Ante Diem XVIII Kalendas Februarias

Modern Date : January 15th

Ante Diem XVIII Kalendas Februarias
Eighteenth Day to the Kalends of February

This day is for special religious observance.

This is the final day of the Carmentalia which began January 11th in honor of the goddess Carmenta. She was otherwise known as Metis, the Titaness of Wisdom. She is also called Car, Carya, or Car the Wise. Carmenta was the mother of Evander. After arriving in Latium with her son, she went atop the Capitoline Hill and began prophesying. Afterwards she became revered as a deity. She is also considered the goddess of childbirth. A temple in Rome was dedicated to her and known as the Temple of Carmentis. The right arch of this temple was called the porta scelerata, because the Fabii passed through it on their way to their destruction at Cremera. After her are named the Caryae (walnut trees) and the Carytids (nut nymphs). The Second Festival of Carmentalia was created after the Senate prohibited a practice to which mothers had become accustomed. At one time, old matrons drove in carriages (carpenta) during the festival on the 11th. After the honor was taken from them, every matron vowed not to produce any children for her ungrateful spouse. The Senate restored the rite and declared there would now be two festivals in the Mother’s honor to promote the birth of boys and girls.

On this day in 69 AD, the emperor Galba was killed by his Praetorian guards.

This month is sacred to Janus, the god of Beginnings. The Romans had numerous temples to Janus. Whenever war was declared, the chief magistrate would lead a ceremony in which the doors of the main temple of Janus were opened. In time of peace they were normally shut.


Orion
On this night at about 10 PM, the constellation Orion culminates, or reaches its highest point. To the ancients it was the best known constellation and the resemblance of the pattern to a tunic with a belt, and the bow being shot at Taurus, was obvious to the Greeks, to whom it was known in 425 BC. The Egyptian pyramids are arranged in the pattern of Orion's primary stars.


Sein-No-Hi
Sein-No-Hi, Adult's Day, is a Japanese festival to honor those who have turned twenty. A person is not considered an adult until they turn twenty.
This is also the Small New Year. Azuki-qayu (gruel cooked with red beans) is eaten to drive away evil spirits and illness for the coming year.


Surya-Pongal
The second day, of Pongal is Surya-Pongal, dedicated to the Sun god, Surya. On this day, pongal (rice cooked in milk and jaggery) is boiled by women who offer it to the Sun.


Amun
In the ancient Egyptian Calendar, this is the first day of the month of Pamenot, sacred to Amun, the primordial water Neter who embodies the potential of all living things. As this month is opposite on the zodiac wheel to what we call July, the month when the annual inundation of the Nile always used to begin on July 26, the month of Pamenot has always represented the seminal ingathering of energy and its concentration toward release in the surge of summer.

Ante Diem XIX Kalendas Februarias

Modern Date : January 14th

Ante Diem XIX Kalendas Februarias
Nineteenth Day to the Kalends of February

This is one of then endotercisus on which mornings could be for voting and afternoons not, or vice-versa.

The Carmentalia celebrations continued this day in honor of the goddess Carmenta. She was otherwise known as Metis, the Titaness of Wisdom. She is also called Car, Carya, or Car the Wise. Carmenta was the mother of Evander.

On this day, an official admission of error was issued by the jurors of the Salem Witch Trial in 1696.

This month is sacred to Janus, the god of Beginnings. The Romans had numerous temples to Janus. Whenever war was declared, the chief magistrate would lead a ceremony in which the doors of the main temple of Janus were opened. In time of peace they were normally shut.


Makara Sankrati
Hindus celebrate the festival of Makara Sankrant, the solar date associated with the sun's journey into Capricorn and the start of the movement into the light part of the year. The festival is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India but always with sweetness. People make treats out of sesame seeds which are associated with sweetness, love and tender feelings and give them to each other with wishes for sweet words.

In Maharashtra, married women get together and receive gifts of kitchen utensils. In Gujarat Sankrant, elders give gifts to the younger members of their families and scholarships are awarded to students in astrology and philosophy. In Punjab, the festival is called Lohari. People gather around huge bonfires and throw into them sweets, sugarcane and rice.

In South Sankrant, the festival is known as Pongal, a name which comes from the special food that is served: newly harvested rice which is boiled in a new pot of milk. In Tamil, the place where the rice is cooked is treated ceremonially: washed with cow dung and water, then decorated with a lotus pattern drawn in powdered rice, depicting the Sun God. People rise before sunrise, bathe themselves and wear new clothes. The pot is decorated with saffron. The rice is offered to the Sun-God on three banana-leaves.

According to Venkatramani, this used to be a four day festival with the first day devoted to a thorough house-cleaning and the second day to cooking the rice which was offered to Surya, the Sun-God. the third day was called Festival of the Cow. Cattle ware washed and decorated with garlands and red saffron and given some of the ceremonial rice. In some parts of India, young men participated in bull-chasing: a net of tamarind fibers decorated with silver coins and gold rings was attached to a bull's horns and trumpets blown to make the bull run helter-skelter while young men vied to snatch the treasure from its horns. The fourth day was devoted to visiting.

In Nepal, people visit holy bathing spots on this day. Some immerse themselves while others flick water on their hands and face and over their heads. Special foods are served including sesame seeds, sweet potatoes, spinach, a mixture of rice and lentils called khichari, meat and home-brewed wine and beer. Married daughters return to their parental homes and mothers bless their children by putting mustard oil on their heads and placed a few drops in the ear for a long life of good fortune. People sit in the sun on this day and have mustard-oil massages. These customs seem to be related to the revitalization of the sun--I'm assuming that the heat and color of the mustard are associated with the sun.


Pongal
Also today in India the festival of Pongal, which literally means "boiling over," stretches over four days and celebrates the bounteous crops in the fields. This festival is the biggest event of the year for the Tamils as well as for the people of Andhra Pradesh. The first day, Bhogi-Pongal is devoted to Bhogi or Indra, the rain god. The day is linked with the famous mythological tale about Krishna lifting Gobardhan parbat on his little finger. The day begins with an oil bath and in the evening there is a bonfire made of old cloths, files, mats and rugs.


St Hilary's Day
According to British folklore, this is the coldest day of the year.