Holy Shroud by J.A.Bouma

I would like to read Holy shroud, an entertaining, compelling, conspiracy laden, action-packed historical adventure by J.A.Bouma. It is the first book in the Order of Thaddeus action-adventure thriller series and concerns ex-Army Ranger, professor of religious studies, and leading relics expert Silas Grey. He is on the verge of rocking the religious and nonreligious alike with scientific proof of the Church’s central belief: Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Proof he believes has been hidden all along within the Shroud of Turin, the Christian relic purported to be the burial cloth of Jesus.

However a series of suspicious deaths and devastating attacks threaten Silas’s shocking announcement and the lives of himself and those close to him. Soon it becomes clear that an ancient enemy has risen from the shadows of history to once again wage war against the Church and destroy the Christian faith—beginning with its most sacred relic and teaching. 

Silas joins forces with the Order of Thaddeus, a religious order that has been battling for the very survival of the Church since its birth. Silas and the Order embark on a desperate mission which takes them from Washington to Paris to Jerusalem, in order to preserve the memory of its central belief and ensure the survival of the Church and all it holds dear before its archenemy erases it forever….

Johnny Marr (The Smiths)

English musician, singer and songwriter Johnny Marr Was born 31 October 1963. He was co-songwriter – with Morrissey – and guitarist of the Smiths between 1982–87 & has also been a member of Electronic, The The, Modest Mouse and The Cribs, as well as a prolific session musician. In 2013, the NME honoured Marr with its Godlike Genius award, hailing Marr as “not content with rewriting the history of music with one of the world’s greatest ever band the Smiths, he has continued to push boundaries and evolve throughout his career, working with some of the best and most exciting artists on the planet.” He was voted the fourth best guitaristof the last 30 years in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2010. , Marr has been described as “arguably Britain’s last great guitar stylist

He originally aspired to be a professional football player and was approached byNottingham Forest and had trials with Manchester City F.C. He formed his first band, The Paris Valentinos, at the age of 13, with Andy Rourke and Kevin William who later became an actor, known as Kevin Kennedy), performing for the first time at a Silver Jubilee party in Benchill in June 1977, playing Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy covers’ In 1979, he played a single gig at Wythenshawe Forum with a band called Sister Ray and re-united with Rourke in a band called White Dice. White Dice entered a demo-tape competition organised by the NME and won an audition for F-Beat Records. In October 1980, he enrolled at Wythenshawe College, serving as President of the school’s Student Union’ White Dice dissolved in 1981. He and Rourke then formed a funk band, The Freak Party, & first met Matt Johnson. By early 1982, The Freak Party had fizzled out, being unable to find a singer. he approached Rob Allman, singer in White Dice, who suggested Steven Morrissey, a short-lived singer with The Nosebleeds. they visited Morrissey at his house in Kings Road, Stretford eventually forming The Smiths. Marr’s jangly Rickenbacker and Fender Telecaster guitar playing became synonymous with the Smiths’ sound. Marr’s friend Andy Rourke joined as bass player and Mike Joyce was recruited as drummer. Signing to indie label Rough Trade Records, they released their first single, “Hand in Glove”, on 13 May 1983. By February 1984, The Smiths fanbase was sufficiently large to launch the band’s long-awaited eponymous debut album to number two in the UK chart.

Early in 1985 the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder. This was more strident and political than its predecessor, During 1985 the band completed lengthy tours of the UK and the US while recording the next studio record, The Queen Is Dead.In 1989 Spin magazine rated The Queen Is Dead as number one of “The Greatest Albums Ever Made”. Spin was not alone in this designation—numerous periodicals rank The Smiths and their albums, especially ‘The Queen Is Dead’, high on their best ever lists.NME, for example, has dubbed the Smiths the most important rock band of all time. Meanwhile, Rourke was fired from the band in early 1986 due to his use of heroin, although he was reinstated . Despite their continued success, personal differences within the band – including the increasingly strained relationship between Morrissey and Marr, continued until in August 1987, when Marr left the group, and auditions to find a replacement for him proved fruitless.

sadly by the time Strangeways, Here We Come (named after Strangeways Prison, Manchester) was released in September, the band had split up. The break up was attributed to Morrissey’s becoming annoyed by Marr’s work with other artists and Marr’s growing frustration with Morrissey’s musical inflexibility. Morrissey claimed the lack of a managerial figure and business problems were to blame for the band’s eventual split. ‘ 1996, Smiths’ drummer Mike Joyce took Morrissey and Marr to court, claiming that he had not received his fair share of recording and performance royalties. Marr and Morrissey have repeatedly stated they will not reunite the band. In 2005, VH1 attempted to get the band back together on its Bands Reunited show but abandoned its attempt. In December 2005 it was announced that Johnny Marr and the Healers would play at Manchester v Cancer, a benefit show for cancer research Rumours suggested that a Smiths reunion would occur at this concert but were dispelled by Marr.

Marr’s guitar playing “was a huge building block” for more Manchester bands that followed The Smiths. The Stone Roses guitarist John Squire has stated that Marr was a major influence.Oasis lead guitarist Noel Gallagher credited The Smiths an influence, especially Marr, also stating that “he’s unique, you can’t play what he plays. Marr has talked about a session that occurred with Paul McCartney shortly after the Smiths’ demise. At the age of only 23, he found himself sharing a mic with the former Beatle on “I Saw Her Standing There”,In August 1987, he was very briefly an official member of the Pretenders. In late 1987, he toured with the band and appeared on the single “Windows of the World” b/w “1969”. He then left the Pretenders, and recorded and toured with The The from 1988 through 1994, recording two albums with the group. He simultaneously formed Electronic with New Order’s Bernard Sumner. Electronic were intermittently active throughout the 1990s, releasing their final album in 1999. In 1992 he recorded a cover version of Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Fellow Manchester band Happy Mondays also once tried to court him to be a member of their band, He has also worked as a session musician and writing collaborator for artists including Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Kirsty MacColl ,Black Grape, Jane Birkin, Talking Heads, and Beck. Marr played guitar on several Pet Shop Boys songs; he continues to have guest appearances on their albums, with his most significant contribution on Release (2002). The only remix that Marr has ever done was for the Pet Shop Boys—it was a mix of his favourite track from their 1987 album, Actually, called “I Want to Wake Up”, and was released as the b-side to 1993’s “Can You Forgive Her?” He later worked as a guest musician on the Oasis album Heathen Chemistry. He also joined Oasis on stage at a gig in 2001, playing “Champagne Supernova” and “I Am the Walrus”. In 2000 Marr recruited drummer Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr), Cavewaves guitarist Lee Spencer and ex-Kula Shaker bassist Alonza Bevan for his new project, Johnny Marr and the Healers. Their debut album Boomslang was released in 2003, with all lyrics and lead vocals by Marr. A second album was originally scheduled for release in April 2005. Drummer Starkey is currently involved with the Who, and Bevan has regrouped with Kula Shaker.

In 2001, Marr performed two Smiths songs and music by others with a supergroup called 7 Worlds Collide consisting of members from Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Split Enz and others, assembled by Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House. Marr has also worked as a record producer. In 2006, he began work with Modest Mouse’s on their album’ We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. During 2008, when Modest Mouse opened for R.E.M. , Marr would come on stage during the encore of R.E.M.’s set, Marr and R.E.M.’s guitarist Peter Buck have often been compared by alternative music fans ln January 2008, Marr was reported to have been contributing’ towards songs for indie group The Cribs. He also played with the Cribs on the NME Awards Tour, the NME Big Gig at the O2. and the Reading & Leeds Festival. ln 2009, he recorded an album with the band titled Ignore the Ignorant, In the late 2007, Marr’s daughter Sonny performed backing vocals on the track “Even a Child” on Crowded House’s album Time on Earth, on which her father Marr played guitars. He played a large role in making the score for the 2010 science-fiction/drama film Inception, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Marr has been working since 2007 with Fender to develop and design his own guitar. Marr also released his debut solo album, The Messenger,’In 2012 and his second album Playland in 2014.

Larry Mullen jnr (U2)

Larry Mullen Jnr, the drummer with Rock band U2 was born 31 October 1961 . He attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, where he met fellow bandmates Adam Clayton and Bono (Paul Hewson) and was reunited with his boyhood friend Dave “The Edge” Evans. Mullen had posted an advertisement on the school bulletin board for musicians to form a band with him; Clayton showed up at the first practice, which also included Dik Evans, Dave Evans’s older brother, Ivan McCormick, and Peter Martin, who were two of Mullen’s friends. McCormick and Martin left the band soon after its conception. While the band was a five-piece (consisting of Bono, The Edge, Mullen, Evans, and Clayton), it was known as Feedback. The name was subsequently changed to The Hype, but changed to “U2″ soon after Dik Evans left the band. U2′s early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music. Throughout the group’s musical pursuits, they have maintained a sound built on melodic instrumentals, highlighted by The Edge’s timbrally varied guitar sounds and Bono’s expressive vocals.Their lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal themes and sociopolitical concerns.

Within four years, they signed with Island Records and released their debut album Boy. By the mid-1980s, they became a top international act. At first They were more successful as live performers than they were at selling records, until their breakthrough 1987 album The Joshua Tree, which, according to Rolling Stone, elevated the band’s stature “from heroes to superstars”. Reacting to musical stagnation and late-1980s criticism of their earnest image and musical direction, the group reinvented themselves with their 1991 hit album Achtung Baby and the accompanying Zoo TV Tour. U2 integrated dance, industrial, and alternative rock influences into their sound and performances, and embraced a more ironic and self-deprecating image. Similar experimentation continued for the remainder of the 1990s with mixed levels of success. U2 regained critical and commercial favour after their 2000 record All That You Can’t Leave Behind. On it and the group’s subsequent releases, they adopted a more conventional sound while maintaining influences from their earlier musical explorations. Their most recent album release “Songs of Innocence” was offered as a free download to Apple iPad Customers in October 2014 and as a physical release shortly after.

U2 have released 13 studio albums and are among the all-time best-selling music artists, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide. They have won 22 Grammy Awards, and in 2005, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone ranked U2 at number 22 in its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time. They have also won numerous other awards in their career, including 22 Grammy awards, including those for Best Rock Duo or Group seven times, Album of the Year twice, Record of the Year twice, Song of the Year twice, and Best Rock Album twice.

Dick Francis CBE FRSL

British steeplechase jockey and crime writer, Richard Stanley “Dick” Francis CBE FRSL was Born 31 October 1920 in Coedcanlas, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the son of a jockey and stable manager and grew up in Berkshire, England. He left school at 15 without any qualifications,with the intention of becoming a jockey and became a trainer in 1938. During World War II, Francis volunteered, hoping to join the cavalry. Instead, he served in the Royal Air Force, working as ground crew and later piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire and Hurricane. He said in an interview that he spent much of his six years in the Air Force in Africa. In October 1945, he met Mary Margaret Brenchley (17 June 1924 – 30 September 2000), at a cousin’s wedding And Dick and Mary were married in June, 1947, in London. She had a degree in English and French from London University at the age of 19, was an assistant stage manager and later worked as a publisher’s reader. She also became a pilot, and her experiences flying contributed to many novels, including Flying Finish, Rat Race, and Second Wind. She contracted polio while pregnant with their first child, a plight dramatized in the novel Forfeit, which Francis called one of his favorites. They had two sons, Merrick and Felix.

After leaving the RAF in 1946, Francis became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt racing, winning over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953–54 season. Shortly after becoming a professional, he was offered the prestige job of first jockey to Vivian Smith, Lord Bicester. From 1953 to 1957 he was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. His most famous moment came while riding the Queen Mother’s horse, Devon Loch, in the 1956 Grand National when the horse inexplicably fell when close to winning the race. Decades later, Francis considered losing that race his greatest regret and called it “a disaster of massive proportions. Like most jump jockeys, Francis had his share of injuries. He was hospitalized at the age of 12 when a pony fell on him and broke his jaw and nose. Many protagonists in his novels have broken bones and damaged organs.

Dick Francis played an important role in 1983, when the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse “stood at the brink of extinction,” So ‘”Britain’s Jockey Club negotiated a $14 million deal to buy the land and save the race forever. by enlisting two prominent racing personalities – Lord Derby and novelist Dick Francis – were selected to raise the money in a worldwide campaign.” Other philanthropists, including Charles C. Fenwick Jr., who rode Ben Nevis to victory in the 1980 Grand National, and Paul Mellon, a breeder and racing enthusiast, also contributed to save the race.

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He retired from horse racing on the advice of Lord Abergevenny, after which he Went onto Write more than 40 international best-sellers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957), for which he was offered the aid of a ghostwriter, which he spurned. The book’s success led to his becoming the racing correspondent for London’s Sunday Express newspaper, and he remained in the job for 16 years. In 1962, he published his first thriller, Dead Cert, set in the world of racing. Subsequently he regularly produced a novel a year for the next 38 years, missing only 1998 (during which he published a short-story collection). Although all his books were set against a background of horse racing, his male heroes held a variety of jobs including artist (In the Frame and To the Hilt), private investigator (Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, Under Orders—all starring injured ex-jockey Sid Halley, investigator who appears in the Jockey Club (The Edge), pilot (Rat Race and Flying Finish), wine merchant (Proof). All the novels are narrated by the hero, who in the course of the story discovers himself to be more resourceful, brave, tricky, than he had thought, and usually finds a certain salvation for himself as well as bestowing it on others. Details of other people’s occupations fascinated Francis, and the reader finds himself or herself immersed in the mechanics of such things as photography, accountancy, the gemstone trade, restaurant service on transcontinental trains—but always in the interests of the plot. Dysfunctional families were a subject which he exploited particularly well (Reflex, a baleful grandmother; Hot Money, a multi-millionaire father and serial ex-husband; Decider, the related co-owners of a racecourse).

His first novel, Dead Cert, was also adapted for film in 1974. Directed by Tony Richardson, it starred Scott Antony, Judi Dench and Michael Williams. It was adapted again as Favorit (a Russian made-for-television movie) in 1977 Francis’s protagonist Sid Halley was featured in six TV movies made for the program The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game(1979-1980), starring Mike Gwilym as Halley and Mick Ford as his partner, Chico Barnes. Three more TV films of 1989 were adaptations of Bloodsport, In the Frame, and Twice Shy, all starring Ian McShane and featuring protagonist David Cleveland, from the novel Slayride.

Francis is the only three-time recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970,Whip Hand in 1981, and Come To Grief in 1996. Britain’s Crime Writers Association awarded him its Gold Dagger Award for fiction in 1979 and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989. he was granted another Lifetime Achievement Award .Tufts University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1991. In 1996 he was given the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, the highest honour bestowed by the MWA. In 2000, he was granted the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1983 and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000. Francis has been long accustomed to celebrity as a British sports star, but today he is a worldwide phenomenon, having been published in 22 languages. In Australia, he is recognized in restaurants, from his book-jacket picture. He and Mary will see people reading the novels on planes and trains.”Francis was elected in 1999 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature’ . In the 1980s, Francis and his wife moved to Florida; in 1992, they moved to the Cayman Islands, where Mary died of a heart attack in 2000. In 2006, Francis had a heart bypass operation; in 2007 his right leg was amputated and Sadly he passed away on 14 February 2010, At his Caribbean home in Grand Cayman.

John Keats

English Romantic poet John Keats was born 31 October 1795. He became one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work only having been in publication for four years before his death. Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life, his reputation grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life. The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes.

Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. His parents were unable to afford Eton or Harrow, so in the summer of 1803 he was sent to board at John Clarke’s school in Enfield, close to his grandparents’ house. The small school had a liberal outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools In the family atmosphere at Clarke’s, Keats developed an interest in classics and history, which would stay with him throughout his short life. The headmaster’s son, Charles Cowden Clarke, also became an important mentor and friend, introducing Keats to Renaissance literature, including Tasso, Spenser, and Chapman’s translations. The young Keats has been described as a volatile character, “always in extremes”, given to indolence and fighting. However, at 13 he began focusing his energy on reading and study, winning his first academic prize in midsummer 1809.

In April 1804, when Keats was eight, his father died and he always struggled to stay out of debt and make his way in the world independently, Keats registered as a medical student at Guy’s Hospital ( King’s College London) and began in October 1815. Within a month of starting, he was accepted as a dresser at the hospital, assisting surgeons during operations, the equivalent of a junior house surgeon today. It was a significant promotion that marked a distinct aptitude for medicine. Keats’s long and expensive medical training with Hammond at Guy’s Hospital led his family to assume he would pursue a lifelong career in medicine, assuring financial security, He lodged near the hospital at 28 St Thomas’s Street in Southwark, with Henry Stephens who became a famous inventor and ink magnate. However, Keats increasingly encroached on his writing time, and he grew ambivalent about his medical career.

inspired by fellow poets such as Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron He wrote , “An Imitation of Spenser,” in 1814, but beleaguered by family financial crises, he suffered periods of depression. In 1816, Keats received his apothecary’s licence, which made him eligible to practise as an apothecary, physician, and surgeon, but before the end of the year he announced to his guardian that he was resolved to be a poet, not a surgeon. Although he continued his work and training at Guy’s, Keats devoted more and more time to the study of literature, experimenting with verse forms, particularly the sonnets. In May 1816, Leigh Hunt agreed to publish the sonnet “O Solitude” in his magazine TheExaminer. It was the first appearance in print of Keats’s poetry, and Charles Cowden Clarke decribed it as his friend’s red letter day the first proof that Keats’s ambitions were valid. In the summer of the same year Keats went with Clarke to the seaside town of Margate to write. There he began “Calidore” and initiated the era of his great letter writing. On his return to London he took lodgings at 8 Dean Street, Southwark, and braced himself for further study in order to become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.In October, Clarke introduced Keats to the influential Leigh Hunt, a close friend of Byron and Shelley. Five months later came the publication of Poems, the first volume of Keats’s verse, which included “I stood tiptoe” and “Sleep and Poetry,” both strongly influenced by Hunt.

Within a month of the publication of Poems they were planning a new Keats volume and had paid him an advance. Hessey became a steady friend to Keats and made the company’s rooms available for young writers to meet. Their publishing lists eventually included Coleridge, Hazlitt, Clare, Hogg, Carlyle and Lamb.Through Taylor and Hessey, Keats met their Eton-educated lawyer, Richard Woodhouse, who advised them on literary as well as legal matters and was deeply impressed by Poems. and supporten him as he became one of England’s greatest writers. Soon after they met, the two became close friends, and Woodhouse started to collect Keatsiana, documenting as much as he could about Keats’s poetry. This archive survives as one of the main sources of information on Keats’s work. One of Keats’s biographers represents him as Boswell to Keats’ Johnson, ceaselessly promoting the writer’s work, fighting his corner, and spurring his poetry to greater heights. In later years, Woodhouse was one of the few people to accompany Keats to Gravesend to embark on his final trip to Rome. Hunt published the essay “Three Young Poets” and the sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” foreseeing great things to come. He introduced Keats to the editor of The Times, Thomas Barnes; the writer Charles Lamb; the conductor Vincent Novello; poet John Hamilton Reynolds, and William Hazlitt, a powerful literary figure of the day. It was a decisive turning point for Keats, establishing him in the public eye Keats befriended Isabella Jones in May 1817, while on holiday in the village of Bo Peep, near Hastings. She is described as beautiful, talented and widely read, not of the top flight of society yet financially secure, an enigmatic figure who would become a part of Keats’s circle .

In early December, Keats told Abbey that he had decided to give up medicine in favour of poetry, to Abbey’s fury. Having left his training at the hospital, Keats moved with his brothers into rooms at 1 Well Walk in the village of Hampstead in April 1817. Both John and George nursed their brother Tom, who was suffering from tuberculosis. The house was close to Hunt and others from his circle in Hampstead, as well as to Coleridge, respected elder of the first wave of Romantic poets, at that time living in Highgate. Around this time he was introduced to Charles Wentworth Dilke and James RiceIn June 1818, Keats began a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland, and the Lake District with his friend Charles Armitage Brown. Keats’ brother George and his wife Georgina accompanied them as far as Lancaster and then continued to Liverpool, from where the couple emigrated to America. They lived in Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, until 1841, . Like Keats’ other brother, they both died penniless and racked by tuberculosis, In July, while on the Isle of Mull, Keats caught a bad cold After his return south in August, Keats continued to nurse Tom, exposing himself to infection. ” Tom Keats died on 1 December 1818. John Keats moved to the newly built Wentworth Place, owned by his friend Charles Armitage Brown. It was also on the edge of Hampstead Heath, ten minutes’ walk south of his old home in Well Walk.During The winter of 1818–19, he wrote his most mature work. inspired by a series of recent lectures by Hazlitt on English poets and poetic identity and had also met Wordsworth

He composed five of his six great odes at Wentworth Place ,lnduding “Ode to Psyche” and “Ode to a Nightingale”. Brown wrote, “In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast-table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours.”Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode on Melancholy” were inspired by sonnet forms Keats’s publishers issued Endymion, which Keats dedicated to Thomas Chatterton, a work that he termed “a trial of my Powers of Imagination”. In 1819, Keats wrote The Eve of St. Agnes, “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, Hyperion, Lamia and Otho. The poems “Fancy” and “Bards of passion and of mirth” were inspired by the garden of Wentworth Place. The final volume Keats lived to see, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, was eventually published in July 1820. It received greater acclaim than had Endymion or Poems, Wentworth Place now houses the Keats House museum. Keats endured great conflict knowing his expectations as a struggling poet in increasingly hard straits would preclude marriage to Fanny Brawne. Darkness, disease and depression surrounded him, reflected in poems such as The Eve of St. Agnes and “La Belle Dame sans Merci”. During 1820 Keats displayed increasingly serious symptoms of tuberculosis, suffering two lung haemorrhages in the first few days of February lost large amounts of blood and was bled further by the attending physician, So he was advised by his doctors to move to a warmer climate

He moved to Italy with his friend Joseph Severn. On 13 September, they left for Gravesend and four days later boarded the sailing brig “Maria Crowther”, where he made the final revisions of “Bright Star”. The journey was a minor catastrophe: storms broke out followed by a dead calm that slowed the ship’s progress. When they finally docked in Naples, the ship was held in quarantine for ten days due to a suspected outbreak of cholera in Britain. Keats reached Rome on 14 November, by which time any hope of the warmer climate he sought had disappeared. Keats wrote his last letter on 30 November 1820 to Charles Armitage Brown. on arrival in Italy, he moved into a villa on the Spanish Steps in Rome, today the Keats-Shelley Memorial House museum. Despite care from Severn and Dr. James Clark, his health rapidly deteriorated. The medical attention Keats received may have hastened his death. ln November 1820, Clark declared that the source of his illness was “mental exertion” and that the source was largely situated in his stomach. Clark eventually diagnosed consumption (tuberculosis) and placed Keats on a starvation diet of an anchovy and a piece of bread a day intended to reduce the blood flow to his stomach. He also bled the poet; a standard treatment of the day, but was likely a significant contributor to Keats’s weakness.”.The first months of 1821 marked a slow and steady decline into the final stage of tuberculosis. Keats sadly died in Rome on 23 February 1821 at the age of 25 and was coughing up blood and covered in sweat shortly before he died.

He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. His last request was to be placed under a tombstone bearing no name or date, only the words, “Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water.” Seven weeks after the funeral Shelley memorialised Keats in his poem Adonaïs. Clark planted daisies on the grave, saying that Keats would have wished it. For public health reasons, the Italian health authorities burned the furniture in Keats’s room, scraped the walls, made new windows, doors and flooring. The ashes of Shelley, one of Keats’s most fervent champions, are also buried in the cemetery and Joseph Severn is buried next to Keats. When Keats died he had only been writing poetry seriously for about six years, from 1814 until the summer of 1820; and publishing for only four. Prolific during his short career, he is now one of the most studied and admired British poets, his reputation centred on the Odes, and the work done during the last years of his short life . “Keats’s ability and talent was acknowledged by several influential contemporary allies such as Shelley and Hunt. The 2009 film Bright Star, written and directed by Jane Campion, focuses on Keats’ relationship with Fanny Brawne.

Day of the dead (dia de muertos)

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where the day is a bank holiday. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the Christian triduum of Hallowmas: All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased.Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddessMictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world: In Brazil Dia de Finadosis a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and Africancultures.

During Day of the Dead many People traditionally go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars containing the favorite foods and beverages, as well as photos and memorabilia, of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. Celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed. Plans for the day are made throughout the year, including gathering the goods to be offered to the dead. During the three-day period families usually clean and decorate graves; most visit the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried and decorate their graves with ofrendas (offerings), which often include orange Mexican marigolds (Tagetes erecta) called cempasúchil (originally named cempoaxochitl, Nahuatl for “twenty flowers”).

In modern Mexico this name is sometimes replaced with the term Flor de Muerto (Flower of Dead). These flowers are thought to attract souls of the dead to the offerings.Mixtec ofrenda of Day of the DeadMexican cempasúchitl(marigold) is the traditional flower used at honor to the deadToys are brought for dead children (los angelitos, or “the little angels”), and bottles oftequila, mezcal or pulque or jars of atole for adults. Families will also offer trinkets or the deceased’s favorite candies on the grave.Ofrendas are also put in homes, usually with foods such as candied pumpkin, pan de muerto (“bread of dead”), and sugar skulls and beverages such as atole. The ofrendas are left out in the homes as a welcoming gesture for the deceased.Some people believe the spirits of the dead eat the “spiritual essence” of the ofrendas food, so though the celebrators eat the food after the festivities, they believe it lacks nutritional value. Pillows and blankets are left out so the deceased can rest after their long journey. In some parts of Mexico such as the towns of Mixquic, Pátzcuaro and Janitzio, people spend all night beside the graves of their relatives. In many places people have picnics at the grave site, as well.

Some families build altars or small shrines in their homes;. these usually have the Christian cross, statues or pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pictures of deceased relatives and other persons, scores of candles and an ofrenda. Traditionally, families spend some time around the altar, praying and telling anecdotes about the deceased. In some locations celebrants wear shells on their clothing, so when they dance, the noise will wake up the dead; some will also dress up as the deceased.Public schools at all levels build altars with ofrendas, usually omitting the religious symbols. Government offices usually have at least a small altar, as this holiday is seen as important to the Mexican heritage.Those with a distinctive talent for writing sometimes create short poems, called calaveras (skulls), mocking epitaphs of friends, describing interesting habits and attitudes or funny anecdotes. This custom originated in the 18th or 19th century, after a newspaper published a poem narrating a dream of a cemetery in the future, “and all of us were dead”, proceeding to read the tombstones.Newspapers dedicate calaveras to public figures, with cartoons of skeletons in the style of the famous calaveras of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican illustrator. Theatrical presentations ofDon Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla (1817–1893) are also traditional on this day.

A common symbol of the holiday is the skull (in Spanish calavera), which celebrants represent with masks, called calacas (colloquial term for skeleton), and foods such as sugar or chocolate skulls, which are inscribed with the name of the recipient on the forehead. Sugar skulls as gifts can be given to both the living and the dead. Other holiday foods include pan de muerto, a sweet eggbread made in various shapes from plain rounds to skulls and rabbits, often decorated with white frosting to look like twisted bones.José Guadalupe Posada created a famous print of a figure he called La Calavera Catrina (“The Elegant Skull”) as a parody of a Mexican upper-class female. Posada’s striking image of a costumed female with a skeleton face has become associated with the Day of the Dead, and Catrina figures often are a prominent part of modern Day of the Dead observances.Gran calavera eléctrica (“Great electric skull”) by José Guadalupe Posada, 1900–1913The traditions and activities that take place in celebration of the Day of the Dead are not universal, often varying from town to town. For example, in the town of Pátzcuaro on the Lago de Pátzcuaro in Michoacán, the tradition is very different if the deceased is a child rather than an adult. On November 1 of the year after a child’s death, the godparents set a table in the parents’ home with sweets, fruits,pan de muerto, a cross, a rosary (used to ask the Virgin Mary to pray for them) and candles. This is meant to celebrate the child’s life, in respect and appreciation for the parents. There is also dancing with colorful costumes, often with skull-shaped masks and devil masks in the plaza or garden of the town.

At midnight on November 2, the people light candles and ride winged boats called mariposas (butterflies) to Janitzio, an island in the middle of the lake where there is a cemetery, to honor and celebrate the lives of the dead there.Families tidying and decorating graves at a cemetery in Almoloya del Río in theState of MexicoIn contrast, the town of Ocotepec, north of Cuernavaca in the State of Morelos, opens its doors to visitors in exchange for veladoras (small wax candles) to show respect for the recently deceased. In return the visitors receive tamales and atole. This is only done by the owners of the house where someone in the household has died in the previous year. Many people of the surrounding areas arrive early to eat for free and enjoy the elaborate altars set up to receive the visitors from Mictlán.In some parts of the country (especially the cities, where in recent years other customs have been displaced) children in costumes roam the streets, knocking on people’s doors for a calaverita, a small gift of candies or money; they also ask passersby for it. This relatively recent custom is similar to that of Halloween’s trick-or-treating.Some people believe possessing Day of the Dead items can bring good luck. Many people get tattoos or have dolls of the dead to carry with them. They also clean their houses and prepare the favorite dishes of their deceased loved ones to place upon their altar or ofrenda.

The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to a precolumbian past. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors had been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years. In the pre-Hispanic era skulls were commonly kept as trophies and displayed during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the goddess known as the “Lady of the Dead”, corresponding to the modern Catrina.In most regions of Mexico November 1 is to honor children and infants, whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2. This is indicated by generally referring to November 1 mainly as Día de los Inocentes (“Day of the Innocents”) but also as Día de los Angelitos (“Day of the Little Angels”) and November 2 as Día de los Muertos or Día de los Difuntos (“Day of the Dead”).

In many American communities with Mexican residents Day of the Dead celebrations are very similar to those held in Mexico. In some of these communities such as in Texas and Arizona, the celebrations tend to be mostly traditional. For example, the All Souls Procession has been an annual Tucson event since 1990. The event combines elements of traditional Day of the Dead celebrations with those of pagan harvest festivals. People wearing masks carry signs honoring the dead and an urn in which people can place slips of paper with prayers on them to be burned. Likewise, Old Town San Diego, California annually hosts a very traditional two-day celebration culminating in a candlelight procession to the historic El Campo Santo Cemetery.

In other communities interactions between Mexican traditions and American culture are resulting in celebrations in which Mexican traditions are being extended to make artistic or sometimes political statements. For example, in Los Angeles, California, the Self Help Graphics & Art Mexican-American cultural center presents an annual Day of the Dead celebration that includes both traditional and political elements, such as altars to honor the victims of the Iraq War highlighting the high casualty rate among Latino soldiers. An updated, intercultural version of the Day of the Dead is also evolving at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. There, in a mixture of Mexican traditions and Hollywood hip, conventional altars are set up side-by-side with altars to Jayne Mansfield and Johnny Ramone. Colorful native dancers and music intermix with performance artists, while sly pranksters play on traditional themes.Similar traditional and intercultural updating of Mexican celebrations are held in San Francisco, for example, the Galería de la Raza, SomArts Cultural Center, Mission Cultural Center, de Young Museum and altars at Garfield Square by the Marigold Project.Oakland is home to Corazon Del Pueblo in the Fruitvale district. Corazon Del Pueblo has a shop offering handcrafted Mexican gifts and a museum devoted to Day of the Dead artifacts. Also, the Fruitvale district in Oakland serves as the hub of the Dia de Los Muertos annual festival which occurs the last weekend of October. Here, a mix of several Mexican traditions come together with traditional Aztec dancers, regional Mexican music, and other Mexican artisans to celebrate the day. In Missoula, Montanaskeletal celebrants on stilts, novelty bicycles, and skis parade through town.The festival also occurs annually at historic Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. Day of the Dead festivities celebrate the cycle of life and death. People bring offerings of flowers, photos, mementos, and food for their departed loved ones, which they place at an elaborately and colorfully decorated altar. A program of traditional music and dance also accompanies the community event.Guatemalan celebrations of the Day of the Dead are highlighted by the construction and flying of giant kite

in addition to the traditional visits to grave sites of ancestors. A big event also is the consumption of fiambre, which is made only for this day during the year.In Ecuador the Day of the Dead is observed to some extent by all parts of society, though it is especially important to the indigenousKichwa peoples, who make up an estimated quarter of the population. Indigena families gather together in the community cemetery with offerings of food for a day-long remembrance of their ancestors and lost loved ones. Ceremonial foods include colada morada, a spiced fruit porridge that derives its deep purple color from the Andean blackberry and purple maize. This is typically consumed with guagua de pan, a bread shaped like a swaddled infant, though variations include many pigs—the latter being traditional to the city of Loja. The bread, which is wheat flour-based today, but was made with masa in the pre-Columbian era, can be made savory with cheese inside or sweet with a filling of guava paste. These traditions have permeated into mainstream society, as well, where food establishments add both colada morada and gaugua de pan to their menus for the season. Many nonindigenous Ecuadorians partake in visiting the graves of the deceased, cleaning and bringing flowers, or preparing the traditional foods,too.

The Brazilian public holiday of Finados (Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 2. Similar to other Day of the Dead celebrations, people go to cemeteries and churches with flowers and candles, and offer prayers. The celebration is intended to be positive to celebrate those who are deceased.In Haiti voodoo traditions mix with Roman Catholic observances as, for example, loud drums and music are played at all-night celebrations at cemeteries to waken Baron Samedi, the Loa of the dead, and his mischievous family of offspring, the Gede.Dia de los ñatitas (“Day of the Skulls”) is a festival celebrated in La Paz, Bolivia, on May 5. In pre-Columbian times indigenous Andeans had a tradition of sharing a day with the bones of their ancestors on the third year after burial; however, only the skulls are used today. Traditionally, the skulls of family members are kept at home to watch over the family and protect them during the year. On November 9, the family crowns the skulls with fresh flowers, sometimes also dressing them in various garments, and making offerings of cigarettes, coca leaves, alcohol, and various other items in thanks for the year’s protection. The skulls are also sometimes taken to the central cemetery in La Paz for a special Mass and blessing.

In the Philippines, the holiday is called All Saints Day (Todos los Santos), Undas (from Spanish andas, or possibly honra), or Araw ng mga Patay (Day of the Dead), and has more of a family-reunion atmosphere The traditions were imported when the Philippines were governed out of Mexico City as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Tombs are cleaned or repainted, candles are lit, and flowers are offered. Entire families camp in cemeteries and sometimes spend a night or two near their relatives’ tombs. Card games, eating, drinking, singing and dancing are common activities in the cemetery. It is considered a very important holiday by many Filipinos (after Christmas and Holy Week), and additional days are normally given as special nonworking holidays (but only November 1 is a regular holiday).Mexican-style Day of the Dead celebrations occur in major cities in Australia, Fiji andIndonesia. Prominent celebrations are held in Wellington, New Zealand, complete with altars celebrating the deceased with flowers and giftsIn many countries with a Roman Catholic heritage All Saints Day and All Souls Day have long been holidays in which people take the day off work, go to cemeteries with candles and flowers, and give presents to children, usually sweets and toys.

Halloween👻💀🎃👹👽🧟‍♂️🧛🏼‍♂️🧙🏻🦇🕷

Halloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of “All Hallows’ Evening”), also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is celebrated annually on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints Day). According to many scholars, it was originally influenced by western European harvest festivals and festivals of the dead with possible pagan roots, particularly the Celtic Samhain. Others maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has Christian roots. Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (also known as “guising”), attending costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. Though the origin of the word Halloween is Christian, the holiday is commonly thought to have pagan roots – some folklorists have detected its origins in Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain”, which comes from the Old Irish for “summer’s end”.

Halloween is also thought to have been influenced by the Christian holy days of All Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows, Hallowmas or Hallowtide) on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2. They are a time for honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed who had yet to reach Heaven. All Saints was introduced in the year 609, but was originally celebrated on May 13. In 835, it was switched to November 1 (the same date as Samhain) at the behest of Pope Gregory IV.By the end of the 12th century they had become holy days of obligation across Europe and involved such traditions as ringing bells for the souls in purgatory. “Souling”, the custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for “all crysten christened souls”, has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating. Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door on All Saints/All Souls collecting soul cakes, originally as a means of praying for souls in purgatory. Similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of whimpering like a beggar at Hallowmas.”

The custom of wearing costumes came about because it was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognised by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities”. In Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Halloween jack-o’-lanterns Were representations of souls in purgatory. In Brittany children would set candles in skulls in graveyards. ln Britain, these customs came under attack during the Reformation as Protestants berated purgatory . This, coupled with the rising popularity of Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) from 1605 onward, led to Halloween’s popularity waning in Britain,

However Scotland And Ireland, have been celebrating Samhain and Halloween since at least the early Middle Ages, and the Scottish kirk took a more pragmatic approach to Halloween, seeing it as important to the life cycle and rites of passage of communities and thus ensuring its survival in the country. Halloween traditions vary greatly among countries that observe it. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs include children dressing up in scary costumes going “guising”, holding parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and having firework displays. Surprisingly Halloween was not celebrated in North America until the Mass Irish and Scottish transatlantic immigration in the 19th century popularized it in North America. This has had a significant impact on how the event is observed in other nations too. This larger North American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as South America, Australia, New Zealand, (most) continental Europe, Japan, and other parts of East Asia.

Samhain

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November, as the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasadh. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall), and Kalan Goañv (in Brittany), both Celtic branches are roughly as old as each other.

Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. Some Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the time of Samhain. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Bealtaine, special bonfires were lit. These were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and there were rituals involving them. Like Bealtaine, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Most scholars see the Aos Sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits. At Samhain, it was believed that the Aos Sí needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them. The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them. Mumming and guising were part of the festival, and involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, and disguising oneself from, the Aos Sí. Divination rituals and games were also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples. In the late 19th century, Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer suggested that it was the “Celtic New Year”, and this view has been repeated by some other scholars.

In the 9th century AD, the Western Christian church shifted the date of All Saints’ Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls’ Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints’/All Souls’ merged to create the modern Halloween. Historians used the name ‘Samhain’ to refer to Gaelic ‘Halloween’ customs up until the 19th century. Since the later 20th century, Celtic neopagans and Wiccans have observed Samhain, as a religious holiday. Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere often celebrate Samhain at the other end of the year (about 1 May).

The Gaulish month name SAMONIOS “pertaining to Summer” on the Coligny calendar is likely related to the word Samhain. A festival of some kind may have been held during the ‘three nights of Samonios. The Gaulish calendar seems to have split the year into two-halves: the first beginning with the month SAMON[IOS] and the second beginning with the month GIAMONIOS, which is related to the word for winter, PIE *g’hei-men- (Latin hiems, Latvian ziema, Lithuanian žiema, Slavic zima, Greek kheimon, Hittite gimmanza), cf. Old Irish gem-adaig (‘winter’s night’). Samonios may represent the beginning of the summer season and Giamonios (the seventh month) the beginning of the winter season. The lunations marking the middle of each half-year may also have been marked by festivals.

Samain or Samuin was a festival marking the beginning of winter in Gaelic Ireland. It is attested in some of the earliest Old Irish literature, from the 10th century onward. It was one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals: Samhain (~1 November), Imbolc (~1 February), Bealtaine (~1 May) and Lughnasadh (~1 August). Samhain and Bealtaine, at the witherward side of the year from each other, are thought to have been the most important. Sir James George Frazer wrote in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion that 1 May and 1 November are of little importance to European crop-growers, but of great importance to herdsmen. It is at the beginning of summer that cattle are driven to the upland summer pastures and the beginning of winter that they are led back. Thus, Frazer suggests that halving the year at 1 May and 1 November dates from a time when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent on their herds. Some Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the times of Samhain and Imbolc. These include the Mound of the Hostages (Dumha na nGiall) at the Hill of Tara, and Cairn L at Slieve na Calliagh. In medieval Ireland the festival marked the end of the season for trade and warfare and was a time for tribal gatherings. These gatherings are a popular setting for early Irish tales.

Irish mythology was originally a spoken tradition, but much of it was eventually written down in the Middle Ages by Christian monks. These tales may shed some light on what Samhain meant and how it was marked in ancient Ireland. Irish mythology tells us that Samhain was one of the four seasonal festivals of the year, and the 10th-century tale Tochmarc Emire (‘The Wooing of Emer’) lists Samhain as the first of these four “quarter days”. The tales say it was marked by great gatherings where they held meetings, feasted, drank alcohol, and held contests.

According to Irish mythology, Samhain (like Bealtaine) was a time when the ‘doorways’ to the Otherworld opened, allowing supernatural beings and the souls of the dead to come into our world; but while Bealtaine was a summer festival for the living, Samhain “was essentially a festival for the dead”. The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn says that the sídhe (fairy mounds or portals to the Otherworld) “were always open at Samhain”. It tells us that the High King of Ireland hosted a great gathering at Tara each Samhain. Each year the fire-breather Aillen emerges from the Otherworld and burns down the palace of Tara after lulling everyone to sleep with his music. One Samhain, the young Fionn mac Cumhaill is able to stay awake and slays Aillen with a magical spear, for which he is made leader of the fianna. In a similar tale, one Samhain the Otherworld being Cúldubh comes out of the burial mound on Slievenamon and snatches a roast pig. Fionn kills Cúldubh with a spear throw as he re-enters the mound. Fionn’s thumb is caught between the door and the post as it shuts, and he puts it in his mouth to ease the pain. As his thumb had been inside the Otherworld, Fionn is bestowed with great wisdom. This may refer to gaining knowledge from the ancestors. Acallam na Senórach (‘Colloquy of the Elders’) tells how three female werewolves emerge from the cave of Cruachan (an Otherworld portal) each Samhain and kill livestock. When Cas Corach plays his harp, they take on human form, and the fianna warrior Caílte then slays them with a spear.

Some tales may suggest that offerings or sacrifices were made at Samhain. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn (or ‘Book of Invasions’), each Samhain the people of Nemed had to give two-thirds of their children, their corn and their milk to the monstrous Fomorians. The Fomorians seem to represent the harmful or destructive powers of nature; personifications of chaos, darkness, death, blight and drought. This tribute paid by Nemed’s people may represent a “sacrifice offered at the beginning of winter, when the powers of darkness and blight are in the ascendant”. According to the later Dindsenchas and the Annals of the Four Masters—which were written by Christian monks—Samhain in ancient Ireland was associated with a god or idol called Crom Cruach. The texts claim that a first-born child would be sacrificed at the stone idol of Crom Cruach in Magh Slécht. They say that King Tigernmas, and three-fourths of his people, died while worshiping Crom Cruach there one Samhain.

The legendary kings Diarmait mac Cerbaill and Muirchertach mac Ercae each die on Samhain, which involves wounding, burning and drowning, and of which they are forewarned. In the tale Togail Bruidne Dá Derga (‘The Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel’), king Conaire Mór also meets his death on Samhain after breaking his geasa (prohibitions or taboos). He is warned of his impending doom by three undead horsemen who are messengers of Donn, god of the dead. The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn tells how each Samhain the men of Ireland went to woo a beautiful maiden who lives in the fairy mound on Brí Eile (Croghan Hill). It says that each year someone would be killed “to mark the occasion”, by persons unknown. These tales recall human sacrifice, and several ancient Irish bog bodies (such as Old Croghan Man) appear to have been kings who were ritually killed, some of them around the time of Samhain.

In the Echtra Neraí (‘The Adventure of Nera’), King Ailill of Connacht sets his retinue a test of bravery on Samhain night. He offers a prize to whoever can make it to a gallows and tie a band around a hanged man’s ankle. Each challenger is thwarted by demons and runs back to the king’s hall in fear. However, Nera succeeds, and the dead man then asks for a drink. Nera carries him on his back and they stop at three houses. They enter the third, where the dead man drinks and spits it on the householders, killing them. Returning, Nera sees a fairy host burning the king’s hall and slaughtering those inside. He follows the host through a portal into the Otherworld. Nera learns that what he saw was only a vision of what will happen the next Samhain unless something is done. He is able to return to the hall and warns the king.

The tale Aided Chrimthainn maic Fidaig (‘The Killing of Crimthann mac Fidaig’) tells how Mongfind kills her brother, king Crimthann of Munster, so that one of her sons might become king. Mongfind offers Crimthann a poisoned drink at a feast, but he asks her to drink from it first. Having no other choice but to drink the poison, she dies on Samhain eve. The Middle Irish writer notes that Samhain is also called Féile Moingfhinne (the Festival of Mongfind or Mongfhionn), and that “women and the rabble make petitions to her” at Samhain.

Many other events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. The invasion of Ulster that makes up the main action of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (‘Cattle Raid of Cooley’) begins on Samhain. As cattle-raiding typically was a summer activity, the invasion during this off-season surprised the Ulstermen. The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh also begins on Samhain. The Morrígan and The Dagda meet and have sex before the battle against the Fomorians; in this way the Morrígan acts as a sovereignty figure and gives the victory to the Dagda’s people, the Tuatha Dé Danann. In Aislinge Óengusa (‘The Dream of Óengus’) it is when he and his bride-to-be switch from bird to human form, and in Tochmarc Étaíne (‘The Wooing of Étaín’) it is the day on which Óengus claims the kingship of Brú na Bóinne.

Several sites in Ireland are especially linked to Samhain. Each Samhain a host of otherworldly beings was said to emerge from Oweynagat (“cave of the cats”), at Rathcroghan in County Roscommon. The Hill of Ward (or Tlachtga) in County Meath is thought to have been the site of a great Samhain gathering and bonfire; the Iron Age ringfort is said to have been where the goddess or druid Tlachtga gave birth to triplets and later died. The only historic reference to pagan religious rites is in the work of Geoffrey Keating. No religious rites are mentioned because, centuries after Christianization, the writers had no record of them. Samhain may not have been particularly associated with the supernatural and gatherings of royalty and warriors on Samhain may simply have been an ideal setting for such tales, in the same way that many Arthurian tales are set at courtly gatherings at Christmas or Pentecost.

Troy by Stephen Fry

I am currently reading the book Troy, which is part three of Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths series of books and was published 29 Oct. 2020. It follows on from the previous novels Mythos and Heroes and concerns the events which led to the founding of the wealthy kingdom of Troy, it’s growth to an unrivalled prosperity, through to the events surrounding and leading up to the second siege of Troy by the Achaeans and the aftermath.

The conflict originated after a quarrel between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, a caused by Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, who gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked “for the fairest”. They could not decide who was the fairest, So Zeus, the king of the gods, asked the Trojan prince Paris to judge the fairest goddess of them all. However Aphrodite bribes Paris with the heart of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. 

As a result Paris gradually falls in love with Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty and they return to Troy together. This understandably angers King Menelaus so much that he asks his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead a large number of Achaean (Greek) troops in a thousand ships against the great city of Troy, And they besiege the city because of Paris’ insult. This Results in a terrible, brutal war which drags on for ten years and results in many casualties on all sides. The Greeks cannot defeat the Trojans – since Achilles, the Greek’s boldest warrior, will not fight and many heroes, die as a result including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. 

It is only after the Achaeans used great cunning that the city eventually fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse during the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy, and The Achaeans finally gain access to Troy and slaughter the Trojans (except for some of the women and children whom they kept or sold as slaves). However some of them go too far and also desecrate the temples, angering the gods’ who vow that none of the Acheans who took part in the desecration of the temples will ever successfully reach home

One such person Odysseus, tries to sail home, however along the way he and his crew encounter many perils including the witch Cerce, the bewitching song of the Sirens, the fearsome Scylla and Charybdis and the man eating Cyclops Polyphemus. As a result Few of the Achaeans ever returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, Aphrodite’s son and one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to modern-day Italy.

The historical reality behind the Trojan War remains open to question, although many believe that there is a historical core to the tale; The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BC. Greek polymath: mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist Eratosthenes, gives a date of 1194–1184 BC, which roughly correspond to archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VII. In 1868, aGerman archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann uncovered evidence that Troy may have been a real city at what is now Hisarlik in Turkey.

Mischief Night

Mischief Night takes place annually on 30 October during which children and teens traditionally engage in pranks and minor vandalism. While its name and date vary from place to place, it is most commonly held near the end of October to coincide with Halloween. The earliest reference to Mischief Night is from 1790 when a headmaster encouraged a school play which ended in “an Ode to Fun which praises children’s tricks on Mischief Night in most approving terms”. In the United Kingdom, these pranks were originally carried out as part of May Day celebrations, but when the industrial revolution caused workers to move to urban areas, Mischief Night shifted to November 4, the night before Guy Fawkes Night. According to one historian, “May Day and the Green Man had little resonance for children in grimy cities. They looked at the opposite end of the year and found the ideal time, the night before the gunpowder plot.” In Germany, Mischief Night is still celebrated on May 1.

In the United States, Mischief Night is commonly held on October 30, the night before Halloween. The separation of Halloween tricks from treats seems to have only developed in certain areas, often appearing in one region but not at all nearby. In New Jersey’s Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Warren, and Union counties, as well as in Philadelphia; Delaware; Westchester County, New York; and Fairfield County, Connecticut, it is referred to as “Mischief Night”. In some towns in Northern New Jersey and parts of New York State, it is also known as “Goosey Night”.

In rural Niagara Falls, Ontario, during the 1950s and 1960s, Cabbage Night referred to the custom of raiding local gardens for leftover rotting cabbages and hurling them about to create mischief in the neighborhood. Today, the night is commonly known as “Cabbage Night” in parts of Vermont; Connecticut; Bergen County, New Jersey; Upstate New York; Northern Kentucky; Newport, Rhode Island; Western Massachusetts; and Boston, Massachusetts. It is known as “Gate Night” in New Hampshire, Trail, British Columbia, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Rockland County, New York, North Dakota and South Dakota, as “Mat Night” in Quebec, Canada, and as “Devil’s Night” in many places throughout Canada, Michigan, and western Pennsylvania. Mischief night is known in Yorkshire as “Mischievous Night”, “Miggy Night”, “Tick-Tack Night”, “Corn Night”, “Trick Night”, or “Micky Night”, and is celebrated on November 4 on the eve of Bonfire Night. In some areas of Yorkshire, it is extremely popular among teenagers as they believe it to be a sort of “coming of age ceremony”.

Mischief Night tends to include popular tricks such as toilet papering yards and buildings, powder-bombing and egging cars, people, and homes, using soap to write on windows, “forking” yards, setting off fireworks, and smashing pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns. Local grocery stores often refuse to sell eggs to pre-teens and teens around the time of Halloween for this reason. Occasionally, the damage can escalate to include the spray-painting of buildings and homes. Less destructive is the prank known as “Knock, Knock, Ginger,” “Ding-Dong Ditch,” “knock down ginger,” or “knock-a-door-run and nicky-nicky-nine-doors (West Quebec). In some areas of Queens, New York, Cabbage Night has included throwing rotten fruit at neighbors, cars, and buses. Pre-teens and teens fill eggs with Neet and Nair and throw them at unsuspecting individuals. In the mid-1980s, garbage was set on fire and cemeteries were set ablaze. In Camden, New Jersey, Mischief Night escalated to the point that in the 1990s widespread arson was committed, with over 130 arsons on the night of October 30, 1991. In Detroit, Michigan, which was particularly hard-hit by Devil’s Night arson and vandalism throughout the 1980s, many citizens take it upon themselves to patrol the streets to deter arsonists and those who may break the law. This is known as “Angels’ Night”. Some 40,000 volunteer citizens patrol the city on Angels’ Night, which usually runs October 29 through October 31, around the time most Halloween festivities are taking place.

Sean Connery

Scottish actor Sean Connery, sadly died 30 October 2020 at the age of 90 at his home in Nassau. He was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1930.His mother, Euphemia “Effie” McBain McLean, was a cleaning woman. Connery’s father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver. and his maternal great-grandparents were native Scottish Gaelic speakers from Fife (unusually, for a speaker of the language), and Uig on Skye. His father was a Roman Catholic, and his mother was a Protestant. He had a younger brother, Neil. Connery’s first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society.In 2009, Connery recalled a conversation in a taxi:

In 1946, at the age of 16, Connery joined the Royal Navy, He trained in Portsmouth at the naval gunnery school and in an anti-aircraft crew. He was later assigned as an Able Seaman on HMS Formidable. Connery was later discharged from the navy age 19 on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer, a condition that affected most of the males in previous generations of his family. Afterwards, he returned to the co-op, then worked as, among other things, a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a labourer, an artist’s model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and after a suggestion by former Mr. Scotland, Archie Brennan, a coffin polisher. Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British Army. Connery was also a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days and was offered a trial with East Fife. While on tour with South Pacific, Connery played in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting Busby was impressed and offered Connery a contract, which he declined.

Connery became interested in theatre after helping out backstage at the King’s Theatre in late 1951. During a bodybuilding competition held in London in 1953, one of the competitors mentioned that auditions were being held for a production of South Pacific, and Connery landed a small part as one of the Seabees chorus boys. By the time the production reached Edinburgh, he had been given the part of Marine Cpl Hamilton Steeves and was understudying two of the juvenile leads, Due to popular demand The production returned the following year , and Connery was promoted to the featured role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had portrayed in the West End. Connery gained a reputation as a “hard man”. While in Edinburgh after he was targeted by the Valdor gang, one of the most violent in the city and he confronted them.

Connery met Michael Caine at a party during the production of South Pacific in 1954, and the two later became close friends.During the production of South Pacific in Christmas 1954, Connery developed a serious interest in the theatre through American actor Robert Henderson who lent him copies of the Henrik Ibsen works Hedda Gabler, The Wild Duck, and When We Dead Awaken, and later listed works by the likes of Marcel Proust, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce and William Shakespeare. Although Connery had previously been an extra in Herbert Wilcox’s 1954 musical Lilacs in the Spring alongside Anna Neagle Henderson advised and assisted Connery in getting better film parts. Sadly though he was still struggling to make ends meet And took apart-time job as a babysitter for journalist Peter Noble and his actress wife Marianne, where He also met Hollywood actress Shelley Winters one night at Noble’s house. Henderson landed Connery a role in a Q Theatre production of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, followed by Point of Departure and A Witch in Time at Kew, as Pentheus opposite Yvonne Mitchell in The Bacchae at the Oxford Playhouse, and a role opposite Jill Bennett in Eugene O’Neill’s production of Anna Christie.

Connery was also cast as a boxer in the TV series The Square Ring, before being spotted by Canadian director Alvin Rakoff, who gave him multiple roles in The Condemned, shot on location in Dover in Kent. In 1956, Connery appeared in the theatrical production of Epitaph, and played a minor role as a hoodlum in the Dixon of Dock Green episode “Ladies of the Manor” followed by small television parts in Sailor of Fortune and The Jack Benny Program. In 1957, Connery Portrayed Spike, a gangster with a speech impediment in Montgomery Tully’s No Road Back alongside Skip Homeier, Paul Carpenter, Patricia Dainton and Norman Wooland. In 1957, Connery was cast as Mountain McLintock in BBC Television’s production of Requiem For a Heavyweight, which also starred Warren Mitchell and Jacqueline Hill. He then played a rogue lorry driver, Johnny Yates, in Cy Endfield’s Hell Drivers alongside Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins and Patrick McGoohan.

In 1957, Connery appeared in The action picture Action of the Tiger opposite Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom and Gustavo Rojo; which was filmed on location in southern Spain. He also had a minor role in Gerald Thomas’s thriller Time Lock alongside Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty McDowall and Vincent Winter. In 1958Connery had a major role in the melodrama Another Time, Another Place opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan portraying a British reporter named Mark Trevor, caught in a love affair. During filming, Turner’s possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, who was visiting from Los Angeles, believed she was having an affair with Connery, and pointed a gun at Connery, however Connery disarmed him and knocked him flat on his back. Connery later received threats from men linked to Stompanato’s boss and kept a low profile. In 1959, Connery landed a leading role in Robert Stevenson’s Walt Disney Productions film Darby O’Gill and the Little People alongside Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Jimmy O’Dea. He also appeared in Rudolph Cartier’s 1961 productions of Adventure Story and Anna Karenina alongside Claire Bloom.

Connery’s breakthrough came in the role of British secret agent James Bond. He
played 007 in the first five Bond films: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967) – then appeared again as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983). In 2005, Connery recorded voiceovers for a new video game version of his Bond film From Russia with Love.

Eventually though Connery grew tired of the role and the pressure the franchise put on him. While making the Bond films, Connery also starred in other films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie opposite Tippi Hedren and Sidney Lumet’s The Hill which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes film festival. He also shared a Golden Globe Henrietta Award with Charles Bronson for “World Film Favorite. Next He appeared in John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King opposite Michael Caine, and The Wind and the Lion. in 1976 played Robin Hood in Robin and Marian opposite Audrey Hepburn who played Maid Marian. Connery also starred in two films (Thunderball his seventh James Bond film, and Cuba with Bermudian actor Earl Cameron. Connery was part of ensemble casts in films such as Murder on the Orient Express (with Vanessa Redgrave and John Gielgud, and A Bridge Too Far (1977) co-starring Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Olivier. In 1981 Connery appeared in the film Time Bandits as Agamemnon and in 1982, Connery narrated G’olé!, the official film of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.In 1983 Connery reprised the role of James Bond in Never Say Never Again. The title, refers to a statement he made that he would “never again” portray James Bond. In 1986 he appeared in The Name of the Rose (1986), for which he won a BAFTA Award, and also had a supporting role in Highlander

In 1987, Connery starred in Brian De Palma’s filmThe Untouchables, alongside Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Patricia Clarkson, Andy Garcia, and Robert De Niro as Al Capone and received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989 Connery starred in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (playing Henry Jones, Sr., the title character’s father, and received BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominations. His subsequent box-office hits included The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Russia House (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999). In 1996, he voiced the role of Draco the dragon in the film Dragonheart. He also appeared in a brief cameo as King Richard the Lionheart at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). In 1998, Connery received a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award. Connery’s later films included First Knight, Just Cause, The Avengers, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen And Finding Forrester. He also received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. In a 2003 poll conducted by Channel 4 Connery was ranked eighth on their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars. Connery was also offered the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings series but declined it. Connery also turned down the opportunity to appear as the Architect in The Matrix trilogy

Connery retired from acting and received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. In 2010 a bronze bust sculpture of Connery was placed outside Tallinn’s Scottish Club in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2012 Connery voiced the title character in the animated movie Sir Billi the Vet for which he also served as executive producer. Sadly on 31 October 2020, Connery died in his sleep on aged 90, at his home in Nassau in the Bahamas having been unwell for sometime.