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What
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Methods of Nonviolent Action
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Pagan
Christianity
By Robert Fisk
The God Who Wasn't There
A
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By Alfred McCoy
When Corporations Rule the World
Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on
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The Corporation
Highly recommended DVD
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 Skeptic's Dictionary
Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of
Investigative Journalism in America
By Bruce Shapiro
A Dictionary of Saints Days, Fasts, Feasts and
Festivals
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
365 Goddess
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Michael
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Drawing Down the Moon
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 Memorial Day of Blessed Damien of Moloka'i
(Father Damien of Molokai)
Patron of people with leprosy
Father Damien, formally Joseph de
Veuster, ss.cc. (or Damien De Veuster) and Blessed Damien of Molokai (January 3, 1840 - April 15, 1889), was
a Roman Catholic
missionary
of the Congregation
of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who is revered primarily
by Hawaii residents and Christians for
having dedicated his life in service to the lepers of Molokai
in the Kingdom of
Hawaii.
In Catholicism,
Father Damien is the spiritual patron of people with leprosy,
outcasts, those with HIV/AIDS, and of the State of
Hawaii. Father Damien Day is recognized each year in Hawaii on April 15.
Source: Wikipedia
Robert Louis
Stevenson defends Father Damien, in the Book of Days
Celebration of the Clandestine Retreat of
Ma'at and Re, ancient Egypt
Source
Feast day of St Alphius
Feast day of St Antonius of
Florence (Antoninus)
"Antonius of Florence is generally portrayed in art as a Dominican
bishop with scales. He might be shown (1) weighing false merchandise
against the word of God; (2) as a Dominican with a pallium; (3) as a
young man giving alms; (4) drifting down a river in a boat; or (5)
holding a book in a bag (Roeder). The likeness of the archbishop was
recorded by contemporary artists, as in the bust at Santa Maria
Novella and a statue at the nearby Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Antonio del Pollaiuolo's painting of him at the foot of the Cross
survives at San Marco, as does a series of scenes from his life in
its cloister of San Antonino (Farmer) and a portrait by Fra
Bartolomeo (Tabor)." Source
Feast day of St Aurelian
Feast day of St Calepodius
Feast day of St Catald
(Cataldus), Bishop of Tarentum
Feast day of St Comgall, abbot
(Slender-leaved piony, Paeonia
tennifolia, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
St Comgall was the founder and abbot of the great Irish monastery at
Bangor
(located in present-day Northern
Ireland), who flourished in the 6th Century. The year of his
birth is uncertain, but according to the testimony of the Irish
annals it must be placed between
510 and
520; his death is said to
have occurred in 602 (Annals of Tighernach and
Chronicon
Scotorum), or 597 (Annals of
Innisfallen), possibly on May
11. He was born in
Dál
nAraidi (Dalaradia) in Ulster
near the place now known as Magheramorne
in the present County
Antrim.
Feast day of St Dioscorides
Feast day of St Epimachus
Feast day of Ss Gordian
(Gordianus) and Epimachus, martyrs
"Died c. 362 (Gordian) and c.
250 (Epimachus); feast sometimes celebrated on May 6 or May 9.
While there would seem to be no connection between these two--Epimachus
suffered at Alexandria under Decius with another saint named
Alexander, and Gordian was martyred much later, probably under
Julian the Apostate--the relics of both were buried in the same
tomb in Rome. Their acta, which make Gordian a minister of
Emperor Julian, are untrustworthy. However, Eusebius quotes Saint
Dionysius of Alexandria with regard to the death of Epimachus
and Alexander, who were imprisoned for a long time before they
were beaten with clubs, flayed, and then burned in lime.
Gordian, according to his funeral inscription, was a boy who
gave mature witness to the faith before his beheading in Rome.
The Benedictine abbey of Kempton, Bavaria, Germany, now
possesses a major portion of their relics, which the monks
received from Charlemagne's wife. There is some confusion
between this Epimachus and the Alexandrian martyr of the same
name whose relics were translated to Constantinople. Gordian is
mentioned in the martyrology of Bede and the feast of Epimachus
was on the Sarum calendar (Benedictines, Farmer, Husenbeth)." Source
Feast day of St Ivan Merz
Feast day of St Job
Old Testament
patriarch who is patron of ulcer sufferers and invoked against depression, against ulcers.
Feast day of St John of
Avila
John of Avila (in Spanish
Juan d'Avila, Apostle of Andalusia)
(b. January
6, 1500
at
Almodóvar
del Campo; d. May 10, 1569
at Montilla)
was a
Spanish
apostolic preacher, author, mystic and saint,
canonized in 1970.
More
Feast day of St Peter Van
Feast day of St Quartus
Feast day of St Quintus
Feast day of St Solange,
martyr
St Solange (d. 880)
was a French/Frankish
shepherdess and Christian
saint.
A legend said that, after her decapitation, her body had risen and
carried her head to the church of St Martin du Cros at Villemont. In
1281,
an altar was erected in her honour at that church, and it preserved
her severed head as a relic
and began to call itself the church of St Solange, while a nearby
field where she had prayed was referred to as the 'Field of St
Solange'. It was a habit of the locals, in times of great
stress, to form a procession through Bourges with the reliquary head
before them and to invoke her against drought.
More
Feast day of St Simon the
Apostle
Feast day of St William of Pontoise
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Independence Day (1881),
Romania
Inauguration
Day, South
Africa
Confederate Memorial Day in North Carolina and South Carolina, USA
From the May, 1893 issue of
"Confederate Veteran," the Origin of Memorial Day
It is a matter of history that Mrs. Chas.
J. Williams, of Columbus, Ga., instituted the beautiful custom of
decorating soldiers' graves with flowers, a custom which has been
adopted throughout the United States. Mrs. Williams was the
daughter of Maj. John Howard, of Milledgeville, Ga., and was a
superior woman. She married Maj. C. J. Williams on his return from
the Mexican War. As colonel of the First Georgia Regulars, of the
Army in Virginia, he contracted disease, from which he died in
1862, and was buried in Columbus, Ga.
Mrs. Williams and her little girl visited
his grave every day, and often comforted themselves by wreathing
it with flowers. While the mother sat abstractly thinking of the
loved and lost one, the little one would pluck the weeds from the
unmarked soldiers' graves near her father's and cover them with
flowers, calling them her soldiers' graves.
After a short time while the dear little
girl was summoned by the angels to join her father. The sorely
bereaved mother then took charge of these unknown graves for the
child's sake, and as she cared for them thought of the thousands
of patriot graves throughout the South, far away from home and
kindred, and in this way the plan was suggested to her of setting
apart one day in each year, that love might pay tribute to valor
throughout the Southern States. In March, 1868, she addressed a
communication to the Columbus Times, an extract of which I give:
"We beg the assistance of the press
and the ladies throughout the South to aid us in the effort to set
apart a certain day to be observed from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande, and to be handed down through time as a religious custom
of the South, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with
flowers, and we propose the 26th day of April as the day."
She then wrote to the Soldiers' Aid
Societies in every Southern State, and they readily responded and
reorganized under the name of Memorial Associations. She lived
long enough to see her plan adopted all over the South, and in
1868 throughout the United States. Mrs. Williams died April 15,
1874, and was buried with military honors. On each returning
Memorial Day, the Columbus military march around her grave, and
each deposits a floral offering.
The Legislature of Georgia, in 1874, set
apart the 26th day of April as a legal holiday in obedience to her
request. Would be that every Southern State observed the same day.
 Constitution
Day in the Federated
States of Micronesia
The Federated
States of Micronesia comprise a republic
located in the Pacific
Ocean, northeast of Papua
New Guinea. The country is a sovereign
state in free
association with the United
States.
The ancestors of the Micronesians settled
over 4,000 years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system
eventually evolved into a more centralized economic and religious
empire centred on Yap.
It consists of 607 islands extending 1,800
miles across the archipelago of the Caroline Islands east of the
Philippines. The four constituent island groups are Yap, Chuuk (called Truk
until January 1990), Pohnpei (called
Ponape until November 1984), and Kosrae. These four
states are each represented by a white star on the national flag.
The capital is Palikir, on Pohnpei.
The island of Pohnpei plays a central role
in the fictional Cthulhu Mythos
as being only a day away from the fictional island of R'lyeh,
the place where the fictional
character Cthulhu currently
resides. Several stories by HP Lovecraft,
August Derleth
and others use this island as a setting or contain references to it.
This is based on the Ruins of Nan
Madol that were already used as a setting of a lost
race story by Abraham Merritt
(The Moon Pool), where the island is called Nan-Tauach. Some
Occultists see Nan Madol as connected to the lost continent
of Lemuria.
(Source
1; Source 2)
Sita Pujan in Hinduism (date may
vary)
Tin Han's Day, China
(date may vary)
Start of
Tori no
Mawari/Bird Week, Japan
(date may vary) Cotton Festival,
Memphis,
Tennessee, USA
"Only 2.4% of the arable land in the world is used for growing
cotton; however, 24% of the insecticides sold on the world market in 1994
were used on cotton crops."
Tin Hau's Day,
Hong Kong,
Goddess of the North Star
Source: The Phoenix
and Arabeth 1992 Calendar
Dia
de la Madre (Mothers'
Day), Mexico
Second
Saturday of May,
World Fair Trade Day
The main organizer of events is the
International Fair Trade Association
(IFAT), in which 256
fair trade organizations from 60 countries
all across the world participate. These are mainly (65 per cent) in
the particularly disadvantaged countries of the
Southern
Hemisphere. The organization's mission is
to promote the trade "based on dialogue, transparency and respect,
that seeks greater equity".
"World Fair
Trade Day is an international celebration of Fair Trade
internationally, with events organised worldwide. On and around
the second Saturday of May every year, IFAT member organisations
based in 70 countries, along with Fair Trade shops and networks,
host events including Fair Trade breakfasts, talks, music
concerts, fashion shows and much more, to promote Fair Trade and
campaign for justice in trade. Fair Trade products from
marginalised communities in the majority world, including coffee
and tea, clothes, jewellery and beautiful handicrafts will be
showcased on this day. Many events continue throughout the month
of May."
Source
Get involved
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here
1727 Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot
(Baron de Laune, often referred to as Turgot; d. c. March 18 or
20?, 1781), French
statesman and economist
More
1760 Claude
Joseph Rouget de Lisle (d. June 26, 1836), French
composer
who composed La Marseillaise,
the French national anthem,
on April 24,
1792
1760 Johann Peter Hebel (d. 1826), poet
1838 John Wilkes Booth (d. 1865), American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln1841 James Gordon Bennett Jr (d. 1918),
publisher
1878 Gustav Stresemann (d. 1929), politician and
recipient of the Nobel Prize in peace 1926
1883
Helen
Jerome (Helene Jerome; Helen Ali), Australian writer
"Helen Jerome published poetry, short stories and articles in Australian journals which included the Bulletin and Lone Hand. She also wrote about Henry Lawson for New York's Art Review, and this article was reprinted in Henry Lawson By His Mates (1931). Jerome wrote in the genres of drama, poetry and social commentary
..." Source
Lawson
& Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson
1888 Max
Steiner (d. 1971), composer
1886
Karl Barth, Swiss theologian1899 Fred Astaire (Fred Austerlitz;
d. 1987), American singer, dancer, actor
1899 Dimitri Tiomkin (d. 1979), composer
1902
David O
Selznick (d. 1965), American film mogul who produced many
popular films, including Gone
With the Wind
1909 Mother
Maybelle Carter, country musician
1916 Milton Babbitt, composer
1933 Barbara Taylor Bradford, writer1946 Donovan Leitch (Donovan), British folk singer, popular
in the 1960s
1946
Dave Mason, musician (Traffic)
1953 John
Diamond (d. 2001), British journalist1955 Mark David Chapman, assassin of John
Lennon on December 8, 1980
1957 Sid
Vicious (d. 1979), bassist (The Sex Pistols)
"By late
1978 however, the unhappy couple's reliance on heroin had reached
massive proportions, and their relationship became violent and
dangerous. However, it is not to doubted that they loved each
other, and were known to many as punk's Romeo and Juliet.
Together, they bought a room in New York's fabled Chelsea Hotel.
"Yet Nancy's
fascination with death and controlling attitude towards Sid, could
only have ended in disaster. And their relationship came to a
violent and sudden end.
On the night of the 12th October 1978, screams and loud bangs
could be heard from Room 100 in the Hotel. The next morning,
police were sent in and found 20 year-old Nancy's bloodstained
body slumped beneath the bathroom sink. She had died from a single
stab wound in her abdomen, and had bled to death during the night.
Sid was arrested with her murder but was let out on bail, paid by
Malcolm McLaren. it has never been proven whether he killed her or
not, but those who knew Nancy could well believe she could have
goaded him into it. However, life without Nancy was one he could
not bear.
"One night,
astonished hotel workers were greeted with a sobbing Sid, wielding
a knife. he proceeded to cut a four-inch deep gash in his arm,
whilst screaming: 'I want to be with my Nancy! I want to be left
alone' …
"Sid decided
to take his own tortured life, the pain of living without Nancy
was too great. His mother had bought him pure heroin, and so he
took the lot.
"Sid Vicious died on the 2nd February 1979. He was only twenty-one
years old." Source
1960 Bono,
singer (U2)
1965 Linda Evangelista, supermodel
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