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reetings from Australia.
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this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations,
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Ring out the old
Ring in the new
Ring out the false Ring in the true. Traditional
Then came old January, wrapped well
In many weeds to keep the cold away;
Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell,
And blow his nayles to warm them if he may;
For they were numbed with holding all the day
An hatchet keene, with which he felled wood,
And from the trees did lop the needlesse spray;
Upon an huge great Earth-pot Steane he stood,
From whose wide mouth there flowed forth the Romane flood. Edmund
Spenser(c. 1552 - January
13,1599), Englishpoet; Faerie Queen,'The Cantos of
Mutabilitie', Canto
vii No one ever regarded the First of January with
indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count
upon what is left.
William Hone,
The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year,
William Tegg and Co., London, 1878;
1825-'26 edition online
Love and joy come to you
And to our wassail too And God send you a Happy New Year. The Yorkshire wassail
Wassail. A
salutation used on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day over the
spiced-ale cup, hence called the 'wassail bowl'. (Anglo-Saxon, Waes
hael, be whole, be well). Ivor H
Evans, Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988
Janus am I; oldest of potentates;
Forward I look, and backward, and below
I count, as god of avenues and gates,
The years that through my portals come and go.
I block the roads, and drift the fields with snow;
I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen;
My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow,
My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men. HW
Longfellow(1807
-
1882); The Poet's Calendar for
January
This morning (we lying lately in the
garret) I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn
any other clothes but them. First
entry in the diary of
Samuel Pepys, January 1, 1660
Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. Oliver Goldsmith,
English playwright; an epitaph upon
Edmund Burke, British statesman, born on January 1, 1730
You could not meet Burke for half an hour under a
shed, without saying he was an extraordinary man. DrSamuel Johnson, on Edmund Burke
Abstract liberty, like other abstractions, is not
to be found. Edmund
Burke; Speech on conciliation with
America (March 22, 1775)
The greater the power, the more dangerous the
abuse. Edmund
Burke; Speech on the Middlesex
Election, 1771
Superstition is the religion of feeble minds. Edmund
Burke; Reflections on the Revolution
in France
Good order is the foundation of all things. Edmund
Burke; Reflections on the Revolution
in France
Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be
possessed. Edmund
Burke; Letter to the Sheriffs of
Bristol
The British are coming! The British are coming! Paul
Revere, born on January 1, 1735; called out on his ride from Charlestown
to Lexington
I am not, nor ever have
been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political
equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been,
in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to
hold office, nor to inter-marry with white people ... and I am as much as
any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the
white race. Abraham Lincoln, September
18, 1858, two months after declaring he was opposed to 'inferiority'
of races; on January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation ProclamationSource
Death destroys a man, the idea of Death saves him. EM
Forster, English author, born on January 1, 1879, Howards End
Lord God of Hosts incline
thine ear
To this, Thy humble servant's prayer:
May war and strife and discord cease;
This century, Lord God, give us peace!
Henceforth, dear Lord, may we abhor
Thought of strife, the curse of war.
One blessing more, our store increase,
This is our prayer, Lord, give us peace!
May those who rule us rule with love,
As thou dost rule the courts above;
May man to man as brothers feel,
Lay down their arms and quit the field;
Change from our brows the angry looks,
Turn swords and spears to pruning-hooks.
One blessing more our store increase,
This is our prayer, Lord, give us peace!
May flags of war fore'er be furled,
The milk white flag wave o'er the world;
Let not a slave be heard to cry,
Lion and lamb together lie;
May nations meet in one accord
Around one peaceful festive board.
One blessing more, our store increase,
This is our prayer, Lord, give us peace! Joseph Ephraim McGirt; 'The Century Prayer' (1901); from Conversations
with God, Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans, James Melvin
Washington, PhD, HarperCollins, New York, 1994, p. 99
For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I'm going to sleep." And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V. Opening words of À
la recherche du temps perduby Marcel Proust,
who dipped a piece of madeleine into his tea, on or about January 1,
1909, setting off a train of famous thoughts
A government that is big enough to give you all
you want is big enough to take it all away. Barry
M Goldwater, US Senator, born on January 1, 1909
I would remind you that extremism in the defence
of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you that moderation in the
pursuit of justice is no virtue! Barry
M Goldwater; Speech, San Francisco, July
17, 1964
From Wikipedia:
January 1 is the first
day of the calendar year in both the Julian
and Gregorian
calendars. Here a calendar year refers to the order in which the months
are displayed, January
to December.
The first day of the medieval Julian year was usually a day other than January
1. This day was adopted as the first day of the Julian year by all Western
European countries except England between about 1450 and 1600. The Gregorian
calendar as promulgated in 1582
did not specify that January 1 was to be either New
Year's Day or the first day of its numbered year. Although England began its
numbered year on March
25 (Lady
Day or Annunciation
Day), between the 13th
Century and January 1, 1752
was called New Year's Day, and was, with Christmas
and occasionally Twelfth
Night, a holiday when gifts were exchanged. 364 days (365 in leap
years) remain in the year after this day.
January
birthstone:Garnet, signifying truth, constancy
and physical strength; rose quartz.
By her who in this month was born
No gem save garnets should be worn.
They will ensure her constancy,
True friendship and fidelity. Traditional birthstone rhyme
January,
month of new beginnings
January, like February, was
introduced into the Roman calendar by a legendary king of Rome, Numa
Pompilius (successor to Romulus), who named it in honour of
Janus, the god of
doors and openings (Latin janus,
a door).
Janus is represented in Roman art as a man with
two faces, one looking backwards and one forwards, implying that he stood
between the old and the new year, holding both in regard.
The ancient Jewish New Year, which began on March
25, continued for a long time to have a legal standing in Christian
countries. In England, it was not until 1752 that in legal, as in popular
circles, January 1 became New Year.
Janus is the male equivalent of one of the versions
of the goddess Juno-Janus, who, in her two-faced aspects of Antevorta and
Postvorta, looks simultaneously forwards and backwards, as Janus does.
In American backwoods tradition, the January full
moon is called Wolf Moon.
In the Celtic calendar, the first 20 days of January
are in the month of Beth, the birch tree, representing beginnings and purification,
white being the emblematic colour. This month is dedicated to the Mother
Goddess. From January 21 is Luis,
the rowan, dedicated to Morrigan and with grey as its emblematic hue.
In the thirteen-month goddess calendar of Lux
Madriana, the month of Hestia continues till January 22, followed by the
month of Bridhe.
January
and February were the last two months to be added to the calendar, since
the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. Although March was
originally the first month, January usurped that position because that was
when consuls
were usually chosen.
The Coming
of age day in Japan is the second Monday of January, for those
becoming 20 years old in the new calendar year. It is a national holiday.
The day has existed since 1948, but was
January 15 until the year 1999. The day was
moved by the Japanese government in an attempt to lift
the economy by making holidays in more cases consecutive.
In 59 CE, the notorious Roman emperor, Nero, instituted
the Juvenalia festival, originally on December 24. It
commemorated, of all things, the first shaving of his beard at the age of
21, symbolising his transition from youth to manhood. The Juvenalia was a
theatrical festival which was turned by succeeding emperors into a
spectacle of chariot races and fights between wild beasts, celebrated on
January 1.
"JUVENA'LIA,
or JUVENA'LES LUDI ... were scenic games instituted by Nero in A.D. 59, in commemoration of this shaving his
beard for the first time, thus intimating that he had passed from youth
into manhood. He was then in the twenty-second year of his age. These
games were not celebrated in the circus, but in a private theatre
erected in a pleasure-ground (nemus), and
consisted of every kind of theatrical performance, Greek and Roman
plays, mimetic pieces, and the like. The most distinguished persons in
the state, old and young, male and female, were expected to take part in
them. The emperor set the example by appearing in person on the stage;
and Dion Cassius mentions a distinguished Roman matron, upwards of
eighty years of age, who danced in the games. It was one of the offences
given by Paetus Thrasea that he had not acquitted himself with credit at
this festival (Dion Cass. lxi.19; Tac. Ann.xiv.15,
xv.33,
xvi.21). Suetonius (Ner. 12) confounds this festival
with the Quinquennalia, which was instituted
in the following year, A.D. 60 [Quinquennalia.]
The Juvenalia continued to be celebrated by
subsequent emperors, but not on the same occasion. The name was given to
those games which were exhibited by the emperors on the 1st of January
in each year. They no longer consisted of scenic representations, but of
chariot races and combats of wild beasts (Dion Cass. lxvii.14; Sidon. Apoll. Carm. xxiii.307,
428;
Capitol. Gord. 4; cf. Lipsius,
ad Tac. Ann. xiv.15)." Source
Kalends
of January, or the Gamelia, ancient Rome
The Romans celebrated their New Year in March; today was dedicated to
the Three Fates, called by them the Parcae
(see also Moirae,
the Greek equivalent). The ancient poet Homer personified these three daughters of Night thus:
Clotho, the spinner, spins the thread of life; Lachesis is pure chance and
luck; and Atropos is our inescapable fate.
To the ancient Romans, March 1 was
considered to be the beginning of the year. The names of some months
reflect this. (September
= Seventh, October = Eighth, November = Ninth, December = Tenth). If the
days of the year were counted from March 1, till the next
March 1, each
date of the year would have the same number every year, unlike counting
from January 1.
Happy New Year!
(Did you see the fireworks and
folklore last
night?)
New Year's Day is a
holiday in 162 nations of the world. In Britain there is an old custom
that you should take nothing out of the house today, not even garbage.
Take
out, then take in
Bad luck will begin
Take in, then take out
Good luck comes about
If you must carry something out, make sure
to bring something in first. The best thing is a coin which you have
hidden outside on New Year's
Eve.
An old British tradition has it that you
should not lend matches, or fuel, to anyone today, or you'll lack fire
all year. And don't lend money to anyone, or you'll be without it this
year.
Welsh
Callenig
The Welsh give a Calennig
today. It's a New Year's apple, stuck with wheat, oats, nuts and
evergreen leaves. Its covered in flour and gold paint or leaf, and stands
on a tripod of rowan or holly skewers for luck. These woods are ancient
Druidic magic charms, as is the apple itself.
The Scots at New Year traditionally eat
Yulekebbuck, or Christmas
cheese. (A Scottish proverb:
A whang off a cut kebbuck's never miss'd.)
" … the cheese eaten on this occasion was referred to as the
caise Calluinn, the Christmas Cheese. A slice of it was preserved, and if this happened to have a hole through it, it was believed to have special virtues. This sacred slice was known as the
Laomacha, and a person who had lost his way at any time during the ensuing twelve months had only to look through the hole in the slice and he would know where he was
– this was especially valuable to one lost on the hill in the mist."
Source
The first Monday in January is a Scottish public holiday, which they
call Handsel
Monday.
Pocket
full of money In Scotland, Wales and the border counties of England, an old
tradition is for children to go singing door to door on New Year's
morning, for which they will be rewarded with coins, sweets, fruit or
mince pies. A typical song goes:
I
wish you a merry Christmas
A Happy New Year.
A pocket full of money
And a cellar full of beer.
A good fat pig
To last you all the year.
Please to give a New Year's gift For
this New Year.
The god Janus
guides the revolution of time. Adapted from a frontispiece and verse
explanation in James Heath, A Brief Chronicle, Folger
Shakespeare Library, 2nd ed. (1663).
In Roman Mythology, Janus was the god of
gates, doors (ianua), beginnings, endings and
doorways. The month of January
was named for him. He was usually depicted as Janus Geminus (twin
Janus) or Bifrons, with two faces looking in opposite directions. In
some places he was Janus Quadrifrons (the four-faced). He was
associated with EtruscanAni.
Wikipedia tells us
that Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and
planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginning. He
was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and
civilization, rural country and urban cities and youth and
adulthood.
He supposedly came from Thessaly
in Greece
and shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium.
They had many children, including Tiberinus.
Janus and his later wife, Juturna
(goddess of springs and
wells),
were the parents of Fontus. He had another wife name Jana.
Symbolism appropriate to the Almanac
Janus is the god of change and transitions such as the progression
of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to
another, and of one universe to another.
Today in Rome also
commemorated the god
Vediovis (Veiovis; Veive),
an old Italian or
Etruscandeity, whose temple was dedicated in
193 BCE
between the two peaks of the
Capitoline Hill, Rome.
Vediovis, a god representing a young Jove, or Jupiter (juvenis or
juvenile) or his inverse or ill-omened counterpart, was honoured on January 1, and sacrifices of
female goats were
made to him on
March 7.
On the seventh day of
Christmas, my true love gave to me
Seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings.
Four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
The Quadrantids
annual meteor shower (Jan
1 - 5) The meteors appear to radiate from an
area inside the constellationBoötes;
the name comes from Quadrans
Muralis, an obsolete constellation that is now part of Boötes.
The best date to view the Quadrantids is
January 3 or 4,
although they can viewed from today until
January 5.
Taiwan Foundation Days
(Founding of Republic
of China, Taiwan) (Jan 1 - 2) This two-day holiday commemorates the founding of
the Republic of China on January 1, 1912.
Day of the Revolution (Liberation Day), Cuba
Today is a national holiday, commemorating the end of Spanish rule in Cuba on this day in 1899.
Colonial Flag Day, USA
George Washington founded the Continental Army on January 1, 1776, and the new flag of the united colonies was first hoisted on that day, at Somerville, Massachusetts, where a memorial stands today.
Coon Carnival
This traditional holiday in Cape Town features colourful revelry similar to Rio's Mardi Gras.
Emancipation Day, USA
Various American schools and institutions commemorate the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.
Mobile Carnival, Mobile, Alabama
The big New Year's celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, USA go back to 1831.
Mummers Day, Philadelphia
Since 1876 the people of Philadelphia, USA, have celebrated this day with fancy dress, fun bands, crazy clowns and mummers, medieval-style masked actors.
Polar Swim Day, Vancouver
Australia's Bondi Icebergs
all-year-round swimming club has some (frozen) stiff competition. Every New Year's Day since 1920 swimmers have been plunging into the freezing waters of English Bay ,Vancouver, Canada. This bizarre ritual has been mimicked by a group south of the border, known as the American Polar Bears.
Independence Day, Haiti Today honours the proclamation of
Haiti's independence by Jean Jacques Dessalines on January 1, 1804. The
nation's founder restored the original Indian name Haiti, meaning 'land of
mountains'.
Today even the poor in Haiti will dress to the
nines. Some Haitians believe that whatever happens on Independence Day is a
foretaste of the coming year, so they dress well, visit friends, exchange gifts
and have a feast.
Independence Day, Sudan
In honour of the sovereignty granted to this troubled nation on January 1, 1956, major events are held today in the capital city, Khartoum.
Independence Day, Western Samoa
Today's celebrations in Western Samoa commemorate the Pacific nation's declaration of independence from New Zealand on January 1, 1962.
Matsuri
means Japanese festivals.
In Osaka at
Shitennō-ji Shrine today,
as well as many other temples, faithful Buddhists pray for peace and a fruitful harvest.
It is also a time to reflect upon and correct one's past errors and
look forward to a better life in the new year. It is is
traditionally the first Buddhist service of the year. Many of the
faithful believe that attendance at the Shusho-e will guarantee good
fortune for the year. In secular Japan, oshogatsu or
shōgatsu is the name given to New Year.
From
Wikipedia: Japanese people eat a special selection of dishes
during the New Year celebration called osechi-ryōri,
typically shortened to osechi. A popular soup is ozōni,
consisting of miso,
boiled kelp (konbumaki),
fish cakes (kamaboko),
mashed sweet potato with chestnut (kurikinton), simmered
burdock root (kinpira
gobo), and sweetened black soybeans (kuromame). Many of
these dishes are sweet, sour, or dried, so they can keep without
refrigeration — the culinary traditions date to a time before
households had refrigerators, when most stores closed for the
holidays. There are many variations of osechi, and some foods eaten
in one region are not eaten in other places (or are even banned) on
New Year's Day. Today, sashimi and
sushi are
often eaten, as well as non-Japanese foods. To let the overworked
stomach rest, seven-herb rice soup (nanakusa-gayu) is
prepared on
the seventh day of January, a day known as jinjitsu.
On
New Year's Day, Japanese people have a custom of giving pocket money
to children, which is a custom from China. This is known as
otoshidama. It is handed out in small decorated envelopes called
pochibukuro, descendants of the Chinese
red packets.
In the Edo period,
large stores and wealthy families gave out a small bag of mochi
(rice cakes) and a
Mandarin
orange to spread happiness all around. The amount of money given
depends on the age of the child but is usually the same if there is
more than one child so that no one feels slighted.
Hatsu-yume, Japan In Japan, the first dream of the new year is believed to set the tone for the kind of year it'll turn out to be. However, due to big day, the
hatsu-yume (first dream of a new year) might be the dream had on the night of
January 2. There is a historical record of a hatsu-yume dreamt by Emperor Suinin, who is said to have reigned
in about the 4th Century. Legend has it that the three best dreams one can have are about Mount Fuji, hawks, and eggplants, and in that order.
"The Japanese have a wonderful custom of honoring the New Year's
'firsts,' which they call hatsu. Among the first activities they note on this day are the first day of work, the first visit to temple and the first practice session for artists. You should note your
'firsts' this year, and practice kakizome or the act of 'first writing.' To
do so, choose your favorite poem, prayer, or passage of writing. Copy the
passage in your best handwriting on to a sheet of the best and whitest paper
you can find. The paper symbolizes the pure New Year, a time when much is
possible. This practice serves as a good luck charm for a year begun in
beauty. And a year begun well, ends well."
"The 'first dream' was no laughing matter for people in the feudal period, though. They went to great lengths to make sure they had one of the good dreams – one way being to put under their pillows a drawing of a ship of treasures with the kanji (Sino-Japanese character) for treasure written on its sail. This became a common practice around Muromachi period (the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries), with people from all walks of life – from the most powerful military rulers to the common townspeople – sliding a drawing of a treasure ship under their pillows in the expectation that the year to come would bring them greater joy and prosperity."
Source
Takarabune 'treasure ship' "The passengers are the Shichifukujin, the Seven
Gods of Good Fortune. It's said that if you sleep with a picture of the ship
under your pillow at New Year's, your first dream of the year will be an
auspicious one."Source
The nightwatch bell
As in many parts of the world, in Japan the New Year is brought in with noise. Here, temple bells sound, ringing out the old year. Then the
joyano-kane, or nightwatch bell, rings in the new with precisely 108 chimes. This, according to Buddhist tradition, helps free mankind from the 108
'earthly desires'.
Happy Shihohai
Since 590 CE, Japan's emperors have observed today, Shihohai, as one of their own special holidays, of which there are four. Today the emperor worships four directions: heaven, earth, mountains and stars.
Kamakura Matsuri, Japan
This festival on January 1 is held at the
Tsurugaoka Shrine at Kamakura. There is a street parade and the
grand spectacle of target shooting by horsemen dressed as
Kamakura-period warriors.
Happy Okera Mairi
At the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, Japan, at dawn on New Year's Day, the faithful celebrate Okera Mairi and take home some of the sacred fire that the priests have lit. With this fire, the year's first meal will be cooked to ensure a year of good health.
Nagata Matsuri, Japan
The crowds amass today for the festival of Nagata Matsuri at Kobe, dedicated to an ancient Shinto deity, Koto-Shironushi-no-Mikoto, who looks after good luck and commercial success.
reetings from Australia.
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