Holy Cross Day is also known as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Triumph of the Cross, or Holyrood Day (“rood” meaning “cross”. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross on which Jesus was crucified. (It had been taken from Jerusalem by the Persians in a war in A.D. 614. In A.D. 629, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered and returned the Cross to Jerusalem.)
Holy Cross Day is one of four annual markers for the “Ember Days,” which occur on the first Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following Holy Cross Day, Whit Sunday (Pentecost), the first Sunday in Lent, and St. Lucy Day. The Ember Days are special times for prayer, fasting, and the ordination of clergy in certain Christian denominations. The weather on each of the three Ember Days is supposed to foretell the weather for each of the three succeeding months. A Spanish proverb notes, “On Holy Cross Day / Vineyards are gay.”
Question of the Day
We have a bread box that is lined with wood. How can I get the smell of the wood out of the box?
Put a few drops of vanilla extract in a cup of water and mix. Apply this mixture to the interior by rubbing hard with a rag.
Advice of the Day
Chickens feeding outside in the rain foretell rain for several days.
Home Hint of the Day
Yellow carpenter’s glue is best for regluing a chair. Available at hardware stores, it sets up hard and fast. Assemble the pieces immediately after applying the glue.
Word of the Day
Syzygy
The nearly straight-line configuration that occurs twice a month, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction (on the same side of Earth at the new Moon) and when they are in opposition (on opposite sides of Earth at the full Moon). In both cases, the gravitational effects of the Sun and the Moon reinforce each other, and tidal range is increased.
Puzzle of the Day
Complete, I am an ill-placed zephyr; behead me, and I am floating logs; behead me again, and I am part of a ship. (What word fits the first clue? Follow the directions to form new words from it.)
Draft - raft - aft
Born
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov(physiologist)–
Margaret Higgins Sanger(founder of the birth control movement)–
Douglas Kennedy(“Lone Ranger” actor)–
Kate Millett(feminist writer)–
Sam Neill(actor)–
Michelle Stafford(actress)–
Kimberly Williams-Paisley(actress)–
Katie Lee Biegel(chef)–
Died
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin(architect)–
Arthur Wellesley(1st Duke of Wellington)–
Henry Bliss(first American automobile fatality)–
William McKinley(25th U.S. president)–
Princess Grace of Monaco(former actress Grace Kelly)–
Mickey Hargitay(actor & world champion bodybuilder)–
Patrick Swayze(actor)–
Norm Macdonald(comedian)–
Events
The first lighthouse in North America, Boston Light, was lit–
Composer George Handel completed The Messiah–
Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”
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Typewriter ribbon patented–
Sound-absorbing material patented–
The world’s largest airship, Graf Zeppelin II, made its first flight–
The first helicopter flight was made by Igor Sikorsky–
Zond 5 was launched; 4 days later it became the first spacecraft to circle the Moon and return to Earth–
The Waltons premiered on CBS–
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first U.S. born saint, was canonized by Pope Paul VI–
World Series was cancelled due to strike–
Roger Craig, a University of Delaware graduate student, won $77,000 on Jeopardy!. It was the show’s highest one-day total ever.–
Crayola announced crayon name “Bluetiful”
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Weather
Seattle, Washington, had a high temperature of 92 degrees F–
