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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Some really important things happened on this date, acc'g. to Gurunet:
Today in History
Macbeth: king of Scotland was murdered by Malcolm III, whose father, Duncan I, Macbeth had killed to acquire the throne (1057)
V-J Day: marked Japan's unconditional surrender in WWII (1945)
India, Pakistan: separated and became independent of British rule (1947)
Shameful secret: I hadn't known that Macbeth was a real person.
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
In reply to:
India, Pakistan: separated and became independent of British rule (1947)
I just learned about a special celebration of this event:
http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2005/08/people_separate.html
I hope that by the time I get to go there, this sort of rapprochement will be the norm.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
No, the Ides of August is the equivalent of our 13 August, not 15 August.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
the 15th day of March, May, July, or October or the 13th day of any other month in the ancient Roman calendar; broadly : this day and the seven days preceding it
close, but no Caesar.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
Also on the 15th of August Catholics celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. This is different from the Ascension of Christ in that "ascension" is understood to mean "elevating oneself by one's own means" (Christ had the power to ascend to heaven), whereas "assumption" means someone is made to ascend by others (the Virgin Mary was "pulled" to heaven by Grace, or the Holy Spirit, or whatever). I find it interesting that in the context of Catholicism there are two terms for the same kind of phenomenon, with such a fine distinction between them.
We use both words in Spain as girls' names (my grandma was named Ascensión), and I've even heard of international postal services getting mixed up between Ascension Island somewhere in the Atlantic and Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
I've even heard of international postal services getting mixed up between Ascension Island somewhere in the Atlantic and Asunción, the capital city of ParaguayWell at least the two are appropriately named: the island elevates itself above the water line, and the city was erected by others. The Romans had a knack for organization, but apparently it did not extend to their calanders: In the calendar of the ancient Romans, the months contained three primary markers -- the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. The Kalends were always the first day of the month. The Nones were usually the 5th but sometimes the 7th, and the Ides were the 15th but sometimes the 13th. All the days after the Ides were numbered by counting down towards the next month's Kalends. The holidays were generally bunched together to form continuous celebrations, and the remaining days of the month were usually nondescript workdays.
The Romans borrowed parts of their earliest known calendar from the Greeks. The calendar consisted of 10 months in a year of 304 days. The Romans seem to have ignored the remaining 61 days, which fell in the middle of winter. The 10 months were named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six names were taken from the words for five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Romulus, the legendary first ruler of Rome, is supposed to have introduced this calendar in the 700's B.C.E.
According to tradition, the Roman ruler Numa Pompilius added January and February to the calendar. This made the Roman year 355 days long. To make the calendar correspond approximately to the solar year, Numa also ordered the addition every other year of a month called Mercedinus. Mercedinus was inserted after February 23 or 24, and the last days of February were moved to the end of Mercedinus. In years when it was inserted, Mercedinus added 22 or 23 days to the year.
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-roman.html
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