Juno Covella - November

NOVEMBER

Goddesses of the Calendar Month:

Hathor

Sekhet, Sekhmet

Demeter; The Horae

Diana

Samhuin, Samhain, Samain

The Cailleach, The VeiledWoman, The Carline, The Mag-Moullach

Astraea

NOVEMBER 1st

Egyptian: ISIS; The Isia, The Zetesis and Heuresis, Fifth Day. (Philocalus, Kal.) “November 1 ... Isia”. (Larson, Rel. of Occident, p. 178) on the autumn festival of Isis: “it usually began on October 31st ... On the two days following, the portions of Osiris were found, reconstituted, and resurrected. This was the central element in the myth, for if Osiris could regain life and become immortal through the power of Isis, then all her devotees could do the same”.

(Montfaucon, Antiq. Suppl. p. 21) on a Roman representation of the Months (see under February: Februarius): “The Man (i.e. a priest of Isis) has in the other Hand a Sistrum, or Instrument us’d at the Feasts of Isis, which Feasts are noted in the Calendar (i.e. of Philocalus) annexed to these Images in the Ms. to be upon the Calends of November.”

(Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 1st: The Finding of Osiris”.

Celtic: Lá Samhna, Samhain Day; Second of the Three Days of Samhain; Feile na Marbh, Feast of the Dead. (Dinneen, Dict.) “Samhain, All-Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in pagan and Christian times, signalising the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season lasting till May ... the fairies (aos sídhe) were imagined as particularly active at this season, from it the half-year is reckoned; also called Féile na Marbh and Féile Moingfhinne (snow goddess); Lá Samhna, 1st November ... the weird fairy elfin first of November . . mi na Samhna, the month of November lucht na Samhna, the Hollantide good-things …”

(Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 1 … ‘Peace Fire’ of the Druids, Samhain”. (The Druids Cal.) “November 1. Samhain. The dark month begins, initiating the Gloom. Unharvested fruit now belongs to the puca and faerie who roam abroad. Samhain and Beltane (May Day) are the joints of the year”. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 1st. Festival of the Goddess Samhain and of all the Sidhe and departed Spirits. Communion with those of other spheres. 1st - 3rd: The door is open between earth sphere and other realms. Spirits may move through the door. Souls may meet each other. Psychic vision and prophecy. Future lovers seen. Intercalary days of the Gaelic Moon Year - days out of time”.

(Frazer, Golden Bough abgd. p. 633) on May Day and Hallowe’en: “Of the two feasts Hallowe’en was perhaps of old the more important, since the Celts would seem to have dated the beginning of the year from it rather than Beltane ... In ancient Ireland, a, new fire used to be kindled every year on Hallowe’en on the Eve of Samhain, and from this sacred flame all the fires in Ireland were kindled. Such a custom points strongly to Samhain ... (the first of November) as New Years Day”. See also under November 11th.

Irish: THE BANSHEES. (Joyce, Soc. Hist. Ireland, Vol. 1. p. 265) “Fairies - sometimes banshees or females, sometimes fershees or males - often kept company with mortals, and became greatly attached to them. Every Samain a banshee used to visit Fingin Mac Luchta, king of South Munster in the second century, and bring him on a round of visits to the shees, to see all the precious things therein. A banshee follower of a mortal was usually called a lennan-shee (‘fairy-lover’), and instances of such attachments are innumerable”. Note: the words Sidhe, Siodh or Shee apply both to the fairies and to the fairy mounds.

MONGFINN, MOINGFHIONN; Feile Moingfhinne, The Feast of Moingfhionn. See above (Dinneen). Mongfinn is described by Borlase (Dolmens, Vol. 111. p. 801) as a princess of South Munster. According to Dinneen she is a snow goddess.

SAMHAIN. See Goddesses of the month and November 1st: La Samhna.

THE SWAN-MAIDENS. (Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, p. 23) The author mentions “the tradition in early Irish legends of holding the sacred feast of Samhain (November 1st) on the shores of lakes ... In the story of The Dream of Angus (p.237) the feast is held by the side of Loch Bel Dracon ... swan-girls with their magic necklets are described, as are the great preparations which went into the making of the feast”.

TEA and TEPHI; The Assembly at Tara. (Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, p. 227) “The Assembly of Tara was under the patronage of another goddess, Tea”. (Macalister, Tara, p. 156) “The Assemblies at Tara took place on Samain”. Tea and Tephi, described as Milesian princesses, founded Tara, the ancient religious and political centre of Ireland.

Greek: HECATE. (McLean, Fire Festivals, p. 7) “The Fire Festivals are distinctly Female in nature. Samhain is the festival of Hecate, the Old Moon Goddess”.

General: All Saints’ Day. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “November 1. Feast of All Saints, with Octave”. (Church of England Cal. and Church of Ireland Cal.) “November 1. All Saints’ Day”.

All Souls’ Eve. (Brewer, Dict.) “Teanlay Night. The vigil of All Souls . . when bonfires were lighted and revels held for succouring souls” ... (Whistler, English Fest. p. 198) on the festivals of All Saints and All Souls: “the living reached out to them (i.e. the dead), and hoped by the pressure of their willing to break down for one night the frontier between the two kingdoms, and enable those on the far side to return. On All Souls Eve families sat up, and little cakes, known as Soul Cakes, were eaten by everyone. There were still a few children in 1938, going from door to door ‘souling’ for cakes or money by singing a song (Wright and Lones, British Calendar Customs: England). As the clock struck twelve there was silence, for at this hour the souls of the dead would revisit their earthly homes. There were candles burning in every room to guide them ... and there was a glass of wine on the table to refresh them. But even though the room became crowded with urgest invisible faces, no one looked for the wine to diminish by even a hair’s breadth during the vigil.”

(Yeats, Collected Poems, p. 250, All Souls Night):

“And it is All Souls’ Night

And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel

Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;

For it is a ghosts’ right,

His element is so fine

Being sharpened by his death,

To drink from the wine-breath

While our gross palates drink from the whole wine”.

General: THE WITCHES; Greater Sabbat. See under February 1st. (Whistler, English Fest. p. 199) on All Souls’ Eve: “It was above all others the time of spirit-walkings ... the time of the Witches’ Sabbath ... and much supernatural traffic”. See also under October 31st.

NOVEMBER 2nd

Egyptian: ISIS; The Zetesis and Heuresis, Sixth Day. See under November 1st.

General: All Souls’ Day. (Old Moore’s Almanac) “November 2nd. All Souls”. (Whitaker’s Almanack) “November 2. All Souls’ Day”. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 2. All Souls Day”. (Church of England Cal.) “November 2. Commemoration of All Souls.”

(Frazer, Golden Bough abgd. p. 360) “the feast of All Souls in November is a continuation of an old heathen feast of the dead”. (Whistler, English Fest. p. 198) “the feast of All Saints on November 1st [was] instituted in the ninth century, and the feast of All Souls’ Day on November 2nd ... in 998”. (id. p.: 201 ) “On All Souls’ Day the living pray for the dead, affirming the unity of souls from one end of time to the other ... the Feast has been restored to the Church of England’s Calendar in the Prayer Book of 1928”.

(Brewer, Dict.) “Soul Cakes. Cakes given in Staffordshire and Cheshire on All Souls’ Day, to the poor who go a-souling, i.e. begging for soul-cakes. The words used are -

“ ‘Soul, soul, for soul-cake

Pray you, good mistress, a soul-cake’,”

NOVEMBER 3rd

Egyptian: ISIS, The Isia; The Zetesis and Heuresis, Last Day, The Hilaria. (Philocalus, Kal. anno 354) “November 3. Hilaria”.

(Cumont, Orient. Rel. p. 97) “of all the celebrations connected with the worship of Isis the most stirring and the most suggestive was the commemoration of the ‘Finding of Osiris’ (Inventio, Heuresis). Its antecedents date back to remote antiquity. Since the time of the twelfth dynasty, and probably much earlier, there had been held at Abydos and elsewhere a sacred performance ... in which the events of Osiris’s passion and resurrection were reproduced. We are in possession of the ritual of those performances (Schäfer, Weidemann, Junker) ... The same myth was represented in almost the same manner at Rome at the beginning of each November ... after the corpse had been found, rehabilitated and revived, there was a long outburst of joy, an exuberant jubilation that rang through the temples and the streets”.

(Plutarch, De Iside el Osiride, 366F) on the third day of the Seeking of Osiris: “they go down to the sea at night-time; and the keepers of the robes and the priests bring forth the hallowed chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water which they have taken up, and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found. Then they knead some fertile soil with water and mix in spices and incense of a very costly sort, and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure which they clothe and adorn”.

(Witt, Isis in Graeco-Roman World, p. 213) “The search instituted by Isis for the recovery of the missing members of Osiris’ body lasts until the 7th day of Athyr, i.e. 3rd November”. (id. p. 162) “They went out of the temple and down to the sea on the final night. It was a public occasion, marked in the Roman calendar with the name Hilaria, ‘Osiris has been found’ - so the crowd shouted for joy ... Another variation of the formula was ‘we have found, and rejoice’. Even though the ceremony did not take place in daytime it was open to view”. (id. p. 180) “the Hilaria on 3 November ... ended with a procession down to the seashore by night. Between the daytime pageant such as Lucius witnessed (i.e. the Isidis Navigium on March 5th) and the one carried out by torch light in wintry gloom there was obviously room for differences of procedure ... A search that lasted nearly a whole week must have involved an elaborate ritual ... the image of a cow was carried as a fertility emblem ... At the end, when ‘Osiris has been found’ had been shouted, the priests would … fashion a small image in the shape of the crescent moon. This was the November rite”.

Frazer (Golden Bough abgd. p. 366) on the resurrection of Osiris: “Then Isis fanned the cold clay with her wings: Osiris revived”. (Larson, Rel. of Occident, p. 8) “Isis breathed her own life into the nostrils of Osiris, and with the help of Thoth, and of Horus, who opened his mouth ... she accomplished the resurrection of Osiris to a second and eternal life; and thus he became the first-fruits of them that slept”.

(Larson. id. p. 178) On the autumn festival of Isis: “The fourth day (note: see October 31st) of the festival was called the Hilaria and was given over to the most unrestrained rejoicing since the god, now risen to immortality, would [assess] all who had become divine by drinking the milk of Isis. And there could be little doubt concerning the future felicity of those who put their trust in her”.

Gaelic: (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 3rd: Gaelic New Year. Cattle brought down from the hills. Start of new enterprises. Initiation of the soul during winter months starts during Samhain and finishes on February 1st, Festival of Brighid”. See also under November 1st: Celtic.

NOVEMBER 8th

Roman: CERES; The Underworld deities; MANIA and. The Manes; Third Day of the Opening of the Mundus Cereris. See under August 24th.

(Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 8th: The Manes. The door opens between this earth and the Lower World of Elysium and Hades”.

Japanese: HETTSUI NO KAMI; The Fuigo Matsuri. (Chamberlain, Things Japanese, p. 161) “November has several Shinto festivals. The most notable of these, held in honour of the Goddess of the Kitchen-range (Hettsui no Kami) and termed Fuigo Matsuri, or the Feast of Bellows, takes place on the 8th. Fires are then also lighted in honour of Inari and other deities in the courts of Shinto temples”.

(Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 8th ... Festival of Hettsui no Kami, Japanese Goddess of the Kitchen-range”.

NOVEMBER 9th

Roman: HELENA Diva. (Amm. Marcellinus, XV. viii. 18) “Then, within a few days (i.e. of November 6th, 355), Helena, the maiden sister of Constantius, was joined in the bonds of wedlock to Caesar (i.e. Julian).”

(Julian, The Caesars, 335A) “as for my wife, I was not the first to decree divine honours to a wife, for I followed the example of many others.”

NOVEMBER 10th

Celtic: Old November Eve.

Manx: (Frazer, Golden Bough abgd. p. 633) “In the Isle of Man ... the first of November, Old Style, has been regarded as New Year’s Day down to recent times. Thus Manx mummers used to go round on Hallowe’en (Old Style) singing in the Manx language, a sort of Hogmanay song which began ‘To-night is New Year’s Night, Hogunnaa!’.”

Scottish: NICNEVIN. (Doreen Valiente, ABC of Witchcraft, p. 90) “Diana ... In Scotland she was called Nicnevin, who rode through the night with her followers ‘at the hinder end of harvest, on old Hallowe’en’, as an old Scots poet describes it”.

French: THE GODDESSES OF REASON, LIBERTY and PHILOSOPHY. (Brewer, Dict.) “Reason. The Goddess of Reason. November 10th, 1793. Mlle. Candeille, of the Opera, was one of the earliest of these goddesses, but Mme. Momoro, wife of the printer, the Goddess of Liberty, was the most celebrated. On November 10th a festival was held in Notre Dame de Paris in honour of Reason and Liberty, when women represented [them]. Mlle. Candeille wore a red Phrygian cap, a white frock, a blue mantle, and tricolour ribbons. Her head was filleted with oak-leaves, and in her hand she carried the pike of Jupiter-Peuple. In the cathedral a sort of temple was erected on a mound, and in this ‘temple of Philosophy’ Mlle. Candeille was installed. Young girls crowned with oak-leaves were her attendants, and sang hymns in her honour. Similar installations were repeated at Lyons and other places.

“Mme. Maillard, the actress, is mentioned by Lamartine as one of these goddesses ... Mlle. Aubray was another Goddess of Reason”.

(Adrien Dansette, cited by McIntosh, Rel. Hist. of Mod. France) “A rock was placed in the choir of Notre Dame and on it a circular temple was erected, dedicated to Philosophy”. (McIntosh, id.) “On the morning of the 10th of November (1793) in the presence of the members of the Commune, a procession of girls marched up and down the sides of the rock, saluting as they passed the Flame of Truth which burned half way up. An actress from the Opéra ... came out of the temple and seated herself on a grass-covered throne. She was Reason and the girls chanted a hymn to her. Then, with the goddess borne on the shoulders of four citizens, the participants and spectators set off for the convention ... Similar ceremonies took place ... all over the country where many churches had been converted into temples of Reason”.

(Dict. Univ. Biog.) “Chaumette, Pierre-Gaspard ... was the originator of the Fêtes de la Raison, and planned the procession of the goddess of Reason”.

NOVEMBER 11th

Celtic: Old November Day. See under November 10th and below.

Irish: The Lunantishees. (Evans Wentz, Fairy-Faith, p. 53) on the Shee or Fairies: “The lunantishees are the tribes that guard the blackthorn trees or sloes; they let you cut no stick on the eleventh of November (the original November Day), or on the eleventh of May (the original May Day)”.

NOVEMBER 13th

Egyptian: ISIS. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 13. Dismemberment of Osiris. Lamentations of Isis”. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 13-14th: Isis and Osiris. The Magical Arts”.

According to Plutarch’s account (De Iside et Osiride, 366 E) “the disappearance of Osiris occurred in the month of Athyr ... this (i.e. the display of the gilded image of a cow) is kept for four days consecutively, beginning with the seventeenth of the month ... On the nineteenth day they go down to the sea at night-time”. For a fuller account of these Rites see under October 29th to November 3rd.

In the fixed Alexandrian Calendar the 17th day of Athyr corresponds to November 13th.

(The Lamentation of Isis, cited by Frazer, Golden Bough abgd, p. 366):

“ ‘Come to thy house, Come to thy house. O god On, come to thy house, thou who hast no foes. O fair youth, come to thy house, that thou mayest see me. I am thy sister, whom thou lovest; thou shalt not part from me. O fair boy, come to thy house ... yet doth my heart yearn after thee and mine eyes desire thee. Come to her who loves thee, who loves thee, Unnefer, blessed one! Come to thy sister, come to thy wife, to thy wife ... Come to thy housewife. I am thy sister by the same mother, thou shalt not be far from me. Gods and men have buried their faces towards thee and weep for thee together ... I call after thee and weep … yet am I thy sister, whom thou didst love on earth ... my brother, my brother’,”

Roman: FERONIA. (Rose, O.C.D.) “Feronia ... an Italian Goddess, officially received in Rome before 217 (before this era) ... and given a temple in the Campus Martius (Fast. Arval. on 13th Nov.)”.

JUNO and MINERVA; The Lectisternium, in honour of the three Capitoline deities. (Seyffert, Dict.) “From the commencement of the 3rd century (before this era) a banquet was regularly given to the three Capitoline divinities, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, on every 13th of November, in conjunction with the plebeian games”. See also under September 13th.

(Bettenson, on Augustine De Civ. Dei, p. 240) “the epulum Jovis during the Ludi Romani in September [was] repeated at the ‘Plebeian Games’ in November. This was a religious banquet on the Capitol, attended by the Senate and magistrates, at which the statutes of Jupiter reclined, while those of Juno and Minerva sat on chairs (Val. Max., 2,12)”.

(Philocalus, Kal, anno 354) “November 13. Jovis Epulum.”

Spanish: OUR LADY OF GARABANDAL: (Steiger, Gods of Aquarius, pp. 65 and 67) from the chapter “The Return of the Great Mother” … “Our Lady of Carmel, Garabandal, 18th October 1961 ... The description given by the four young visionaries at Garabandal is almost prototypical:

“ ‘She is dressed in a white robe with a blue mantle and a crown of golden stars. Her hands are slender ... Her hair, deep nut-brown, is parted in the center. Her face is long, with a fine nose. Her mouth is very pretty with lips a bit thin. She looks like a girl of eighteen. She is rather tall. There is no voice like hers …’ ”.

Further apparitions took place on January 18th and November 13th, 1965, both of them witnessed by Conchita. The latter is recorded by Steiger (id. p. 67) as follows: “Our Lady of Carmel, Garabandal, 13th November 1965, received by Conchita …‘Have confidence in Us … I am not coming only for you, Conchita, but I am coming for all my children …’ ”.

NOVEMBER 14th

Egyptian: ISIS. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 14. Lamentations of Isis (2nd day)”.

NOVEMBER 15th

German: ST. GERTRUDE. (Irish Catholic Dir.) November 15. S. Gertrude, Virgin”. (Perp. Fest Cal.) “November 15 Gertrude, German mystic, 6th cent.”.

NOVEMBER 16th

Greek: HECATE. (The Witches’ Almanac) “November 16. Hecate Night”.

Scottish: QUEEN MARGARET. (Church of England Cal.) “November 16. Margaret of Scotland, Queen, 1093”.

NOVEMBER 17th

German: GERTRUDE THE GREAT. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 17. Gertrude the Great, mystic, born circa 1256”.

NOVEMBER 19th

Jewish: ST. ELIZABETH. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “November 19. S. Elizabeth.”

NOVEMBER 20th

Roman: PAULINA. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 20. Praetextatus and Paulina”.

(Kerenyi, Eleusis, p. 11) “In the year ... 364 the Catholic Emperor Valentinian prohibited all nocturnal celebrations with a view to abolishing, among other rites, the Mysteries of Eleusis ... ‘But’, Zosimos’ report continues (Historia Nova, IV. 33) ‘after Praetextatus, who held the office of proconsul in Greece, declared that this law would make the life of the Greeks unlivable, if they were prevented from properly observing the most sacred Mysteries, which hold the whole human race together, he permitted the entire rite to be performed in the manner inherited from the ancestors as if the edict were not valid’ ”.

(Cumont, Orient. Rel. pp. 282 and 286) “The wife of Practextatus, [Paulina], after praising his career and talents in his epitaph, adds: ‘but these things are small: you, a pious initiate (mystes) of the holy mysteries, grasp hiddenly the discoveries of the mind; and manifoldly learned, you cultivate the divine numen’. CIL, 1779 = Dessau, Inscr. Sel., 1259)”.

NOVEMBER 21st

Jewish: THE VIRGIN MARY; Feast of the Presentation. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “November 21. The presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ... Preface of B.V.M. Et te in Praesentatione.” With Octave for the Presentation Order.

(The Book of James, III. 1) on the Presentation in the Temple: “And the Priest received her and kissed her. And he made her to sit upon the third step of the altar …”

(Legend cited by Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, p.151) on the Presentation of the Virgin: “ ‘And when the child was three years old, Joachim said, ‘Let us invite the daughters of Israel, and they shall take each a taper or a lamp, and attend on her …’ And having come to the temple, they placed her on the first step, and she ascended alone all the steps of the altar: and the high priest received her there, kissed her ... And being placed before the altar, she danced with her feet, so that all the house of Israel rejoiced with her, and loved her …’

“… we find ‘The Presentation of the Virgin’ among some of the most precious examples of ancient and modern Art.

“The motif does not vary. The child Mary, sometimes in blue, but oftener in a white vesture, with long golden hair, ascends the steps which lead to the porch of the temple, which steps are always fifteen in number …” Note: see also under Days of the Month, 15th: Ishtar.

(id. p. 155) “St. Evode ... and St. Germanus assert, as an indubitable tradition of the Greek Church, that Mary had the privilege ... of entering the Holy of Holies ... Hence, in some of the scenes from her early life, the ark is placed in the background. We must also bear in mind that the ark was one of the received types [of Mary]”.

(Bridgett, Our Lady’s Dowry, p. 234) “The Presentation. The feast of our Lady’s Presentation as a child in the temple was not established in the West until the fourteenth century; and it was only in 1460 that Pius II extended its celebration outside France … This festival was celebrated on 21st November”.

NOVEMBER 22nd

Sun enters Sagittarius (tropical).

Greek and Roman: ARTEMIS and DIANA. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 22. Diana, Artemis, Goddess of Nature”. (Lux Madriana Cal.) “Samhain 23 (November 22). Festival of Artemis”. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) November 22nd: Artemis, Diana. The Autumn Moon. Occult Powers. Care for wild life and places. Communion with wild life”.

(The Coming Age, No. 16) “Festival of Artemis. Our Lady Artemis is not only the Huntress … she is also the Mother of Ekklesia: of the body of souls united in Her worship and service ... Ekklesia, indeed, is like a mighty army with banners, serried through time and space”.

Roman: ST. CECILIA. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “November 22 S. Cecilia, Virgin …” (Church of England Cal.) “November 22 Cecilia, (Rome, c. 230), Virgin …”

(Brewer, Dict.) “Cecilia, (St.) A Roman Lady ... third century. She is the patron saint of the blind ... she is also patroness of musicians, and ‘inventor of the organ’.

“ ‘At length divine Cecilia came, Inventress of the vocal frame’. (Dryden: Alexander’s Feast).

“... Dryden and Pope have written odes in her honour, and both speak of her charming an angel by her musical powers”.

(Whistler, English Fest. p. 215) “St. Cecilia’s Day ... Cecilia’s musical reputation ... was thought to be well established in the Middle Ages, when the guilds of musicians adopted her as their patron saint. She was even supposed to have invented the instrument named in her legend, and thereby to have ‘added length to solemn sounds’, as Dryden puts it. Thus, though Domenichino portrays her fingering a lute before an enraptured cherub, in Raphael’s masterpiece she is seen accompanying herself at a portable organ ...

“… ‘The Musical Society’ was formed in 1683, partly to keep St. Cecilia’s Day in a worthy manner. Each year, on November 22nd, the Society attended a service in London, generally at St. Bride’s, to enjoy, by way of text and illustration, a sermon preached in defence of Cathedral music, and an Anthem newly written for the Festival ...

“The composer at the first Festival was Henry Purcell ... Dryden’s ‘Song for St. Cecilia’s Day’, set by Draghi, was performed in 1686 ... Whenever the Saint of harmony has been honoured in England, the English poets have been there to pay their tribute and record the fact; first Chaucer; then Dryden, followed by Pope in 1708 ... since them, there have been occasional Odes by Parry, Samuel Wesley and others ... St. Cecilia’s Day is Mr. Benjamin Britten’s birthday, and in 1942 he revived the practice of composing an Ode in her honour. But Sir Henry Wood had already wished to recreate the festival, and had he lived he would have been pleased by the events that took place on her day in 1946, thanks to the initiative of the Daily Herald. There was a public luncheon at which the Prime Minister spoke and the Poet Laureate recited a poem. Then the Lord Mayor attended a service in St. Sepulchre’s; and finally in the evening - main event of the day - there was a concert of English music at the Albert Hall, at which the Queen and Princess Elizabeth were present. Two orchestras took part, the London Philharmonic and the London Symphony, together with the Alexandra Choir”.

(Perp. Fest. Cal.) “November 22. Cecilia, patron saint of music and of the blind”. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “November 22nd: St. Cecilia. Music. Aid for the Blind”.

NOVEMBER 23rd

Japanese: KONOHANA-HIME; The Nihinahe or Shinjosai Festival. (The Nihongi, II. 26) on Konohana-sakuya-hime (“Princess who blossoms like the flowers of the trees”), also known as Kami-ataka-ashitsu-hime (“Divine Ata Princess”), consort of Ninigi, the August Grandchild of the Sun-Goddess:

“Now Kami-ataka-ashi-tsu-hime by divination fixed upon a rice-field to which she gave the name Sanada, and from the rice grown there brewed Heavenly sweet sake, with which she entertained him. Moreover, with the rice from the Nunada rice-field she made boiled rice and entertained him therewith.”

Commentary by Aston: “This incident is the mythical counterpart of the annual festival of Nihi-nahe or Nihi-name, now celebrated on November 23rd, when the new season’s rice is offered to the Gods and partaken of by the Emperor for the first time ... The modern name of this festival is Shin-jo-sai.”

(The Nihongi, xxiv. 7) “The Empress Kogyoku Tenno (642 of this era) … The Empress celebrated the festival of tasting the new rice (i.e. the Nihi-name).”

NOVEMBER 25th

Alexandrian: ST. CATHERINE (Irish Catholic Dir.) “November 25. S. Catherine, Virgin …” (Church of England Cal.) “November 25. Catherine, Virgin …” (Peacock, Coll. Works: Gryll Grange, p. 800)

“Hymn to St. Catherine:

“Virgin bride, supremely bright,

Gem and flower of heavenly light,

Pearl of the empyreal skies,

Violet of Paradise!”

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