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fnordreetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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As the dog days commence, so they end.
Traditional English proverb

If it rains on first dog day, it will rain for forty days thereafter.
Traditional English proverb

Dog days bright and clear
Indicate a happy year;
But when accompanied by rain,
For better times our hopes are vain.
Traditional English proverb

The Sea of Finmark also generates the snake or marine serpent, forty paces long, equalling in the size of the head the whale, in form the serpent. This monster has a maned neck, resembling a horse, a back of a grey colour, the belly inclining to white.
   On the canicular days, when the sea is calm, the marine serpent usually comes up, winding into various spirals, of which some are above, the others below, the water. The seamen very much dread this monster. Nor while he is coming up do they easily entrust themselves to the dangers of the deep.
Knud Leems; in an account of the Laplanders of Finmark, with the notes of Gunner, Bishop of Drontheim, Copenhagen, 1767   Source

War is hell.
General William Tecumseh Sherman, July 3, 1879, in an address to the Michigan (USA) Military Academy

 Orion

Theatre is a director-driven art form, assisted by someone with a pen.
British playwright Tom Stoppard, born on July 3, 1937, speaking in Sydney, Australia, June 26, 1994

I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown, which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments.
Jim Morrison, Doors singer, died on July 3, 1971

I think the highest and lowest points are the important ones. Anything else is just ... in between. I want the freedom to try everything.
Jim Morrison

I think I was just fed up with the image that had been created around me, which I sometimes consciously, most of the time unconsciously cooperated with. It just got too much for me to really stomach and so I put an end to it one glorious evening.
Jim Morrison

The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.
Jim Morrison

When you make peace with authority, you become authority.
Jim Morrison

Out here on the perimeter; We is stoned, immaculate.
Jim Morrison

More Jim Morrison quotes

 

 

 

July 3 is the 184th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (185th in leap years), with 181 days remaining.
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The Dog Days (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

In these Dog Days it is forbidden by Astronomy to all Manner of People to be let Blood or take Physic. Yea, it is good to abstain all this time from Women. For why, all that time reigneth a Star that is called Canicula Canis, a Hound in English, and the kind of the Star is broiling and burning as Fire. All this time the Heat of the Sun is so fervent and violent that Men's bodies at Midnight sweat as at Midday: and if they be hurt, they be more sick than at any other time, yea very near Dead. In these days all venomous serpents creep, fly and gender, so that many are annoyed thereby; in these times a Fire is good night and day, and wholesome, seeth well your meals and take heed of feeding violently.
The Husbandman's Practice 1729

 

In olden days it was believed that July's warmth, and the associated diseases, were to do with the heliacal rising and setting of the star Canicula – the Little Dog, or Dog Star (Sirius). Thus they called the period from July 3 to August 11, 'caniculares dies' – 'the Dog Days'.

The name 'Sirius' comes from the Greek word seirios, meaning 'scorching'. However, another explanation exists for the naming of the Dog Star: the Egyptians named it after Sihor, the Nile, and the Romans altered this to Sirius. According to Greek mythology, Sirius was seen as the dog of Orion the hunter, and he was also called kyon, Greek for dog.

The ancient Egyptians based their calendar on the heliacal rising of Sirius and devised a method of telling the time at night based on the heliacal rising of stars called decans. The rising of Sirius marked the beginning of the sacred Egyptian year, and was celebrated each year by a festival which did not shift with the variable official year. Sirius was venerated by them and regarded as a token of the rising of the Nile (so when Sirius first appeared they retreated to higher ground before the annual flood) and of a subsequent good harvest. In fact, many Egyptian temples were constructed in such a way that the light of Sirius reached the inner chambers. The Egyptians also named the star after Thaaut, the dog, hence the 'dog star'.

 

Read on at the Dog Days of Summer page in the Scriptorium

List of Roman festivals and notable days in Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

 

Sirius in Maori astronomy

In New Zealand Maori myth, Takurua is the name of Sirius (known as the Dog Star in the West). The Tuhoe people say she is a woman who ushers in Winter, and on cold nights her shining warns of heavy frost. Winter is also often known by the name Takurua. It's referred to as Hine-takurua, Winter Woman.

 

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Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret Read MacDonald


Gods, Goddesses, and Monsters


The Gospel of Thomas


Beyond Belief: Secret Gospel of Thomas


Gospel of Thomas - revised edition


A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses


Magic in Ancient Egypt


Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends


Introducing Kafka
Illustrated by Robert Crumb


The Trial
By Franz Kafka


The Metamorphosis
By Franz Kafka


The Complete Stories
By Franz Kafka


Franz Kafka


Kafka


The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
By Franz Kafka


Egyptian Gods and Goddesses


Egyptian Paganism for Beginners


Bast and Sekhmet


The Goddess Sekhmet


Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead


The Great Goddesses of Egypt


The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt


Peace Under Fire


Environmental Activism


American Folklore


Permaculture


The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro


Sun Goddess

 

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Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
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The Skeptic's Dictionary


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Lots of things to waste time each day
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Anthony Robbins

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Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft


The Doors of Perception and Heaven


The Survival of the Pagan Gods

 

Feast day of St Thomas the Apostle 

Also known as: Didymus, the Twin, and Doubting Thomas

(Icon of St Thomas at right, courtesy of  Icon Gallery and Clip Art, hosted by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, but please note that St Thomas Day in the Orthodox Church is not today. The Orthodox year of feasts follows the Orthodox calendar.)

Thomas, also called Judas Thomas Didymus or Jude Thomas Didymus, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels and Acts list this "twin" (Thomas means twin in Aramaic, as does Didymus in Greek) among the apostles (Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15), but the Synoptic Gospels say nothing more about him. He is best known as the 'doubter' (hence the expression 'doubting Thomas' for anyone who doubts), and as the missionary to India.

Patronage
Against doubt, architects, blind people, builders, construction workers, Ceylon East Indies, geometricians, India, masons, Pakistan, people in doubt, Sri Lanka, stone masons, stonecutters, surveyors, theologians

He doubted that Jesus was resurrected after his crucifixion:

Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.
John 20:25

 

The festival of St Thomas was instituted in 12th Century. As the apostle who was given the most direct evidence of the Resurrection, he was given a feast day early in the Christian era. (Old St Thomas's Day is December 21 [qv] and has Winter Solstice connotations.)

St Thomas is said to have travelled and spread Christianity among the Parthians, Medes, Persians and Carmenians, and to have been in India (for a discussion of the evidence, see the article at Catholic Encyclopedia). Preaching there he raised the hackles of the Brahmins, who stoned him, threw darts at him, and lanced him to death. His body was carried to Edessa.  

"In the City of London, every one of the Common Council has to be elected or re-elected on St Thomas's Day which used to be observed on 21 December."
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

More

The Bleeding Image, Church of Ss Leu and Giles, Paris

This is the annual celebration of a miracle that the 'Blessed Virgin Mary' worked. In 1518, a drunken soldier struck a statue of Mary with his knife and the image bled. He was captured, taken back to the place, where he was scourged "till his eyes dropped out; his tongue was bored with a hot iron, and his body was cast into the fire". This was the origin of the ceremony on La Rue aux Ours (Bears Street), Paris, where the terrible event occurred. As the image had been taken to Rome, the residents of the street made a 'guy' (effigy in the manner of that of Guy Fawkes in England on Guy Fawkes Night) of the soldier, and a bonfire. As time progressed, the soldier was made out of fireworks, paraded through streets of Paris, then burnt. In 1744, the city fathers banned this out of fear of a fire in the narrow streets, so they reverted to burning a wooden image. This practice existed at least as late as 1807.

First Saturday in July, Rushbearing, Brough, Cumbria, UK
"In the Middle Ages, nobody had carpets – they used rushes as a floor-covering instead. Many places held a special summer ceremony when the rushes were harvested. In some villages, they made special rush sculptures, called bearings, and carried these in a procession. Rushbearings are still popular in Cumbria and other parts of north-west England. The one at Brough, Cumbria, is on the first Saturday in July."   Source

Pictured: Rushbearing at Ambleside, by Westmoreland

 

Day of Remembrance for Knjaz Sviatoslav the Great; Slavic pagan

"Sviatoslav, the Great Pagan Knjaz of Rus fought an extremely devastating war with Byzantium. Sviatoslav had not the least bit of respect for Christianity. He enlarged the lands of Rus from Hasar's land on the Volga River to the Danube in the Balkans. Pechenegs was expelled and stopped the influx of Christianity. At the time of Tsargrad's siege, Sviatoslav sufferred some losses, and his persecution by the Christians continued. 'Then he saw that they were intractable, he had hatred for the Christian priests. People were sent to Kiev and it was ordered, "Burn and destroy all the Christian churches and temples in Kiev." And later he went himself to Kiev, wanting all Christians to be killed. So let it be.' Thus in 980, Sviatoslav's people destroyed the churches and placed representations of the pagan Gods on its remains."     Source

 

Feast day of St Anatolius of Alexandria

Feast day of St Anatolius of Constantinople

Feast day of St Bertram, Bishop of Mans

Feast day of St Bladus

Feast day of St Byblig

Feast day of St Cillene

Feast day of St Dathus

Feast day of St Eulogius

Feast day of St Germanus

Feast day of St Gunthiern, a Welsh prince

Feast day of St Guthagon, recluse at Oostkerk

Feast day of St Heliodorus

Feast day of St Hyacinth

Feast day of St Irenaeus

Feast day of St Joseph Peter Uyen

Feast day of St Leo II, Pope

Feast day of St Maelmuire O'Gorman

Feast day of St Mark

Feast day of St Mucian

Feast day of St Mustiola

Feast day of St Paul

Feast day of St Philip Minh

Feast day of St Philip of Moscow

Feast day of St Phocas, a gardener and martyr
(Tried mallow, Malva sylvestris, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St Rumold

Feast day of St Tryphon

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Popular Arts Festival, Marrakesh, Morocco

Hakata Yamagasa, Japan (Jul 1 - 15)

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan (all of July)

 

 

 

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1423 King Louis XI of France (d. 1483)

1728 Robert Adam (d. 1792), architect

1854 Leos Janacek (Leoš Janáček; d. August 12, 1928, Czech composer (operas: Jenůfa; The Makropulos Affair)

1883 Franz Kafka (d. 1924), Czech novelist and short-story writer (Metamorphosis)

1870 Richard Bedford Bennett (d. 1947), eleventh Prime Minister of Canada

1875 Ferdinand Sauerbruch (d. 1951), surgeon

1893 Mississippi John Hurt (d. 1966), US musician

1906 George Sanders (d. 1972), actor

1909 Stavros Niarchos (d. 1996), Greek ship owner

1913 Dorothy Kilgallen (d. 1965), American actress, reporter and television presenter

1927 Ken Russell, British film director (Women in Love; The Devils;
 Altered States; Tommy; Gothic)

"Ken Russell tried several professions, before choosing to become a film director. He was a still photographer a dancer and even served in the army, but it was film that was to be Mr. Russell's destiny. He began by making several short films, and those paved the way for his brilliant television films of the sixties that are acclaimed for his attention to detail and opulent visuals. His third feature film 'Women in Love' was a triumph and he became an internationally known filmmaker.In the 1970s his talent truly blossomed , over the next 2 decades he would direct a succession of remarkable films most of them contained his trademark flamboyance that critics generally dismiss but many seem to find this engrossing. He will forever be remembered as a controversial and visionary artist with something of a third eye when it comes to making oddball dramas that have captivating images and themes."  Source

1928 Günter Bruno Fuchs (d. 1977), writer

1934 Manfred Bieler, writer

1935 Harrison Schmitt, astronaut

1937 Tom Stoppard, playwright (The Real Thing; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), screenwriter (Billy Bathgate; Shakespeare in Love)

1946 Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland

1947 Betty Buckley, actress

1957 Laura Branigan (d. August 26, 2004), American singer/actress

1962 Tom Cruise (Thomas Cruise Mapother IV), American actor (Mission: Impossible, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia)

1964 Joanne Harris, author

1964 Yeardley Smith, actress (The Simpsons)

1976 Andrea Barber, actress (Full House)

 

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324 In the Battle of Adrianople, Constantine the Great defeated Licinius, the Eastern emperor, who then fled to Byzantium.

533 Battle of Ad Decimum: Byzantine general Belisarius defeated the Vandals near Carthage.

987 Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.

1250 Louis IX of France was captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he was in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later had to ransom himself.

1608 Quebec City, Canada, was founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1775 George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1839 Members of the Academy of Sciences in Paris examined an eleven-year-old Sicilian shepherd boy, Vito Mangiamele, who was able to perform incredible mental arithmetic feats, such as finding the cube root of 3,796,416, which he did in half a minute.