Author Archives: John Cutrone

Jun 02 2016
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Book of Days Calendar, Midsummer

Your June Book of Days

MidsummerNight

New month, new Book of Days calendar… and here is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for June. It’s a printable PDF on standard US Letter size paper. It’s June, the month of Old Midsummer, and for this month our cover star is Queen Titania from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as illustrated by Arthur Rackham in 1908.

I have loved this Shakespeare play since I was forced to read it in college. Once I read it, I realized it wasn’t half bad and being made to read it by Dr. Pearce was maybe not so bad, either. Not long after that, I saw a production of it, outdoors at Carlin Park near the beach in Jupiter, Florida, on a nighttime stage in the balmy warmth that persists well into the night of a Florida summer. The performance was dripping with magic, assisted completely by the fact that I was seated on a blanket on the sandy ground with the stars above me; I could look ahead and see the actors or I could look up and see the stars, much like the lovers who fall asleep in the wood in the play. Dr. Pearce had this wonderful way of describing plays as worlds, and then when there were plays within plays, like there is in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, well then it was our world looking into a world looking into a world. It’s the sort of thing that begins to boggle my mind, like the Universe or the layers of an onion, and anything that makes us step back and see the Wonder-ful (another Dr. Pearceism) is a very good thing.

I encourage you to read the play this month as Old Midsummer once again approaches, or to find a production of it, or even to watch one of the many film versions. My favorite of those is the 1999 adaption by Michael Hoffman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania and Rupert Everett as Oberon. Old Midsummer is the night of St. John’s Eve, the 23rd of June, just a few days on the other side of the solstice; a night with a very long history of bonfires, feasting, storytelling, divination, magic, and revelry. It is a night to go out and experience the wonders of this world. As is most of June. Get out and enjoy it.

 

May 30 2016
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Memorial Day

Decoration Day

Rainy Day Fifth Avenue

It is Memorial Day and we remember all who gave their lives for their country. This is the purpose of Memorial Day, pure and simple. It is an American holiday, though versions of it are celebrated around the globe, like in Finland, where the Third Sunday of May––Kaatuneiden Muistopäivä, or Commemoration Day––is held in remembrance of those who died in Finnish wars. As we saw in the previous chapter of this Book of Days, this tradition of remembering the dead at this time of year, especially in the military, goes back to Ancient Rome.

Be that as it may, for us here in the United States it goes back to the Civil War. In 1865, an “Independence Day of a Second American Revolution” was organized in Charleston by freed slaves, and on that May day, they honored Union soldiers buried there in unmarked graves. There were other informal early summer decoration days throughout the country during the war: in Warrenton, Virginia in 1861, in Savannah in 1863, in Gettysburg in 1864, and in Waterloo, New York, after the war had ended, in 1866.

It was a simple decoration day back then and that’s the name folks gave to it: Decoration Day, as they decorated the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers. Just as the Romans did. Again, flowers for remembrance. In 1868, the first formal celebration of Decoration Day was held at Arlington National Cemetery by the Grand Army of the Republic, and Major General John Logan chose the date: May 30, for he believed on that date flowers would be in bloom all across the country. This set the date for Memorial Day for the next century.

Memorial Day has also become our American unofficial start of summer, especially now that it is part of a long weekend, a change that took place in 1968 with the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The holiday is now a moveable one, celebrated each year on the last Monday of May. This year, however, things work out that we get to celebrate Memorial Day on the day that Major General John Logan intended, which is kind of nice, no? Flowers are in bloom across this great country this 30th of May. It is a good day to remember all who died in service to this country and for all that blooms within it.

Image: “Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue” by Childe Hassam. Oil on canvas, 1916 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

 

May 23 2016
Rosalia

Rosalia

GatherYeRosebuds

Memorial Day––our unofficial start to summer in the United States––is but a week away. Greater than its role of ushering in summer, however, is its status as a day of remembrance, particularly of those who died in service to their country. It is a holiday with a long history, dating back to the Civil War. The 30th of May was chosen as the date of Memorial Day for it was believed that flowers would be in bloom at that time in all corners of the country. Flowers for remembrance.

Go back centuries more and you will find a similar sentiment for this same time of year in Ancient Rome. May was the time of the Floralia, an annual festival honoring the goddess Flora, goddess of flowers and plants. It was, as well, a time of remembering the dead, particularly for the Roman military. And today, the 23rd of May, brought the Rosalia, a day of similar devotion and remembrance, but with a focus on roses. Graves, especially, would be decorated today with roses. Roses for remembrance.

And so today we’d do well to gather rosebuds and to decorate with them, homes and graves. It is a day for both the living and the dead.

 

Image: “Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May” by John William Waterhouse. Oil on canvas, 1909 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons. 

 

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