cloak of unutterable thoughts … Freedom he had sought, but not the freedom that he had gained. Blood seemed to ooze from his eyelids and trickle down, drop by drop, upon the white snow, writing on its pure surface the name of Christ.   1900 Sir Edmund Barton, Australia's first prime minister, named his first cabinet. 1903 Iroquois Theater fire: Following the devastating fire the previous day in Chicago's Iroquois Theater, in which 578 people died, five of the theatre's employees were charged with manslaughter. 1916 The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burned to the ground. 1922 France rejected Germany's offer of a non-aggression pact. 1928 December: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Indian leader and proponent of civil disobedience, attended the Calcutta Congress where he moved in favour of Independence if Dominion status was not granted by the end of 1929. A draft Constitution of India was adopted on December 31, 1928. 1929 American entertainer, Guy Lombardo, played 'Auld Lang Syne' publicly for the first time. (The original tune of Robert Burns's famous song is here.) 1944 World War II: Hungary declared war on Germany. 1946 USA President Harry Truman officially proclaimed an end of hostilities in World War II. 1955 General Motors became the first American corporation to make more than US$1 billion in a year. 1958 Australia: The New South Wales government legislated for equal pay for women. 1960 The farthing coin, used in Britain since the 13th Century, ceased to be legal tender. 1961 The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than US$12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe. 1963 The Central African Federation officially collapsed, and eventually became Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. The birth of the Yippies 1967 At the New York loft of Abbie Hoffman (1936 - '89), activists resolved to hold a Festival of Life during the Democrats' 'Convention of Death' (1968 Chicago Convention). They decided to call a new party the Youth International Party and thus call themselves 'Yippies', a name coined by Paul Krassner. The originators of Yippie (the Chicago 8, later the Chicago 7) included Hoffman, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale. Seale, a co-founder of the Black Panther Party in 1966, was excluded from YIP later. Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list    See also November 5, 1969 in the Book of Days 1968 Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo. 1969 Australia's first quintuplets were born to Mrs Roger Braham of Tenterfield, NSW. 1972 Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. 1977 Cambodia broke off all diplomatic relations with Vietnam. 1981 In Ghana, former flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings seized state power from the government of President Hilla Limann. This was Rawlings's second such coup. In 1979, he had seized power from Lieutenant-General Fred Akuffo. 1983 The last day that the AT&T Bell System existed before being broken up by the United States Government. 1985 American pop singer Rick Nelson died when his charter plane caught fire and crashed in America's south. 1986 A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140. 1986 The Esso oil company announced it would disinvest in South Africa. 1988 The first agreement between India and Pakistan was signed in Islamabad by prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto. 1988 Former world darts champion, Eric Bristow, was awarded an MBE, much to the consternation of some Britons. 1990 Russian Garry Kasparov held his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov. 1990 Patrick Harward-Duffy, a 36-year-old Glaswegian, was arrested while cutting through the giant Christmas tree in London's Trafalgar Square, with a chainsaw. The arrested man was protesting against the legal system of Norway, the country which donates the tree each year to the British people to commemorate their liberation by the British from Nazi rule. 1991 The Soviet Union officially dissolved. 1992 Thames Television ceased broadcasting. Carlton Television took over its London weekday franchise. 1994 The biggest concert in history, or perhaps the biggest crowd ever? Rod Stewart sang at a concert on Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to an estimated three to four million people (one source says 4.2 million). The entrance fee to the concert was a gift to Rio's many poor citizens. On February 18, 2006 (qv), The Rolling Stones played the same venue to 1.2 million people. Top 10: Highest Attended Concerts Of All Time    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list 1994 USA: In Miami, presidential nephew, George P Bush, broke into his ex-girlfriend's house. Ex's daddy was not amused and called the cops. 1995 The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip. 1999 Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin. 1999 Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, left the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed. 1999 The Panama Canal came completely under Panama's jurisdiction. 2005 A leap second was added to 2005, thus making 2006 a second later. 2006 The United Kingdom paid the final instalment of its Second World War debt to the United States of America. 2007 The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the Schengen common space.    Tomorrow: Sleep in    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search   From venkataraman karthikeyan Chennai-Tamilnadu, India dear sirs, for all the members of wilson's family, A Very Happy New year with a chain link verse wherein the last word of each sentence becomes the first word of the following sentence just to symbolically indicate that new year is only a chronological check point in the continuing eternity of life. DAWN OF THE NEW YEAR With the dawn of the NEW YEAR, New year's resolutions abound around, Around us blossom beliefs for the best, Best ways of care and creation, Creation of dazzling , delightful dreams, Dreams of emancipation, endearment and evolution, Evolution of friendly and fantastic feelings, Feelings of generosity, greatness and goodness; Goodness of human and humane hospitality, Hospitality, without inhibition, of inner invitation, Invitation to join in jubilation and joy, Joy of kindled kindness, Kindness born out of long, lurking love of life, Life of making mutually munificent moral marvels, Marvels of nice nature and natural nicety, Nicety of overflowing openness offering opportunities, Opportunities to purify, and preen up profound perception, Perception of rights and life's vital questions, Questions of right requirements, Requirements of social, spiritual and sober solutions, Solutions leading to tolerance and tranquility, Tranquility of ubiquitous, universal urge for unity, Unity of various and varied values and visions, Visions of worthy wisdom, Wisdom that x-axially expands and extends, E(x)tends here and yonder throughout the year, Year full of zenithal zooming  Zooming into another ambitious year on top gear. SREYA, VIDYA AND KARTHIK       Emma Goldman. Click image for more. 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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