I was just looking at various things to do with dates, and it struck me that today, 3rd January, is the tenth day of Christmas when according to the old song the lords should be a-leaping although in some versions the pipers are piping, or the drummers are drumming, and in obsolete versions bells are ringing! In some places the whole twelve days of this special time of year are days for gifts to be given and greetings to be exchanged… that would be rather nice, to spread it out… if the gifts were small and meaningful, I mean, not massive extravagant presents as seems to happen these days. The idea of it being the thought that counts has gone by the by!
Looking through a list of famous people who were born on this day, there seem to be far more sports persons and singers than anyone else of note… there are a sprinkling of people from other areas but not so many! It is also St Geneviève’s day, the patron saint of Paris She was a very long-lived saint, who came from Nanterre in the sixth century, and apparently kept Attila the famous Hun away by the power of prayer!
One thing I did discover about this date in January, the Earth reaches perihelion in early January… I had no idea what a perihelion is but apparently it is something every planet or body orbiting the sun has, it is the point of least distance from the body’s centre to the sun’s centre. This happens roughly fourteen days after the winter solstice in December. (The point of greatest distance which happens around the summer solstice is the aphelion.) Next year the perihelion will be about January 4th but the year after it will be back to the 3rd…
I haven’t any pictures of leaping lords so for my featured picture I have leaping Morris men!
Lois Elsden 