July 31st

Holidays for this date include...

San Ignacio Peru
Upswing of the Revolution Congo (Republic of)
Chinese Valentine's Day China
Lunasa or Lammas (Northern Hemisphere) Paganism
Oimelc / Brigid (Southern Hemisphere) Paganism
Weighing of the Aga Khan

Colour: Grey
Moon Sign: Libra
Incense: Lavender

In pre-Christian times, the Oidhche Lugnasa was celebrated by the Celts on this night to honour of their solar deity named Lugh. His annual sacrifice at the end of the harvest ensure the fertility of the corn and grain for the next growing season.

An old August Eve tradition in rural Scotland is predicting the following year's marriages and deaths by throwing sickles into the air then drawing omens from the positions in which they fall.

On this date in the year 1831, famous mystic and spiritualist medium Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born in the Ukraine.

Llewellyn's 2006 Magickal Almanac&The Wicca Book of Daysby Gerina Dunwich
1998-2006 Earth Calendar_http://www.earthcalender.net_/ (http://www.earthcalender.net/)

July 14

Bastille Day -- French
Colour: Turquoise
Moon Sign: Libra
Incense: Jasmine

On this day, the birth of the falcon-headed god Horus is celebrated by many Wiccans of the Egyptian tradition. Light a royal-blue altar and burn some Frankincense and Myrrh as a fragrant offering to him.

Fête Nationale (Bastille Day), public holiday, France and all French dependencies

1789 French Revolution: Parisians stormed the Bastille Prison in Paris and freed seven political prisoners. When the revolutionary mob stormed the French prison they were surprised to find most of the cells empty but for the miserable scratchings of prisoners on the walls. Only seven prisoners were resident, under the relatively (for his time) lenient penal policies of King Louis XVI (1754 - 1793). Among those inmates, Marquis de Sade (1740 - 1814) is believed to have triggered the assault by crying that people were being executed inside. Three of the prisoners were old men, legitimately incarcerated; two of these had become insane, no doubt because of the horrible conditions in the cells. The other four prisoners had been in the Bastille for only four years each, for various crimes such as forgery. The seven were paraded through the streets as heroes, though the revolutionaries must have been disappointed that they did not have more to show off ...

1858 Emmeline Pankhurst (d. June 14, 1928), most influential and famous of the British suffragettes, mother of Christabel, Sylvia and Adela. She was born Emmeline Goulden in Manchester, England to abolitionist parents, and married Richard Pankhurst, a barrister, in 1879. Dr Pankhurst was already a supporter of the women's suffrage movement, and had been the author of the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882. In 1889, Mrs Pankhurst founded the Women's Franchise League, but her campaign was interrupted by her husband's death in 1898. In 1903 she founded the better-known Women's Social and Political Union, an organization most famous for its militancy which began in 1905. Its members included the notorious Annie Kenney, the suffragette "martyr", Emily Davison and the composer, Dame Ethel Smyth ...

1881 Pat Garrett shot and killed Billy 'The Kid' Bonney. Henry McCarty (b. c. 1860) better known as Billy the Kid, but also known by the alias William Henry Bonney, was a 19th century American frontier outlaw and murderer. He is reputed to have killed 21 men but the figure is probably closer to nine (four on his own and five with the help of others) ...

July 11

Revolution Day -- Mongolian
Colour: Grey
Moon Sign: Virgo
Incense: Rose

In ancient times, the Greek deities Kronos ( Father Time ) and Rhea (Mother Earth ) were honoured with an annual religious festival called Kronia which took place on this date in the city of Athens.

1881 Sixteen-year-old Prince George (1865 - 1936), the future KingGeorge V of the United Kingdom, as a young midshipman on HMS Bacchante, wrote in his journal that he had seen that day (4:00 am) the phantom ship, the Flying Dutchman, off the port bow. With George was the heir to the throne, his elder brother, the mentally deficient Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward (Eddie) who later mysteriously died before becoming king, much to the relief of the British Royal Family. Eddie, who was later a modern and unlikely suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, also recorded in his journal the sighting of the Dutchman...

1992 The Kiama Blowhole Tragedy The north coast of the state of New South Wales, Australia, where your almanac is produced, is very beautiful, but for picture postcard scenery, take a drive south from Sydney along the Prince's Highway.After a few hours of picturesque countryside and coastline and you will arrive at the small town of Kiama, famous for a spectacular natural phenomenon. The Kiama Blowhole is a natural cavern or chasm at Blowhole Point, on a seaside cliff near town. When the seas run from the south-east, a spectacular plume of water erupts as high as 60 metres (about 55 yards).Something like 600,000 people a year come to the Blowhole to marvel at the sight ...

July 7

Colour: Green
Moon Sign: Cancer
Incense: Musk

Weaver's Festival -- Japanese

The Vestalia, an annual festival in honour of the hearth-goddess Vesta began on this date in ancient Rome. During the eight-day long festival, the shrine of Vesta was opened to married women. After the festival was over, the shrine was once again forbidden to all except the goddess' attendant vestal virgins.

July 6

Colour: Yellow
Moon Sign: Cancer
Incense: Cedar

Khao Phansa Day -- Thai

Anniversary of the Coronation of King (Mindaugas)

Lithuania Independence Day (Comoros)

Mistr Jan Hus - 1415/John Huss Day (Czech Republic)

Republic Day (Malawi)

On this date an annual festival to honour ancestral spirits begins in Nigeria. The festival, which lasts for one week consists of street dancing, offerings of food and gifts to the Egungun and ecstatic trance.

In Thrace an ancient country in the south eastren part of the Balkan Peninsula, a festival called Bendidia was held each year on this date. It was dedicated to the lunar goddess Bendi.

1535 King Henry VII of England executed statesman Sir Thomas More, for refusing to acknowledge the monarch as head of the Church. The head of the great chancellor Sir Thomas More was displayed on London Bridge. It fell off the pole it was on into the Thames, and was found by a waterman, who gave it to his daughter. She kept it all her life as a relic and directed in her will that it should be buried with her.

Nineteenth- century English folklorist Robert Chambers says that More's daughter, Margaret Roper, who was so upset over seeing her father's head on the pike, bribed the bridge-keeper to throw the head down to her ...

1887 Annette Kellerman (d. November 5, 1975), Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star, women's rights advocate and writer, portrayed on the screen by Esther Williams.

Billed as "The Diving Venus" and "The Australian Mermaid", Kellerman was famous (or notorious) in her day for wearing a one-piece bathing suit instead of the old pantaloons costume, and in 1907 was arrested in Boston, USA for wearing one of her naughty creations ...

1985 UFO seen near Stonehenge by Jack and Patricia Collins. An elderly couple, Jack and Patricia Collins, were driving in the vicinity of Stonehenge, near Salisbury, England, on this night, when they saw strange aerial lights and were convinced they had seen a UFO.

The next day, in a field near Alreford, about 8 km from where the Collinses had been driving, were found large circles in the grain crop.

A few nights later, at nearby Aldover, more circular designs showed up in crops ...

July 5

Colour: Maroon
Moon Sign: Gemini
Incense: Evergreen

Tynwald -- Nordic
Den slovanskych verozvestu
Cyrila a Metodeje (St. Cyril & St. Methodius Day)
Czech Republic Firma Acta de Independencia (Independence Day)
Venezuela Independence Day

Every year on this date, the Aphelion of Earth takes place. When this occurs, the planet Earth reaches the point in its orbit to be a highly significant event.

In ancient Egypt, this day was held sacred to Matt, the goddess who presides over truth and wisdom.

Tywald Day, Isle of Man

Today they will be partying off the coast of Ireland … or is it off the coast of England … or of Scotland? In the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland lies the Isle of Man, where men are Manx and proud of it (and so are the women). Man (or Mann) is famous for Manx cats and Grand Prix motor sports, and it is a small island with a big history.

The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, but a Crown Dependency. Queen Elizabeth II is acknowledged as Lord of Mann, and in 1979 she presided over the millennial celebrations of the Tynwald, the Manx parliament, which is commemorated each year on July 5.

The High Court of Tynwald, as the parliament is known, is of Norse (Viking) origin and at over 1,000 years old is thus the oldest parliament in the world to enjoy an unbroken existence ...

X-Day, Church of the SubGenius (1998) X-Day is the name for July 5, 1998, the scheduled 'end of the world' in the Church of the SubGenius. Since its inception in 1980, the Church (devoted to JR 'Bob' Dobbs) prophesied that an army of extraterrestrial alien invaders would land on the planet Earth and destroy the world --except for the members of the Church of the SubGenius, who would be rescued by the aliens and taken away into space ...

1888 Three young women were dismissed from the Bryant and May factory in East London, England, for exposing the appalling working conditions there. The other 672 women labourers went out in solidarity. The 'Matchgirls' Strike' itself was unsuccessful but the unity generated nationally was unprecedented and galvanised the labor movement worldwide. This action, in which Annie Besant (social activist and later head of the Theosophy movement) campaigned with William Booth and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army, and HH Champion (later an important radical activist and editor in Australia) was the first strike by unorganised workers to gain national publicity

July 4th

Colour: White
Moon Sign: Gemini
Incense: Myrrh

U.S. Independence Day. On this day the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the official is celebrated by Pagans and non-Pagans alike.

On this day many patriotic American Wiccans honour and give thanks to Lady Liberty and preform magickal spells and rituals for the benefit of the country.

The celebration itself is a historical misnomer. American independence was declared on the night of July 2, 1776; however, the Declaration of Independence was not actually adopted until July 4. The founding fathers themselves thought that July 2 would be the day celebrated.

Day of Pax. On this day in ancient times, Pax was honoured with feasting and revelry.

Pax

Roman Mythology by Micha F. Lindemans

Pax ("peace") is the personified Roman goddess of peace, corresponding with the Greek Eirene. Under the rule of Augustus, she was recognized as a goddess proper. She had a minor sanctuary, the Ara Pacis, on theCampus Martius, and a temple on the Forum Pacis. A festival in her honour was celebrated on January 3rd.

Her attributes are the olive branch, a cornucopia, and a scepter.

Other names: Pax Augusta

Baal fire day, Whalton, UK

In the Northumbrian village of Whalton today is traditionally the day for lighting the baal fire. This bonfire's name comes from either the Celtic bel meaning bright, or Anglo-Saxon bael, fire. Or perhaps it comes from the old British sun god Belenus, 'the Shining One'. At about 7.30 pm a bonfire is lit on the village green around which people make music, leap through the flames and perform traditional morris dancing around the fire.

Also on this day the spirits of the mountains are honoured by Mescalero Apache Gahan Ceremonial, while the Great God who dwells within the fire of the Sun is paid homage to by the Ute Indian tribe of Utah and Colorado who preform an annual Sun Dance.

1902 End of the Philippine War of Independence

Birthday of Queen Sonja (Norway)

Caricom Day