*Ø* Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine | Book of Days | July 26 | Quong Tart Festival of Sleipnir Asatru Langholm Common Riding Mary Frith Moll Cutpurse Aloumandia Aldous Huxley

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A giant had undertaken to build the gods a fortress, his reward being Freyja and the sun and moon, provided the work was done by a given time. His sole helper was his horse, Svathilfari. The work being nearly done, and the gods fearing to lose Freyja and the sun and moon, Loki turned himself into a mare, and so effectually distracted Svathilfari from his task that shortly afterwards Loki gave birth to Othin's eight-legged horse, Sleipnir.
From The Poetic Edda, translated by Henry Adams Bellows, 1936

Look for the first potatoes and carrots on St Anna's day.
Latvian traditional proverb Source

If it rains on St Anne's day, it will rain for a month and a week.
English traditional proverb

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, born on July 26, 1856

Mr Quong Tart
Mr Quong Tart,
Has made a start,
In the flowery land you will find him;
He's left Braidwood,
But not for good,
He'll return with others behind him.

Land of gold,
Cries the Chinese bold,
Though all the world should fail you;
The celestial race
Having found the place,
Will never cease to hail you.

Quong Tart is gone,
But his friends come on,
A welcome from us ignoring:
Brothers and cousins,
Johns by the dozens.
Into the city are pouring.
Quong Tart, Sydney businessman, was naturalized on July 26, 1871. Sydney Punch, April 1881 (Tune: The Minstrel Boy) Sydney Folklore - SECTION17: Characters and Eccentrics. Note: The song makes mention of 'Johns' and this was a general Australian slang term for Chinese; 'celestials' was another.

Odin on Sleipnir

I want people above all to be themselves.
Carl Jung, born on July 26, 1875

The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense – he is 'collective man', a vehicle and moulder of the unconscious psychic life of mankind.
Carl Jung (from Psychology and Literature, 1930)

I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything.
Aldous Huxley, British author born on July 26, 1894

Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations.
Aldous Huxley; Themes and Variations, 1950

Chastity: The most unnatural of the sexual perversions.
Aldous Huxley; Eyeless in Gaza, 1936

Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity.
Aldous Huxley; Island

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley

Maybe this world is another planet's hell.
Aldous Huxley

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make thee mad.
Aldous Huxley

"God has nothing to do with it," Ranga retorted, "and the joke isn't cosmic, it's strictly man-made. These things aren't like gravity or the second law of thermo-dynamics; they don't have to happen. They happen only if people are stupid enough to let them happen ..."
Aldous Huxley; Island

Say goodnight, Gracie.
The familiar parting words of American comedian George Burns to his wife, Gracie Allen, born on this day in 1902

When I was born I was so surprised that I didn't talk for a year and a half.
Gracie Allen

As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts’ desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
HL Mencken, July 26, 1920

July 26 is the 207^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (208^th in leap years), with 158 days remaining.
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Festival of Sleipnir (Ásatrú commemoration)

Sleipnir is the shamanic horse that can be used to travel to various consciousness levels.

The Ásatrú (Norse religion) festival commemorates Odin's eight-legged steed, which takes the rider between the three worlds, from the upper one of the gods, Asgard, through that of our present existence, Midgard, into the ghostly underworld, Utgard.

Sleipnir's name means 'smooth' or 'gliding', hence the English word, 'slippery'. Loki the trickster, in the guise of a mare, gave birth to Sleipnir by the magical stallion, Svadilfari.

Ásatrú is an Icelandic/Old Norse term consisting of two parts: Ása (Genitive of Æsir) referring to the gods and goddesses. The faith is also referred to as Norse or Germanic Heathenry.

More on Sleipnir More on Vikings in the Scriptorium

Last Friday in July, Langholm Common Riding, Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Reflecting on the beauty of his home town, Langholm's most celebrated son, the poet Hugh MacDiarmid (1892 - 1978), penned the lines

Gin scenic beauty had a' I sook,
I never need ha' left the muckle toon.

Apart from the famous poet, the town is known for its 'Common Riding', which began in 1759. Since 1919 it has been held on the last Friday in July, but originally on the date of the annual festival known as the 'Langholm Summer Fair', which was Scotland's greatest lamb sales.

This is a 'beating of the bounds' rituals of the Rogation days, common throughout Britain, in which spades are carried to clean around the town's boundaries, which were once marked by cairns and troughs at places like Common Moss on Whita Hill. Such rituals are a reflection of the Ambarvalia traditions of the Roman Empire.

A sign on the Lounge Bar of the town's Crown Hotel explains:

The Origin of Riding the Common

In 1759 the three owners of the Ten Merk Land of Langholm were in an action in the Court of Session in Edinburgh for the delimitation of certain area in and around the town. The boundaries were duly defined, but in the award it was laid down by the Court that the Burgesses of Langholm had certain local rights and privileges, and that part of the Ten Merk Lands, particularly the Common Moss and the Kilngreen, had belonged inalienably to the community.

It became an obligation of the Burgesses that the boundaries of the communal possession should be clearly defined, and accordingly beacons and cairns were erected and pits were dug to indicate where the communal lands began and ended, and a man was appointed to go out each year to repair the boundary marks and to report any encroachment.

The first elected man to perform these tasks was the Town Drummer Archibald (Bauldie) Beattie (d. 1823) who 'walked the Marches' for more than fifty years.

The riders hold aloft a number of locally meaningful symbols as they ride through Langholm:

v     The spade, used for cutting troughs and digging turf on the boundaries of the Common;

v     Scotland's national plant, the Scottish thistle;

v     The Saut (salted) Herring (which may be symbolic of the right of the Baron to the fisheries of the Esk River) nailed to a bannock (a Scottish flat cake, here symbolising privileges of the Baron under the obligation of Thirlage) fastened to a wooden platter by a 'twal-penny (twopenny) nail';

v     A floral crown, the meaning of which is uncertain.

Three of these symbols appear in the Langholm Coat of Arms.

A much-loved part of the Common Riding is the 'Calling of the Fair', when a town crier calls a colourful traditional text that says, in part: "that there is a muckle Fair to be hadden in the muckle Toun o' the Langholm on the 15^th day of July, auld style, upon his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch's Merk Lands, for the space of eight days and upwards; and a' land-loupers, and dub-scoupers, and gae-by-the-gate swingers, that come to breed hurdums or durdums, huliments or buliments, hagglements or bragglements, or to molest this public Fair,they shall be ta'en by order of the Bailey and Toun Cooncil, and their lugs be nailed to the tron wi' a twalpenny nail, and they shall sit doun on their bare knees and pray seven times for the King and thrice for the Muckle Laird o' Ralton, and pay a groat tae me, Jamie Ferguson, Baillie o' the aforesaid Manor, and I'll away hame and hae a Bannock and a saut herring tae ma denner by way o' auld style."

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Feast day of Ss Anne (Anna) and Joachim, parents of the Virgin Mary

Anne (Hebrew: 'gracious'), was the wife of Joachim, and they were a wealthy Jewish couple. The names Anne and Joachim derive from a 2^nd-Century apocryphal writing called the Protoevangelium of James. Joachim has been assigned other names as well in other apocryphal writings: Cleopas, Eliacim, Jonachir, and Sadoc. After a childless marriage for 20 years, they were told by a priest that Joachim was not worthy to make offerings at the temple, because he had not fathered a child.

Joachim, who is described as a rich and pious man who regularly gave to the poor and to the temple, complained to his shepherd about his rude treatment at the temple. Shortly after, an angel appeared and promised he would have a daughter called Mary, and as a sign, when he arrived at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem he would meet his wife who would be rejoicing to see him because he should have been back earlier. The same angel appeared to Anne with the same advice.

The couple both went, met at the gate, rejoiced … and waited. This meeting was a favourite subject for medieval and Catholic painters.

St Anne Anne promised to dedicate the child to God's service. Joachim and Anne brought Mary to live in the Second Temple when Mary was about three years old, where she lived until her betrothal to St Joseph. Later, of course, she became the mother of Jesus.

The story is similar to the story of Samuel whose mother had also been childless and was named Hannah. The story was not accepted in the Western church until the 13th Century although in the Eastern church dedications to Saint Anne date to the 6^th Century. In the 4^th and much later in the 15^th Century, a belief arose that Anne remained a virgin in the conception and birth of Mary, but this belief was condemned by the Vatican in 1677. The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend and remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent restricted the depiction of apocryphal events.

Anne's patronage includes against poverty; Brittany; broommakers; cabinetmakers; Canada; carpenters; childless people; equestrians; France; grandparents; homemakers; horsemen; horsewomen; housewives; lace workers; lost articles; miners; mothers; old-clothes dealers; poverty; pregnancy; pregnant women; Quebec; Santa Ana Indian Pueblo; seamstresses; sterility and women in labour.

Field chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, is St Anne's flower, and thus today's plant. In Hungary, Anne's feast is celebrated as Anna Napja, and it is like Mothers' Day. In days gone by, the wealthier families hosted 'Anna balls', and churches put on 'Anna fairs'. Here, vendors sold pastries and gifts to be bought for mothers.

In Western religious art, Anne is sometimes depicted in a red robe and green mantle, often holding a book. Images may also be found depicting Anna holding a small Mary who in turn holds an infant Christ — more elaborate carved statuettes open up to reveal Mary inside Anna with Christ in turn inside her.

In the Breton town of Auray, a pardon, or procession, draws tens of thousands of worshipers each year. At the basilica, after mass, the pilgrims climb the Scala Sancta, or sacred staircase, that leads up to a cubicle housing a statue of St Anne found miraculously in 1623. There they implore Anne to protect their homes and property, and all who travel on the sea.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Joachim's feast day was formerly celebrated on August 16, but is now generally observed jointly with Saint Anne today. St Anne is commemorated on July 25 in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, when it is called the Repose of righteous Anna, mother of the Most Holy Theotokos (a title of Mary, the mother of Jesus).

Grande Saint Anne (Mystère Grande Délai and Grande Aloumandia; common table), Voudon (Voodoo) Source

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Feast day of St Bartholomea Capitanio

Feast day of St George Preca

Feast day of St George Swallowell

Feast day of St Germanus (Germain), Bishop of Auxerre in Gaul, confessor
He lived c.378 - July 31, 448.

Feast day of St Hyacinth

Feast day of St Joachim

Feast day of St John Ingram

Feast day of St Parasceva

Feast day of St Pastor

Feast day of St Titus Brandsma

Feast day of St Valens

Feast day of St William Ward

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints

Dog Days, ancient Rome (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July)

Yamaguchi Gion Matsuri, Japan (Jul 20 - 27)

Esala Perahera (Festival of Buddha's Tooth), Sri Lanka (Jul 22 - Aug 1) (2004)

National Day, Curaçao
In the town of Willemstad, people on this day commemorate the discovery of the Island of Curaçao in 1499. Festivities include social and cultural events.

Anniversary of the Moncada Barracks Attack (1953), Revolution Day, Cuba

Independence Day, Liberia

Independence Day, Maldives

Vijay Divas (Victory Day; end of the Kargil War), India

Day of Iansa, Brazil
Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Buffalo and Corn Dances, Taos and Santa Anna Pueblos, USA
Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Aunts and Uncles' Day, USA

On which day of the week were you born? Find out here

1782 John Field (d. 1837), composer

1796 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French landscape painter

1802 Mariano Arista (d. 1855), president of Mexico

1856 George Bernard Shaw (d. 1950), Irish author, playwright, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1925

1865 Philipp Scheidemann (d. 1939), politician

1875 Carl Jung (d. 1961), founder of analytical psychology

"Swiss psychiatrist, one of the founding fathers of modern depth psychology. Jung's most famous concept, the collective unconscious, have had a deep influence not only on psychology but also on philosophy and the arts. Jung's break with Sigmund Freud is one of the famous stories in the early history of the psychoanalytic thought. More than Freud, Jung has inspired the New Age movement with his interest in occultism, Eastern religions, the I Ching, and mythology.

"Carl Jung was born in Kesswil, Switzerland. His father, Johannes Paul Achilles Jung (1842-1896), was a priest – a profession that had traditions in the family. According to family legends, Jung's grandfather was Goethe's illegal son, although there was no real evidence to support the story …" Source

CJ Jung site

1894 Aldous Huxley (d. 1963), British author (Brave New World; Island)

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1897 Paul Gallico (d. 1976), author

1902 Gracie Allen (d. 1964), American actress who played the part of the dim-witted wife of real-life husband, George Burns (her year of birth a matter of doubt)

1903 Estes Kefauver (d. 1963), former United States Senator from Tennessee

1908 Salvador Allende (d. 1973), President of Chile 1970-1973

1909 Vivian Vance (d. 1979), American actress, best known for her part as Ethel Murtz in 1950s TV series I Love Lucy

James Lovelock

1919 James Lovelock, FRS, independent scientist, author, researcher and environmentalist who lives in Cornwall, in the south west of Great Britain. He is most famous for proposing and popularizing the Gaia hypothesis, in which he postulates that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism (a term coined by Lynn Margulis).

Goddess Gaia in the Book of Days

1921 Jean Shepherd (d. 1999), writer

1922 Blake Edwards, movie director

1922 Jason Robards (d. 2000), actor

1928 Stanley Kubrick (d. 1999), Academy Award winning American film director and producer (Lolita; Doctor Strangelove; 2001: A Space Odyssey; A Clockwork Orange; The Shining)

1928 Francesco Cossiga, eighth President of Italy

1939 John Howard, twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia

1940 Mary Jo Kopechne (d. 1969), congressional staffer for Edward Kennedy; she found fame in death when she accepted a lift home from Senator Kennedy, dying when his car plunged off a bridge near Chappaquiddick, USA

1943 Sir Mick Jagger, English songwriter and lead singer with The Rolling Stones

19455 Helen Mirren, actress

1957 Nana Visitor, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

1959 Kevin Spacey, Academy Award winning actor

1964 Sandra Bullock, actress

1973 Kate Beckinsale, actress (Van Helsing)

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