|
|
|
|
This page is big!
If it fails to load fully, please click Refresh on your browser menu.
It's fully loaded when you see the purple menu bar at the foot of the page.
reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
First time here? See the Index for
How it works
Celebrate each and every day with a free subscription to the daily ezine. You can apply by form or send a blank email. Read what the 'Almaniacs' (members) say about Wilson's Almanac.
I request your support if this website pleases and informs you, as this is my livelihood. Thank you, from the bottom of my fridge.
Inquiries from publishers are welcome, but, dear reader, please don't use my work without my written permission. If I've inadvertently used something of yours that you consider not to fall under the fair use doctrine, please tell me and I'll remove it.
Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)
Our news on your homepage (that is, if you use My Yahoo, which we recommend for your start-up page)
|
|
|
The twenty-ninth of October will be marked in any future local almanac as the day on which telegraphic communication was first completed between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
|
Boswell dressed as a Corsican for this
fancy dress occasion in 1769,
as he championed the cause of their independence from France |
Am I a gangster or murderer? Of what crime do I stand condemned? I made the whole world weep at the beauty of my land.
Boris Pasternak, Russian author, forced by the USSR dictatorship on October 29, 1958 to refuse his Nobel prize
I have been expelled from the Union
of Soviet Writers so that I shall starve. No one publishes my poetry
or my translations anymore, which was my daily bread. The first
payments from my editor have been confiscated by order of the
authorities.
Boris Pasternak More
People who commit adultery must die. Everyone knows that. Any movie tells you that!
Richard Dreyfuss, Oscar-winning American actor, born on October 29, 1947;
1976
I really think that living is the process of going from complete certainty to complete ignorance.
Richard Dreyfuss; 1976
Happiness has a bum rap. People say it shouldn't be your goal in life. Oh, yes it should.
Richard Dreyfuss; 1976
Actually, when I was a kid I was really more aware of the star and the handprints in Grauman's Chinese more than I was aware of anything else, including the Oscar. I wanted to have a star. I wanted to be able to see, you know, old gum on my star.
Richard Dreyfuss; 1976
October 29
is
the 302nd
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (303rd
in leap years), with 63
days remaining.
Calendar converter Almanacs,
calendars, time, dedicated weeks, etc
Almanac screensavers
On this day
Dictionary
I
recommend
IMDB
days
IMDB years
Wikipedia days
Wiki decades
Wiki centuries
Timelines
Conversions
Calendrica
Lunabar
Birthday calculator
When 'Source'
links on this page move address or die, I might allow them to stay here, but the
Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
Iroquois
Feast of the Dead
A Native American
festival akin to All Soul's Day
(November 2) of the Christian tradition. Traditionally held every 12
years in honour of departed loved ones, the dead are reinterred and
revered, with a huge grave dug and lined with beaver skins.
From Wikipedia: The Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power, Five Nations, or Six Nations) is a group of First Nations/Native Americans. The Confederacy was based, at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, in what is now upstate New York. Now they also occupy territory in Ontario and Quebec. The two prophets, Hiawatha and 'The Great Peacemaker', brought a message of peace to squabbling tribes. The tribes who joined the League were the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Mohawks. Once they ceased (most) infighting, they rapidly became one of the strongest forces in 17th and 18th century north-eastern North America.
The combined leadership of the Nations is known as the Haudenosaunee. It should be noted that 'Haudenosaunee' is the term that the people use to refer to themselves. The word 'Iroquois' is reputed to come from a French version of a Huron (Wendat) name – considered an insult – meaning "Black Snakes." The Iroquois were enemies of the Huron and the Algonquin, who were allied with the French, due to their rivalry in the fur trade. Haudenosaunee means 'People Building a Long House'. The term is said to have been introduced by The Great Peacemaker at the time of the formation of the Confederacy. It implies that the Nations of the confederacy should live together as families in the same longhouse. Symbolically, the Seneca were the guardians of the western door of the 'tribal long house', and the Mohawk were the guardians of the eastern door.
There exists another, perhaps more compelling, version explaining the origin of the word "Iroquois"; as the French combination of two distinct terms used in the language of the Haudenosaunee. Here is a link to published text discussing this point.
"Native American: At this time, the Iroquois tribe celebrate the Feast of the Dead in honor of departed loved ones. The tribe calls themselves the 'Haudenosaunee' meaning 'people of the long house.' The Algonquin word 'Iroqu' (Irinakhoiw), which means 'rattlesnake,' was combined by the French with the suffix 'ois' to form the name 'Iroquois,' as an insult. Their home was the upstate New York area from Niagara Falls to the Adirondacks but the 'Iroquois League of Nations' once ruled an empire that extended from the Chesapeake to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The League's decision to side with the British during the Revolutionary War was disastrous. Subsequent treaties surrendered most of their land to white invaders, and their people retreated to their northern lands across the border to Canada. Source: Lee Sultzman" SourceHaudenosaunee Home Page: the official source of news and information from the HaudenosauneePictured above: An Iroquois funeral as observed by a French Jesuit missionary, early 1700s
At left: The corpse with items to be buried with him
At right: The burial pit being lined with animal skins
Source
Find an error or dead link?
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda
Rebirth: 
in the Scriptorium
