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None but Christ! None but Christ!
St Lambert's last words, at his martyrdom, September 17, c. 705

Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon St Lambert's Day.
Shakespeare, Richard II, I, i. September 17 is St Lambert's feast day

Then I saw a burning light, as large and as high as a mountain, divided at its summit as if into many tongues. And there stood in the presence of this light a multitude of white-clad people, before whom what seemed like a screen of translucent crystal had been placed, reaching from their breasts to their feet. And before that multitude, as if in a road, there lay on its back a monster shaped like a worm, wondrously large and long, which aroused an indescribable sense of horror and rage. On its left stood a kind of market-place, which displayed human wealth and worldly delights and various sorts of merchandise; and some people were running through it very fast and not buying anything, while others were walking slowly and stopping both to sell and to buy. Now that worm was black and bristly, covered with ulcers and pustules, and it was divided into five regions from the head down through the belly to its feet, like stripes. One was green, one white, one red, one yellow and one black; and they were full of deadly poison. But its head had been so crushed that the left side of its jawbone was dislocated. Its eyes were bloody on the surface and burning within; its ears were round and bristly : its nose and mouth were those of a viper, its hands human, its feet a viper's feet, and its tail short and horrible.
St Hildegard von Bingen, whose feast day this is; Scivias

Coolgardie, Western Australia, 1890s,
at around the time Herbert Hoover was working there

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Feast day of St Columba of Cordova, virgin and martyr

This saint was beheaded in 852 at Tabanos, Spain. It has been suggested Columba is a Christianization of Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, sex and beauty, seen here in a Greek tetradrachm circa 410 - 400 BCE.

This is because the dove (order Columbiformes) was Aphrodite's bird. In Greek mythology, although the name of the goddess means 'foam-arisen' as Aphrodite was born of the sea foam near Paphos, in one version doves sat on a fabulous egg that had fallen into the Euphrates River, and in due course Aphrodite hatched from the egg.

Columba is also a constellation to be found south of the Lepus the Hare, and on the meridian with Orion's Belt. "Although first formally published by Royer in 1679, there is indications that this constellation was known in classical times. Sometimes this constellation is known as Columba Noae 'Noah's Dove'." (More)

Month of Hethara, ancient Egypt
"Egyptian:  Month of Hethara – corresponds roughly with this date on the Gregorian calendar.  Netjer of this month – Het-Hert (Hathor)."   Source

Egyptian calendar

Festival of Sobek, god of crocodiles, ancient Egypt

Sobek, a son of Neith (goddess of war and wisdom), is a crocodile-headed deity with a man's body and a feathered crown, rarely seen as a full crocodile (which was also used as the representation of Apep). In his hands he carries a was sceptre and the ankh sign of life.

He protects the pharaoh from all harm, especially evil magic. Sobek created the Nile, is a god of fertility and rebirth, and also symbolises strength of the ruler of Egypt. His cult was centred in Kom Ombo, Thebes and El Faiyûm, but Sobek was worshipped throughout Egypt.
Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar

Greater Eleusinian Mysteries, ancient Greece (Sep 10 - 19)

Eighth day: the secret rites in the Telesterion finish and the feast, Pannychis, begins. Second Initiation: Perhaps a repeat for those who had not fully grasped the Mysteries the first time through, or a confirmation of what had been realized at that time. The ritual took place in caves.  (Source: School of the Seasons)

The Telesterion
The eighth day was called the Second Initiation, with the rites taking place in caves and in the Telesterion, designed by Ictinos in the 5^th Century BCE. This building was a large initiation hall capable of holding thousands of worshippers. There the initiates were shown Demeter's hiera (sacred relics) that were housed in the interior chamber known as the Anaktoron ('Palace'; a small stone building which only the hierophantes could enter), while the priestesses revealed their oracles of the holy night (probably via a fire that represented the possibility of life after death). This was the most arcane part of the Eleusinian Mysteries, with those who had been initiated forbidden ever to speak of the events that had taken place in the Telesterion.

The Mysteries and the goddesses
The Eleusinian Mysteries were in honour of Demeter ('barley mother' – her name is purely Greek, meaning 'spelt mother', spelt being a hardy variety of wheat), the Greek goddess of agriculture, health, birth and marriage, and her daughter, Persephone. She was associated with the Roman goddess Ceres; also, she was the daughter of Cronos and Rhea (wife-sister of Jupiter), and therefore the sister of Zeus. Her priestesses were addressed with the title Melissa.

"The eighth day was called Epidaurion Hemera, because once Aesculapius, at his return from Epidaurus to Athens, was initiated by the repetition of the lesser mysteries. It became customary, therefore, to celebrate them a second time upon this, that such as had not hitherto been initiated might be lawfully admitted."
John Lempriere (c. 1765 - February 1, 1824), Bibliotheca Classica or Classical Dictionary (1788), Hippocrene Books, 1986 Source

"The rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries … would continue with initiations taking place in an underground chamber full of passageways and sacred objects. These rites would continue till the end of the month. Triptolemus, who had been cured of a childhood illness by Ceres, was taken around the world on a chariot and shown the wonders of nature. When he returned home to Eleusis he built a magnificent temple to Ceres and established the worship of the goddess. These rites, the Eleusinian Mysteries, surpassed all other Greek religious celebrations in their solemnity and splendor."   Source

Circensian games, ancient Rome  (Apr 12 - 19; Sep 4 - 19)

Feast day of St Agathoclia

Feast day of St Ariadne

Feast day of St Brogan

Feast day of St Crescentio

Feast day of St Emmanuel Trieu

Feast day of St Flocellus

Feast day of St Gordian

Feast day of St Justin

Feast day of St Lambert, bishop of Maastricht, The Netherlands
(Narrow-leaved mallow, Malva augustiflora, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)  
St Lambert of Maastricht was born c. 636 at Maastricht and died September 17, c. 700. He was a dedicated missionary for thirty years, seven of which he spent in exile at Stavelot, brought about by opposition to him from the powerful West Frankish ruler, Ebroin. He was believed to have been murdered at Liege on the orders of Pepin of Herstal, whom Lambert had rebuked for adultery with his sister-in-law. Lambert was venerated as a martyr. Many Low Country churches are dedicated to him, especially in Belgium. He is a saint of the Catholic, not Anglican, church.

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Feast day of St Macrinus

Feast day of St Narcissus

Feast day of St Peter Arbues 

Former feast day of St Robert Bellarmine
St Robert (October 4, 1542 - September 17, 1621), one of the 33 Doctors of the Church, was a friend of Galileo and an authority on ecclesiology. His mother, Cinzia Cervini, was a niece of Pope Marcellus II. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1930. Terry H Jones writes in his excellent Patron Saints Index: "Defender of the faith against Protestants, especially against abuses in Germany and England." His feast day is now September 17.

"During the religious feuds which raged so horribly in Holland, the Protestant party originated a design for a drinking jug, in ridicule of their great opponent, the famed Cardinal Bellarmine, who had been sent into the Low Countries to oppose in person, and by his pen, the progress of the Reformed religion. He is described as 'short and hard-featured,' and thus he was typified in the corpulent beer-jug here delineated. To make the resemblance greater, the Cardinal's face, with the great square-cut beard then peculiar to ecclesiastics, and termed 'the cathedral beard,' was placed in front of the jug, which was as often called ' a grey-beard' as it was 'a Bellarmine.' It was so popular as to be manufactured by thousands, in all sizes and qualities of cheapness; sometimes the face was delineated in the rudest and fiercest style. It met with a large sale in England, and many fragments of these jugs of the reign of Elizabeth and James I have been exhumed in London."
Robert Chambers

"Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar St. Robert Bellarmine's feast was celebrated on May 13. Today was the feast of the Impression of the Stigmata on St. Francis. Two years before his death St. Francis retired to Mt. Alverno where he began a forty days' fast in honor of St. Michael the Archangel. There, while in a state of continual prayer and unceasing watching, he saw in a vision a seraph with burning, dazzling wings whose feet and hands were nailed to a cross; at the same time five wounds, like those of our Lord, appeared on Francis' feet, hands and side; from the wound in his side blood flowed. These stigmata were so fully verified subsequently that the Franciscans since the fourteenth century have celebrated a feast in honor of the event.

"He was born at Montepulciano in Tuscany on October 4, 1542, the feast of the Poverello of Assisi toward whom he always cherished a special devotion. The day on which he died, September 17, is now the feast in honor of the stigmata of St. Francis."   Source

 

Feast day of St Rouin, or Rodingus, or Chrodingus, abbot of Beaulieu

Feast day of St Satyrus

Feast day of St Sigimondo Felice Felinski

Feast day of Ss Socrates and Stephen, martyrs under Roman emperor Diocletian

Feast day of the Stigmata of Francis of Assisi

Feast day of St Valerian

Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints

Pilgrimage of the Black Madonna, Switzerland (Sep 14 - 20)

Ginger Festival, at Daijin Shrine, Tokyo, Japan (Sep 11 - 21)

Sansculottides, French Republican Calendar

The Sansculottides (also Epagomenes; French Sans-culottides, Sanculottides, jours complementaires, jours épagomènes) are the end of the French Republican Calendar (French Revolutionary Calendar). They follow Fructidor and precede Vendémiaire of the next year, belonging to the summer quarter of the year.

The Sansculottides, named after the Sansculottes, amend the 360 days of the calendar so that the beginning of the next year is on the autumnal equinox. There were five Sansculottides in a common year and six in a leap year (from this derives the French name of the leap year année sextile). The Sansculottides start on September 17 or 18 and end on September 22 or 23.

Months in the French Republican Calendar

Vendémiaire | Brumaire | Frimaire | Nivôse | Pluviôse | Ventôse | Germinal | Floréal | Prairial | Messidor | Thermidor | Fructidor

Autumn Equinox festival at 
Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico (Sep 17 - 26)

At the Castillo, a Mayan pyramid built c. 1000 - 1200 at Chichén Itzá, Mexico, on the equinoxes a jagged shadow is thrown down the northern staircase. It looks like a serpent going down, meeting a stone snake's head at the base.

"Not only is the Mayan pyramid at Chichén Itzá one of the greatest surviving monuments of the Mayan civilisation, but it also captures the light in a unique way when it's solstice or equinox time.

"Not quite ruler of an empire, Chichén Itzá became, for a time, the pivot of the lowland Maya world. The Temple of Kukulkan (for the Feathered Serpent God, also known as Quetzalcoatl) is the largest and most important ceremonial structure at the site. This 90-foot-high pyramid is a storehouse of information on the Mayan calendar and is cleverly positioned to mark the solstices and equinoxes.

"At sunset on both the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, an interplay between the sun's light and the edges of the stepped terraces on the pyramid creates a fascinating – and very brief – shadow display upon the sides of the northern stairway. A serrated line of seven interlocking triangles gives the impression of a long tail leading downward to the stone head of the serpent Kukulkan, at the base of the stairway.

"You have to see it to believe it. The best time to experience the phenomena is in the afternoons, five days before and five days after the equinox (22 September). On the day, thousands turn up, so be sure to get there early!

Autumn Equinox is commemorated on September 22 in the Book of Days

Calendar convergence and 2012

Quetzalcoatl

Pyramids mimic bird calls

"When tourists clap their hands at the base of the steep limestone staircases that climb the outside walls of the Mayan pyramid known as the Temple of Kukulkan (at Chichén Itzá, Mexico), a curious bird-like echo is produced.

"Intrigued by such reports, David Lubman, an acoustical consultant from California, decided to visit the 1,300-year-old site for himself. One look at the structure of the staircases (completed about 900 years ago) made it clear to him how such a distinctive echo could be produced. The hundred or so evenly spaced steps give rise to periodically spaced echoes, and these produce the tonal sounds heard by visitors. The steps have relatively high risers and short treads (the part where you put your foot). Although sound is echoed from each of these step-faces, acoustical engineering predicts that the individual echoes produced first from the lower, closer steps will be higher in pitch compared to those from the progressively higher and more distant steps. The result is a rapid succession of echoes descending in pitch that sounds remarkably like the chirping of a bird.

"Is the bird-like echo an accidental by-product of pyramid design? …

"The echo is reminiscent of the cry of the Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) – the national bird of Guatamala. This magnificent bird, now critically endangered, was considered sacred by the Mayan people. Indeed, it is often depicted with the mythical human-like figure of Kukulkan. When Lubman compared sonagraphs of the echo with that of the bird, he found a remarkable match. (If you want to listen to it for yourself, click on 'Quetzal bird chirps' at http://www.ocasa.org/MayanPyramid.htm.) Lubman believes that the Mayan people incorporated the quetzal-like cries into the sacred ceremonies conducted at the pyramid. Although there is no other evidence that the Mayans used quetzal cries in their ceremonies, the idea certainly sounds good and archaeologists applaud the research."   Source

What is the quetzal?

From Wikipedia: The Resplendent Quetzal [Pharomachrus mocinno] is a colourful bird of the trogon family found in tropical areas of southern Mexico and of Central America. This quetzal plays an important role in Mesoamerican myth. It is an endangered species.

The bird plays a prominent role in the region's Pre-Columbian mythology and in modern legend. Ancient Mesoamerican kings and high priests wore headdresses of quetzal feathers. In several Mesoamerican languages, the term for quetzal can also mean precious, sacred or erected.

The Resplendent Quetzal has never been successfully bred or been held for any long time in captivity, and indeed is noted for usually dying soon after if captured or caged. For this reason it is considered a symbol of liberty.

An image of a Quetzal is on the flag and national seal of Guatemala.

One Guatemalan legend claims that the quetzal used to sing beautifully before the Spanish conquest, but has been silent ever since – but will sing once again when the land is truly free.

Mystery of 'chirping' pyramid decoded (Originally in Nature, December 14, 2004)    More

Feast of San Gennaro, New York, USA (c. Sep 11 -