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… the disappearance of Osiris occurred in the month of Athyr ... this [i.e. the display of the gilded image of a cow] is kept for four days consecutively, beginning with the seventeenth of the month … On the nineteenth day they go down to the sea at night-time. 
Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 366 E

"Come to thy house, come to thy house, O god On, come to thy house, thou who hast no foes. O fair youth, come to thy house, that thou mayest see me. I am thy sister, whom thou lovest; thou shalt not part from me. O fair boy, come to thy house ... yet doth my heart yearn after thee and mine eyes desire thee. Come to her who loves thee, who loves thee, Unnefer, blessed one! Come to thy sister, come to thy wife, to thy wife … Come to thy housewife. I am thy sister by the same mother, thou shalt not be far from me. Gods and men have buried their faces towards thee and weep for thee together … I call after thee and weep – yet am I thy sister, whom thou didst love on earth … my brother, my brother."
Isis to Osiris; Sir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941), British folklorist; The Golden Bough, 1922

... although the temple itself is very large, the sculptor is criticized for not having appreciated the correct proportions. He has shown Zeus seated, but with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that we have the impression that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple.
Strabo (63 BCE or 64 BCE - c. 24 CE), Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, on the Statue of Zeus at Olympia

On his head is a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he holds a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold... In his left hand, he holds a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched on the sceptre. His sandals are made of gold, as is his robe. His garments are carved with animals and with lilies. The throne is decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory.
Pausanias, 2nd-century Greek geographical writer, on the Statue of Zeus at Olympia

'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'

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The bull running at Stamford

Until 1839, the November 13 bull running was a colourful tradition of the town of Stamford, Lincoln, England. The butchers of the town would purchase a wild bull for the purpose, and the shops would all be closed. In a kind of opposite ceremony to the famous bull running of Pamplona, Spain, the hapless creature was turned out of the alderman's house, whereupon the villagers ran after him with their bull-clubs.

According to ancient tradition, the sport went back to 1209, the time when William, Earl of Warren, in the time of King John, saw two bulls fighting for one cow. A butcher of the town, who owned one of the bulls, accidentally set one of his mastiffs upon his own bull which forced it into the town and all the dogs ran after it.

This caused such a commotion in the town that the earl gave the butchers in perpetuity the meadows in which the bulls were found fighting, as long as the butchers each year on this day put a mad bull into the town to be chased. A man in a barrel with both ends removed was rolled up to the animal to taunt it, and the bull would usually toss it.  

'Bridging the bull'

The bull was driven to the local bridge by the locals, who for the day were known as 'bullards', where the populace pressed in upon him and tumbled him into the water. At night, the animal was slaughtered and his carcass sold cheaply to the poor. 

Even before the rights of children were fully protected in the English-speaking world, there were laws for the protection of animals. In 1833, the SPCA started its campaign against the spectacle and, in 1836, prosecuted several people for "conspiring to disturb the peace by riotously assembling to run and torment a bull". In 1838, the Home Secretary determined to stop the custom, and sent in a large number of dragoons to stop it. A riot ensued, with injuries on both sides.

In 1839, a stronger force was sent to Stamford. The cost of the police and military was placed on the shoulders of the citizens, so the next year they discontinued the ancient tradition. For years afterwards, the townspeople would cry out "Bull! Bull!" whenever they packed out the local theatre, and would not cease until their old Bullards' Song was played (see an excerpt in the quotations section, top of this page).

The bull running was on or around Martinmas (Feast Day of St Martin, November 11), and might have pagan Horned God associations.

Last person alive (1928) to remember the bull running    The British bulldog, bred for this pursuit    More    And more

See also the Running of the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain, July 6 in the Book of Days

Leonids meteor showers (Nov 12 - 23 annually)

Leonids in Native American history and folklore
"During the last 15 to 20 years, archeoastronomy has uncovered much concerning the astronomical beliefs of native Americans. Unfortunately, the methods of keeping records of astronomical events were not as straight forward as those of the Chinese and Europeans, as there are no books lying around. Instead, the methods of record keeping included rock and cave drawings, stick notching, beadwork, pictures on animal skins and jars, and story telling, most of which are not dateable.

"One of the few dateable events among the various records of native Americans was the 1833 appearance of the Leonid meteor shower. Historically recognized as one of the greatest meteor storms on record, it made a lasting impression among the peoples of North America.

"The most obvious accounts of the Leonid storm appear among the various bands of the Sioux of the North American plains. The Sioux kept records called 'winter counts,' which were a chronological, pictographic account of each year painted on animal skin. In 1984, Von Del Chamberlain (Smithsonian Institution) listed the astronomical references for 50 Sioux winter counts, of which 45 plainly referred to an intense meteor shower during 1833/1834. In addition, he listed 19 winter counts kept by other plains Indian tribes, of which 14 obviously referred to the Leonid storm ...
Much more at source

If you can't see nuthin' ... join the International Dark-Sky Association and help lobby governments to pass some laws to help save the human spirit!

Lamentations of Isis, ancient Egypt (Nov 13 - 14)

Today: 'Dismemberment of Osiris'. Isis and Osiris are archetypes bearing a similarity to other divine dualities such as Ishtar and Tammuz ( Damuzi), Venus and Adonis, Mary and Jesus Christ. The tears of Isis, as she lamented Osiris, were said to cause the periodic rising of the Nile; June 18 is another such event, The Egyptian story is believed to have influenced Christianity. See also the Festival of Isia, October 28.

Night of the Drop, and Cutting of the Dam, Egypt
According to Edward W Lane (An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 1836), the night of June 17 is called 'Leylet-en-Nuktah', or 'the Night of the Drop', because "it is believed that a miraculous drop then falls into the Nile and causes it to rise". An interesting ceremony used to be performed at 'the cutting of the dam' in old Cairo. A round pillar of earth was formed; it was called the 'bride', and seeds were sown on the top of it. Lane says that an ancient Arabian historian "was told that the Egyptians were accustomed, at the period when the Nile began to rise, to deck a young virgin in gay apparel, and throw her into the river, as a sacrifice to obtain a plentiful inundation".

Related (use Search): Tears of Isis; Lamentations of Isis, Rising of the Nile)

The ides of November, ancient Rome

Commemoration of the Roman Goddess Fortuna as Fortunae Primigeniae in colle, at one of her three temples in ancient Rome

Runic half month of Nyd commences

Feast day of St Abbo of Fleury

Feast day of St Agostina Petrantoni

Feast day of St Amandus of Rennes

Feast day of St Arcadius

Feast day of St Brice (Brictio, Britius, Brixius), bishop and confessor
He became a monk under St Martin, and succeeded him to the see of Tours, where he had been born. The vicars-general and the canons of Tours, who didn't relish the idea of one day being ruled by the arrogant young Brice, urged St Martin to send him on his way. However, Martin replied, "If Christ put up with Judas, then surely I can put up with Brice".

The Golden Legend: Life of St Brice

Feast day of St Caillin

Feast day of St Chillien (Chillen; Killian), of Ireland

Feast day of St Didacus

Feast day of St Eutychianus

Feast day of St Gredifael

Feast day of St Homobonus, merchant, confessor
(Bay, Laurus poetica, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St John Chrysostom (Eastern Orthodox)

Feast day of St Nicholas I

Feast day of Our Lady of Carmel or Garabandal, Spain
Commemorating a vision of the Virgin Mary by four children in 1965.

"'She is dressed in a white robe with a blue mantle and a crown of golden stars. Her hands are slender … Her hair, deep nut-brown, is parted in the center. Her face is long, with a fine nose. Her mouth is very pretty with lips a bit thin. She looks like a girl of eighteen. She is rather tall. There is no voice like hers …'  

"Further apparitions took place on January 18th and November 13th, 1965, both of them witnessed by Conchita. The latter is recorded by Steiger (id. p. 67) as follows: 'Our Lady of Carmel, Garabandal, 13th November 1965, received by Conchita . . "Have confidence in Us. . I am not coming only for you, Conchita, but I am coming for all my children."'"   Source

 

Feast day of St Paschasius

Feast day of St Paterniano

Feast day of St Paulillus

Feast day of St Probus

Wuwuchim (Hopi) Fire Ceremony (Nov 5 - 21)

Kitano Odori, Kyoto, Japan (Nov 1 - 15)

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

354 St Augustine of Hippo (d. 430), African-born Bishop of Hippo, and father of the Church, (Confessiones; De civitate Dei), born at Tagaste, Numidia (now Algeria). Feast day August 28 (qv).

354? Pelagius, celebrated antagonist of St Augustine, whose birthday he shared

1312 King Edward III of England (d. 1377). He transformed the Kingdom of England into the most efficient military power in Europe. Three years after his mother, Isabella of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, overthrew Edward's father, Edward II, the 17-year-old Edward boldly snatched power from them, executing Mortimer, without trial, at Tyburn and exiling his mother in Castle Rising. Edward remained on the throne for fifty years.

A video documentary about Edward II's 'round table' building

1714 William Shenstone (d. 1763), English poet

1715 Dorothea Christiane Erxleben (d. 1762), Germany's first female physician

1768 Bertel Thorvaldsen (d. 1844), sculptor

1785 The Lady Caroline Lamb (d. January 26, 1828), British aristocrat, the only daughter of the 3^rd Earl of Bessborough. In 1812, Lady Caroline embarked on her well-publicised affair with Lord Byron, who tried to destroy her marriage to William Lamb, a politician and heir to the Viscountcy of Melbourne, so that he might have her to himself.

1792 Edward Trelawny (d. 1881), English writer

1826 Charles Frederick Worth (d. 1895), couturier

1833 Edwin Booth (d. 1893), actor

1848 Albert I of Monaco (d. 1922)

1850 Robert Louis Stevenson (d. December 3, 1894), Scottish author (Kidnapped; Treasure Island; The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) who spent some of the last years of his life on the Pacific island of Samoa, originally going there for his health and staying because he loved the 'South Seas'.

He stayed some months in Sydney, Australia, in 1890, and on three other visits during the early part of the decade. On one of his visits, with his mother and some in-laws, their party was turned away from at least one Sydney hotel because they appeared to be dishevelled bohemians carrying South Sea islands souvenirs and buckets.

On February 25, 1890, from the foyer of the Union Club, Sydney, Stevenson wrote his famous diatribe Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu. He wrote the letter, which took up nearly the whole of the front page of the broadsheet The Australian Star of May 24, 1890, in defence of Belgian missionary Father Damien (Damien De Veuster) of Molokai, Hawaii, whom Dr Charles M Hyde, a former missionary to Molokai, had accused of contracting leprosy from having sexual relations with women at the leper colony he worked in. Stevenson also stayed in Sydney at the Oxford Hotel*, and at Richmond Terrace in the Sydney Domain (while on the seas his address was care of R. Towns & Co, Sydney). Around this time, he also wrote about the poverty he witnessed in the Domain. Stevenson arrived in Sydney in February on the German steamship, Lubeck,but suffered a relapse of his serious ill health in Sydney ("being a blooming prisoner here in the club, and indeed in my bedroom" he wrote in a letter to Charles Baxter**), and, since it seemed that only in the warmer climes of the South Pacific did he ever have respite from his illness, he and his wife Fanny set sail from Sydney on April 10, on board the Janet Nicoll ("had a cruel rough passage to Auckland, for the JANET is the worst roller I was ever aboard of. I was confined to my cabin, ports closed, self shied out of the berth, stomach [pampered till the day I left on a diet of perpetual egg-nogg] revolted at ship's food and ship eating, in a frowsy bunk, clinging with one hand to the plate, with the other to the glass, and using the knife and fork [except at intervals] with the eyelid," he wrote to Sidney Colvin), visiting dozens of islands and returning to Sydney in August, by which time the writer's health had returned. They stayed until September; during this short visit he wrote to Henry James from the Union Club, "Kipling*** is too clever to live ... I must tell you plainly – I can't tell Colvin – I do not think I shall come to England more than once, and then it'll be to die. Health I enjoy in the tropics; even here, which they call sub- or semi-tropical, I come only to catch cold. I have not been out since my arrival; live here in a nice bedroom by the fireside, and read books and letters from Henry James, and send out to get his TRAGIC MUSE, only to be told they can't be had as yet in Sydney, and have altogether a placid time. But I can't go out! The thermometer was nearly down to 50 degrees the other day – no temperature for me, Mr. James: how should I do in England? ... The sea, islands, the islanders, the island life and climate, make and keep me truly happier. These last two years I have been much at sea, and I have NEVER WEARIED". From the Union Club, in September, he wrote to Mrs Charles Fairchild, "You are quite right; our civilisation is a hollow fraud, all the fun of life is lost by it; all it gains is that a larger number of persons can continue to be contemporaneously unhappy on the surface of the globe." On August 19, from the Union Club, Stevenson wrote to Marcel Schwob: "I am just now overloaded with work. I have two huge novels on hand – THE WRECKER and the PEARL FISHER, in collaboration with my stepson: the latter, the PEARL FISHER, I think highly of, for a black, ugly, trampling, violent story, full of strange scenes and striking characters. And then I am about waist-deep in my big book on the South Seas: THE big book on the South Seas it ought to be, and shall. And besides, I have some verses in the press, which, however, I hesitate to publish. For I am no judge of my own verse; self-deception is there so facile. All this and the cares of an impending settlement in Samoa