Flower of Scotland

Music for St Andrew’s Day:

 

St Andrew is probably best known as the patron saint of Scotland.

He’s also the saint of:

Greece, Russia, Italy’s Amalfi and Barbados. As well as other countries, he’s the patront saint of singers, spinsters, maidens, fishmongers, fishermen, women wanting to be mothers, gout and sore throats. St Andrew is also the patron saint of the Order of the Thistle, one of the highest ranks of chivalry in the world, second only to the Order of the Garter. . . 

 

Saturday soapbox

Saturday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse, but not abuse.

Happy St Andrew’s Day

Dog

A few days late for International Dog Day, Dog by Nat Johnson:

Cheers for chocolate

It’s World Chocolate Day.

"Every day she bought something nourishing, like chocolates, and put them in her special box. Tomorrow she was going away. That was when she would first open her box, because she would be feeling lonely. It was wonderful how unlonely chocolate made you." ~A.A.Milne #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/dTnzYXEPFl

— A.A.Milne (@A_AMilne) February 1, 2019

Every day she bought something nourishing, like chocolates, and put them in her special box.  Tomorrow she was going away. That was when she would first open her box, because she would be feeling lonely. It was wonderful how unlonely chocolate made you – A.A. Milne

Easter’s late

It’s Good Friday, one of the holiest of days in the Christian calendar, though probably just another holiday for many in an increasingly secular country.

But why is it so late this year?

…The Bible doesn’t spell out the exact date that Easter occurs on, but it does say that Jesus was crucified during the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the Catholic magazine America: The Jesuit Review, in the year 325, the Council of Nicaea decided to celebrate Easter “at the very time of Jesus’ Passion,” the Christian term for the final days of Jesus’ life before his death and resurrection. The Jewish calendar is calculated based on lunar months, so to link Easter with Passover, the Council of Nicaea decided that Easter would be observed “on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.” Basically, because the moon affects when Passover falls, the moon also affects when Easter falls.

But this year the northern hemisphere equinox and the full moon we’re on March 20th. So why wasn’t Easter last month?

Back in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII made some additional rules about calculating Easter’s date when introducing the Gregorian calendar. According to Space.com, these rules said that Easter would always fall between March 22 and April 25 — and that the Catholic Church would always mark the vernal equinox on March 21, even though the astronomical vernal equinox can be anywhere from March 19 to March 21. This year, the first full moon after March 21 was on April 19, which is a Friday — meaning that this Easter will be on the following Sunday, April 21. . . 

That’s this weekend.

Whether or not you are Christian, May your Easter be a blessed one.

Happy Valentine’s Day

You can get carried away by the commercialism, ignore it, or focus on what really matters – true love that, in Shakespeare’s words, alters not when it alteration find.

Wishing ewe  love and laughter.

And love and laughter to moo too.

Things to do on Waitangi Day

• Celebrate
• Pontificate
• Recreate
• Think
• Read
• Speak
• Listen
• Tramp
• Swim
• Sail
• Row
• Protest if you must
• Enjoy it because you can.

Whatever Waitangi Day means and whatever its significance to each of us, we’re free to do what we want and that’s something for  which we can be grateful.