Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.
Dorothy Day, anarchist, pacifist, co-founder of Catholic Worker movement; she died on November 30, 1980

Not only do we know that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, we also know he is capable of using them.
Tony Blair, UK Prime Minister, November 30, 2002

November 30 is the 334^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (335^th in leap years), with 31 days remaining.
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Andrew-tide, feast day of St Andrew the Apostle

St Andrew the King
Three weeks and three days before Christmas begins.

So goes the old English saying. Today is St Andrew's Day (Andrew-tide or Andrewtide is the season in British parlance) in both the Western and Eastern Christian traditions. Saint Andrew, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and the brother of Simon (later the Apostle Peter), was a Galilean fisherman of Bethsaida, and originally a disciple of John the Baptist. In the Gospel of John (1:35-42), Andrew was the first called of Jesus' disciples. 

According to tradition, Andrew was crucified at Patmos, in Achaia, on the Cross Saltire, or X-shaped cross, the form of which became known as St Andrew's Cross, which is still on the Scottish (pictured above right) and British flags. The Saltire is also called the Boundary Cross (because it was used by the Romans as a barrier) and the crux decussata. Andrew's cross is the same as the cross of Wotan (Odin/Woden) which Norse invaders of Scotland carried. In Scotland it became the national symbol, as Andrew the national patron saint. Waverly Fitzgerald points out, "The cross saltire, is also a sun symbol, which looks similar to a Catherine wheel or the rune of Gefjon, the Giver, which is associated with Freya, the great Scandinavian goddess who is much honored at wintertide." (See also Freya and St Catherine in the Book of Days.) The phrase 'The Saltire' is sometimes used in patriotic literature to refer to the Scottish flag. Because of its use in the Scottish arms and flag, the saltire appears in the flag of the United Kingdom (Union Jack) and the arms and flag of Nova Scotia. A similar saltire design is also found on the Confederate Navy Jack.

Andrew is the patron saint of fish dealers, fish mongers, fishermen, gout, Greece, maidens, Russia, Scotland, singers, sore throats, unmarried women, and women who wish to become mothers.

He is usually depicted in Christian art as an old man with long white hair and beard, holding a Gospel in his right hand and leaning on a Cross Saltire.

More on crosses, at Wikipedia

"Of English customs on this day the most interesting perhaps are those connected with the 'Tander' or 'Tandrew' merrymakings of the Northamptonshire lacemakers. A day of general licence used to end in masquerading. Women went about in male attire and men and boys in female dress. In Kent and Sussex squirrel-hunting was practised on this day -- a survival apparently of some old sacrificial custom comparable with the hunting of the wren at Christmas ...

"On the Thursday nights in Advent it is customary in southern Germany for children or grown-up people to go from house to house, singing hymns and knocking on the doors with rods or little hammers, or throwing peas, lentils, and the like against the windows. Hence these evenings have gained the name of 'Kloepfel' or 'Knoepflinsnaechte' (Knocking Nights). The practice is described by Naogeorgus in the sixteenth century:--

"'Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lord of Grace,
And on the Thursdaye Boyes and Girles do runne in every place,
And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps,
And crie, the Advent of the Lorde not borne as yet perhaps.
And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell,
A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well:
Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, ech man gives willinglee,
For these three nightes are alwayes thought, unfortunate to bee;
Wherein they are afrayde of sprites and cankred witches' spight,
And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might.'

"With it may be compared the Macedonian custom for village boys to go in parties at nightfall on Christmas Eve, knocking at the cottage doors with sticks, shouting 'Kolianda! Kolianda!' and receiving presents, and also one in vogue in Holland between Christmas and the Epiphany. There 'the children go out in couples, each boy carrying an earthenware pot, over which a bladder is stretched, with a piece of stick tied in the middle. When this stick is twirled about, a not very melodious grumbling sound proceeds from the contrivance, which is known by the name of 'Rommelpot.' By going about in this manner the children are able to collect some few pence." (Hoermann, Tiroler Volksleben, 230 f)

"Can such practices have originated in attempts to drive out evil spirits from the houses by noise? Similar methods are used for that purpose by various European and other peoples. Anyhow something mysterious hangs about the 'Kloepfelnaechte'. They are occasions for girls to learn about their future husbands, and upon them in Swabia goes about Pelzmaerte, whom we already know.

"In Tyrol curious mummeries are then performed. At Pillersee in the Lower Innthal two youths combine to form a mimic ass, upon which a third rides, and they are followed by a motley train. The ass falls sick and has to be cured by a 'vet,' and all kinds of satirical jokes are made about things that have happened in the parish during the year. Elsewhere two men dress up in straw as husband and wife, and go out with a masked company. The pair wrangle with one another and carry on a play of wits with the peasants whose house they are visiting. Sometimes the satire is so cutting that permanent enmities ensue, and for this reason the practice is gradually being dropped."
Clement A Miles, Christmas In Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1912

Pagan origins

According to Nigel Pennick (The Pagan Book of Days, 1992, 131), Andrew is a version of the divinity Andros, the Man, personification of virility, seen as an aspect of Dionysus. Scotland's matronal goddess is Skadi, the Scathing One. Depicted at left, above, is an image of man by Leonardo da Vinci.

St Andrew and the meaning of 'X' on a letter

People used to sign with an X if they couldn't sign their name. Then they would kiss the X and promise by St Andrew (whose cross the X resembles) to abide by their oath or contract. Over the years, 'X' on a letter came to mean a kiss.

While on the cross for two days he continued preaching. Part of his cross was carried to Brussels, by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, and Brabant, in honour of it, instituted the knights of the golden fleece, who wear a St Andrew's cross (or Cross of Burgundy) as a badge.

In 369, an abbot called Regulus brought to Scotland from Constantinople certain relics of St Andrew, and deposited them in a church he built in his honour, with a monastery called Abernethy, where the city of St Andrew now stands.

The people of Moscow say he preached among them, and claim him as the principal titular saint of their empire. Peter the Great instituted the first order of knighthood under his name (the order of the blue ribbon).

Some marriage-related superstitions have become part of Saint Andrew's feast day, some on the previous day ('eve') and some on the day following.

At Easling, Kent, England, labourers and working people traditionally assembled and hunted squirrels, hares, pheasants, partridges, and anything that came their way as they rambled through the fields with guns, poles and clubs. In the evening, there was drinking in alehouses.

Dudingston, Scotland: the wealthier citizens partook of singed sheep's heads, boiled or baked. The custom arose from the practice of slaughtering sheep fed on the neighbouring hill for the market, removing the carcasses to town, (Edinburgh, one mile away) and leaving the heads to be consumed locally.

Meanings for the letter 'X'

 

Scottish legends about St Andrew

From Wikipedia: About the middle of the 8th Century, Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland. Concerning this there are several legends which state that the relics of Andrew were brought under supernatural guidance from Constantinople to the place where the modern St Andrews stands (Pictish, Muckross; Gaelic, Cill Rìmhinn).

The oldest surviving accounts are two: one among the manuscripts collected by Colbert and willed to the King, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, the other in the Harleian Mss in the British Library, London. They state that the relics of Andrew were brought by one Regulus to the Pictish king Angus (or Ungus) Macfergus (c. 731 - 761). The only historical Regulus (Riagail or Rule) — the name is preserved by the tower of St. Rule — was an Irish monk expelled from Ireland with St. Columba; his date, however, is c. 573 - 600. There are good reasons for supposing that the relics were originally in the collection of Acca, bishop of Hexham, who took them into Pictish country when he was driven from Hexham (c. 732), and founded a see, not, according to tradition, in Galloway, but on the site of St. Andrews. The connection with Regulus is, therefore, due in all probability to the desire to date the foundation of the church at St. Andrews as early as possible.

Another legend says that in the late 8^th Century, during a joint battle with the English, King Oengus mac Fergus of the Picts and King Eochaid IV of Dalriada, saw a cloud shaped like a saltire, and declared Andrew was watching over them, and if they won by his grace, then he would be their patron saint. However, as noted above, there is evidence Andrew was venerated in Scotland before this, and the two kings in question do not appear to have ruled at the same time.

A third theory as to Andrew's connection with Scotland is that, following the Synod of Whitby, the Celtic Church felt that Columba had been "outranked" by Peter. They therefore decided that the patron of the Celtic Church would now be Peter's older brother. While a satisfying piece of folklore, there is no more evidence for this than any other theory.

The 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, which declared Scottish independence from England, cites Scotland's conversion to Christianity by St. Andrew, "the first to be an Apostle", as evidence of Scotland being held in especially high regard by God.

Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, Russia, and Romania. The flag of Scotland (and consequently the Union Flag and the arms and Flag of Nova Scotia, and possibly the Confederate flag) feature a saltire in commemoration of the shape of St. Andrew's cross. The saltire is also the Flag of Tenerife and the naval jack of Russia.

Texts of The Acts of Andrew The Acts and Martyrdom of Andrew and The Acts of Andrew and Matthew

US tourists want to hunt wild haggis

November 27, 2003

"One-third of all American visitors to Scotland believe haggis is a real animal, according to a survey.

"Almost one in four (23 per cent) of those questioned said they had come to Scotland under the belief they could hunt and catch Scotland's most famous dish ...

"Hall's said it would sell more than 3.7 million haggis worldwide, from America to Australia, in the next week for the feast of Scotland's patron saint.

"The recipe for haggis varies but it can be made using a sheep's stomach bag filled with a mix of sheep's liver, heart and lung, oatmeal, suet, stock, onions and spices."   Source

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

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Aries  Taurus  Gemini  Cancer  Leo  Virgo  Libra  Scorpius  Ophiuchus  Sagittarius  Capricornus  Aquarius  Pisces Sun enters Ophiuchus, the missing sign of the Zodiac (Nov 30  -  Dec 17) Ophiuchus is one of the 88 constellations, and was also one of the 48 listed by Ptolemy. Of the 13 zodiacal constellations (constellations that contain the Sun during the course of the year), Ophiuchus is the only one which is not counted as an astrological sign. Ophiuchus is depicted as a man supporting a serpent; the interposition of his body divides the snake into two parts, Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda, which are nonetheless counted as one constellation. The reason that O