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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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Tonight, British servicemen and women
are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam
Hussein from power, and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. I can't tell you if the use of force in
Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks or five months, but it
certainly isn't going to last any longer than that. JIM LEHRER: Rightly or wrongly, Mr.
Secretary, I went back and checked the record today, the impression that
was given in public statements and all that sort of thing was that when
this war ended, this war was going to end, that when Saddam Hussein and
his regime, you know, fell, then the rest of it was going to be kind of a
mop-up. And I'm just – The Lesser Sabbats were the
two solstices at midsummer and midwinter, and the two equinoxes in spring
and autumn. These may vary by a day or two each year, as they depend upon
the sun's apparent entry into the Zodiacal signs. All sleeping seeds She wakens, |
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When on high, the heaven had not
been named,
Firm ground below had not been
called by name,
nought but primordial Apsu, their begetter,
[And] Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all,
Their waters commingling as a single body ...
From the opening stanzas of Enûma Elish
Babylonian epic creation epic
And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts,
And with his merciless club he smashed her skull.
He cut through the channels of her blood,
And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places.
From Enûma Elish
I'm sorry
for any fool who rates sleep a prime blessing
And
enjoys it from dusk till dawn
Night in,
night out. What's sleep but cold death's reflection?
Ovid, Roman poet, born on March
20, 43 BCE; from 'Elegy 9b', translated by Peter Green
Let others delight in the good old
days; I am delighted to be alive right now. This age is suited to my
way of life.
Ovid
So long as
you are secure you will count many friends; if your life becomes
clouded you will be alone.
Ovid; Metamorphoses
My mind is intent on singing of
shapes changed into new bodies.
Ovid; ibid
Let your mistress's birthday be one of great terror to you:
that's a black day when anything has to be given.
Ovid;
Ars Amatoria
One soil doesn't bear all crops: vines here
are good, olives there: this teems with healthy wheat.
There are as many manners of heart as kinds of face:
a wise man will adapt to many forms,
and like Proteus now, melt into the smooth waters,
now be a tree, now a lion, now a bristling boar.
These fish are speared, those caught on a hook:
others trawled in billowing nets with straining ropes.
Ovid; ibid
I open wide
the portals of the Spring
To welcome the procession of
the flowers,
With their gay banners, and the birds that sing
Their song of songs from
their aerial towers.
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
Of Edenhall, the youthful Lord
Bids sound the festal trumpet's call.
He rises at the banquet board,
And cries, 'mid the drunken revellers all,
"Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall!"
The butler hears the words with pain,
The house's oldest seneschal,
Takes slow from its silken cloth again
The drinking glass of crystal tall;
They call it The Luck of Edenhall.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; 'The Luck of
Edenhall' (see St Cuthbert's Day) Source
Buds on the
bushes, and blooms on the mead,
Swiftly are swelling ;
Hark! the Spring whispereth, "Make ye with speed
Ready my dwelling."
Bayard Taylor
About the seasons of the year,
Astrologers may make a fuss:
But this I know, that Spring is here
When I cut asparagus.
Poor Robin's Almanac, 1808
We give-away our thanks to the earth which gives us our home.
We give-away our thanks to the rivers and lakes which give-away their water.
We give-away our thanks to the trees which give-away fruit and nuts.
We give-away our thanks to the wind which brings rain to water the plants.
We give-away our thanks to the sun who gives-away warmth and light.
All beings on earth: the trees, the animals, the wind and the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance.
We give-away our promise to begin to learn how to stay in balance with all the
earth.
'Give-Away Thanksgiving Chant' for Equinox Festival, from La Chapelle, Dolores, Earth Festivals
Instead of a eulogy the consul Marc Antony caused a herald to recite the decree of the Senate in which it had voted Caesar all divine and human
honours at once, and likewise the oath with which they had all pledged themselves to watch over his personal safety; to which he added a very few words of his own. The bier on the rostra was carried to the Forum by magistrates and ex-magistrates. While some were urging that it be burned in the temple of Jupiter of the Capitol, and others in the Hall of Pompey, on a sudden two beings
with swords by their sides and brandishing a pair of darts set fire to it with blazing torches, and at once the throng of bystanders heaped upon it dry branches, the judgment seats with the benches, and whatever else could serve as an offering. Then the musicians and actors tore off their robes, which they had taken from the equipment of his triumphs and put on for the occasion, rent them to bits and threw them into the flames, and the veterans of the legions the arms with which they had adorned themselves for the funeral. Many of the women, too, offered up the jewels which they wore and the amulets and robes of their children. At the height of the public grief a throng of foreigners went about lamenting each after the fashion of his country, above all the Jews, who even flocked to the place for several successive
nights.
The populace, with torches in their hands, ran from the funeral to the houses of Brutus and Cassius and after being repelled with difficulty, they slew Helvius Cinna when they met him, through a mistake in the name, supposing that he was Cornelius Cinna, who had the day before made a bitter indictment of Caesar and for whom they were looking; and they set his head upon a spear and paraded it about the streets.
Suetonius (Gaius
Suetonius Tranquillus; 75 - 160), on the funeral of
Julius Caesar,
who was cremated on March 20, 44 BCE, following his murder on March 15
Source
I
did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.
Harriet Beecher
Stowe, American channel/author,
whose Uncle Tom's Cabin was
published on March 20, 1852
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Sir Isaac
Newton, who
died on March 20, 1727, aged 84
Who, by vigour of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated.
Epitaph of Sir Isaac Newton
On
a rock, by Lindisfarne,
Saint Cuthbert sits, and
toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name:
Such tales had Whitby's fishers told,
And said they might his shape behold,
And hear his anvil sound;
A deadened clang – a huge dim form,
Seen but, and heard, when gathering storm,
And night were
closing round.
Sir
Walter Scott
(1771
-
1832); 'Marmion'. Today is St Cuthbert's Day.
If
this glass do break or fall,
Fairwell the luck of Edenhall!
What the fairies said to the
Musgrave's butler at St Cuthbert's well when he grabbed
the glass cup
When the ground was partially bare of snow, and a few warm days had dried its surface somewhat, it was pleasant to compare the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty of the withered vegetation which had withstood the winter-life- everlasting, goldenrods, pinweeds, and graceful wild grasses, more obvious and interesting frequently than in summer even, as if their beauty was not ripe till then; even cotton-grass, cat-tails, mulleins,
johnswort, hardhack, meadowsweet, and other strong-stemmed plants, those unexhausted granaries which entertain the earliest
birds – decent weeds, at least, which widowed Nature wears. I am particularly attracted by the arching and sheaf-like top of the wool-grass; it brings back the summer to our winter memories, and is among the forms which art loves to copy, and which, in the vegetable kingdom, have the same relation to types already in the mind of man that astronomy has. It is an antique style, older than Greek or Egyptian. Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.
At the approach of spring the red squirrels got under my house, two at a time, directly under my feet as I sat reading or writing, and kept up the queerest chuckling and chirruping and vocal pirouetting and gurgling sounds that ever were heard; and when I stamped they only chirruped the louder, as if past all fear and respect in their mad pranks, defying humanity to stop them. No, you
don't – chickaree-chickaree. They were wholly deaf to my arguments, or failed to perceive their force, and fell into a strain of invective that was irresistible.
The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever! The faint silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and moist fields from the bluebird, the song sparrow, and the red-wing, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they fell!
Henry David
Thoreau (1817
- '62); Walden,
Ch. 17, 'Spring'
... And what
does it mean, then to be a poet? It was a long time before I realized that
to be a poet means essentially to see, but mark well, to see in such a way
that whatever is seen is perceived by the audience just as the poet saw
it. But only what has been lived through can be seen in that way and
accepted in that way. And the secret of modern literature lies precisely
in this matter of experiences that are lived through. All that I have
written these last ten years, I have lived through spiritually.
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist, born on March 20, 1828;
'Speech to the Norwegian Students, September 10, 1874, from Speeches
and New Letters, 1910
A woman cannot
be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively
masculine society, with laws framed by men and with judicial system that
judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.
Henrik Ibsen; Ibsen's Workshop, 1912
The major
problems of the world today can be solved only if we improve our
understanding of human behavior.
BF Skinner, American psychologist, born on March 20, 1904
The earth will continue to regenerate its life sources only as long as we and all the peoples of the world do our part to conserve its natural resources. It is a responsibility which every human being shares. Through voluntary action, each of us can join in building a productive land in harmony with
nature.
US President Gerald
Ford, proclaiming the first Earth Day
The US, once a guarantor of
peace, is now perceived in the rest of the world as an aggressor. Its
victim is a small Muslim nation unable to defend its own air space, much
less to project power beyond its borders. If Iraqis attempt to resist
invasion, they will be slaughtered.
Paul Craig Roberts; Washington
Times, March 20, 2003
March
20
is
the 79th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (80th
in leap years), with 286
days remaining.
Calendar converter Almanacs,
calendars, time, dedicated weeks, etc
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On this day
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recommend
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When 'Source'
links on this page move address or die, I might allow them to stay here, but the
Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
Eight Stations of the Year (Sabbats) in the Book of Days
The Eight Stations are the equinoxes, solstices, and the midway points between them
Spring Equinox/Ostara May Day/Beltaine Summer Solstice/Litha Lammas/Lughnasadh
Autumn Equinox/Mabon Halloween/Samhain Winter Solstice/Yule Brigid/Candlemas/Imbolc
Helpful external links
Spring: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, and Links for Gardeners
Wheel of the Year at Mything Links Wheel of the Year at Wikipedia
School of the Seasons Calendars at Wikipedia Almanacs, calendars, time
Vernal Equinox (March 20,
21 or 22), Northern Hemisphere
"In astronomy,
the vernal equinox (spring equinox, March equinox, or northward equinox)
is the equinox
at the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere:
the moment when the sun
appears to cross the celestial equator, heading northward. The
equinox occurs around March 20 - 22,
varying slightly each year according to the 400 year cycle of leap years
in the Gregorian Calendar. At the present time,
the vernal equinox occurs as the sun moves through the constellation
Pisces.
2000 years
ago the equinox was in Aries and by 2600 it will be in Aquarius.
"In the southern hemisphere, the equinox occurs at
the same moment, but at the beginning of autumn.
There are two conventions for dealing with this: either the name of the
equinox can be changed to the autumnal equinox, or (apparently more
commonly) the name is unchanged and it is accepted that it is out of sync
with the season. The alternative terms March equinox or northward
equinox avoid any such ambiguity.
"At
the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the
west. In the northern hemisphere, before the vernal equinox, the sun rises
and sets more and more to the south, and afterwards, it rises and sets
more and more to the north.
"Also, Vernal Equinox Day is an official national holiday in Japan, and
is spent visiting family graves, and holding family reunions."
Source: Wikipedia
Ostara, Alban Eiler, Esther, Eostre, Ostarun, ôstartag',
Eastre, Eoastrae, Oestre
One
of the Lesser Wiccan Sabbats, Ostara is one of the eight solar holidays or
sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the Spring
Equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere circa March
20 and in the Southern Hemisphere circa September
21, but, because of its origins, may instead be celebrated on
the fixed date of March
25.
The name may refer to an ancient Germanic goddess named
Eostre;
it is alleged that this name was used in English when the Paschal holiday was
introduced, and this name (not the holiday) was converted to
Easter, in
German Ostern. However, many scholars doubt that a goddess of
that name was ever venerated by the Germanic tribes, since there would
seem to be one
and only one speculative mention of her in any early medieval work and no
mention in any ancient manuscript.
The
holiday is a celebration of spring and growth; light and darkness are in balance, yet the light grows
stronger day by day. The forces of masculine and feminine energy, yin and
yang, are also said to be in balance at this time. Traditional decorations include budding
boughs, flowers, and decorated eggs. Animals associated with Ostara
are rabbits and snakes.
Among
the sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc
and followed by Beltane.
Sources:
Wikipedia et al
See also School of the Seasons
on Spring
Festival of Idun (Iduna; Idun;, Ithun; Idunnor), Norse Goddess of Spring
Goddess
of youth, fertility, and death. Bearer of magic apples of life, she personifies the
light half of the year, at the Equinox. She appears today as a sparrow,
bringing joy to people.
Source
of
date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar
See
also
Nigel Pennick, The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA,
1992, p. 52
Goddess month of Columbina
begins (Mar
20 - Apr 17)
What is the
Goddess Calendar?
"Columbina is the
archetypical Great Mother. Together with her lover, Harlequin, they
represent the cycle of life and death, and are the origin of the
modern-day clown. They are the inspiration behind pantomime performance
and the Commedia del Arte.
Her name means
'little dove' in Italian, so she shares the symbol of the dove with
another Great Mother, the goddess Ishtar.
Traditionally, she is depicted as a beautiful raven-haired clown, wearing
a white costume with black pom-poms. As lore has it, both she and
Harlequin are invisible to the eyes of mortals.
Higan
(O-Higan; Higan no Chu-Nichi), 
