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 Festival of the Lemuralia,
festival of ghosts, ancient Rome (also May 9 and 13)
In Roman religion, Lemures
were wandering spirits of departed loved ones. They were said to
revisit their homes at this time, and were shown respect by the
Roman people, who set aside a week to appease, or exorcise
them. We may think of it as similar, and serving a similar function
to, Halloween
(Samhain).
Feast day of St
Abgar V of
Edessa (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Feast day of St Albert of
Bergamo
Feast day of St Aloysius
Luis Rabata
Feast day of St Anastasius VI
Feast day of St Anastasius VII
Feast day of St Anthimus
Feast day of St Anthony de Sant'Ana Galvão
(Frei Galvão)
Feast day of Ss Cyril
and Methodius, Eastern
Orthodox Church
Cyril
and Methodius were two Bulgarians
brothers who are believed to have devised and spread the Glagolitic
alphabet
used for Slavonic
manuscripts before the development of the Cyrillic.
The brothers' feast day can be a little confusing: they are commemorated on February 14 in the
Western
Church, including Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Anglican
Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church has a commemoration day for
Cyril on February 14 and for both brothers on May 11. In the Czech
lands and Slovakia,
the two brothers were originally commemorated on March
9, but Pope Pius
IX changed this date to July
5. May
24, believed to be the date of the arrival of the two brothers
to Great Moravia in 863, is a national
holiday in the Czech Republic, a national
holiday in Slovakia and a
national holiday in Bulgaria.
More about these brothers at May
24.
Feast day of St Francis of
Girolamo
More
Feast day of St Gengulphus
Feast day of St Gualfardus
Feast day of St Ignatius of
Laconi
Feast day of St Illuminatus
Feast day of St Illuminatus
Feast day of St James
Walworth
Feast day of St John
Rochester
Feast day of St Julian
Cesarello de Valle
Feast
day of St Mammertus
(Mamertius; Mamertus), Archbishop
of Vienne in Gaul
(Lancashire
asphodel, Asphodelus
luteus, is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
He was the
Archbishop of Vienne in
Gaul and is a saint
in the
Roman Catholic Church.
It was Mammertus who is credited with the introduction of litanies
prior to Ascension
Day as an intercession against earthquakes and other disasters.
He allegedly invented the idea of the Rogation Days,
in which Christians 'beat the bounds', promenading around the
boundaries of their properties in a Spring rites. However, the
practice derives from a similar Roman ritual of the Ambarvalia,
among other seasons.More
Feast day of St Matthew
Gam
Feast day of St Maximus
Feast day of St Mayeul
(Majolus; Maiolus), Abbot of Cluny
More
Feast day of St Nicodemus
of Serbia
Feast day of St
Odilo of
Cluny
Feast day of St Peter the
Venerable
Feast day of St Philip, Apostle
His symbol:
a long staff surmounted with a cross, because he was killed
by being suspended by the neck from a tall pillar.
Feast day of St Tudy
Feast day of St Vivaldus
Feast day of St Walbert
of Hainault
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Feast
day of St Walter
Festival of the Chimarrao,
Venancio, Brazil
Traditional matte is served, as well as typical dishes and
drinks; folkloric groups.
Sfana Trieme Duminica Rusalilor, Rumania
Festival of the
Russali, a goddess trinity cognate to the three Fates.
Source: The Phoenix
and Arabeth 1992 Calendar
Witching
day, Isle of Man
A time at which fairies and witches are said to be
particularly active. It is the eve of the old (Old Style or OS;
Julian calendar) May Day
before the Gregorian calendar was introduced in
Britain in 1752). In Ireland, the lunantishees
are also about on this day. These are the mythical folk who guard
the blackthorn
tree (Prunus
spinosa, a fairy
tree also called the 'sloe'), and they will not let you cut a
stick of a blackthorn today, nor on November 11,
which is the OS Halloween.
If you do cut a sloe stick, a lunantishee will get you, so do take
care.See also Hawthorn lore
in the Book of Days
Holiday
of the City of Miskolc, Hungary
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here
483 Justinian I (d. November 13/14, 565), Eastern
Roman Emperor from August 1, 527 until
his death; one of the most important rulers of the Byzantine
Empire
Plague of
Justinian
 1720 Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen (d.
February 22, 1797), officer and adventurer.
Munchausen supposedly told a number of outrageous tall
tales about his adventures.
In 1785, these stories were collected and published in English by Rudolf Erich Raspe, in The
Surprising Adventures Of Baron Munchausen.
His name was given to the psychological
factitious disorder, Munchausen syndrome, in which a
'patient' will feign illness in order to receive the sympathy
and attention of others; and also Munchausen syndrome by proxy
a caregiver, usually the mother, feigns
or induces an illness in another person, usually her or his child,
to gain attention and sympathy as the "worried" parent.
1752 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach,
German anthropologist
1801 Henri Labrouste (d. 1875), architect
1861 William Dymock
(d. October 5,
1900), Australian bookman, founder of Dymock's
Booksellers in 1879
1887 Paul Wittgenstein (d. 1961), pianist
1888 Irving Berlin (d. 1989), Russian-born
American composer
1892 Margaret Rutherford (d. 1972), English
character actress, famous in the role of Agatha Christie's
indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford portrayed in four
films between 1961 and 1964 (Murder, She Said).
Christie dedicated her 1963 novel, The Mirror Crack'd From Side To
Side, to Rutherford in admiration. Rutherford's husband,
Stringer Davis,
portrayed 'Mr Stringer' in all of her 'Miss Marple' films.
More
1894 Martha Graham
(d. 1991), American ballet
dancer and choreographer
1895 Jiddu Krishnamurti (d. February 17,
1986), Indian
philosopher
J Krishnamurti, International
Website
Disbanding the
Order of the Star of the East
Bernie's Krishnamurti
page Krishnamurti Foundation of America
Krishnamurti Information Network
The Krishnamurti Catalogue
Wikiquote –
Quotes by J. Krishnamurti
1896 Josip Stolcer-Slavenski (d. 1955), Croatian
composer
1904
Salvador Dalí (Salvador Dali; Salvador Domenec Felip Jacint Dalí Domenech; d. January
23, 1989), important Catalan painter,
best known for his surrealist works
such as The Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dali
Un Chien Andalou
1911 Phil Silvers (d. 1985), American actor, comedian,
best known for his part as the con-man Sergeant Ernie Bilko in
The Phil Silvers Show
(which
formed the basis for the
Hanna-Barbera
Top Cat series) (Movies: Lucky Me;
Forty Pounds of
Trouble;
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World).
1916 Camilo José Cela (d. 2002), writer. Nobel Prize in Literature
1918 Richard Feynman (d. 1988), physicist
1920
Denver Pyle, American character actor (To Hell and Back;
Bonnie and Clyde)
 1926
Frank
Thring (d.
December 29,
1994), high-camp, acerbic Australian character actor (Ben-Hur [Pontius Pilate];
King of Kings
[Herod];
Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome).
Son of the pioneer Australian movie director of
the same name (who, it's said, invented the forerunner of the
clapper board), Frank Junior began in the theatre at the age of 18,
and went to London where he played on the same stage as
Laurence
Olivier and
Vivien Leigh.
He played the
part of Pontius Pilate in the film Ben-Hur, dropping the
hankie to start the screen's most famous chariot race. Thring was
famous as much for his private persona of a rather unctuous and
fearsome old queen as for his acting achievements or abilities,
though these were not insignificant. Almost typecast as the Roman
imperial villain, he played such parts well, with his distinctive
voice a blend of Vincent Price, Truman Capote and Laurence Olivier.
As one
writer puts it, Frank Thring was "eminently suited for Biblical
roles – especially those calling for a touch of weary
condescension".
"He was
versatile enough for other roles but so perfect in the
aforementioned roles that they eclipse his other work. His
looks, of course, added to the authenticity of his portrayals,
tall and solid with a pouty, round face, sinister, but sleepy,
looking eyes and an air of authority in his smooth voice. He was
better suited for villainous types but could handle roles of
more amiable types. His own persona was flamboyant, witty and
quite stylish although he was quite reclusive as far as his
private life went." Source
1928 Mort
Sahl, American comedian, political
commentator
More
1930 Edsger Dijkstra (d. 2002), computer scientist
1933 Louis Farrakhan, Black Muslim leader
1938 Carla
Bley, musician and composer
1938 Johnny Devlin, New Zealand-born rock singer, who introduced the
Stomp dance to Australia with the song
'Avalon Stomp'
1940 Juan
Downey (d. 1993), video artist
1941 Eric
Burdon, British rock singer, leader of The Animals
1946 Robert Jarvik, physicist, inventor
1950 Jeremy Paxman, British journalist and
author
1952 Renaud Séchan, French composer
1963
Natasha Richardson, actress
Phew!!
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day in history section
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the 13th
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holidays
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Jayanti
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Arbor
Day
Varies
Child
Care Professionals Day
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May
11 Minnesota
Day
11 Chair
Day
12 Kite
Day
12 Limerick
Day
12 Military
Spouse Day
12 Receptionists
Day
13 Frog
Jumping Day
13 Tulip
Day
13 Leprechaun
Day
14 Motorcycle
Riders Day
14 Stars
And Stripes Forever Day
14 Dance
Like A Chicken Day
14 Crazy
Day
15 Butterfly
Day
15 Flip
Your Mattress Day
15 International
Day Of Families
16 Clergy
Day
17 Rubber
Band Day
17 Emergency
Medical Services For Children Day
17 Constitution
Day (Norway)
18 Visit
Your Relatives Day
19 Plant
Something Day
19 Hug
Your Cat Day
19 Circus
Day
20 Pick
Strawberries Day
20 Be
A Millionaire Day
20 Flower
Day
20 Strawberry
Festival (Maryland, USA)
21 Waitstaff
Day
21 Greek
Philosophers' Day
21 Neighbour
Day
21 International
AIDS Candlelight Memorial
22 Victoria
Day (Canada)
22 Skyscraper
Day
| reetings from Australia.
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Eisheilige (ice saints), southern Germany (May 11 -
15)
