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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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It has been said that love robs
those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none. Dennis Diderot, French encyclopaedist, born on October 5, 1713; Paradoxe sur le comédien From
fanaticism to barbarism is only one step. We swallow greedily any lie that
flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find
bitter. Man will never be free until the last
king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. A thing is not proved just because no
one has ever questioned it. From
where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. You're only as good as the people you
hire. Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more
you sweat, the luckier you get. Some savage faculty for observation told
him that most respectable and estimable people usually had a lot of
books in their houses. |
Chief Joseph |
Waiting for the German verb is surely
the ultimate thrill.
Flann O'Brien; The Hair of the Dogma (1977), published
posthumously
Even a purely moral act that has no
hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and
indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.
Václav Havel, Czech playwright,
human rights campaigner and president, born on October 5, 1936; from
'Letter to Czechoslovakian leader Alexander Dubček' (August 1969)
I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking
the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier
than ten military divisions.
Václav Havel; from a speech accepting a peace prize (October
1989)
If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them,
become President.
Václav Havel; from 'Address to the Institute of Contemporary
Arts', London quoted in The Independent, London, March 24,
1990
Despite all the political misery I am confronted with every day, it
still is my profound conviction that the very essence of politics is
not dirty; dirt is brought in only by wicked people. I admit that
this is an area of human activity where the temptation to advance
through unfair actions may be stronger than elsewhere, and which
thus makes higher demands on human integrity. But it is not true at
all that a politician cannot do without lying or intriguing. That is
sheer nonsense, often spread by those who want to discourage people
from taking an interest in public affairs.
Of course, in politics, just as anywhere else in life, it is
impossible and it would not be sensible always to say everything
bluntly. Yet that does not mean one has to lie. What is needed here
are tact, instinct and good taste.
Václav Havel; from International Herald Tribune,
October 29, 1991
'E's not pinin'! 'E's
passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's
expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of
life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch
'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now
'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's
shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the
bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
John Cleese (The Dead Parrot
sketch); Monty Python's Flying Circus commenced on October 5,
1969
October 5
is
the 278th
day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (279th
in leap years),
with 87
days remaining.
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Thesmophoria, ancient Greece
(Oct 5 - 7)
This was a women's festival of
Demeter ('barley mother') the Greek goddess of agriculture, health, birth and marriage. She was associated with the
Roman goddess Ceres; she was also the daughter of
Cronos and Rhea, and therefore the sister of
Zeus. Her priestesses were addressed with the title
Melissa. Demeter is called Thesmophoros in respect of her establishing laws or
thesmoi, by which men must work the land and provide nourishment.
In Athens, the festival took place on the 11th - 13th days of the month Pyanopsion which was the time of autumn planting. Today was the first day, the Stenia. The Steniae are said by Photius to have celebrated the return
(anodos) of Demeter from the lower world, and the women railed at each other by night. Some of the features of this three-day festival are identical with those of harvest festivals long observed in the north of Europe.
The cult was practised universally in the Greek world, from the Black Sea to Lesbos, but the secrets of the rites were so well kept that even today we know very little of what the women did. It is believed that the participants dressed in fawn skins and, carrying a thyrsus, a rod topped with ivy, wandered the mountains at night, participating in such ritualistic activities as nursing baby wild animals and consuming milk, wine and honey. The women would imitate the Bacchae (Maenads), performing frenzied, ecstatic dances, sometimes around an image of Dionysus. On the first day, women gathered in the temple area. On the second day there was fasting, and they would return home for the night.
The rites included married women, this being their only opportunity all year to get away from their husbands and families. Grain was burnt as an offering to Demeter. Piglets, sheep and goats were sacrificed. Women had to refrain from sexual intercourse during the Thesmophoria, and they probably ate plants that suppressed the libido.
After the Thesmophoria ended, the priests would gather up the large numbers of female figurines that had been used in the rituals, and bury them. Unlike the Mysteries of Dionysus, the Thesmophoria seems to have been revered by the men of Athens, but is mocked in Aristophanes's Thesmophoriazusae.
Cf Jejunium Cereris, Fast of Ceres, Roman Empire, October 4.
"According to Buffie Johnson (Johnson, Buffie, Lady of the Beasts, Harper SanFrancisco 1988), the pig was worshipped everywhere that women were in charge of agriculture. It is an animal associated with great fecundity. In northern India, the Rajput clan worships the Corn Mother (Gauri) in the form of the wild pig. It is also associated with death, perhaps because of the image of the sow eating her piglets. During the Thesmophoria, the pig represented both abundance and life, the seed that is buried in the earth to sprout again, like the corn puppet representing Kore which was thrown into the earth during the winter rituals to be brought back up again in spring when it was sprouting."
Source: School of the Seasons
Feast day of the Mania, ancient Rome (second annual day)
mundus patet: Opening of Mundus Cereris, ancient Rome
Mundus cereris was the womb or labyrinthine passage to the underworld, the domain of Ceres, the great Mother of vegetation. The structure was vaulted in the shape of an inverted sky, divided into two parts, and had a cover. We do not know for certain where the Mundus Cereris was, or is, but in 1914 Giacomo Boni discovered on the Palatine Hill in Rome a subterranean structure which he identified with the Mundus.
The cover was removed on August 24, October 5 and November 8, and these days were religiosi, when the way was supposed to be open to the lower world. First-fruits of the season would be offered to the Manes and placed in the pit.
Because the cover to the Mundus, the Lapis Manalis (Stone of the Manes), is considered an Ostium Orci (Gate of Hades), the Manes (ancestral spirits) are freed to roam for the day, so marriage was not permitted today, and nor were battles nor business considered advisable.
One of the numerous spheres over which the goddess Ceres had influence was liminality, that is, boundaries and transitions between different stages of social life, a function that she shared with Janus. We note that this commemoration in its November occurrence almost precisely coincides with the Celtic Samhain (October 31), at which time the veil between the living world and that of the dead is said to be its thinnest, and its Christian corollaries, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, November 1 and 2 respectively.
Departed ancestors were remembered at this time.Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
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 International
World Teachers' Day
"On 5 October, teachers' organisations worldwide mobilise to ensure that the needs of future generations are taken into consideration in this increasingly complex, multicultural and technological world. "UNESCO inaugurated 5 October as World Teachers' Day in 1994 to commemorate the joint signing of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (PDF 116 kb) on 5 October 1966. World Teachers' Day also highlights the Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel (PDF 6.6 mb) adopted in 1997."
October 5 is most common birthday in USA; May 22 least common "A recent in depth database query conducted by Anybirthday.com suggests that October 5th is the United States most popular birth date. It seems that on average more people are born on this day than any other. "According to the inquiry, an average of 12,576 people are born each year on the 5th of October. It also suggests that some 968,000 Americans celebrate this day annually. "What makes this early October birth date so fashionable? October 5th however held a not-so-suprising significance, as conception would have fallen right on New Years Eve. "Which birth date is the least common? May 22nd with an average of 10,259 persons born each year." Source
Audlem Wakes, Cheshire, England
Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days Nubaigai, The Festival of the Old Woman,
Lithuania Feast day of St Anna Schaeffer Feast day of St Attilanus Feast day of St Bartholomew Longo Feast day of St Flora of Beaulieu Feast day of St Francis Xavier Seelos Feast day of St Galla of
Rome, widow Feast day of St John Hewitt
Feast day of St Philip of
Moscow Feast day of St Placidus, abbot, and companions Feast day of St Raymond of Capua
Day of the Holy Spirit (Byzantine) Ram Mating Ceremony, Anatolia, Turkey (Oct 1 - 20)First week in October, Salters' tradition, London, UK Oktoberfest
(Sep 20
- Oct 5) Republic
Day, Portugal
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here 1703 Jonathan Edwards,
evangelical Christian leader 1713 Denis Diderot, French
encyclopaedist.
His Pensees philosophiques (1746), in which he attacked both
atheism and the received Christianity, was burned by order of the
Parliament of Paris. 1717 Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux (d. 1744), French mistress of King Louis XV of France 1728
Chevalier d'Éon,
French spy in the service of Louis XV who conducted missions for his
country disguised as a woman. A brilliant fencer, he gave
exhibitions in London and was fatally wounded in 1810. An autopsy
revealed his true sex. 1878 Louise Dresser (d. 1965), actress 1830 Chester A Arthur (d. 1886), 21st President of the United States 1882 Robert Goddard, rocket
scientist 1902 Larry
Fine (d. 1975) 1902 Ray Kroc (d. 1984), entrepreneur (founded McDonald's) Other late starters and late achievers in the Scriptorium 1903 M King Hubbert (d. 1989), geophysicist 1907 Mrs Miller (d. 1997), singer 1908 Joshua Logan (d. 1988), film director, writer 1911 Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan; d. 1966), Irish humourist and novelist (An Béal Bocht; At Swim-Two-Birds; The Third Policeman) 1917 Allen Ludden (d. 1981), television game show host 1919 Donald Pleasence (d. 1995),
British character actor (Halloween) 1923 Philip Berrigan, American peace activist, Christian anarchist and Roman Catholic priest. Along with his brother Daniel Berrigan, he was for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for actions against war. 1923 Glynis
Johns, actress 1924
Bill Dana, actor, comedian 1930 Pavel Popovich,
cosmonaut
1933 Diane Cilento, Papua New Guinea-born, Brisbane, Australia-raised actress 1935 Diahann Carroll, actress
1936 Václav Havel, Czech playwright, human rights campaigner and president, one of the leading intellectual figures and moral forces in Eastern Europe, especially Czechoslovakia. He satirised the communist bureaucracy and supported the Prague Spring reform movement in 1968. He was co-founder of the human rights organization Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted. In
November 1989, Vaclav Havel was one of the leading initiators of the
founding of the Civic Forum, an association uniting opposition civic
movements and democratic initiatives. From the very first days of
its existence, he was the head of the Civic Forum, becoming a key
figure of the 'Velvet
Revolution', when, beginning on November 17,
1989, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators for freedom took to the
streets of Prague. This became a popular uprising that seized the reins
of power from the incumbent Communist Party. Havel's works were banned by the government, but the manuscripts circulated privately and were printed in Western Europe. He has been awarded numerous international prizes and honorary doctorates. Rock music, especially that of Frank Zappa and Lou Reed, and the Czech band Plastic People of the Universe, inspired Havel and other dissidents during their struggle against Soviet rule:
During Havel's 1998 visit to the US, Lou Reed played at the state dinner in the White House at his request:
Reed
visits Havel when he is in Prague.
Plastic People of the Universe, film Rich literary world of the Czech undersground Official website Velvet
Revolution Havel,
Lou Reed: A friendship goes public for art More
More 1941 Eduardo Duhalde, Argentinan president 1943 Steve Miller, musician 1948 Tawl
Ross, musician (P Funk) 1951 Karen
Allen, actress 1952 Clive Barker, writer
1954 Bob
Geldof (Robert Frederick Xenon Geldof), Irish
(b. in
Dún
Laoghaire, County
Dublin) singer,
songwriter,
actor
and instigator of Live
Aid, famine
relief concert Geldof came to fame in the mid-1970s as leader of the Boomtown Rats, a rock group closely linked with the punk movement. In 1978, they had their first Number 1 single with 'Rat Trap', which was the first new wave chart-topper in the UK. A follow-up, 'I Don't Like Mondays', was equally successful and also controversial, as Geldof wrote it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencer's attempted massacre at her school in San Diego, California at the beginning of 1979. Geldof has received many awards for this work, including an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. As he is not a British or Commonwealth citizen, Geldof is precluded from using the title 'Sir'. Regardless, the nickname 'Sir Bob' has stuck, and even media reports will frequently refer to him as 'Sir Bob Geldof'. On July 7, 2005, Geldof was nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize because of his dedication to fighting poverty and AIDS in Africa. Bob Geldof is also an active fathers' rights spokesperson in the United Kingdom.
1958 Bernie Mac, actor, comedian 1960 Daniel Baldwin, actor (Homicide: Life on the Street) 1963 Caron Keating (d. 2004), former Blue Peter presenter 1967 Guy Pearce, actor 1975 Kate Winslet, actress
Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section
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Dionysiad, Rumanian wine festival (see also 
