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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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Carpe diem! 19 Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search Open links in a New Window

Today is

At St Vincent the rain ceases and the wind comes.
Traditional French proverb for today, feast day of St Vincent de Paul

When I got clear of the sandhills, and was only two miles distant, and the hill, for the first time coming fairly in view, what was my astonishment to find it was one immense rock rising abruptly from the plain; the holes I had noticed were caused by the water in some places forming immense caves. I rode round the foot of the rock in search of a place to ascend, and found a waterhole on the south side, near which I made an attempt to reach the top, but found it hopeless. Continued along to the west, and discovered a strong spring coming from the centre of the rock, and pouring down some large deep gullies to the foot.
  This seems to be a favourite resort of the natives in the wet season, judging from the numerous camps in every cave. These caves are formed by large pieces breaking off the main rock and falling to the foot. The blacks made holes under them, and the heat of their fires causes the rock to shell off, forming large arches. They amuse themselves covering these with all sorts of devices – some of snakes very cleverly done, others of two hearts joined together; and in one I noticed a drawing of a creek, with an emu track going along the centre.
William Gosse, on Uluru, which he first saw on July 19, 1873

I have often been sorry for having spoken, but never for having held my tongue.
St Arsenius, Roman monk, (c. 354 - c. 445) whose feast day this is

A little fro that foresaid town [Berwick],
   Halidon Hill, that is the name,
There was cracked many a crown
   Of wild Scots, and also of tame [lowlanders].
Lawrence Minot, from a ballad on the Battle of Halidon Hill, July 19, 1333

The day following, being the 19 of Julie [1577], our Captaine [Sir Martin Frobisher] returned to the shippe, with good newes of great riches, which shewed it selfe in the bowels of those barren mountaines, wherwith we were all satisfied. A sudden mutation. The one part of us being almost swallowed up the night before, with cruell Neptunes force, and the rest on shoare, taking thought for their greedie paunches, how to find the way to New found land: at one moment we were all wrapt with joy, forgetting both where we were, and what we had suffered. Behold the glorie of man, to night contemning riches, and rather looking for death then otherwise: and tomorrowe devising howe to satisfie his greedie appetite with golde.
Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552 - 1616), English navigator and cartographer   Source

Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41.
Children's song, 19th-Century America; Lizzie Borden, famous accused murderess, born on July 19, 1860

The totalitarian universe of technological rationality is the latest transmutation of the idea of Reason.
Herbert Marcuse, German-born American philosopher, born on July 19, 1898, One Dimensional Man

July 19 is the 200^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (201^st in leap years), with 165 days remaining.
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Opet Festival (marriage of Isis and Osiris), ancient Egypt

New Year in ancient Egypt was celebrated as a marriage feast of two of the greatest deities of Egyptian mythology. Today was the day to commemorate the marriage of the goddess Isis and the god, her brother, Osiris. In ancient Rome the counterpart was celebrated for Venus and Adonis. Isis, the mother goddess, was called by the Greeks Stella Maris, the star of the sea, a name adopted by the Christian church for Mary.

Like those of many religious festivals, the origins of Opet can be found in natural phenomena, in this case the flooding of the River Nile. Annually in the month of Paophi in the Egyptian calendar, the second month of the floods, came this eleven-day period during which the capital celebrated the feast of Opet. Its majesty and festive spectacle was so great on the banks of the Nile and round the temples that an impressed Tutankhamen had all its phases sculpted.  

Originally an eleven-day festival, the Opet, or 'Breaking of the Nile' was later extended to 27 days. A statue of Amun (the Berber deity who went from being a local deity of Thebes to become the state god of Egypt) was carried in a procession on the Nile, from Karnak to Luxor.

The pharaoh greeted the statue and escorted it to Luxor Temple where men from Nubia danced to songs of devotion sung by the priests.

Opet is also an alternative name of the goddess Taweret (Apet; Toeris; Taueret; Taurt; Ipet; Ipy). Her name seems to mean 'harem' or 'favored place', though 'great one' is also given by some sources. In Egyptian mythology, she was a hippopotamus-goddess of pregnant women, homes and, most importantly, childbirth (Bes was her companion). Pregnant women wore amulets with her name on them. In art, she had large breasts, a large belly and the head of a hippopotamus, the limbs of a lion and a crocodile's tail, with some human attributes in the body.

Amun, ammonia and ammonite

Several English words derive from Amun, including ammonia and ammonite. Ammonia, as well as being the chemical, is a genus name in the foraminifera. Both these foraminiferans (shelled protozoa) and ammonites (extinct shelled cephalopods) have/had spiral shells resembling a ram's, and Ammon's, horns.

In classical times, sal ammoniac was discovered by accident through burning the dung of camels in the temple of Jupiter Ammon at Siwa oasis in Libya.

Isis and Osiris

Isis was usually represented wearing a crown shaped like a throne, or else of cow horns circling a solar disc. She was sometimes represented in art as a kite, sometimes being penetrated by the severed, erect penis of Osiris. She was also often depicted with a device resembling the ankh symbol, known as the Isis knot (the original cross).

Isis twice restored her brother to life after he had been murdered by the evil god Seth. It might be that the Isis cult influenced the way the Christian Mary is represented; Mary's portraits as the Madonna bear a striking similarity to those of Isis with her son Horus.

Isis was a mother goddess, Osiris was a god of corn and vegetation, associated with the underworld. He was often depicted with green skin or wrapped as a mummy and was worshipped in the form of a sack of green sprouting seed. Women used to carry models of him designed with moving sexual parts to demonstrate his virility.

Vacation in Lebanon

Plutarch tells a story of the time Osiris was tricked by Seth, the god of chaos and adversity, to step into a sarcophagus. The lid was nailed shut and poor Osiris was tossed into the Nile. The coffin came ashore in Lebanon and was caught in a growing tree which was used to make a column for a king's palace. Isis searched for years and brought home her brother/lover, breathing life into him.

Once, Osiris was cut up into fourteen pieces by Seth and scattered throughout the Nile Valley. According to Plutarch, the part of Osiris to which one might think he was most attached was fed to a crocodile; another version says it was buried at Memphis.

The day was sacred to Sirius, the Dog Star, who is also congruent with Isis. In Rome, the day (Adonia) was sacred to the approximate counterparts of the Egyptian couple, namely Venus and Adonis, while in Greece it was for Aphrodite and Adonis.

Egyptian calendar   On the dating of Egyptian festivals and rites    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Vendémiaire | Brumaire | Frimaire | Nivôse | Pluviôse | Ventôse | Germinal | Floréal | Prairial | Messidor | Thermidor | Fructidor | Sansculottides

First day of month of Thermidor (Hot month), French Revolutionary Calendar

On October 24, 1793 the French National Convention adopted the French Republican Calendar (French Revolutionary Calendar) retrospectively as from September 22, 1792.

Napoleon Bonaparte abolished it and restored the Gregorian calendar on January 1, 1806 (the day after 10 nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. However, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX).

It was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the descriptive names of the months. Instead of most days having a saint as in the Catholic Church's calendar, each day has a plant, a tool or an animal associated with it. Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar.

Each month lasted 30 days and was divided into three decades. Every day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the 5^th (Quintidi) and 10^th day (Decadi) of every decade, which had the name of a domestic animal (Quintidi) or an agricultural tool (Decadi).

Autumn
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, 'vintage'), begins Sep 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, 'mist'), begins Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, 'frost'), begins Nov 21, 22 or 23

Winter
Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, 'snowy'), begins Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, 'rainy'), begins Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, 'windy'), begins Feb 19, 20 or 21

Spring
Germinal (from Latin germen, 'seed'), begins Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, 'flower'), begins Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, 'meadow'), begins May 20 or 21

Summer
Messidor (from Latin messis, 'harvest'), begins Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (from Greek thermos, 'hot'), begins Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, 'fruits'), begins Aug 18 or 19

Sansculottides
The Sansculottides (also Epagomenes; French Sans-culottides, Sanculottides, jours complementaires, jours épagomènes) are the end of the calendar. They follow Fructidor and precede Vendémiaire of the next year, belonging to the summer quarter of the year.

The Sansculottides, named after the Sansculottes, amend the 360 days of the calendar so that the beginning of the next year is on the autumnal equinox. There were five Sansculottides in a common year and six in a leap year (from this derives the French name of the leap year année sextile). The Sansculottides start on September 17 or 18 and end on September 22 or 23.

Source: Wikipedia    Website converts Gregorian calendar to FRC (and has desktop program)

High resolution image of the calendar by Louis-Philibert Debucourt (951x1098, 486 KB)

Antique Decimal Watches    Criticisms and shortcomings of the FRC   Julian day calculator (pop-up)

The Book of Days index page shows the current day's date in the French Republican Calendar

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Adonia, Graeco-Roman (Jul 19 - 20)   Venus and Adonis A holy enactment of the wedding of Adonis and Aphrodite took place today, in Greece, and this festival also commemorated the zenith of Adonis's six-month presence in the world. In other words, it represented the peak of vegetative growth. The Adonia is closely related to the ancient Egyptian Opet festival for the siblings/lovers Isis and Osiris, held at this time. In 5th-Century BCE Athens the Adonia were held in April, in Ptolemaic Egypt perhaps in September, while under the Roman Empire, the accepted date was today. The Adonia was celebrated only by women, who brought statues of Adonis into the streets, laid them out as though they were at a funeral, and beat themselves and wailed. On day two they were joyful and celebratory, for they had helped Adonis, representing vegetative growth, to return to life and spend half the year with his lover Aphrodite (known to the Romans as Venus). Images of Adonis and Aphrodite were laid on a silver couch and on the second day cast into the sea, along with potplant-type arrangements called Adonis Gardens, which assured the renewal of vegetative growth with the summer rains, or, so it is said. In Greek mythology, Adonis was a life-death-rebirth deity whose nature is tied to the calendar, a handsome youth slain by a wild boar. When the beautiful Aphrodite pleaded for his life, King Zeus decreed that he should spend the summer months with her and the winter months with his other lover, Persephone, in Hades (the underworld). The handsome Greek god was a version of the Mesopotamian god Dumuzi or Tammuz (consort of Ishtar) and the Phrygian Attis; Adon means lord in Semitic languages (in the Old Testament, Jehovah/Yahweh is called Adonai). The Greeks mistakenly applied the honorific to the name of their young deity. Aphrodite, whose names means foam-born, is congruent with other goddesses such as Ishtar, Inanna and Astarte (wife of Yahweh). Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days    Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days     Lucaria, Roman Empire (Jul 19 - 21) "After the defeat of the Roman army by the Gauls in 390 BC, the survivors hid in the woods (lucus) and this day is called the Lucaria in commemoration of the event. After the sack of Rome the remnants of the Roman army pulled themselves together, and in a bold surprise attack, wiped out the Gauls as they were heading out of Latium, exacting due vengeance."   Source Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11) 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.) Feast day of St Ambrose Aut-pert Feast day of St Arsenius the Deacon (Arsenius of Scetis and Turah; Arsenius the Roman; Arsenius the Great) Born probably in Rome c. 354 (d. near Memphis, Egypt, c. 445), Arsenius was one of the Desert Fathers of the Christian Church. A student of John the Dwarf (John the Short), this saint was an anchorite (hermit), noted for his extraordinary ability to cry – so many tears that he was said to have worn away his eyelashes. His sudarium, or handkerchief, was always at the ready. He was also noted for austerity, wearing a skin coat, palm leaves woven into sandals, and a goat-skin shirt; these were his only possessions. Offered a legacy from a rich uncle, he said, "I died before he did" and tore the will in two. A motto of his was "I have always something to repent having spoken, but never for having held my tongue". In art he is shown weaving baskets of palm leaves. More Feast day of St Aurea Feast day of St Epagaphras Feast day of St Felix of Verona Feast day of St Hroznata Feast day of St Jerome of Pavia Feast day of St John Plessington Feast day of St Justa Feast day of St Macrina the Younger, virgin Born at Caesaria in Cappadocia, c. 327, she died in Pontus, 379. He parents were St Basil the Elder and St Emmelia. Widowed early, she then devoted herself to her family and exerted a strong influence over her younger brothers, Saints Basil (to whom she taught humility after his education puffed him up with pride), Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebastea. After St Emmelia's death, St Macrina disposed of the family estate and gave the proceeds to the poor. She was so poor that when she died, nothing was found to cover her body for burial but her old hood and coarse veil.