 Brumalia,
Byzantine empire
According to the Oxford Companion to the Year
(Blackburn, Bonnie and
Holford-Strevens,
Leofranc, Oxford University Press, 1999), in the Byzantine empire, today commenced the new wine festival, held in honour of
Dionysus, which lasted until the
Winter Solstice
(bruma). Brumalia was instituted by Romulus,
who used, during this time, to entertain the
Senate.
It was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, but it was popular with the court and celebrated until at least the
12th Century.
Dionysus (or Dionysos, pronounced dy-uh-ny'-suhs),
later known to the ancient Romans as Bacchus, was the Greek god of wine,
revelry and ecstasy. He was the son of Zeus,
the supreme god, and Semele
(in Eleusis, Zeus
and Demeter)
... More
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Feast of Burning Lamps, ancient Egypt
For Isis, Osiris and later Minerva.
Source: the Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar Celtic tree month of
Ngetal (Reed) Oct 28 - Nov
24 ends
Feast day of St Alexander
of Corinth
Feast day of St Balsamus of
Cava
Feast day of St Bieuzy of
Brittany
Feast day of St Chrysogonus
Feast day of St Colman of
Cloyne, 'Royal Bard of Munster'
Saint Colman of Cloyne (also known as Saint Colman Mac Leinin) (522
- 600)
was founder and patron of the see of
Cloyne in
Ireland. The Gaelic word colm, of
which his name is a diminutive, corresponds to the
Latin
columba (a dove).
More
Feast day of St Conrad of
Frisach
Feast day of St Crescentian
of Rome
Feast day of St Eanfleda of
Whitby
Feast day of St Felicissimus
of Perugia
Feast day of St Firmina of
Amelia
Feast day of St Flora of
Cordoba
Feast day of St Joachim Ho
One of the Martyrs of China.
Feast day of St Kenan (Cianan),
Bishop of Duleek, in Ireland
He was the first in Ireland to build his cathedral
in stone; it was built on the site of a pagan altar he destroyed.
Feast day of St Leopardinus
of Vivaris
Feast day of St Maria Anna
Sala
Feast day of St Marinus of
Maurienne
Feast day of the Martyrs of
Vietnam
At least a hundred different people martyred in various ways and
in various locations in Vietnam.
Feast day of St Mary of
Cordoba
Feast day of St Portianus
of Miranda
Feast day of St Protasius
of Milan
His tomb reported to be the site of miraculous cures, including that
of a blind child, a miracle witnessed by Saint Augustine
of Hippo.
Feast day of St Romanus,
Bishop of
le Mans
After the death of St Julian,
"Romanus returned to LeMans to mourn and to care for his uncle's
tomb. Others were buried nearby in order to be near a saint, and a
group of monks dedicated to caring for the graves, and who called
themselves the Grave-Diggers grew up around the churchyard.
Romanus joined them, and spent the rest of his days caring for the
tombs, bringing the faithful to their final resting place, and
bringing the comfort of the faith to the mourners."
Source
Shop Saints
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days
Monkey Banquet, Lop
Buri, Thailand
"Lop Buri draws countless visitors each year
to witness an enormous banquet in the Khmer ruins. None of them are
allowed to partake, however, because the banquet is exclusively for
monkeys.
"Although overrun by
them, the town is also rather proud of their monkeys who inhabit
the local Khmer ruins. An enterprising local hotelier decided to
pull in the tourists by staging this extraordinary lunch for the
600-odd monkeys of Lopburi with napkins, Coca Cola and menus to
boot. It now takes place every year.
"Just 17km from Lopburi along Highway 1 is the
most important pilgrimage site in central Thailand, Wat Phra
Phuttahabat, which is believed to house the Buddha's footprint ..."
Source
1632 Benedictus 'Baruch'
de Spinoza (d. February 21, 1677),
Dutch Jewish determinist philosopher and Biblical critic who gained fame for his
pantheism,
his neutral monism
1655 King Charles XI
of Sweden (d. 1697) 1713 Laurence Sterne (d. 1768),
Irish novelist (The Life
and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman)
Sterne
in Cyberspace
1713 Junipero Serra (d. 1784),
founder of California
missions1784 Zachary Taylor (d. 1850),
12th President
of the United States 1787 Franz Xaver
Gruber (d. 1863), organist and composer 1801 Ludwig
Bechstein (d. 1860), narrator and poet 1811 Ulrich
Ochsenbein (d. 1890), member
of the Swiss Federal Council
 1815
Grace
Darling (d. 1842),
English lighthouse-keeper's daughter who rowed out to rescue
survivors from the wreck of the Forfarshire.
Grace Darling's daring
deed
Grace Darling was a lighthouse-keeper's
daughter on Longstone Island, off the coast of England. On September 7, 1838, a stormy day, the Forfarshire,
a 300-ton steamer, was on her way from Hull to Dundee when she
smashed into the rocks at about 4am. The seas were so great that the
local boatman, and lighthouse keeper Darling, refused to take
vessels out to the wreck. Grace, aged 22, coaxed her father into
going with her to row the mile to rescue the survivors, of whom they
saved nine, including a mother who they found nursing the corpses of
two infants.
Grace Darling,
because of her bravery and no doubt because of her attractive name,
became instantly famous in Britain,
and may be described as the first media heroine. A sum of more than
700 pounds was raised for her by public subscription. She received
many offers of marriage, but she was content to remain with her
parents at the lighthouse, where she died of tuberculosis at the
early age of 27.
[On
January 27, 1883 in Wales,
Jessie
Ace and her sister Mrs Margaret Wright saved two people from the
wreck of the steamship Agnes Jack. The two became known as the Grace Darlings
of Wales.]
1826 Carlo Collodi
(d. 1890),
author1849 Frances
Hodgson Burnett (d. 1924),
English novelist (Little Lord Fauntleroy;
The Secret
Garden)
1853
or 1856 Bat Masterson (d. October 25,
1921)
famed American lawman, who died the way he lived: at his desk at the
New York Morning Telegraph
where he worked as sports editor. He'd done a few other things
along the way, including a position as
US Marshal for the Southern District of New
York, the formation of a friendship with US President Theodore Roosevelt, and acting as
Deputy Sheriff to the legendary Wyatt
Earp.
Masterson was born in either Quebec,
Canada
or in Illinois, USA.
His birth name was either William Barclay Masterson or Bartholomew
Masterson, but it is known that during his adult life he called
himself William Barclay Masterson. Some report that he was called 'Bat' as a
nickname for Bartholomew. A more colourful account is that he was
called 'Bat' because he carried a cane which he used as a club
during fights.
1859 Cass Gilbert (d. 1934),
architect, designer of the US
Supreme Court Building 1864 Henri
de Toulouse-Lautrec (d. 1901), French painter of the life in music
halls and cafés of Paris
1866
Margaret Windeyer, (d.
August 11,
1939), librarian,
suffragist, socialist, daughter of Sir
William
Windeyer and Lady Windeyer, member of
Louisa
Lawson's
Dawn Club. She issued invitations for the meeting at her
parents' home at which the Women's Literary Society was formed, the
nucleus of the later
Womanhood
Suffrage League. She helped found the Women's College within the
University of Sydney, serving on its council from
1907-
'39. She convened the
meeting that established the NSW branch of the National Council of
Women. The City of Sydney Public Library opened a children's book
room as a result of her representations.
Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson
1868 Scott Joplin
(d. 1917), American ragtime composer and pianist
Canberra;
Google Maps
 1876 Walter Burley Griffin (d. February 11,
1937),
American Anthroposophist architect who designed Canberra,
Australia's national capital, with occult symbology in the plan.
Rivalry between
Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities, has always
been so great, in the early
20th Century it was decided
that a capital city should be founded somewhere between the two,
despite the huge distances involved and the complete lack of any
other reason for founding a city in the 'middle of nowhere'. The
city thus founded is
248 km from Sydney and 483 km from Melbourne.
As it was being
established, the new capital city of Australia was named
'Canberra'. Names flippantly suggested for the
artificial city included Kangaremu, Australific, Meladneyperbane
(combined names of capital cities Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Perth
and Brisbane). The final choice was kept a secret and announced by
Lady Denman, wife of the Governor-General, when foundation stones
were laid on Capital Hill, at noon on
March 12, 1913. The name
probably means 'meeting place' in an Aboriginal language.
The American
Anthroposophist placed
esoteric symbols in the unusual layout of the city's roads, public
spaces and suburbs (see map). Similar occult symbology is to be found in other
examples of his work such as a large incinerator built at the Sydney
suburb of
Willoughby.
It is widely alleged that the best thing
ever to come out of Canberra is the Federal Highway.
Griffin was married
to Marion Mahoney
(pictured with Walter), the second woman ever to graduate from the architectural program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and a collaborator with famed American architect, Frank Lloyd
Wright, as was her husband.
1877 Alben W Barkley (d. 1956),
Vice
President of the United States1881 Al
Christie (d. 1951), early Hollywood director/producer 1884 Itzhak Ben-Zvi
(d. 1963),
President of
Israel (1952-1963) 1888 Dale Carnegie,
writer (d. 1955) 1905 Irving Allen
(d. 1987),
producer, director 1912 Garson Kanin
(d. 1999),
writer 1912 Teddy Wilson (d. 1986), jazz
musician 1913
Geraldine
Fitzgerald, actress
1916 Forrest J
Ackerman, writer, publisher 1917
Howard
Duff, actor
1921 John Lindsay
(d. 2000), American
politician and Mayor of New York City 1921
Yoshiko
Uchida (d. 1992), Japanese-American
writer 1924 Victor Grinich
(d. 2000),
US-Croat
businessman 1925 William F
Buckley Jr., American writer, political commentator 1934 Alfred
Schnittke (d. 1998), composer 1936
Sophie
Daumier, actress 1941 Pete
Best, Beatles' original drummer 1942
Billy
Connolly, Scottish comedian
1946 Ted
Bundy, American serial killer1947 Dwight Schultz,
actor (The A-Team, Star
Trek: The Next Generation) 1949 Linda
Tripp, figure in Lewinsky
scandal
1951 Chet Edwards,
American politician 1952
Thierry
Lhermitte, actor 1957 Denise Crosby,
actress (Star
Trek: The Next Generation)
1974
Stephen
Merchant, English
Emmy-,
Golden Globe-,
British Comedy Award- and
BAFTA-award-winning writer, director, and
comic actor, best known for his work with his friend
Ricky Gervais in the popular
British sitcoms
The Office and
Extras, as well as
The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio
and podcast forms 1978 Katherine Heigl,
actress
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