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Today is

The Virgin is consecrated to Isis, just as Leo is consecrated to her husband Osiris ... The sphinx, composed of a Lion and a Virgin, was used as a symbol to designate the overflowing Nile ... they put a wheat-ear in the hand of a virgin, to express the idea of the months, perhaps because the sign of Virgin was called by the Orientals, Sounbouleh or Schibbolet, that is to say, epi or wheat ear.
Brother Joseph Jerome de Lalande, founder of Lodge Des Neuf Soers (Nine Sisters), Paris; Astronomie par M. de la Lande, 1731. Today is the Isia, for Isis.   Source

On St Jude's Day
The oxen may play. [Wet weather is expected]
English traditional proverb

It is certain to rain heavily on the day of Simon and Jude.
English traditional proverb 

St Simon and St Jude, on you I intrude
By this paring I hope to discover,
Without any delay, to tell me this day
The first letter of my own true lover.
English traditional love prognostication rhyme 

Who knows what I have got?
In a pot hot?
Baked wardens – all hot!
Who knows what I have got.
The cry of baked pears sellers at this time of year, Bedford, UK, 1820s

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, 
With conquering limbs astride from land to land; 
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand 
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame 
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand 
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command 
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she 
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, 
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
'The New Colossus', by the 19^th-century American poet Emma Lazarus. The poem, describing the Statue of [the Roman goddess] Liberty, appears on a plaque at the base of the statue.

Celtic Tree Calendar Months
Beth  Birch  Dec 24 - Jan 20
Luis  Rowan  Jan 21 - Feb 17
Nuin/Nion  Ash  Feb 18 - Mar 17
Fearn  Alder  Mar 18 - Apr 14
Saille  Willow  Apr 15 - May 12
Huath  Hawthorn  May 13 - Jun 9
Duir  Oak  Jun 10 - Jul 7
Tinne  Holly  Jul 8 - Aug 4
Coll  Hazel  Aug 5 - Sep 1
Muin  Vine  Sep 2 - 29
Gort  Ivy  Sep 30 - Oct 27
Ngetal  Reed  Oct 28 - Nov 24
Ruis  Elder  Nov 25 - Dec 22
Secret of the Unhewn Stone Dec 23

(This is the blank day in this calendar, the one day of the year that is not ruled by a tree and its corresponding Ogham alphabet character. Its name denotes the quality of potential in all things.)

The Celtic Tree Calendar

Michael Vescoli

Celtic Astrology
Phyllis Vega

Celtic Tree Month Information  

Celtic Tree Calendar - Ogham Alphabet

What is the Celtic Tree Calendar?

More on the Celtic Tree Calendar  

What is the Goddess Calendar?

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Folklore of World Holidays
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Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry

Lempriere's Dictionary

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM

The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines

The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations

Life in a Medieval Village

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Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
By Robert F Kennedy, Jr

Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America
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Secrets and Lies

The Clash of Civilizations

Imperial Crusades

The Medieval Cookbook

The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe

The Murray Bookchin Reader

Environmental Activism

Astro pic of the day

American Folklore

Permaculture

Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature & Art (Seyffert)

Sun Goddess

African Folklore

Daily Everything

A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

The Edible Asian Garden

The Secret Language of Birthdays

Live with Passion!
Anthony Robbins

More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at  
Cafe Diem!

Celtic Daily Prayer

Hidden Agendas

Poor Richard's Almanack
By Benjamin Franklin

Photo of the day

Mother Earth Spirituality

Wheel of the Year

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

The Survival of the Pagan Gods

Full moon in October or November, spawning of the coral, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

"Today we know that many corals living on the Great Barrier Reef spawn about four to five days after the full moon in October or November and sometimes in December. 

"Over in Western Australia, the corals of the famous Ningaloo Reef and other reefs further north also experience an annual spawning event. But they are five months out of phase with their eastern cousins. Their spawning time occurs 7-9 days after the full moon in March and April ..."   Source

From Wikipedia: The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef. The reef is located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. It stretches over 2,000 kilometres in length and can be seen from space. NASA image at right.

Around October, Mallee fowl laying, Australia

"Around October, the female malleefowl starts to lay her eggs. She lays one egg every 4 to 8 days and continues laying until January. While the female is busy laying the eggs, the male's job is keeping the nest at the right incubation temperature, about 33C, by shifting dirt.

"These birds believe that 'big is best'. Their nest looks like a strange miniature volcano, but is really a mound of dirt, a do-it-yourself incubator that stands at an incredible1 metre high and occupies an area up to 12 metres wide."   Source

More phenology (Nature/calendar relationships) in the Book of Days

The Isia, ancient Egypt (Oct 28 - Nov 3)

Today is the first day of the ancient Egyptian Isia festival. This was a week-long Autumn festival commemorating the mythological search of Isis for her son/lover Osiris in order to restore life on earth. The festival has a connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries, rites of ancient Greece centuries later.

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 Egyptian story is believed to have influenced Christianity.

"Professional singers, musicians, and dancers, mostly female, would perform at the temple during this festival. The performance involved actors playing the parts of Isis and Nephthys in the mystery plays celebrating the death and resurrection of Osiris. These were perhaps the oldest mystery plays on earth, predating even those of Mesopotamia."   Source

Feast of Baal (Ba'al; Haddad), Phoenicia (civilization in the north of ancient Canaan)

"The Phoenician Sun God, Baal of the Heavens, was honored annually in ancient times, on or around this date. He presided over nature and fertility, and was associated with winter rain. Sacred sun-symbolizing bonfires were lit in his honor by his worshipers in Syria."   Source of date

Haddad - בעל הדד - حداد (in Ugaritic, 'Haddu') was a very important northwest Semitic storm god and rain god, cognate in name and origin with the Akkadian god Adad. Hadad is often called simply Ba'al 'Lord', but this title is also used for other gods. Hadad was equated with the Anatolian storm-god Teshub, the Egyptian god Set (Seth), the Greek god Zeus, and the Roman god Jupiter.

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days    See also Baal, the Hebrew meaning

Ludi Victoriae Sullanae, ancient Rome (Oct 26 - Nov 1)

Feast day of Fyribod

This Norse calendar event marks the beginning of bad weather and the cold Winter.

Hagal commences

The Runic half-month of Hagal commences today, represented by the hailstone of transformation. It is a harbinger of the need to undergo the necessary preparations before the harsh northern Winter.

Shop Runes

Feast day of St Abraham

Feast day of St Edsige (Eadsige; Eadsimus; Eadsin) (Anglican Church)
St Edsige (d. 1050), was Archbishop of Canterbury and crowned King St Edward the Confessor.

Feast day of St Faro, Bishop of Meaux

Feast day of St Godwin
St Godwin of Stavelot was a Benedictine abbot of the monastery of Stavelot-Malmédy, Belgium, who died in 690.

Feast day of St Honoratus of Vercelli

Feast day of St Joachim Royo

Feast day of St John Dat

Feast day of Ss Simon the Apostle (Simon the Canaanite) and Jude Thaddeus (Jude Lebbeus; Libbeus), Apostle
(Late chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum scrotinum and Scattered starwort, Aster passiflorus, are today's plants, dedicated to St Simon and St Jude respectively.)

Today is shared by two Christian saints for their feasts: St Simon and St Jude. Most old authorities say today's patron saints were fishermen, but some have it that they were the shepherds to whom the angels of the Lord announced Jesus Christ's birth. In the ancient Runic calendar this day is marked by a ship because of the association with fishing.

The apostle Simon, called Simon the Zealot in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13; and Simon Kananaios ('Simon' signifying שמעון "hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʿôn), was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus; little is recorded of him aside from his name. Few pseudepigraphical writings were connected to him (but see below), and Jerome does not include him in De viris illustribus. St Simon is said by some to have preached in Britain and to have been martyred there. He was supposed to have been sawn to death in Persia, so he is the patron saint of woodcutters. Sometimes in art he carries a fish, because, like St Peter, he was a fisherman.

To distinguish him from Simon Peter, he is called Kananaios, or Kananites (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18), and in the list of apostles in Luke 6:15, repeated in Acts 1:13, Zelotes, the 'Zealot'. Both titles derive from the Hebrew word qana, meaning The Zealous, though Jerome and others mistook the word to signify the apostle was from the town of Cana (in which case his epithet would be 'Kanaios') or even the region of Canaan. As such, the translation of the word as 'the Cananite' or 'the Canaanite' is purely traditional and without contemporary extra-canonic parallel. Simon is often associated with St Jude as a proselytizing team, and the most widespread tradition is that after evangelizing in Egypt, he joined Jude in Persia, where both were martyred. This version is the one found in the Golden Legend.

St Jude, also called Thaddeus and sometimes Libbius, was said by one old scholar to have been a son of St Joseph by a wife prior to Mary, thus he would be a brother of Jesus Christ. He is represented in art carrying a staff, and also the club by which he was martyred with St Simon in Persia. He also carries a carpenter's square representing his trade.

Jude is the patron saint of desperate and lost causes, because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them. Many Christians, especially in the past, reckoned him as Judas Iscariot and avoided prayers on behalf of him. Therefore he was also called the "Forgotten Saint". Devotion to Saint Jude began again in earnest in the 1800s, starting in Italy and Spain, spreading to South America, and finally to the U.S. (starting in the area around Chicago) in the 1920s. Novena prayers to Jude helped people, especially newly arrived immigrants from Europe, deal with the pressures caused by the Great Depression, World War II, and the changing workplace and family life. People used to pray to him when all else failed, and even today one might see newspaper classified advertisements with prayers to St Jude. Jude is traditionally depicted carrying the image of Jesus in his hand or close to his chest, betokening the legend of the Image of Edessa. Saint Jude is also the patron saint of the Chicago Police Department.

St Jude's day was in olden times in Britain always expected to be rainy. Chestnuts are traditionally eaten today.

Apple peel custom

An old custom has it that today one can peel an apple in one long strip and, turning around three times with the peel in one's hand, one should say

St Simon and St Jude, on you I intrude
By this paring I hope to discover,
Without any delay, to tell me this day
The first letter of my own true lover.

When the peel is dropped over the left shoulder it will fall as the initial letter of one's lover-to-be; if it breaks, no marriage will ensue.

More on St Jude    More on St Simon    Legenda Aurea: Lives of Saints Simon and Jude

Pre-1751, Lord Mayor's Day, London
Until 1751, the Lord Mayor of London was elected on this day. See November 9 for post-1751 celebrations.

Last Thursday in October, Punky Night, Hinton St George, England

Hinton St George, Somerset, England: a celebration for children and adults who carry candle-lit punkies (the best one wins a prize) [what the hell is a punky? - PW]  made out of mangel-wurzels, a type of beet, and sing old punky songs.

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

Last week of October, Pirates Week, Cayman Islands

"This is the islands' national festival and takes place in the last week of October. Pirates Week consists of colourful, free wheeling celebrations in the streets, family oriented district days, costumed pirates and wenches, and underwater and land based treasure hunts, which commemorate the days when the Cayman Islands were the haunt of pirates and buccaneers. At the beginning of Pirates Week, George Town comes under siege and the pirates invade, arriving on a seventeenth century replica of a Spanish galleon, as well as tall ships, dive boats, submarines, and rowboats. There's no looting or plundering but the invading pirates do fight the defenders of the island, capture the governor and throw him in jail for the week. The rest of the week is a series of special events throughout the island, with all the locals and tourists alike encouraged to dress up like their favorite pirate or wench. The weekend street parties are wild affairs with live music, food kiosks, beer tents, and more. So take a trip back in time to when pirates pillaged and plundered, swashbuckling was a way of life, and Blackbeard ruled the seas."   Source

Oxi Day, Greece
Oxi (pron. 'ochi') Day is a Greek public holiday commemorating the day in 1940 when Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas (Yannis Metaxas), although an admirer of Fascism and Nazism, said ochi (no) to the Italian ambassador who demanded the right of Mussolini's forces to set up a military base on Greek soil. War broke out between the two nations within hours. Military parades are held throughout Greece today and towns are decked in the blue and white national colours. School children also parade in their home towns.

Tenrikyo Matsuri
Tenri City, Japan, is the headquarters of the Tenrikyo sect of Shintoism. Today's annual festival attracts hundreds of thousands of Shintoists.

Okunchi Matsuri (Oct 28 - 30)
The Okunchi Matsuri is a festival held from October 28 - 30 at Karatsu Shrine, Karatsu. It features a float or yamagasa parade with fourteen floats, a custom dating back to 1819. Many of the floats, including the papier-mâché red lion at the head of the parade, date back to last century.

Mokosh Day, Ukraine
"Mokosh was honored on the Friday between Oct 25 and Nov 1. She was given offerings of vegetables. One reference fixes this date on Oct 28."  Source

Disarmament Week (UN) (Oct 24 - 30)

National Magic Week, USA  (Oct 25 - 31)