SEPTEMBER 23
On this date, the Sun enters the Sign of Libra. This is the time of the Autumnal Equinox, when the length of day is equal to the length of night.SEPTEMBER 24
Around this date, ancient Egyptians marked the approach of planting season by commemorating the death and rebirth of the God Osiris. The rites included music, dancing and the ceremonial planting of crops.SEPTEMBER 25
Beginning approximately on this date and continuing for roughly two weeks, at a time astonomically determined, the people of India celebrate Durga Puja to honor the ten-armed Goddess Durga, the Divine Mother of the Universe. In Indian lore, Durga conquered the thousand-headed King of Demons known as Mahisasura. This festival is a time of joy, when children express their respect for parents and adults settle quarrels with friends and neighbors. During Durga Puja, many families hold their annual reunions and celebrate family life.SEPTEMBER 26
It is said that the real Johnny Appleseed...John Chapman...was born on this day in 1774. As a young man, Chapman suffered a blow to the head that resulted in what he believed to be a vision of Heaven. Chapman later reported that the home of God was distinguished by an abundance of blooming apple trees. Following this ephiphany, Chapman made it his mission to plant apples and preach the Christian scriptures. He wandered the American prairies sowing seeds and reading from the gospel. His earthly reward was a place in American folklore.SEPTEMBER 27
One of the most joyous events of the Chinese Year...the Moon Festival or Chung-Ch'lu...falls on the Full Moon of the eighth month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar. This is also known as the Autumn Harvest Moon. As the climax of the growing season, the Moon Festival is a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Because the Moon in Chinese thought symbolizes the female principle of Yin, the rites are performed by the women of each family. Special altars are arranged in the courtyards of houses. Upon each altar, a picture is placed (and sometimes, a small figurine) of the Moon Hare, a creature that in Chinese mythology inhabits the Moon. When moonlight fills the courtyard, the ceremony begins. The women set offerings upon the altar...five platters of different varieties of fruit and thirteen "mooncakes," which are small, spicy, circular cakes representing the thirteen months of the Lunar Year. On occasion, offering of beans are also included since beans are believed to be a particular favorite food of the Moon Hare. Incense is lighted and one by one, the women of the household approach the altar and bow. Then, the picture of the Moon Hare is burned in order that its soul be freed to return to the Moon.SEPTEMBER 28
Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher and moral teacher, is believed by some authorities to have been born on this day in 551 B.C.This is also approximately the time of Yom Kippur, a solemn day of rest, prayer, fasting and ritual purification ending the Ten Days of Pentinence that begin with the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Much like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur occurs on movable dates determined by Moon phases. In ancient times, a scape-goat (symbolic sin-bearer) was turned out into the desert to carry away the sins of the people during Yom Kippur.
SEPTEMBER 29
This date is the Festival of Saint Michael's Day, also known as Michaelmas. Many customs are associated with this celebration and it is the day Christians set aside to honor Saint Michael, Chief of the Archangels, who chased the devil Lucifer from Heaven. In England, people once refused to pick blackberries after this date, believing that the devil (who was said to have landed on a prickly blackberry bush when he fell from Heaven) cursed the berries by either spitting or urinating on them each Michaelmas. On the Scottish Isle of Saint Kilda, familes still bake and eat a special cake on Saint Michael's Day to ensure the Saint's protection during the coming year.SEPTEMBER 30
On this date in 1955, James Dean died at the age of twenty-four in a car crash. However, this popular actor continues to live on as a supernatural cult hero. Some thirty thousand fans gather each year in Fairmount, Indiana (where Dean grew up and is buried) to mark the anniversary of his death. Many such devoted fans believe Dean speaks to them. One woman reported that he told her via Ouija to go to a certain road. There, he appeared to her briefly in his "Eastof Eden outfit." Another fan is said to have heard Dean's booted feet "walking back to his grave." Police were once obliged to evict eight academics holding a seance by Dean's headstone. Nevertheless, Fairmount appreciates the attention...to say nothing of the money spent by the visitors each year...and has made the anniversary into a three-day festival.OCTOBER 1
According to one classical formulation, the faith of Islam requires of its followers five things: belief, prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. To fulfill the last requirement, every Muslim must make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca, where the prophet Muhammad was born. According to the Koran, Islam's Holy Book, this pilgrimage or hajj, must be timed so the pilgrim is in Mecca on the seventh day of the month of Dhu'l-hijjah...a date that varies from year to year on Western calendars, but which always occurs around the beginning of October. Once a Muslim has completed the hajj, he or she may assume the title Hajji or Pilgrim. This is a mark of high honor. Prior to reaching Mecca (a city still forbidden to non-Muslims), the pilgrims must bathe, pray and don special garments. When they enter the city, they go directly to the Ka'ba, a veiled shrine said to have been built by Abraham and his son, Ishmael, from whom the Arab nations descended. Over time, the Ka'ba has undergone much repair until today, only one of its building blocks (the Black Stone in the eastern corner) is believed to have survived from the original erection. Each pilgrim circles the Ka'ba seven times, striving to touch or kiss the Black Stone, as did the prophet Muhammad when he rededicated it to the service of the one God, Allah. After paying their respects to the Ka'ba, pilgrims pass on to the small domed Mosque of Abraham and drink from the nearbly sacred Well of Ishmael. According to tradition, this Well sprang miraculously from the sand to save Ishmael and his mother when both were abandoned in the desert. Pilgrims then climb the Holy Hills of Safa and Marwa, journeying between them seven times and stopping only to recite prayers. On the eighth day of Dhu'l-hijjah comes the so-called standing, in which hundreds of thousands of worshippers gather on the nearby Plains of Arafat to stand and pray from noon until sunset. After nightfall, each pilgrim collects seventy pebbles from the desert. These stones are later thrown at three ancient pillars which represent the evils of the world. A final animal sacrifice ends the hajj. However, some of the more pious continue on to the city of Medina, where Muhammad fled when Mecca disowned him. There, the travelers pray in the Mosque of the Prophet. Muhammad wrote that one prayer recited in this mosque has more effect than a thousand prayers offered in any other location...save the Ka'ba in Mecca.OCTOBER 2
In 1672, Pope Clement X proclaimed this date to be Guardian Angels Day, an occasion for people to give special thanks to the Angels and for the protection provided courtesy of such celestial guardians.OCTOBER 3
It was on approximately this date that the Cherokee nation once celebrated its Cementation and Propitiation Festival, during which men exchanged the clothes they were wearing to symbolize human union with Cherokee deities. Celebrants later immersed themselves in running water to wash away unseen barriers to the Gods.OCTOBER 4
During the Jewish Harvest Festival of Sukkoth, which fall around this date, worshippers eat their meals in outdoor booths built from tree boughs. Sukkoth is a time of renewal and thanksgiving. The Festival also includes a special prayer for rain.OCTOBER 5
On this approximate date in Lithuania, the reaping of the last sheaf of grain is marked by the Nubaigai celebration. On some farms, workers dress the last sheaf...known as "The Old Woman"...in female clothing and dance with it for good luck. This celebration often ends as a full-blown festival, complete with food, drink, dancing and games.OCTOBER 6
Each Autumn in Nepal at around this time, Hindu worshippers of the great God Vishnu hold a nine-day religious festival to honor their transcendant protector and redeemer. The celebration, one of the most auspicious of the Hindu Year, includes Haribodhini Ekadasi, the day in Hindu tradition when Vishnu awakes from his annual four-month rest on a subterranean bed of snakes. To mark Vishnu's wakening, the faithful bathe in sacred waters, chant the God's name 1008 times and make secret...and thus, more truly charitable...offerings of alms by hiding them in unripe pumpkins. Should Vishnu's followers fail to honor him at this time, traditions holds that they risk rebirth as crowing roosters or human mutes.OCTOBER 7
It was on this date that Fifteenth Century German peasants are said to have launched Kermesse, a week-long holiday that blended Christianity and Paganism. First, they visited a remote location where the year before, they had buried a sacred symbol (sometimes a Christian icon and sometimes a Pagan icon). Retrieving the relic, they mounted it atop a gaily-decorated pole and marched into town. Days of games, feasting, dancing, the irreverent singing of hymns and other similar antics followed. At week's end, the townsfolk donned mourning garb and returned the Kermesse symbol to the earth for another year.OCTOBER 8
Midway through Autumn at around this time, the Chinese celebrate Chung Yeung, also known at the "Festival of High Places." This is a holiday that commemorates the legendary scholar Huan Ching. According to tradition, Huan Ching, who is said to have lived in the village of Joo-an more than 2,000 years ago, was warned by a soothsayer to take his family high into the hills on this day to avoid a disaster that would devastate the village below. After passing the warning along to others, Huan Ching and his family fled into the hills. Upon their return, they found that every living creature left behind had mysteriously perished. In modern times, families remember the escape on Chung Yeung Day by flying kites from local hills or mountains. The kites, which are believed to carry away impending evils, often take the form of such good omens as bats, fish and butterflies. The traditional accompanying picnic includes chrysanthemum wine (which Huan Ching supposedly took with him when he fled) and special cakes that are said to bring good luck and career advancement when eaten in high places.OCTOBER 9
It was on this day in 1989 that the Soviet news agency "Tass" reported a banana-shaped UFO carrying giant "humanlike" aliens and a tiny robot had landed in the city of Voronezh. The strange beings allegedly took a walk before reboarding their craft and then disappearing into space.OCTOBER 10
In mid-October, the two-week Festival of Light is held in the Brazilian city of Belem. The celebrations include a penitential parade of tens of thousands of worshippers, many of whom go barefoot and carry heavy weights for their sins.OCTOBER 11
On this date in 1973, Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson were, by their own account, abducted from Pascagoula, Mississippi, and taken aboard what was apparently an alien spaceship. There, the two men later claimed to have been examined by eyeless, gray-skinned creatures.OCTOBER 12
Notorious British occultist, Aleister Crowley, the so-called "wickedest man in the world," was born on this date in 1875. A member of numerous secret sects and founder of one known as the "Silver Star" or Argentinum Astrum, Crowley roamed the world preaching his own form of "magick," based upon sex and drugs. He added the "k" to distinguish his occult ceremonies from stage magic and summed up his philosophy in four words: "Do what thou wilt." Plagued by scandal throughout his adult life, Crowley died bankrupt in 1947.OCTOBER 13
On May 13, 1917, three Portuguese children tending sheep near the town of Fatima, saw a beautiful lady they identified as the Virgin Mary. Veiled in a white cloth bordered in gold, the mysterious figure told ten-year-old Lucia dos Santos, nine-year-old Francisco Marto and seven-year-old Jacinta Marto that she would return to meet them on the thirteenth day of each of the following five months. Fifty villagers accompanied the three children on June 13, the first appointed date, but the adults heard only whispering noises as the Virgin supposedly appeared. The crowd had grown to 5,000 on July 13, at which time Lucia stated that Mary had told her to pray for peace. Prevented by the government from returning on August 13, the children paid another visit on September 13 accompanied by a crowd of 30,000, some of whom saw falling flower petals that vanished in mid-air. On October 13, 1917, at least 70,000 pilgrims arrived in Fatima for the Virgin's final promised visitation. Everyone present is said to have observed a huge disk of silver in the sky. Spinning while throwing off colored flames, the disk dove toward the crowd only to stop and then soar heavenward. However, this was not the end of the Fatima story. During her visits, the Virgin Mary had apparently shared a number of predictions with the children, including a forecast that the future Soviet Union would cause great trouble but later be converted to Catholicism. Some people believe that prophecy began to come true in August of 1991 when the Communist Party lost power following a failed Soviet coup.OCTOBER 14
October 14 is celebrated as Interplanetary Confederation Day, sponsored by the UFO-enthusiast Unarius Foundation. The purpose of this event is to recognize the other planets with which Earth shares the Milky Way Galaxy.OCTOBER 15
While flying over Japan on this date in 1948, the crew of a United States Air Force F-61 Black Widow night fighter picked up a mysterious aircraft on radar. The unidentified vessel was flying at approximately two hundred miles per hour, but each time the Black Widow attempted to close in, the intruder abruptly accelerated, reaching speeds of perhaps twelve hundred miles per hour. Then, the strange craft would slow down again, as if challenging the jet to give chase. On one pass, the crew reported seeing the silhouette of a "rifle bullet" twenty to thirty feet long. However, the frustrated crew were unable to gather any other information.OCTOBER 16
On this night, one year in the late 1640s, British trader Sir John Gayer found himself alone in the Arabian Desert, confronted by a lion. Recalling the biblical story of Daniel, who was miraculously preserved after being thrown into a den of lions, Sir John prayed fervently for similar protection and it is said that the lion stalked away. Once back in England, the grateful knight established a fund at London's Church of Saint Katherine Cree to pay for an annual sermon about his escape. The "Lion's Sermon" has been preached on or about the anniversary of Sir John's ordeal ever since.OCTOBER 17
This date marks the Japanese Shinto ceremony known as the Kanname-Sai or God-Tasting Event. During this time, the first fruits of the year's rice crop are offered to the Sun Goddess and other imperial ancestors.OCTOBER 18
On approximately this date in mid-October, the ancient Greek festival of Thesmophoria was celebrated. Women would retrieve pig carcasses from snake-filled chasms into which the dead swine had earlier been thrown. Then, mixing the rotten flesh with seed, the women prayed to the Grain Goddess Demeter for abundant crops.OCTOBER 19
Held annually on this date, a popular event in Tokyo is the fair known as Bettara-Ichi. It takes place near the Shrine of Ebisu, one of the seven Shinto Gods of Luck. Streets close to the Shrine are lined with stalls where people may buy good luck pieces and religious images. But perhaps the most favored items for sale are sticky pickled radishes called bettara that are sold tied to straw ropes. Mischievous youngsters traditionally run among the fairgoers, swinging the pickled radishes at their friends and shouting a playful warning of: "Bettara...Bettara" ("Sticky...Sticky").OCTOBER 20
It was on this date in 1967 that former rodeo rider, Roger Patterson, reportedly spied a huge, apelike figure in the wooded highlands of Northern California. Believing it to be the legendary humanoid creture known as "Bigfoot," Patterson reached for his home-movie camera. The resulting twenty-four feet of film is generally considered to be the best evidence yet that "Bigfoot" does indeed exist.OCTOBER 21
On October 21, 1966, half a million tons of coal waste slid onto a school and other buildings in Aberfan, Wales, killing 140 people. One victim, a nine-year-old girl named Eryl Mai Jones, had apparently foreseen her fate. The previous morning, she had told her mother that she had dreamed the school could not be found because, "something black had come down all over it."OCTOBER 22
On this night in the village of Kurama, near Kyoto, is celebrated Japan's Hi Massuri, also known as the Fire Festival. Through streets ablaze with bonfires, people carry flaming torches in a frenzied procession of fire, which is considered to be a purifying element. The brilliant parade ends at a Shrine where at midnight, it is believed that the Gods descend to Earth. Also on this date, the Sun begins to take its leave from the Sign of Libra and continues its journey by entering the Sign of Scorpio.
