Ante Diem XIV Kalendas November

Modern Date : October 19th

Ante Diem XIV Kalendas November
The Armilustrium

This day is for special religious observance.

The Armilustrium is the day the army is lustrated, or purified. The army would be assembled and reviewed in the Circus Maximus, garlanded with flowers and the trumpets (tubae) would be played as part of the purification rites. This is one of the festival days and the temples would sacrifice, then prepare feasts from the animals sacrificed, and the public and poor were invited. Games, music, dancing, singing and wine-drinking would conclude the festivities.

As a military festival, this day is sacred to Mars.

In 202 BCE Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at Zama.

On this day in 439 AD, the Vandals under king Gaiseric, sailing a fleet captured from Roman ports, took Carthage in North Africa.

October was the eighth month of the old Roman calendar and was sacred to the goddess Astraea, daughter of Zeus and Themis. The name October comes from Octo, meaning eight (March used to be the first month).


Bettara-Ichi
In Japan, near the shrine of Ebisu, one of the seven Shinto gods of luck, an annual fair called Bettara-Ichi is held. People buy good luck charms and religious images as well as sticky pickled radishes called bettara on straw ropes at stalls, which line the streets. Traditionally, youngsters run through the streets swinging these radishes at friends, shouting bettara in warning.


St. Peter of Alcantara
In the Roman Catholic calendar, feast of St. Peter of Alcantara (1599 - 1662), a Spanish monk and one of the outstanding athletes of voluntary suffering and privation in Earth history. Peter's cell is said to have been only 4 1/2 feet long, making it impossible for him to lie down, and he took only one meal every three days. The one indulgence he allowed himself was that in the dead of winter he would leave his door and window wide open, so he might have some slight sensation of warmth on closing them again.

"Whatever deprives you, will enslave you."
Hindu proverb


Uinal of Rain
In the Mayan calendar systems, this day begins the Uinal of Rain, the eighth of the 20-day Uinals in the current cycle of the Tzolkin, or 260-day calendar (11 Imix, Tzolkin 141). The symbolic bird for this uinal is the Eagle.