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The first three days of January rule the coming three months.
Traditional English weather proverb

As the weather is on the second of January, so it will be in September.
Traditional English weather proverb

Dripping water hollows out a stone, a ring is worn away by use.
Ovid, Roman poet, who died on this day in 17 CE; Epistulae Ex Ponto, Book IV

Woe to the vanquished.
Livy, Roman historian, who died on this day in 17 CE; History, V, 48

To pester, insult, deride, desecrate – and to venerate –
is your domain, Inanna.
Downheartedness, calamity, heartache – and joy and good cheer –
is your domain, Inanna.
Trembling, affright, terror – dazzling and glory –
is your domain, Inanna.
Hymn to Inanna, from Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion Source

If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in them to hang him.
Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman and chief minister to King Louis XIII, who on this day in 1635 established the French Academy, which still exists; (attributed quotation)

Anabaptists

By God, Mr Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation!
Robert, Baron Clive of Plassey, British soldier who took Calcutta on this day in 1757; reply during Parliamentary Inquiry, 1773

Good God! that I should have entrusted the fate of the country and of the administration to such hands!
Prime Minister William Pitt, to Lord Temple, after General James Wolfe (born on January 2, 1727) left their presence. (Wolfe had been behaving wildly, although sober, at dinner)

At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Fransisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States.
Emperor Norton I, September 17, 1859. Emperor Norton proclaimed January 2, 1873 to be the date for a worldwide Bible Convention in San Francisco

I could argue all day about the significance of facing east in religious rituals, but a clean table is a clean table.
Norton I, Emperor of the United States of America

He always had that surfer, chipper, bubbly, enjoy-life thing about him.
Melbourne, Australia, singer Stephen Cummings, of Shirley Strachan, Aussie rock singer (Skyhooks) born on January 2, 1952

When life is so harsh that a man loses all hope in himself, then he raises his eyes to a shining rock, worshipping it, just to find hope again, rather than looking to his own acts for hope and salvation. Yes, atheism is a redemptive belief. It is theism that denies man's own redemptive nature.
Isaac Asimov, science fiction author, born on January 2, 1920

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.
Isaac Asimov

Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
Isaac Asimov

So long had life together been that now
The second of January fell again
On Tuesday ...
Joseph Brodsky; 'Six Years Later'

January 2 is the 2^nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 363 days remaining (364 in leap years).
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Inanna

My father gave me the heavens,
gave me the earth,
I am Inanna!
Kingship he gave me,
queenship he gave me,
waging of battle and attack he gave me,
the floodstorm he gave me,
the hurricane he gave me!
The heavens he set as a crown upon my head,
the earth he set as sandals on my feet,
a holy robe he wrapped around my body,
a holy scepter he placed in my hand.
The gods are sparrows, I am a falcon.
Hymn to Inanna, from Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion Source

The great queen of heaven, Inanna, I will hail!
The only one, come forth on high, I will hail!
The pure torch that flares in the sky,
the heavenly light shining bright like the day,
the great queen of heaven, Inanna, I will hail!
Of her standing in the sky like the sun and moon,
known by all lands from south to north,
of the greatness of the holy one in heaven
to the Lady I will sing.
Hymn to Inanna, from Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion Source

Birthday of Inanna (or Innanna, Innin, Innini), Sumeria

Sumerian goddess of earth, queen of heaven

Ishtar, also known as Htar (or Inanna in Sumerian mythology), the name of the chief goddess of Babylonia and Assyria, the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte. The meaning of the name is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem is the same as that of Assur, which would thus make her the 'leading one' or 'chief'.

In Hestia, the darkest month,
A tiny light is born.
Our Lady, in Her Mother's arms,
Shines forth on the grey dawn.
Lux Madriana Calendar

As goddesses of love, Isis and Inanna relate to Aphrodite, Astarte, Ishtar and Cybele, according to Nigel Pennick (The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992).

It is now generally recognized that the name is Semitic in its origin. Where the name originated is uncertain, but the indications point to Erech where we find the worship of a great mother goddess independent of any association with a male counterpart flourishing in the oldest period of Babylonian history. She appears under various names, among which are Nanã, Innanna, Nina and Anunit. As early as the days of Khammurabi, we find these various names which represented originally different goddesses, though all manifest as the chief trait the life-giving power united in Ishtar. Even when the older names are employed it always means the great mother goddess. Ishtar is the one goddess in the pantheon who retains her independent position despite and throughout all changes that the Babylonian-Assyrian religion undergoes. Even when Ishtar is viewed as the consort of some chief – of Marduk occasionally in the south, of Assur more frequently in the north — the consciousness that she has a personality of her own apart from this association is never lost from sight.

Source: Wikipedia Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Her names and titles

"Nin-me-sar-ra, the Lady of Myriad Offices / or Queen of all the Me

Ninsianna as the personification of the planet Venus

Nin.an.na, which means 'queen of the sky'.

Nu-ugiganna, the Hierodule of Heaven

Usunzianna, Exalted Cow of Heaven" Source

"Inanna is regarded as a daughter of the sky-god An. But she was also seen as the daughter of the moon-goddess Ningal and her consort Nanna. She is the sister of the underworld goddess Ereschkial and of the sungod Utu.

"The Sumerian great 'Lady Queen of Heaven' (Ninanna) who appears in two sources: the Gilgamesh Epic, where she aids the hero and tries to seduce him, and in the Cycle of Inanna, a collection of poems concerning her relation – in life and death – to her brother and lover, the vegetation-god Dumuzi (akk. Tammuz).
"Inanna figures prominently in various myths, such as 'Inanna's descent to the underworld'." Source

Advent of Isis from Phoenicia, celebrated in ancient Egypt, Rome

The goddess Isis discovered that the Ark of the god Osiris had been cast up by the Mediterranean in the region of the Phoenician Byblos, so journeyed across the sea to find it, and then brought it back with her to Egypt. Offerings were made on the seventh day of the Egyptian month of Tybi, roughly January 2.

The Egyptian deity Isis was honoured with a temple at Rome. Today, singers, musicians and dancers, mostly female, would perform at this temple during the festival of the Advent of Isis. Actors playing the parts of Isis and Nephthys in the mystery plays celebrated the death and resurrection of Osiris. These might have been the oldest mystery plays on earth, predating even those of Mesopotamia.

From Wikipedia: Isis (Greek corruption; the Egyptian is Aset) was originally a goddess from Nubia, and was adopted into Egyptian belief very early on. Her name literally means (female) of throne, i.e. Queen of the throne, although the heiroglyph used originally meant (female) of flesh, i.e. mortal, and she may simply have represented deified, real, queens. When deified, symbolic of the queen, it was sometimes said that she was the daughter of Tawaret, the goddess of royal birth.

A Theban hymn about Isis from the 14^th Century BC says:

In the beginning there was Isis-Hathor: Oldest of the Old. She was the Goddess from whom all Becoming arose. She was the Great Lady, Mistress of the Two Lands of Egypt, Mistress of Shelter, Mistress of Heaven, Mistress of the House of Life, Mistress of the Divine Word. She was the Unique. In all Her great and wonderful works She was a wiser magician and more excellent than any God.

As the deification of the wife of the pharaoh, Isis protected the dead body of the pharaoh, since this was seen as an intrinsic part of her job as royal protector. Thus she gained a funerary association, and was said to be the mother of the four gods who protected the canopic jars. More specifically, Isis was viewed as protector of the god Imsety. This association with the pharaoh's wife also brought the idea that Isis was considered the spouse of Horus, who was protector, and later the deification, of the pharaoh himself. Consequently, on occasion, her mother was said to be that of Horus, namely Hathor.

Ancient worship

Egypt:Gods - Isis

Modern worship

List of pagan virgin mothers

Isis with Horus

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The Search for God in Ancient Egypt

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Cassell's Dictionary of Superstitions

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Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

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The Survival of the Pagan Gods

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The Twelve Days of Christmas

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Eight maids a-milking, 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 constellation Boötes; 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 January 1 - 5.

Old Roman Catholic: Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (most years)

Day of Victory of Love, Unification Church

Commemoration of Pastor Johann Loehe, Lutheranism

Tenth of Tevet (Asarah B'Tevet; Siege of Jerusalem), Judaism (approximate date)
A minor fast day in Judaism, falling either seven or eight days after the conclusion of Hannukah. This moveable feast (actually, in this case, a fast) commemorates the onset of the siege that Nebuchadrezzar of Babylonia laid to ancient Jerusalem, an event that ultimately led to the destruction of Solomon's Temple (the First Temple) and Babylonia's conquest of southern Israel's Kingdom of Judah. Many rabbis have designated it as a day of remembrance for the Holocaust.

And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth (day) of the month, that Nebuchadnetzar, King of Babylon came, he and all his hosts, upon Yerushalayim, and he encamped upon it and built forts around it. And the city came under siege till the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu. On the ninth of the month famine was intense in the city, the people had no bread, and the city was breached.
Second Melachim 25

Feast day of St Abel

Feast day of St Acutus

Feast day of St Adelard, abbot
He was a grandson of Charles Martel and thus cousin to Charlemagne, who made him a count. He wrought miracles, which caused his body to be enshrined in 1010. Adelard died in 827.

Feast day of St Airaldus

Feast day of St André Fardeau

Feast day of St Anne Hmard

Feast day of St Anne Maugrain

Feast day of St Basil the Great

Feast day of St Bentivoglio de Bonis

Feast day of St Blidulf of Bobbio

Feast day of St Carola Lucas

Feast day of St Eugenda

Feast day of St Isidore of Antioch

Feast day of St Laurent Bâtard

Feast day of St Macarius the Younger (Macarius or Makarios of Alexandria), anchoret

(Groundsel, Senecio vulgaris, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

A confectioner in Alexandria, Egypt, he withdrew, in about the year 325, into the Thebaid in Upper Egypt. Later, he went into remoter deserts near Libya where he lived on the tiniest amount of food. Once, when he killed a gnat that bit him, he exposed himself for six months (because he had lost the opportunity to suffer when he killed the insect) to the hordes of flies in the Sceté marshes, at the end of which time he could only be recognised by his voice, because of a mass of putrid sores.

On another occasion, when tempted to go to Rome to serve the sick in hospitals, which appealed to his sense of self-glory, he did penance by carrying two large baskets of sand through the wilderness. An acquaintance asked him what he was doing; he said, "I am tormenting my tormentor". He returned home in the evening, very tired, but free of the temptation.

One quaint story tells of how the saint was given a bunch of newly-picked grapes. He very much wanted to eat them, but he saw this as sinful so he conquered this desire and gave the grapes to another monk, who was ill. That monk, also wanting to maintain abstinence, gave the grapes to another, who gave them to a third and so on. After some time the bunch of grapes returned to an astonished St Macarius, who gave thanks to God.

Once, he took a dead pagan out of his sepulchre and used him as a pillow, whereupon devils came to scare him, and called the dead pagan to go with them, but the body under the saint said he couldn't because someone was lying on top of him. Macarius punched the body and said he could go if he wanted, whereupon the devils said that the saint had vanquished them. Another time, the devil came with a scythe to hit the saint, but could not because of Macarius's virtue.

One time, he made a nine-mile journey into the desert, placing a reed at every mile so he could find his way back. The devil pulled them up and put them at Macarius's head while he slept. Or, so it is said.

Macarius is patron of confectioners, cooks and pastry chefs.

Feast day of St Many Martyrs Who Suffered in Rome

Feast day of St Narcissus

Feast day of St Perrine Androuin

Feast day of St Suzanne Androuin

Feast day of St Timothy

Feast day of St Victoire Bauduceau Réveillère

Feast day of St Vincentian

Feast day of St Vitus (not the Vitus associated with St Vitus's Dance)

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints

Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies mala), unlucky day in Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord" was the associated saying.)

Visit of the Magi, Austria, till January 6

Shusho-E Matsuri, Japan (Jan 1 - 14)

Casé gâteaux (Breaking the Cakes), a communal form of a mager-loa, Voudon (Voodoo) (Jan 2 - 4)

Day of the Glorification of the Heroes of Independence, Haiti

Shigoto Hajime, Begin Work Day, Japan (beginning of the work year)

Granada Day, Spain (1492)

Second day of activities for Feast of the Circumcision, Syria
Women go visiting today; yesterday they had to remain at home (to serve visitors) as others went visiting.
Wernecke, Herbert H, Christmas Customs Around the World, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, USA, 1959, p 122

Amamehagi Demons Festival, Monzen-machi, Ishikawa, Japan (Jan 2 - 6)
Amamehagi equate to Namahage, men representing gods in the guise of demons, who visit houses dressed in straw coats to warn children against laziness and bad behaviour in the new year.

Dainichi-do Bugaku, Kazuno, Akita Prefecture, Japan
A series of 11 traditional bugaku dances held at the venerable Dainichi-do shrine. Though its origins are unclear, the festival is said to be associated with the restoration of the shrine in 718.

Berchtold's Tag (Berchtold's Day), Switzerland
Nut festival (founding of Berne). Source: The Daily Bleed

Good Luck Day, Macedonia Source: The Daily Bleed

Kakizome, Japan
The Japanese family gets together and creates art. Source: The Daily Bleed

Foundation Days (Jan 1, 2), Republic of China

Beginning of Work, Japan
Work begun properly on this day will prosper.

Coon Carnival, Cape Town, South Africa (Jan 1, 2)

1642 Mehmed IV, sultan (Turkey)

1647 Nathaniel Bacon, leader of Bacon's Rebellion (1676), Virginia, USA

1699 Osman III, sultan (Turkey)

1713 Marie Dumesnil, tragic actress (Racine's Phadre, Hermione)

1727 James Wolfe, British general who fought the French in Canada

1777 Christian Daniel Rauch (d. 1857), sculptor

1788 Étienne Cabet, French utopian socialist and influence on Robert Owen. Utopian colonies based on his ideas were founded in Illinois, Iowa and Texas. Cabet wrote the highly popular utopian novel, Voyage en Icarie (1839), of an ideal communist city.

The Texas colony failed due to dissension and bad weather – a condition which prevails to this day.

The Illinois colony lasted eleven years, but because, partly, of the authoritarianism of Cabet, the community divided. One group remained with Cabet, who died in Saint Louis, Missouri on November 9, 1856, surrounded by the faithful. The other group settled in Iowa where the Icarienne community published two papers, including The Communist-Libertarian.

Source: The Daily Bleed Early progressives in the Book of Days

1822 Rudolf Clausius (d. 1888), physicist, contributions to thermodynamics

1858 Beatrice Webb (d. April 30, 1943), British socialist, economist and social reformer, wife of Sidney Webb (1859 - 1947; co-founder of the Fabian Society and the London School of Economics). In 1898, the Webbs conducted a year-long research journey in North America, Australia and New Zealand. In 1932, the Webbs visited the Soviet Union, where they were famously duped by Stalinism.

"Although unhappy with the lack of political freedom in the country they were impressed with the rapid improvement in the health and educational services and the changes that had taken place to ensure economic and political equality for women. When they returned to Britain they wrote a book on the economic experiments taking place in the Soviet Union called Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? (1935). In the book the Webbs predicted that "the social and economic system of planned production for community consumption" of the Soviet Union would eventually spread to the rest of the world. They added that they hoped this would happen through reform rather than revolution.

"Despite the Stalinist purges and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Webbs continued to support the Soviet economic experiment and in 1942 published The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942)."