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Welcome to the Round Table for the week of December 19-25, 2010
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Among all peoples of the world, the most common times for celebration are the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Considering that the austerity and bleakness of Winter (in contrast to the relative abundance and warmth of Summer) would be so impactful upon the lives of primitive peoples living in temperate climates these festival times — and even Sun-worship — should come as no surprise. Stonehenge and hundreds of other megalithic structures throughout the world were constructed to receive a shaft of sunlight in their central chamber at solstice dawn.
December feasts were common in Europe because it was necessary to slaughter cattle that could not be fed during the winter and because the meat could be preserved by the cold weather. With the completion of the harvest and snow on the ground, farmers were loaded with provisions. There was not much work that could be done, so there was time to relax, to feast, to celebrate and to engage in social activities.
The word Yule may come from the Anglo-Saxon word geol (feast), applied to December (geola, feast month). Or it may come from a Norse-Saxon word meaning wheel, referring to the seasonal cycles of the sun. Or it could have come from the Scandinavian Jule (Jul), who was the god of sex and fertility. ("Tide" as in "yuletide" may have come from an Old English word meaning time, occasion or season.)
Midwinter sun festivals were celebrated in ancient Britain & Scandinavia. In Germanic & Scandinavian countries a huge log was carried into the house to serve as the foundation for holiday fires. The Yule log at Jultid (Yuletide) would burn for twelve days, and a different sacrifice would be made on each of the twelve days. Lighted candles and winter fires were used by sun-worshipers to encourage the rebirth of the Sun. Similarly tying fruit to the branches of trees was intended to encourage the coming of Spring.
December 19 1732 - Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac. 1776 - Thomas Paine published his first American Crisis essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls." 1843 - Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol." 1946 - War broke out in Indochina when Ho Chi Minh attacked the French. 1972 - Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings. 1984 - Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997. 1998 - President Bill Clinton impeached on two counts by the House of Representatives.
December 20 1790 - Samuel Slater built the nation's first cotton mill in Pawtucket, R.I. 1803 - The United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France for $15 million. 1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. 1968 - Author John Steinbeck died at age 66. 1989 - The United States invaded Panama and installed a new government but failed to capture General Manuel Antonio Noriega. 1996 - Astronomer Carl Sagan died at age 62.
December 21 1620 - The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts. 1891 - The first basketball game, invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts by James E. Naismith, was played. 1898 - Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium. 1913 - The first crossword puzzle was printed in the New York World. 1937 - Disney's Snow White, the first feature length color and sound cartoon, premiered. 1970 - Elvis Presley met with president Richard Nixon in the White House. 1988 - A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. 1991 - Eleven of the former Soviet republics form the Commonwealth of Independent States. 1995 - Palestinians took over the control of the city of Bethlehem.
December 22 1772 - Construction of the first schoolhouse west of the Allegheny Mountains was started in Schoenbrunn, Ohio, by Moravian missionaries. 1807 - The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act. 1864 - During the Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln saying, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah." 1894 - French army officer Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial. 1989 - Playwright Samuel Beckett died at age 83. 1989 - Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown. 2001 - Hamid Karzai sworn in as president of Afghanistan.
December 23 1783 - George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army. 1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the District of Columbia. 1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("'Twas the night before Christmas"), written by either Clement C. Moore or Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr., was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York. 1913 - President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the Federal Reserve System. 1947 - The transistor was unveiled by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley. 1948 - Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed.
December 24 1814 - The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. 1818 - "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber. 1865 - The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee. 1871 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida premiered in Cairo, Egypt, at the opening of the Suez Canal. 1943 - Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Allied Forces by President Franklin Roosevelt. 1992 - President Bush pardoned former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
December 25 1066 - William the Conqueror was crowned King of England. 1776 - George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the Hessians. 1868 - President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War. 1926 - Hirohito became emperor of Japan. 1977 - British film actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88. 1989 - Former Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed. 1991 - President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death -- Auntie Mame You are born naked and everything else is drag - RuPaul
Good Morning, Y'all! A lunar eclipse is going to accompany this year's Solstice for the first time in 456 years. I'll probably watch it. Check out this [b]frozen Newfoundland waves video.[/b] Anyone for salty snow cones for breakfast?
Good Morning, Y'all! A lunar eclipse is going to accompany this year's Solstice for the first time in 456 years. I'll probably watch it. Check out this frozen Newfoundland waves video.[/b] Anyone for salty snow cones for breakfast?
That is a cool video, [b]Joe! And I'm going to try and watch the lunar eclipse, too.
milk and Girl Scout cookies ;-)
Save your breath-You may need it to blow up your date.
I loved that Fairbanks solstice clip Phil. Thats what it seems the sun does here as it clips across the tips of the fir trees. Although it gets higher in the sky and stays up longer. We at 44* approximately.
So in June in Fairbanks the sun will spin continually in circles in the sky. I find that bizarre and all of this makes me long for the tropics.
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
I loved that Fairbanks solstice clip Phil. Thats what it seems the sun does here as it clips across the tips of the fir trees. Although it gets higher in the sky and stays up longer. We at 44* approximately.
So in June in Fairbanks the sun will spin continually in circles in the sky. I find that bizarre and all of this makes me long for the tropics.
Here ya go, Ken~
Enjoy!
milk and Girl Scout cookies ;-)
Save your breath-You may need it to blow up your date.
![[Linked Image from buddymaterna.files.wordpress.com]](http://buddymaterna.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/_winter_solstice_.jpg)
![[Linked Image from featurepics.com]](http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20101010/Merry-Christmas-Wisemen-1668535.jpg)
![[Linked Image from media.pcwin.com]](http://media.pcwin.com/images/screen/dArt_Tropical_Islands_vol_1_11773.jpg)
