HISTORY OF THE IDES OF MARCH
According to the ancient Roman calendar, the ides fell on the 13th of the month with the exception of the months March, May, July, and October, when it fell on the 15th.
It was on March 15, 44 B.C. that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated. Contrary to popular belief, [...]
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History,
ides,
Julius Caesar,
Rome
HISTORY OF ST. VALENTINE’S DAY
Valentine or Valentinus, is the name of at least three martyred saints. The most celebrated are the two martyrs whose festivals fall on February 14, the one, a Roman priest, the other, bishop of Terni. It would appear from the legends that both lived during the reign of the Emperor Claudius [...]
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History,
holiday,
lupercalia,
Rome,
St Valentine
HISTORY OF NEW YEAR’S DAY
We have the Romans to thank for celebrating New Year’s Day on January 1. It wasn’t always that way. Indeed, previous civilizations celebrated it in March, to observe the “new year” of growth and fertility. Before calendars existed the time between seed sowing and harvesting was considered a cycle or a [...]
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calendar,
History,
holiday,
New Year,
Rome
HISTORY OF 2010: A NEW DECADE?
As the chronometer clicks over from 2009 to 2010, many are heralding the end of one decade and the beginning of another, regaling the best and worst at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.
Except that it isn’t.
Clicking over to 2010 does mark the end of a [...]
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History,
holiday,
Julius_Caesar,
Rome
HISTORY OF THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN
December 27, since the 5th century, has marked the day in the church calendar for celebrating the life of St. John the Evangelist and is known as the Feast of St. John. We’ve already mentioned that December 26 is the Feast of St. Stephen. December 28 is [...]
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Christian,
History,
holiday,
Rome
HISTORY OF CAESAR AUGUSTUS
Perhaps it is fitting that our last article on the History of Christmas should be about the first person mentioned in St. Luke’s story of the first Christmas. He was neither Palestinian, nor Jew, nor shepherd, nor wise man. He was in fact, 1500 miles away, the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Were [...]
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Augustus_Caesar,
Christmas,
History,
holiday,
Rome
HISTORY OF HEROD THE KING
When the wise men asked Herod the King “Where is he who is born king of the Jews?” their question was not really spoken in a vacuum, for even the Roman author Suetonius wrote, “There had spread all over the East an old and established belief that it was fated for [...]
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Augustus_Caesar,
Christian,
Christmas,
History,
holiday,
King_Herod,
magi,
Rome