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Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret
Read MacDonald
The Great Goddesses of Egypt
The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient
Egypt
The Tutankhamun Prophecies
The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
The Complete Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun the Exodus Conspiracy
Ancient Ways
Garden Witchery
Golden Bough
Folklore classic
Sabbat Entertaining
Celebrate the Earth
A Year of Holidays in the Pagan
Tradition
Wheel of the Year
Be A Goddess
The Five Biggest Lies Bush
Told Us About Iraq
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints
Lucifer Ascending: The
Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture
Cassell's Dictionary of Superstitions
Encyclopedia of Superstitions
The Hobbit
At Dawn in Rivendell
The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings - The Two
Towers
(Platinum Series Special Extended Edition)
Philosophy of Popular Superstitions 1853
The Book of Spells
Spellcraft
The Book of Saints
The Encyclopedia of Saints
Daily Everything
Brewer's
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
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An Inconvenient Truth
By Al Gore; DVD &
book
The Permaculture Home Garden
By Linda Woodrow
The Corporation
Highly recommended DVD
A
Question of Torture
By Alfred McCoy
Remotely
Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About
It
What
Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom
Hartmann
How
Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World
Pagan
Christianity
For
God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
By James Yee
Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate
Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
By Robert F Kennedy, Jr
The Price of Loyalty
The
Torture Debate in America
The
Culture of the New Capitalism
The God Who Wasn't There
A
Question of Torture
By Alfred McCoy
When Corporations Rule the World
Alternatives to Economic Globalization
Feminism Without Borders
Commercialization of Intimate Life
By Arlie Russell Hochschild
The Skeptic's Dictionary
365 Goddess
Adventures in a TV Nation
Michael
Moore
Drawing Down the Moon
Globalization/Anti-Globalization
Body Wisdom
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Dude, Where's My Country?
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The Sisters
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Mother Earth Spirituality
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10 Reasons to
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Feast day of St Geneviève (St
Genevieve; Genovefa), virgin, patroness
of Paris
(Persian
fleur-de-lis, Iris persica, is
today's plant, dedicated to this
saint.)
Patroness of Paris, b. at Nanterre, France, c.
419 or 422; d. at Paris,
512 (sources differ; c.
500), who protected Paris from the
threatened attack of Attila the Hun and whose life story has tales of miracles. When the
Franks under Clovis (or Chlodowech, modern French 'Louis') (c. 466 - 511), King of
the Salic Franks,
a Germanic people occupying the area west of the
lower Rhine,
had subdued Paris, her solicitations moved him to mercy, and she converted
him. Some say she died five months after death of Clovis and was buried near him in Church of
St Peter and St
Paul, since named the Church of St Genevieve. During the French Revolution it became the Pantheon, but was later reconsecrated.
It was said by her medieval biographer
that she was a shepherdess, the only child of Severus and Gerontia,
hardworking peasants, but modern evidence suggests that she came from a
wealthy family. When Genevieve was just seven years old, St
Germaine (Germanus of Auxerre)
saw a penny on the ground, signed with the cross; he took it up and gave
it to little Genevieve, with the request that she become the bride of Jesus
Christ. She promised him and went to the church, but her mother was angry
and hit her on the cheek, for which God struck the mother blind. After 20
months Genevieve washed her mother's eyes with holy water and sight was
restored.
She
prophesied invasions and
disasters for Paris, could read people's consciences and calm the
possessed; she brought
back to life a young man who had drowned in a well.
She frequently ate only twice a week, Thursday and Sunday, and only tiny amounts (a small portion of three-week-old barley bread and some beans) until the age of 50 when her bishop commanded her to alter her diet. She experienced visions and prophecies, which initially evoked hostility from the people of Paris, to the point that an attempt was made to take her life.
One day a gust of wind blew out her candle, leaving her in the dark. Geneviève merely concluded that the devil was trying to frighten her. For this reason she is often depicted holding a candle, sometimes with an irritated devil standing near.
Miracles
In
451, shortly before Paris was besieged by
Atilla the Hun , she encouraged
the city's defence and
organized prayers for God's protection of the city; to these prayers were
attributed the diversion of Attila's army to
Orléans. During
Childeric's siege
and blockade of Paris in 464, she led an expedition
for food to relieve the famine, investing all her
money to charter boats, and buy and bring back wheat from
Troyes. At one point, however, when the crisis
was at its height and the people were panic stricken, they turned against
her, wanting to stone her and saying that she was a false prophet who
would cause their destruction. She caused a church to be built on the tomb
of Saint Denis (Dionysus)
by miraculously providing the building materials. The priests could
find no lime, so she sent them to the bridge of Paris; there they heard
two swineherds talking about lime they had found. By her prayers the drinking bottles of the
building labourers filled with water. A
woman once stole her shoes and went blind until she returned them to the
saint. She prayed over 12 Parisian men who were possessed, till the men
were suspended in the air and the devils exorcised. Or, so it is said.
Geneviève made
many pilgrimages in the company of other maidens to the shrine of St
Martin of
Tours. Her reputation for sanctity is so great that it even reached
the pillar-sitting St
Simeon Stylites
the Elder in Syria, who asked to be remembered in her prayers.
After her death, miracles were wrought at her
tomb, the most celebrated example being the 'Miracle
des Ardens', or burning fever (ergot poisoning)
of 1129, when thousands of the sick who saw or touched the saint's
shrine were cured of the disease, and it was said to be a miracle. In
1130, Pope
Innocent II
ordered that date to be kept annually in commemoration.
In times of national crisis the French have often turned to Geneviève for help. In
1741, King
Louis XV came to her church to thank her for a cure wrought at her intercession. When the
Bastille was taken, people again came to thank her. In
1790, the Commune went to her church for Mass. In
1793, the body of St Geneviève was taken from her shrine and publicly burned at the
Place de Greve. Some of the
relics were spared and later placed in the Church of
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, where thousands visit them each year.
Patronage:
disasters, fever, Paris, plague, WACs, women's army corps,
drought and excessive rain, the French security forces.
More
The
Twelve Days of Christmas
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12
On the ninth day of
Christmas, my true love gave to me
Nine ladies dancing, 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.
In astronomy,
January 3 is
the approximate date of Earth's
perihelion
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.
"Tonight is the peak of the Quandrantid
Meteors. This is normally a rather nice meteor shower, but it is
often not observed. For one thing, the timing is bad. It is right at
the first of the year, and so many people have other holiday things
going on. Secondly, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower comes in the
coldest part of the winter for the northern hemisphere, and that
discourages many observers. But, this is summer in the southern
hemisphere, so might it not be observed there? Unfortunately, the
radiant is so far to the north that it is not above the horizon at
night from a bit south of the equator except during the daylight.
Worse, the Quadrantids often are rather dim meteors, and so bright
moonlight washes them out."
Source
"Boötes has one of the hardest
constellation names to pronounce; it should sound somewhat like
bo-oat-tees, rather than a quick 'booties'. It is one of the older
constellations but it has changed shape gradually over time before
settling into the figure we use now. Most of the mythology connected
with this constellation belongs to Arcturus, the brightest star in
the Northern hemisphere of the sky. Boötes apparently actually means
'the ox driver' but because he is following the celestial bears
around the poles and Arcturus means 'bear herder' as well the two
have become synonymous. In Greek mythology Boötes was seen as
Icarius, the first maker of wine. The story goes that one day
Icarius, who was naturally a kind man, gave shelter to a stranger,
who was the god Bacchus in disguise. Bacchus was delighted with
Icarius' hospitality and as a reward, Bacchus taught Icarius how to
make wine from the grapes he grew. The nearby constellation of Canes
Venatici the Hunting Dogs is commonly associated with Boötes as
well."
Source
Mythology
& lore associated with Boötes, the Herdsman, Ploughman, Ox Driver, or
Shepherd
Feast day of St Antherus,
pope
Feast day of St Athanasius
Feast day of St Blitmund of
Bobbio
Feast day of St Daniel of
Padua
Feast day of St Fintan of
Doon
Feast day of St Florentius
of Vienne
Feast day of St Gordius of
Cappadocia, martyr
Feast day of St Joseph
Feast day of St Peter
Balsam, martyr
Feast day of St Primus
Feast day of St Theogenes
Feast day of St Zosimus
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Customary Kalends of January (East Anglian
tradition)
Night When Fates of Those Who Are to Die in the
Coming Year are Decided,
Tibet
(Source: The Phoenix
and Arabeth 1992 Calendar)
Amamehagi Demons Festival, Monzen-machi, Ishikawa,
Japan (Jan 2 - 6)
Casé gâteaux
(Breaking the Cakes), a communal form of a mager-loa, Voudon (Voodoo)
(Jan 2 -
4)
Visit of the Magi,
Austria, till January 6
Shusho-E Matsuri, Japan (Jan 1 - 14)
Deer Mothers Dance
Pueblo women's fertility
ceremony.
(Source: The Phoenix
and Arabeth 1992 Calendar)
Genshisai
(Genshi-sai),
or First Beginning Ceremony, Japan
Genshisai is held at
Kashikodoroko (sanctuary of the Imperial Palace) and local shrines.
The Emperor offers a sprig of the sacred sakaki tree, and
reads the imperial proclamation before the gods, as well as
celestial, terrestrial and imperial ancestors. Today is one of the
four great holidays observed by the imperial family.
Charles
Kightly, The
Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames and Hudson, 1987
Genshisai
videos at Google Video
Tamaseseri,
Hakozaki Shrine,
Fukuoka,
Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
At this festival, a priest
throws a wooden ball that has been wet in the sea; youths fight in
two teams for the ball and the winners offer it to the shrine's
deity.
Kightly, ibid
Revolution Day (1959), Burkina Faso
Formerly called Upper Volta, Burkina Faso was renamed in 1984 by President Thomas
Sankara to mean 'the land of upright people' in
Mossi
and Dioula, the major native languages of the country.
"Who
would have thought, back in the tumultous coup and counter coup
days of the 1970s, that Burkina Faso would become the cultural
darling of West Africa? Unlikely as it seems, Burkina Faso has
become the Utah of West Africa, hosting a biennial film festival
that rivals the Sundance Film Festival for cultural clout. When
it's not hosting film festivals, it's busy organising its other
biennial cultural festival.
"The Burkinabés are descended from a long line of
regal emperors who have suffered the plebeian indignities of
colonialism and blackbirding, but this has only served to
strengthen and preserve their cultural identity. In fact,
Burkina Faso consistently produces silk linings from pigs' ears;
they come from one of the poorest countries in the world, but
are principally known for their don't-worry-be-happy philosophy
and reputation for hospitality; they have very few natural
resources, but have managed to fashion a beautiful and
culturally sophisticated country out of the little that they do
have." Source:
Lonely Planet
106
BCE
Marcus
Tullius Cicero (d.
43 BCE),
Roman statesman and philosopher renowned for his oratorical
powers
He
believed no man should pretend to be an orator before having learnt
all the foundations of nature and art, so he improved his knowledge
in his youth at the feet of some of the greatest scholars of his day
and only became an orator when he was 26.
1793 Lucretia Mott (d. 1880), American women's rights
activist and abolitionist
1803
Douglas
Jerrold (Douglas William Jerrold; d.
June 8,
1857), British writer; a contributor to
Punch, he also founded a
magazine and a newspaper bearing his name.
Son of a poor manager, Jerrold had little education
or opportunity, and went into the
Royal Navy. Early on, he
gravitated into a literary career in London. He was as famous for
his repartee and wit as for his writings. Some examples:
He defined dogmatism as "puppyism come to
maturity".
As he made his customary fast pace down the street
he was met by an old bore who wanted to collar him for a
conversation. The old gentleman said "Well, Jerrold, my dear
boy, what is going on?" "I am," said the wit,
shooting off.
At a dinner of artists, a barrister's health was
drunk and he was required to make a reply. The lawyer said he didn't
see how the law could be considered one of the arts.
"Black", interjected Jerrold.
A bludger wanted to borrow some money from Jerrold.
"How much?" asked the writer. "Oh, just a four and
two noughts," said the man. "Well, put me down for one of
the noughts," answered Jerrold.
He said to Smith, who was a shadow and toady to a
man, Jones, "Have you heard the rumour that's flying around
town? They say Jones pays the dog-tax for you."
A friend wrote a book that Jerrold had criticised.
Friend: "I heard you said it was the worst book I ever
wrote." "No," Jerrold replied "I said it was the
worst book anybody ever wrote."
1840 Father Damien
(Damien De Veuster; d. April 15, 1889),
Belgian missionary priest in Hawai'i
(More on his memorial day, May 10).
See also February
25, 1890, Robert
Louis Stephenson's letter in defence of Father Damien.
1870
Henry Handel Richardson
(b. Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson; d. 1946), Australian author
(The Fortunes of Richard Mahony;
The Getting of
Wisdom; The
Garden Party, and Other Stories; Maurice Guest)
Bliss,
and Other Stories, by
Katherine Mansfield (HTML at Celebration of Women Writers)
More
And
more
1883
Clement
Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee,
KG,
OM,
CH,
FRS,
PC (d.
October 8,
1967),
Labour
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland from
1945 to
1951
1892 JRR Tolkien, (John Ronald Reuel) (d. September
2, 1973) South
African-born British philologist and
author (The Hobbit;
The
Lord of the Rings). He was Professor
of Anglo-Saxon
at the University of Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and
Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959.
Tolkien worked on the New English Dictionary, and was a
professor of languages. His interest in linguistics
inspired him to invent fifteen artificial languages (most famously the two
Elvish languages from Lord of the Rings, Quenya and Sindarin),
later elaborating an entire cosmogony and history of Middle-earth
as background.
One
day Tolkien informed CS Lewis of yet another addition to the growing
catalogue of characters with which he was populating his Lord
of the Rings.
Lewis's
reply: "Not another f---ing dwarf!"
The Tolkien
Language List Archive
The Tolkien Timeline
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Tolkien quotes
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1907 |
reetings from Australia. 
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