Sunday, 28 April 2024

May Random Thread — Happy New Year!

We’re saved! Until 222 B.C., apparently, the Roman consular year began on May 1. Then the Romans changed it to start on the Ides of March, and in 154 B.C. they switched to January 1.

Still, the early May date is good enough for us. The picture shows a much later Roman gold piece (ca. 43 B.C.) embossed with the image of a consul between two bodyguards (lictors).

Thanks to The Man For Aeiou and ZMZ for ferreting out this theme-saving information.

(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!

We were planning to celebrate a different New Year every month. Unfortunately, we’ve run out of New Years. We can’t find a single calendar in which the year begins in the month that our calendar calls May. The one we were counting on, the Maori New Year (known as Matariki and connected with the rising of the Pleiades and the star Rigel), starts in June this year.

We’ve found a lot of other holidays, including the Celtic Beltane, Children’s Day in Japan, the feast of St. George (very big in Serbia, Bulgaria, and the Caucasus), Biological Diversity Day, World Turtle Day, World Schizophrenia Day, a couple of intriguing Voodoo festivals, and Towel Day (May 25, a date well known to fans of Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books). But no New Years. If you find any, please let us know. Otherwise — well, we hope you like pictures of towels.


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