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.
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.
My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp,
She came adorned hither like sweet May,
Sent back like Hallowmass or short'st of
day. Shakespeare,
Richard
II, V, i
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.
John Keats, English poet, born October 31, 1795, 'Endymion',
Ever let the fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.
John Keats; 'Fancy', 1
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
John Keats; 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'
If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.
John Keats; Letter to John Taylor, February 27, 1818
I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.
John Keats; Letter to JA Hessey, October 9, 1818
I think I shall be among the English poets after my death.
John Keats; Letter to G and G Keats, October 14, 1818
Halloween is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad ... Robert Burns, note to his poem,
' Halloween'
Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame,
And to each nut I gave a sweet-heart's name:
This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd,
That in a flame of brightest colour blaz'd;
As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow,
Fort'was thy nut that did so brightly glow! John Gay, Spell; divinations with nuts, to foretell one's lover, were common on Hallowe'en
And touching the bairn, it's weel kenn'd she was born on Hallowe'en, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair than ither folk. Sir Walter
Scott; 'The Monastery'
"But the night is Hallowe'en, lady,
The morn is Hallowday;
Then win me, win me, and ye will,
For weel I wot ye may.
"Just at the mirk and midnight hour
The fairy folk will ride.
And they that wad their true-love win,
At Miles Cross they maun bide." 'Ballad of Tam Lin'
Anocht Oidhche Shamhna, a Mhongo Mango. Sop is na fuinneogaibh; dúntar na díirse. Eirigh id' shuidhe, a bhean an tighe. Téirigh siar go banamhail, tar aniar go flaitheamhail. Tabhair leat ceapaire aráin agus ime ar dhath do leacain fhéin; a mbeidh léim ghirrfiadh dhe aoirde ann ages ciscéim choiligh dhe im air. Tabhair chugham peigín de bhainne righin, mín, milis a mbeidh leawhnach
'n-a chosa agus uachtar 'n-a mhullaigh; go mbeidh sé ag imtheacht 'n-a chnocaibh agus ag teacht Ôn-a shléibhtibh, agus badh ó leat go dtachtfadh sé mé, agus mo chreach fhada níor bhaoghal
dom. [Oh Mongo Mango, Hallow E'en tonight. Straw in the windows and close the doors. Rise up housewife, go inside womanly, return hospitably, bring with you a slice of bread and butter the colour of your own cheek, as high as a hare's jump with a cock's step of butter on it. Bring us a measure of thick fine sweet milk, with new milk below and cream above, coming in hills and going in mountains; you may think it would choke me, but, alas! I am in no
danger.] A contributor to An Claidheamh Soluis, December
15, 1906, 5; a
Halloween verse, Ring, County Waterford, Ireland, where Halloween is called
oidhche na h-aimléise, "the night of mischief or con" Sad am I
At this time of winter
On Hallowe'en night
And I without eggs.
Divination night on the island of
South Uist; eggs were used to seek husbands
I'm tired of fighting ... I guess this thing is going to get me.
Harry Houdini, dying, October 31, 1926
Curiosity did not kill this cat. Studs Terkel,
American activist and progressive journalist, who died on October 31, 2008;
self-chosen epitaph
The wheel of the year has rolled a little further through the seasons
and now we find ourselves at the one of the eight stations of the year
at which the veil between the mundane and spirit worlds is at its thinnest:
Samhain/Halloween
Witches and spooks might come a-knocking on
your door on the night of October 31. Send
them away if you will, by all means, but not because they're enacting a
foreign custom. Most Aussies unwittingly have Halloween customs deep within their rattling bones.
Halloween
was already an ancient festival of souls 2,000 years ago. It has long been
commemorated in countries from Ireland and Poland to Mexico and the
Philippines (where trick-or-treating
is called Nangangaluluwa, and
your chickens are in danger of being purloined).
Halloween
customs are relatively new to Australia, but are rapidly establishing
themselves. When you come to think of it, every old, cherished custom was
once a new-fangled idea, even in the BCE.
The ancient
Druids of Britain
and Ireland, whose mysteries held sway for centuries before the
Romans came to those islands, celebrated a spooky night on October 31. These
pagans – Druids, and the Celts in general, of whom
they were the priestly class – called it Samhain (pronounced sow-wen –
sow as in pig). In
the Northern Hemisphere, the day which falls slap bang between the Autumn Equinox
and the Winter
Solstice, is November
1. The eve of Samhain, October 31, was the night the lord of death was
said to judge the souls of the departed.
What you
could have expected on Samhain eve if you were a suburban Celt or Briton in
300 BCE, was to go to the mall bonfire and watch a neighbour being roasted
alive, while you nibbled roast chestnuts with your diet cola. This was an
'end of summer' ceremony, and the druidic priests built a bonfire (bone-fire) to represent
the sun which they wished would return, dispelling bitter cold and famine.
The Romans
invaded Britain, and outlawed human sacrifice, so the Druids put another horse on the barbie. In834, two centuries after St
Augustine of Canterbury had brought Christianity to Britain, Pope Gregory the Great
and succeeding
pontiffs ordered
that the ancient pagan rituals, which couldn't be stamped out among the
masses, be Christianized. Spring fertility rites became
Easter. Winter
solstice, or yule, rites became
Christmas. Samhain became
All Saints' Day,
November 1 (the day following is All Souls' Day). Another word for saint was
'hallow', and 'even' meant 'evening before': All Hallows' eve became
called ... Halloweven, or Hallowe'en.
The old customs passed from generation to generation, and
sometimes their religious origins were forgotten. The ancient Druids had
used the sacred apple for divining the future; today in Ireland or America
you can see the party-goers 'bobbing' for apples – they grab the fruit
with their teeth out of a tub of water.
Prognosticating
the future was always an important part of Halloween, and European girls
would look for signs of their future husbands in the way hazelnuts burned
on the kitchen fire-grate, on 'Nutcrack Night' as Britons sometimes called
Halloween. (Hazel
is associated with witchcraft.)
The English
poet John Gay wrote in reference to this practice,
Two
hazel nuts I threw into the flame,
And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name:
This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd,
That in a flame of brightest colour blaz'd;
As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow,
For 'twas thy Nut that did so brightly glow!
Other
auguries of romance included egg whites, melted lead, needles, hemp (yes, hemp) and, as Robbie Burns tells
us in his poem Halloween,
cabbages.
Villagers
divined, from stones in the ashes of a bonfire, the names of those who
would die in the coming year. The
souls of the dead have always been a central concept of Samhain and
Halloween, as have grotesque costumes and even 'trick-or-treating'. We
have 16th-century records of Scottish 'guisers', young men in fantastic
costumes and masks going from door to door with turnip lanterns.
Emboldened by their anonymity, they asked "Please to help the guisers" and
were rewarded with apples, nuts and copper coins ...More
Did you know? Although many Australians reject Halloween as "American", and give trick-or-treating kids a hard time because of it, the Almanac's own research has found that some parts of Australia had Halloween even before some parts of America:
"The belief that Samhain is a
Celtic God of the Dead is near universal among conservative Christian
ministries, authors and web sites. They rarely cite references. This is
unfortunate, because it would greatly simplify the job of tracing the
myth of Samhain as a God."Source
(The Samhain/God fallacy was probably introduced in 1827 by a certain Godfrey Higgins in a tract of dubious historicity named
The Celtic
Druids; or, An Attempt to shew, that the Druids were the priests of oriental colonies who emigrated from India, and were the introducers of the first or Cadmean system of letters, and the builders of Stonehenge, of Carnac, and of other cyclopean works, in Asia and Europe (Chapter V, Section XVII). Another book,
Two Babylons or the Papal
Worship, by Alexander Hislop, 1873, helped to propagate the notion.)
"Because Ancient Greek festivals were held
according to a lunar calendar, which was often out of step with the solar
year, it is difficult to say what festivals would correspond to Samhain.
"In Homer's time the cosmical setting (first
visible setting on western horizon at sunrise) of Orion, the Pleiades and
the Hyades, which marked the beginning of the winter, herding season,
occurred at the beginning of November (Nov. 5-10, by various
computations). (Orion was the son of Poseidon and Euruale, daughter of
Minos and sister of Ariadne, about
whom more later.) Significantly, these constellations, which mark the
seasons, are at the center of the Shield of Achilles (Iliad XVIII),
that famous mandala of the Homeric Universe.
"In classical Greek times there were several
important festivals that nominally occur at the end of October and
beginning of November. Two of these, which occur on the same day (7
Puanepsion), are especially interesting; they are followed on the next day
by the Theseia (for Theseus), which is intimately connected with the first
two.
"This day is sacred to the goddesses Cerridwen, Eurydice, Hecate, Hel, Inanna, Kali, the Morrigan, Nephthys, Oya, Samia, Sedna, Tara, and
Vanadis." Source
Find an error or dead link?
Like to make a suggestion, or just say "G'day"?
Meet me at Corrigenda
"Named by the
Pagan Pride Project in 2001 as a day to support and encourage
followers of Pagan, Heathen, and other earth-based and ethnic
religious paths to publicly declare and support their chosen
religion to those who they encounter in everyday life."
Originally a pagan festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-wen
– sow as in pig), the name of
November 1 was Christianised by the tenth century abbot of Cluny,
St Odile, to All Saints' (or All Hallows') Day, hence Halloween, the evening before.
Festival of Pomona
At the end of October and early November, the ancient Romans celebrated the Festival of
Pomona, the goddess of fruits, because fruits like apples and nuts were plentiful in these months. It is from this practice that Halloween games like chestnut roasting and apple bobbing are derived.
Nutcrack Night
An old name for Halloween is Nutcrack Night, so named because today is associated with many customs including cracking nuts. Bobbing for apples, and finding one's future lover through certain rites are also Nutcrack Night traditions, the former having been passed onto today's Halloween customs.
Second sight
Scottish tradition says that those born on Halloween have the gift of second sight, or clairvoyance.
Jumping nuts
Here's an old Irish Halloween custom. When young women wanted to know if their lovers were faithful, they used to put nuts on the fire grate, naming the nuts after the two lovers. If a nut jumped or cracked, it meant the man would prove unfaithful. If the nut burned, it meant he loved the woman. If both nuts burned together, it meant the couple would be married.
Salted herring
In an old Halloween custom from the Isle of Man, a girl would eat a salted herring tonight, including the bones, without drinking or speaking. She would then go to bed backwards, following which a man would appear in her dreams bringing her a drink. The man would eventually be her lover.
Green arrow
In an ancient British Halloween custom, girls used to tickle the inside of their noses with leaves of the yarrow (called colloquially nose-bleed) in order to know their boyfriends' romantic intentions. They recited the verse
Green 'arrow, green 'arrow, you bear a white blow,
If my love love me, my nose will bleed now;
If my love don't love me, it 'on't bleed a drop,
If my love do love me, 'twill bleed every drop.
This practice is recommended only for confirmed celibates and the very healthy.
Love charms
Many old British customs from Halloween were associated with love prognostication. Young women sometimes would cut bracken fern above the root to divine the first letter of the name of their lover-to-be. Another method was to blow the fluff off a dandelion, with the number of blows equalling the number of years the girl would have to wait for love.
In another charm, a girl went into the garden at midnight and plucked twelve leaves of sage. She was then sure to see the image of her lover-to-be in the shadows.
Around the churchyard
In old Lancashire, England, girls on Halloween used to walk twelve times around a churchyard on Halloween in order to see a vision of their future husbands.
Apple bobbing
The familiar Halloween custom of apple bobbing goes back centuries. In the north of England another Halloween game was to bite an apple that was stuck on a hanging beam; the player had the hands tied behind the back. On the other end of the beam was stuck a lighted candle. When the beam rotated, the trick was to bite and not be burned.
Balancing act
In the north of England, an old Halloween game had a person balancing on a pole laid between two stools. At the end of the pole was a lit candle, from which the player had to light his own without falling into a tub of water beneath him.
Cabbage pull
In old Scotland, on Halloween, young people used to determine the shape of their spouse-to-be by pulling cabbage stalks (or, runts) and examining the size and shape.
The top pickle
In old Scotland on Halloween, a young woman would pull stalks of corn. If the third stalk wants the top pickle (ie lacked the grain at the top), the lass's husband-to-be would not come to the marriage a virgin.
Mirror, mirror
In an old Halloween custom from the west of Scotland, a woman wanting to know about her hoped-for lover would eat an apple at a mirror, while combing her hair. Her lover's face would appear in the mirror over her shoulder, or, so it is said.
Hemp seed, hemp seed
In an old Scottish custom, on Halloween a person should sow at night a handful of hemp seed, saying Hemp seed I saw (sow) thee, hemp seed I saw thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true, come after me and pou (pull) thee. Looking over one's shoulder will reveal one's future lover, pulling up hemp.
Shirt omens
In order to divine her future husband's identity, a Scottish girl of old on Halloween would dip her left sleeve in a burn (creek) when three lairds' (lords') lands met. The girl then would lie awake by the fire drying the sleeve, until the apparition of her future husband would come and turn the sleeve to dry the other side. Or, so it is said.
Halloween omen
A Scottish Halloween custom of old involved a person taking three dishes, one empty, one containing clean water and one with dirty water. A young person was led blindfolded to the hearth where the dishes were. If he (or she) dipped the left hand in the clean water, the future spouse would be a virgin. If in the dirty dish, he or she would be a widow; if in the empty, there would be no marriage at all. This was done three times.
Thanksgiving
In Moray province, Scotland, Halloween was a thanksgiving festival for the safe in-gathering of the harvest. The entire European tradition of this day, in fact, derives from the location of Halloween exactly between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, which is the natural time for harvest festivities.
Torch running
In the town of Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland, on Halloween an old custom is for a man to run around the village bearing on his shoulders a torch made of heath, broom and flax.
Halloween bonfires
At Callander, Scotland, in ancient times, bonfires were always lit on Halloween. When the ashes were cold, they were arranged in a circle, and a marked stone for each person put in the middle. In the morning, any moved stone indicated the death within a year of that person. Magic ceremonies were then performed by Druid priests to counteract the evil of witches and demons.
Welsh Halloween
In old Wales, on Halloween, boys and girls used to seek out a sprig of ash. The first to find one called out Cyniver. The first of the other sex that found a sprig would answer the same, and these two were eventually to marry.
Welsh bonfires
In North Wales, on Halloween, an old custom was for a large fire, called a Coel
Coeth, to be made near each house. Villagers used to run through the bonfire, escaping from an imagined black, short-tailed sow. A white stone for each person was marked and thrown into the fire, then, after prayers before the fire, the people went to bed. If any stone was missing in the morning, it was a sign that the person for whom the stone was marked would not live until next October 31.
Nutty prosperity
In an old North Welsh custom, nuts were thrown into the domestic fire. If a nut burned brightly, it presaged prosperity for the coming year.
Shony
On the Isle of Lewis, west of Scotland, a Halloween sacrifice used to be made to the sea god Shony. One local used to wade into the sea with a glass of ale, saying
"Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that you'll be so kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware, for enriching our ground the ensuing year." All returned to the church where they blew out a single burning candle, then proceeded to the fields for a drinking party.
Elizabeth decrees
Queen Elizabeth I of England banned the practice of ringing bells for all Christian souls on Halloween, it being supposedly
"popish" and superstitious. Her decree read "that the superfluous ringing of bels, and the superstitious ringing of bells at Alhallowtide, and at Al Soul's day, with the two nights next before and after, be prohibited" [sic].
Halloween bonfires
An old saying is that a Halloween bonfire must not be allowed to go out, or else evil manifestations will be able to enter the home.
Tinley fires
The ancient Irish customarily lit bonfires on the four Druidic festivals of the year, including Samhain, or Halloween. Samhain fires were called Tinley fires,
teanlas or tindles. These days, candles are more commonly burned than bonfires.
Oidhche Shamhna
In olde Ireland, Halloween was called Oidhche Shamhna, or the vigil (eve) of Samhain. Peasants used to assemble with sticks and clubs, collecting money and cakes from door to door and reciting traditional verses. Women made candles which were sent from house to house, on the next day being prayed before for departed souls of the faithful. In every house, an elaborate feast was laid out.
Backwards charm
Years ago in Ireland, on Halloween, unmarried women used to throw a ball of yarn out a window and reel it in while saying the Paternoster backwards, in order to see their future husbands' apparitions. Such a phantom was called a
'sith' ('sídhe';
'sidhe'), pronounced 'shee' (see Banshee).
Lamb's wool
Long ago in Ireland, on Halloween, people used to drink lamb's wool, ale mixed with bruised roast apples. This time of year was dedicated to the angel presiding over fruits, and was called La Mas Ubhal, or the day of the apple, pronounced
lamasool, whence the term comes.
Drap glasses
On the British island of South Uist, girls used to play a divination game called
drap glasses, in order to determine who their future husbands would be. They dropped some egg white into a glass of water; if it stayed at the bottom it was a bad omen, if it started to float, indications could be read from the shapes. For example, if the egg white looked like a ship, it would predict the husband might have a nautical profession. An old saying has it thus:
Sad am I
At this time of winter
On Hallowe'en night
And I without eggs.
The same custom is also recorded in Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland and Russia.
Philippines Halloween
Halloween is known as Undas in the Philippines, where they engage in storytelling about spooks, the souls of unbaptised dead children and the tikbalang, a horse/human form. In a custom called
Nangangaluluwa, young people in singing groups collect money. The singers represent souls; one song goes
Ordinary souls we are, from Purgatory we have come
And there we are duty-bound to pray by night and day.
If alms you are to give, be in a hurry please
For the door of heaven may close on us forever.
On Halloween, in the Philippines, kids steal chickens and eggs. They even steal small farm animals and household items
– the spirits of the dead are blamed for the theft.
Half-way Halloween
In the Southern Hemisphere, Halloween falls between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, so may be regarded as the beginning of the Summer season. In the north it has always been regarded as the beginning of Winter. Today is a time to congratulate Mother Earth for her fertility and the renewal of the vegetative cycle.
Holland-tide and snap apple
In Ireland, before the 1752 adoption of the Gregorian calendar, which altered the
'Old Style' of date keeping by 12 days, Halloween used to be known also as Holland-tide or Hollantide (known as
Martinmas in England,
November 11). After the harvest, it was a time of relative abundance for poor farm folk. Families would gather tonight, and when the elderly people had finally retired to bed, the youngsters would play traditional games that were frowned upon by the clergy.
In one, called snap apple, an X-shaped frame was suspended from the ceiling, with each arm bearing either an apple or a lit candle. The object was to catch an apple from the spinning frame with one's teeth, without getting burnt.
At this time, people used to divine their futures by pouring molten lead through the handle of a key placed over a porringer of water. The shapes as the lead set indicated the life to come.
People also used to place two beans, representing a young man and woman, on a fire grate. If the two were to be sweethearts, the beans would burn quietly side by side. If the beans popped away from each other, there would be no romance. The southern English had a similar custom with nuts, saying : If he loves me, pop and fly, if he hates me, lie and die.
Irish Halloween courting
In pre-19th-century Ireland, it was the custom at Halloween for the girls to come courting the boys, instead of the other way round.
The apple and the mirror
Here's a divination ritual, the origin of which I haven't been able to
ascertain (please let
me know if you have any idea). I publish here verbatim as I received
it by email from a reader:
"Before the stroke of midnight, sit in front of a mirror in a room lit only by one candle or the moon. Go into the silence, and ask a question. Cut the apple into nine pieces. With your back to the mirror, eat eight of the pieces, then throw the ninth over your left shoulder. Turn your head to look over the same shoulder, and you will see and in image or symbol in the mirror that will tell you your answer.
"(When you look in the mirror, let your focus go 'soft', and allow the patterns made by the moon or candlelight and shadows to suggest forms, symbols and other dreamlike images that speak to your intuition.)"
Dreaming stones
It is said that if you go to a stream that forms a boundary to some piece
of land, and close your eyes, then follow these instructions, you will
soon dream an answer to any problem on your mind. Next take from the water three stones between middle finger and thumb, saying
(in Scots Gaelic) these words as each is gathered:
Togaidh mise chlach,
Mar a thog Moire da Mac,
Air bhrìgh, air bhuaidh, 's air
neart;
Gun robh a chlachsa am dhòrn,
Gus an ruig mi mo cheann uidhe.
If you'd prefer to use English, I suppose you
could always try:
I will lift the stone
As Mary lifted it for her Son,
For substance, virtue, and strength;
May this stone be in my hand
Till I reach my journey's end.
Carry these stones carefully to your home, then place them under your pillow.
When you go to bed that night, ask for a dream that will give you guidance or a solution to a problem, and the stones will bring it for you.
Eirack's egg
The Scots on Halloween used to use an eirack's egg – the first-laid by a hen
– for divination rites. The egg white was dropped into a glass of water, the future being read by the shapes that appeared as the white floated.
Jack-o'-lantern
Many say that the carved pumpkin lantern's name comes from Ireland, but
historian David J Skal disputes this (see below). It is said that because of his miserly nature, a man named Jack was refused entry into Heaven. Neither could he enter Hell, because he played practical jokes on Satan. He was thus condemned to roam the earth forever with his lantern, until Judgment Day.
"Although every modern chronicle of the holiday repeats the
claim that vegetable lanterns were a time-honored component of
Halloween celebrations in the British Isles, none gives any
primary documentation. In fact, none of the major
nineteenth-century chronicles of British holidays and folk
customs make any mention whatsoever of carved lanterns in
connection with Halloween. Neither do any of the standard works
of the early twentieth century." David J Skal, Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of
Halloween, Bloomsbury, New York, 2002, p. 32
Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
The earliest reference to associate carved vegetable lanterns
with Halloween in Britain is apparently in Ruth Edna Kelley,
The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), Chapter 8, which mentions
turnip lanterns in Scotland.
Japanese Halloween?
It is interesting to note that at about the same time as Halloween, there is in Japan
(October 23 - 25) a spooky procession called the
Iga Ueno Tenjin Matsuri.
October 31 and other nights over the next two weeks, Antrobus Souling Play, Antrobus, Cheshire, UK
"The Antrobus Souling Play is performed at the Wheatsheaf in Antrobus, and in various other pubs, from Halloween onwards over the following two weeks. The company perform a souling, or mumming play, to which they have added some touches of their own, including the Wild Horse and his Driver. The performers all dress up for their parts, which include King George, the Black Prince, the Quack Doctor, Mary, Beelzebub and Derry Doubt. The Wild Horse has a fearsome aspect and snapping jaws, and many lines about him are recited to attract sympathy for his needy condition."
Source
Witches' Remembrance Day, Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland
The Isia, ancient Egypt, fourth day (Oct 28 - Nov 3)
Feast day of St Bega (see also September 6)
"This is another of those problematic saints, mixing fact and
fiction and, perhaps, the stories of more than one person of the
same name. One Bega is Irish; the other Anglo-Saxon."Source
Feast day of Blessed Christopher of
Romagnola
Feast day of St
Erth (Erc) of
Cornwall Erth's feast day in Ireland is November 2.
He was the brother of St Uny and St Ia (Ives), and
the only person to give homage to St Patrick during
that saint's confrontation with the
druids on the
Hill of Slane.
Patrick is said to have written:
Bishop Erc,
Whatever he judged was rightly judged:
Whosoever gives a just judgment
Shall receive the blessing of bishop Erc.
Erth is also said to have
trained the young St Brendan the
Navigator at his church in Tralee.
Erth died c. 512.
Feast day of St Foillan of Fosses,
martyr
Feast day of St Notburga of Cologne
Feast day of St Quentin
(Quintin), martyr (Fennel-leaved tickseed, Corcopsis ferulefolia, is
today's plant, dedicated to St
Quentin.)
Feast day of Blessed Stachys of
Byzantius
Feast day of Blessed Thomas Bellaci
Feast day of St Wolfgang,
Bishop of Ratisbon
St Wolfgang (c. 934
- October 31, 994)
was bishop
of Ratisbon (today in Germany)
from Christmas972 until
his death. He is a saint
of the Roman
Catholic church (canonized
in 1052).
A modern picture by Schwind
is in the Schak Gallery at Munich. This painting represents the legend
of Wolfgang forcing the devil
to help him to build a church. In other paintings, he is generally
depicted in episcopal dress, an axe
in the right hand and the crozier
in the left, or as a hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a
hunter. The axe refers to an event in the life of the saint. After
having selected a solitary spot in the wilderness, he prayed and
then threw his axe into the thicket; the spot on which the axe fell
he regarded as the place where God
intended he should build his cell.
This axe is still shown in the little market town of St Wolfgang
which sprang up on the spot of the old cell. (This article
incorporates text from the Catholic
Encyclopedia, which is in the public
domain.)
Rabbits
on the last day of the month In the 1920s, there was a custom in the UK to say the word
'rabbit' three times when going to bed on the last day of the month.
The superstition did not end there: on rising, the person was to say
'hare' three times. However, sources differ on this point, with one
saying that the words 'rabbit, rabbit, rabbit', and not
'hare' should be said on the morning of the month's first day ...
UNICEF Day
The work of the United Nations International Children's Fund is commemorated throughout the world today.
Youth Day, Iowa and
Massachusetts, USA
Singing masses in the
Roman Catholic Churches
Martinique Dance (Oct 30 -
31)
Armchair ritually covered with 30 or 40 scarves of different colours,
exposed in the peristyle and "served", Voudon
(Voodoo) (Oct 30, 31)Source
Allan
Day
(Allantide), Cornwall, UK 'Allan' is an old English term for 'apple'.If
you eat a very large apple first thing on waking today, without
speaking a word, you will dream of your future mate. I suppose
it's a bit late now. Mark it in your diary for next year.
Allantide is a Cornish
festival that was traditionally celebrated today. The following is a
description of the festival as it was celebrated in Penzance
at the turn of the century: The shops in Penzance would display
Allan apples, which were highly polished large apples. On the day
itself, these apples were given as gifts to each member of the
family as a token of good luck. Older girls would place these apples
under their pillows and hope to dream of the person whom they would
one day marry. A local game is also recorded where two pieces of
wood were nailed together in the shape of a cross. It was then
suspended with four candles on each outcrop of the cross shape.
Allan apples would then be suspended under the cross. The goal of
the game was to catch the apples in your mouth, with hot wax being
the penalty for slowness or inaccuracy.
1620John
Evelyn (d. February 27,
1706), English writer,
gardener and diarist. Evelyn's diaries are largely
contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys,
and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the
time (he witnessed the deaths of Charles I
and Oliver Cromwell,
the last Great Plague in
London,
and the Great Fire of
London in 1666.). Evelyn and Pepys corresponded frequently and
much of this correspondence has been preserved.
1632Johannes Vermeer (d. 1675),
Dutch painter (he was actually baptised on that day, his birth date
is not confirmed)
Keats
was the son of a livery-stable keeper who had come into money. A
voracious reader, John was 17 when he borrowed Spenser's Faery Queen and became
enthused by the muse of poetry. When Coleridge met the young poet,
he turned to Leigh Hunt and softly said
"There is death in that
hand". Keats died of tuberculosis in Rome aged only 25, leaving
many masterpieces.
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.
But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.
She dwells with Beauty – Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
1825Catherine
Helen Spence (d. April 3, 1910), Scottish-born Australian journalist, social and political reformer, pioneer feminist, author
(An Agnostic's Progress from the Known to the Unknown,
1884; A Week in the Future, 1889; Clara Morison).
She immigrated to South Australia in 1839 with her
family, following its near financial ruin in Edinburgh, and
initially worked as a governess and briefly ran a small private
school. Spence was the first Australian woman to be a political
candidate, and was the leading woman in public affairs at the turn of the
20th Century in Australia.
A Unitarian who had converted from
Presbyterianism in around 1856, Spence became South Australia's first woman preacher when she delivered a sermon to the Adelaide congregation in 1878.
In 1891, Spence became a Vice-President of the Women's Suffrage League.
After her 1893 - 94 lecture tour of the
USA and Britain, she returned in December 1894 to witness the historic passing of the Constitution Amendment Bill through Parliament giving voting rights to the women of South Australia, the first Australian colony to do
so and second state in the world after New Zealand in 1893 (see A
world chronology of women's electoral rights, in the Scriptorium). At 84 years of age, in 1909, she presided over the formation of the Women's Non-Party Political
Association ( later the League of Women Voters of South Australia).
Her novel Handfasted, "submitted for a
prize offered by the Sydney Mail in 1880, was rejected as 'calculated to loosen the marriage tie… too socialistic and therefore dangerous'. It was finally published in 1984, more than
a century later ...
"She worked hard for the Boarding-Out Society,
founded by Caroline Emily Clark in 1872, which selected children from industrial schools,
boarded them with families, and checked regularly on their welfare
... Electoral reform was her primary political interest. She advocated
proportional representation which she considered to be 'effective voting'. Spence became a
familiar public speaker in her advocacy of this reform. In claiming her right to speak, Spence
was unafraid to challenge convention. In 1871, when invited to speak at the South
Australian Institute, she delivered her own lecture, rather than writing it and allowing it to
be delivered by a man ...
"Spence worked hard for women's suffrage, and was vice-president of the
Women's Suffrage League from 1891 until 1894, when South Australia became the first
Australia colony to grant votes to women. She publicized this struggle in the United States
and Britain and established contact with leading overseas suffragists as well as
assisting suffragists in other parts of Australia. Women in the workforce were also one of her concerns. From 1901 until her
death, Spence chaired the management board of the Co-operative Clothing Company, a shirt-making factory owned and run exclusively by women, in which both workers and
owners held shares. In 1909, just before she died, Spence chaired the meeting which
established the Women's Non-Party Political Association. On her eightieth birthday in 1905, Spence was proclaimed as Australia's
'most distinguished woman'. She was mourned on her death in 1910 as the
'Grand Old
Woman of Australia'." Source
(PDF file)
1888 Sir George Hubert Wilkins
(better known as Hubert Wilkins; d. November
30, 1958),
Australian war correspondent, photographer, cinematographer, polar explorer, naturalist, geographer, climatologist, aviator, author, balloonist, war hero, reporter, secret agent, submariner and navigator.
He was the first person to fly an aeroplane in the
Antarctic and to fly over both the North and South Poles.
Wilkins was a
native of Hallett,
South
Australia, the last of 13 children in a family of pioneer
settlers and sheep farmers. As a teenager, he moved to Adelaide
where he found work with a travelling cinema,
and thence to England
where he became a pioneering aerial photographer. His photographic
skill earned him a place on various Arctic expeditions.
In 1923, Wilkins
led the British Museum's Northern Australia expedition for two
years, resulting in the publication of his first book, Undiscovered
Australia (1928).
Now financed by William
Randolph Hearst, Wilkins continued his polar explorations, now
flying over Antarctica.
He named the island of Hearst
Land after his sponsor, and Hearst thanked Wilkins by giving him
and his bride a flight aboard Graf
Zeppelin (Wilkins sent back newspaper articles from the
flight).
"Honoured by Stalin and Mussolini, Hubert
Wilkins spied for the British and Americans while undertaking remarkable feats of exploration.
"When he died at the height of the cold war, the US Navy led a secret mission to the North Pole to scatter his ashes."
Source
"In 1908 Wilkins stowed away on a ship from
[sic] which he later abandoned in Algiers. The next thing he knew, he found himself in a gang of criminals involved with gun-running, kidnapping, drug dealing and spying. At 24, Wilkins was hired by the Gaumont Film Company to join the Turkish side of the Turko-Bulgarian War of 1912 and shoot footage of the war.
"In 1913, Wilkins became second in command of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's expedition to the Canadian Arctic. He went on to learn how to fly and in 1917 Wilkins returned to his homeland of Australia and joined the Australian Flying Corps at the rank of lieutenant. Although an aviator, his primary duty was to photograph the gruesome fighting in the field. His superior officer was none other than Captain Frank Hurley, the famous photographer of Mawson's and Shackleton's Antarctic expeditions. Wilkins was presented with the Military Cross for his efforts to rescue wounded soldiers in the Third Battle of Ypres, where at Passchendaele allied forces suffered a quarter million casualties. He received a Bar for his Military Cross for temporarily leading a company of American soldiers, whose officers had been killed in action. Australian General Monash described him as
'the bravest man I have ever seen'." Source
"[In 1931] he made the first under-ice voyage in the
Nautilus submarine, bought from the United States Navy for $1, in an unsuccessful effort to reach the North Pole. This gave enough material for his book,
Under the North Pole ... Although the British Government wanted to bury Sir Hubert in Westminster Abbey, a far more fitting resting place was found for him. On 17 March 1959, after a brief and very cold memorial service, the ashes of Sir Hubert were scattered across the North Pole by US Submarine Commander Calvert. Only the year before had the nuclear submarine
Nautilus II, achieved what Wilkins in his $1 Nautilus had been unable to do."
Source
Your family and friends will get a
kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!!
You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your
own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)
If you are enjoying this page, click to
receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac
ezine
Webmaster,
webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on
application. Further details
1888John Dunlop was
granted a patent for the pneumatic tyre (American spelling,
tire). Dunlop, a Scottish veterinarian, is
remembered for inventing the first commercially viable device of this kind –
and it all started with
his son's tricycle.
" … he was watching his son ride his
tricycle. Noticing that his son was encountering difficulty and discomfort
while riding over cobbled ground, Dunlop realized that this was because of the
vehicle's solid rubber tires and began looking for a way to improve them.
"The solution he came up with was a rubber
tube filled with air to give it cushioning properties. Dunlop patented the
design and it wasn't long before bicycle and automobile manufacturers
recognized the design's potential usefulness in their fields. Within ten
years of patenting the device, it had almost entirely replaced solid tires
and had been implemented for use in automobiles by Andre and Edouard
Michelin. Through the company he founded, Dunlop Tires, his name is still
associated with the automobile industry today."Source
1923
A police strike commenced in Melbourne, Australia, lasting five days. Thirty
constables at the Russell Street station struck over pay and conditions, leaving
the city without a night patrol.
1926Magician and escapologist, Harry
Houdini (b. 1874), died of gangrene and peritonitis
that developed after his appendix ruptured. The great American escapologist's death is often attributed to a punch he received, but is this so?
Amongthe
many great feats of the magician,
escapologist
and stunt performerHarry Houdini (Ehrich
Weisz – American immigration officials changed Weisz to Weiss) was
the ability to withstand any man's punch to his abdomen. He used to prepare
his body for this trick before the show, but on October 22 a student,
Joselyn Gordon Whitehead, approached him when Houdini was unprepared, punching
the great showman three times in the belly.
He did several shows at the Garrick Theater in Detroit after that, but soon became ill. Nine days later, on this day in 1926, in room 401 of Detroit's old Grace Hospital,
Harry Houdini died of the peritonitis that followed the rupturing of his appendix.
Was Whitehead to blame?
As pointed out at the Snopes
Urban Legends Reference website, although Whitehead's memory still wears the
blame today, the rupturing of Houdini's appendix was
quite possibly not the young man's fault. It was long assumed that the blows to
his abdomen and his ruptured appendix were related. This seemed a natural enough
explanation at the time, even to his doctors, and this is how the legend began.
However, we now know this explanation is incorrect: appendicitis is not caused
by physical trauma. The abdominal blows received by Houdini might indeed have
hastened his death, but not in the way usually imagined: he was probably already
suffering from appendicitis at the time. The great magician might have explained
his subsequent stomach pain as being caused by the punches he took rather than
the pre-existing inflammation of his appendix. We may conjecture that, because
the dressing room incident occurred, Houdini might have not realized his pain
was an indication of disease, and thus might have delayed two days before
seeking medical treatment.
The greatest magician who ever lived is buried in Machpelah
Cemetery, Cypress Hills Street, Queens, New York City. Although he had been earning $2,000 a week during his heyday, he died a technical bankrupt, leaving a $7,110 debt after lawyers dispersed assets valued at almost $70,000.
The punching incident was described by Jack
Price and included in a book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
"Houdini was facing us and lying down on a
couch at the time reading some mail, his right side nearest us. This first-year
student engaged Houdini more or less continually whilst my friend Mr. Smilovitch
continued to sketch Houdini. This student was the first to raise the question of
Houdini's strength. My friend and I were not so much interested in his
strength as we were in his mental acuteness, his skill, his beliefs, and his
personal experiences. Houdini stated that he had extraordinary muscles in his
forearms, in his shoulders and in his back, and he asked all of us present to
feel them, which we did.
The first-year McGill student asked Houdini
whether it was true that punches in the stomach did not hurt him. Houdini
remarked rather unenthusiastically that his stomach could resist much, though he
did not speak of it in superlative terms. Thereupon he gave Houdini some very
hammer-like blows below the belt, first securing Houdini's permission to
strike him. Houdini was reclining at the time with his right side nearest
Whitehead, and the said student was more or less bending over him. These blows
fell on that part of the stomach to the right of the navel, and were struck on
the side nearest to us, which was in fact Houdini's right side; I do not
remember exactly how many blows were struck. I am certain, however, of at least
four very hard and severe body blows, because at the end of the second or third
blow I verbally protested against this sudden onslaught on the part of this
first-year student, using the words, "Hey there. You must be crazy, what
are you doing?" or words to that effect, but Whitehead continued striking
Houdini with all his strength.
"Houdini stopped him suddenly in the midst
of a punch, with a gesture that he had had enough. At the time Whitehead was
striking Houdini, the latter looked as though he was in extreme pain and winced
as each blow was struck.
"Houdini immediately after stated that he had
had no opportunity to prepare himself against the blows, as he did not think
that Whitehead would strike him as suddenly as he did and with such force, but
that he would have been in a better position to prepare for the blows if he had
risen from his couch for this purpose, but the injury to his foot prevented him
from getting about rapidly."Source
"Though he spent the last years of his life debunking the paranormal, ever since
his death, séances have been held to attempt to contact him. Among items brought
by participants are the 'séance handcuffs' which Houdini pledged to his brother
he would open after death if it was possible to return materially."
1938Great
Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveiled a 15-point
program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.
1967Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
(Nguyen Van Thieu) became president of Vietnam's second republic.
1968Vietnam War:
Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon
B Johnson announced to the nation that he had ordered a complete cessation
of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North
Vietnam" effective November 1.
1969
Beat author Jack Kerouac
died at 47 of complications caused by his alcoholism.
1970
"The Parks Department of New York granted the Witches International Craft Associates
(W.I.C.A.) a permit to hold a 'Witch-in'. The event was held in Sheep Meadow and more than one thousand persons attended."
Source
1984Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards (riots soon broke out
in New Delhi
and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).
2004Scotland: "'Witches' and Cats Pardoned in Ceremony
"A coven of 'witches' executed centuries ago were officially pardoned today in one of the last acts of ancient baronial powers held by a small community in Scotland.
"The 81 were killed in the 16th and 17th century – when people were condemned to death as witches on as flimsy evidence as owning a black cat or brewing home-made remedies.
"But this Halloween a gathering at Prestonpans in East Lothian has used ancient feudal powers, due to be abolished within weeks, to pardon the witches – and their cats.
"In a muted ceremony at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg pub, around 32 descendants, namesakes and supporters came together to mark the occasion, which they hope will become an annual Witches' Remembrance Day to be held in the town each Halloween.
"The Barons Courts of Prestoungrange & Dolphinstoun granted
the pardons in the last session of the courts, which is due to
be abolished on November 28." Source
reetings from Australia.
How it works
Samhain/Halloween
Out Of The Broom Closet Day
Allan
Day
If you are enjoying this page, 
