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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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Corineus and
Gogmagog were two brave giants who richly valued their honour and exerted their whole strength and force in the defence of their liberty and country; so the City of London, by placing these, their representatives in their Guildhall, emblematically declare, that they will, like mighty giants defend the honour of their country and liberties of this their City; which excels all others, as much as those huge giants exceed in stature the common bulk of mankind. At last the ninth, the Lord Mayor's day, came. It is also the Prince of Wales' birthday, so the city would be very gay-looking with all the flags flying ... Once before, twenty-seven years ago, when Sir John Musgrave was Lord Mayor, not only elephants, but camels, deer, negroes, beehives, a ship in full sail, and Britannia seated on a car drawn by six horses, had made part of the show ... Through the streets we have passing visions of pink silk stockings, canary-colored breeches, and dark green coats and gold lace, also tri-colored rosettes as large as saucers; and pass by shop-windows full of sweet, eager little faces, in the place of hose, shirts, sewing-machines, etc ... after this band and that of the Royal London Militia, come the Worshipful Company of Loriners, preceded by jolly watermen in blue and white striped jerseys and white trousers, bearing banners; more watermen follow to relieve them; the beadle of the company with his staff of office; the clerk in his chariot; the wardens, wearing silk cloaks trimmed with sables, in their carriages ... |
Gog and Magog |
Then comes a grand
yellow coach, in which rides the Master of the Company, attended by his
chaplain. After the Loriners come the Farriers, the band of the First
Life Guards, banners, beadle and mace clerk, wardens and master. After
them the Broderers ... And now comes the Worshipful Company of Bakers,
preceded by their banner, with its good old motto, "Praise God for all."
These are really very jolly and well-favored looking companions, most of
the members bearing large bouquets of flowers. After them the Vintners'
Company, with the band of the Royal Artillery; ten Commissioners, each
bearing a shield; eight master porters in vintner's dress; the
Bargemaster in full uniform, and the Swan Uppers. These are men who look
after the swans belonging to the corporation of London, which build
their nests along the banks of the Thames, and they mark the young swans
each spring.
Mary Mapes Dodge;
Scribner's Illustrated Magazine For Girls And Boys, Vol. V, Nov
1877 - Nov 1878. Today was Lord Mayor's
Day, London.
Sire, you no longer have an army.
Wilhelm Groener, German general, to the Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, November 9, 1918
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Carl Sagan, American scientist and author, born on November 9, 1934
If we teach school children the habit of being skeptical perhaps they will not restrict their skepticism to aspirin commercials and 35,000 year old channelers. Maybe they will start asking awkward questions about economic or social or political or religious institutions, and then where will we be? Skepticism is dangerous. In fact, it is the business of skepticism to be dangerous. That is exactly its function.
Carl Sagan
Source
A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.
Carl Sagan
There is a place with four suns in the sky-red, white, blue, and yellow; two of them are so close together that they touch, and star-stuff flows between them. I know of a world with a million moons. I know of a sun the size of the Earth – and made of diamond ... The universe is vast and awesome, and for the first time we are becoming part of it.
Carl Sagan; The Cosmic Connection
November 9
is
the 313th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (314th
in leap years), with 52
days remaining.
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In 1288, the Parliament of Scotland legislated that any woman could propose to a man in Leap Year. If refused, the man had to compensate her by one pound. This law was adopted in France, Switzerland and Italy, and the tradition was carried to America, Australia and other countries. These days it is often said that Leap Year Day is the time that women may legitimately propose to men, while some people hold that the whole of a Leap Year is suitable.
American cartoonist Al Capp
introduced the concept into his long-running syndicated comic 
strip Li'l Abner.
Sadie Hawkins Day (named for 'the homeliest gal in the
hills'), in the hillbilly town of Dogpatch, always featured a race
for spinsters, and any bachelor must marry them if caught. Sadie Hawkins
Day, which made its debut in the strip of November 15,
1937, is officially November 9, but by association with the Scottish
tradition, February
29 is often given that name.
When Capp created the event, he didn't intend the event to occur annually on a specific date. However, numerous fan ensured that the event became an annual event for four decades in the strip during the month of November.
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 Night
of Nicnevin (Gyre-Carling),
Daughter of Frenzy, BansheeScots Pagan festival honours an aspect of the goddess Diana. She rides with her entourage in the night hours of November 9-10. Nicnevin, who rode through the night with her followers "at the hinder end of harvest, on old Hallowe'en", as an old Scots poet describes it, made herself visible to mortals on this night. Nicnevin is possibly an anglicization of Nic an Neamhain or Nigh Nemhain, 'Daughter of Frenzy,' an aspect of the triple Morrigan (Mórrígan). She rides the night skies on a broomstick at Samhain (October 31). Due to calendar changes, this old tradition may be seen as applying to tonight. Cognates: bean sidhe (Banshee); Gyre-Carling; Queen of Elphame; Daughter of the Bones.
Who is Mórrígan? The Mórrígan ('great queen') or Morrígan ('terror' or 'phantom queen') (aka Morrígu, Mórríghan, Mór-Ríogain) is a figure from Irish mythology widely considered to be a former goddess. She is usually seen as a terrifying figure, glossed in medieval Irish manuscripts as equivalent to Alecto of the Furies, or the child-eating monster Lamia, from Greek Mythology (in fact, another text glosses Lamia as "a monster in female form, i.e. a Morrígan"), or the Hebrew demoness Lilith. She is associated with war and death on the battlefield, sometime appearing in the form of a carrion crow, premonitions of doom, and with cattle. She is often considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with cattle also suggests a role connected with fertility and the land. She is often interpreted as a triple goddess, although membership of the triad varies: the most common combination is the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha, but sometimes includes Nemain, Fea, Anann and others. Ulster Cycle Her earliest apearances are in stories of the Ulster Cycle, in which she has an ambiguous relationship with the hero Cúchulainn. In Táin Bó Regamna (the Cattle Raid of Regamain), he challenges her, not realising who she is, as she drives a heifer from his territory, and earns her enmity. She makes a series of threats, and foretells a coming battle in which he will be killed. She tells him, enigmatically, "I guard your death". In the Táin Bó Cuailnge, queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge; the Mórrígan appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. Cúchulainn defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats, the Mórrígan appears to him as a young girl and offers him her love, but he spurns her. In response, she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a heifer leading the stampede, just as she had threatened in their previous encounter. However, Cúchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent, despite her interference. Later, she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms sustained, milking a cow. She gives Cúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed. In one version of Cúchulainn's death-tale, as the hero rides to meet his enemies, he encounters the Mórrígan as an old woman washing his bloody armour in a ford, an omen of his death. Later in the story, mortally wounded, Cúchulainn ties himself to a standing stone so he can die upright, and it is only when a crow lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead. Mythological Cycle The Mórrígan also appears in texts of the Mythological Cycle. In the 12th-Century pseudohistorical compilation Lebor Gabála Érenn, she is listed among the Tuatha Dé Danann as one of the daughters of Ernmas, granddaughter of Nuada. The first three daughters of Ernmas are given as Ériu, Banba and Fódla. Their names are synonyms for Ireland, and they were married to Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine, the last three Tuatha Dé Danann kings of Ireland. Associated with the land and kingship, they probably represent a triple goddess of sovereignty. Next come Ernmas's other three daughters: the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan. A quatrain describes the three as wealthy, "springs of craftiness" and "sources of bitter fighting". The Mórrígan's name is said to be Anann, and she had three sons, Glon, Gaim and Coscar. According to Geoffrey Keating's 17th century History of Ireland, Ériu, Banba and Fódla worshipped the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan respectively, suggesting that the two triads of goddesses may be seen as equivalent. The Mórrígan also appears in Cath Maige Tuireadh (the Battle of Mag Tuired). She keeps a tryst with the Dagda before the battle against the Fomorians. When he meets her she is washing herself, standing with one foot on either side of a river. After they have sex, the Morrígan promises to summon the magicians of Ireland to cast spells on behalf of the Tuatha Dé, and to destroy Indech, the Fomorian king, taking from him "the blood of his heart and the kidneys of his valour". Later, we are told, she would bring two handfuls of his blood and deposit them in the same river (however, we are also told later in the text that Indech was killed by Ogma). As battle is about to be joined, the Tuatha Dé leader, Lug, asks each what power they bring to the battle. The Mórrígan's reply is difficult to interpret, but involves pursuing, destroying and subduing. When she comes to the battlefield, she chants a poem, and immediately the battle breaks and the Fomorians are driven into the sea. After the battle, she chants another poem celebrating the victory and prophesying the end of the world. In another story she lures away the bull of a woman called Odras, who follows her to the otherworld via the cave of Cruachan. When she falls asleep, the Mórrígan turns her into a pool of water. Nature and functions The Mórrígan is often considered a triple goddess, but her supposed triple nature is ambiguous and inconsistent. Sometimes she appears as one of three sisters, the daughters of Ernmas: the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha. Sometimes the trinity consists of the Badb, Macha and Nemain, collectively known as the Mórrígan, or in the plural as the Mórrígna. Occasionally Fea or Anu also appear in various combinations. However the Mórrígan also frequently appears alone, and her name is sometimes used interchangeably with the Badb, with no third "aspect" mentioned. The Mórrígan is usually interpreted as a "war goddess": W.M. Hennessey's "The Ancient Irish Goddess of War," written in 1870, was influential in establishing this interpretation. Her role often involves premonitions of a particular warrior's violent death (suggesting a link with the Banshee of later folklore). It has also been suggested (notably by Angelique Gulermovich Epstein in her thesis War Goddess: The Morrígan and Her Germano-Celtic Counterparts) that she was closely tied to Irish männerbund groups (described by Máire West in her article "Aspects of díberg in the tale Togail Bruidne Da Derga", Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie vol. 49-50, p. 950 as: "...bands of youthful warrior-hunters, living on the borders of civilized society and indulging in lawless activities for a time before inheriting property and taking their places as members of settled, landed communities,") and that these groups may have been in some way dedicated to her. If true, her worship may have resembled that of Perchta groups in Germanic areas. However, Máire Herbert has argued that "war per se is not a primary aspect of the role of the goddess", and that her association with cattle suggests her role was connected to the earth, fertility and sovereignty; she suggests that her association with war is a result of a confusion between her and the Badb. She can be interpreted as providing political or military aid or protection to the King - acting as a Goddess of Sovereignty, not necessarily a war goddess. The Fulacht na Mór Ríoghna, the hearth or cooking pit of the Mórrígan, in County Tipperary suggests an association with the home or possibly with hunting. The Dá Chich na Morrigna or two paps of the Mórrígan, a pair of hills in County Meath, suggest a role as an earth goddess, comparable to Danu/Anu, who has her own paps in County Kerry.
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Sadie
Hawkins Day
