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Friday
2003 Feb 14 is Julian 2452685
= 5 x 490537
5763 adar 12 1995
yakatit 07 1719 amshir 07 1423 dhu
al-hijjah 12
1924 magha 25 1381 bahman 25 211 pluviôse
26 159 mulk 08
China-Republic - 92 - 01 - 14 // 78 - 20 / gui~wei Sheep - 01 -
14
12 baktun / 19 katun / 09 tun /
18 winal / 02 k'in //
09 - ik' //
15 - pax / g2
Julian 2003 Feb 01 CALENDAS
FEBRVARII MMDCCLVI A.V.C
Explanation
of various calendars
February is a month sacred to the gods Mars
(as Quirinus, or Romulus) and Juno, the wife of Jupiter.Juno (Hera, was the
mother of Mars. Mars was known to the Greeks as Ares, the god of war. The
war god was wild and ungovernable, a god who glorified in strife for its own
sake and revelled in slaughter. He was thought to gloat over the death and
destruction he caused. He was typically accompanied by his two sons Deimos
(Fear or Terror) and Phobos (Dismay or Flight from Fear). The Romans held
a milder, more honorable view of Mars, honoring him as the son of Zeus and
the father of Romulus.
It is also a month in which particular reverence
was shown to the spirits of deceased ancestors. In a familiar cultural dichotomy
in which both death and life were celebrated, this was a month devoted to
fertility, both of men and women, and of the land. Many of the rites had vestiges
of agricultural overtones. It may be more than coincidence that the dead,
who were either buried or considered to be in the "underworld",
and the fruits of agriculture, both relate to the earth.
On the kalends of every month interest
payments were due. The interest rate in Rome was normally 1/2% (per month).
In Greece, on this day and the next, they celebrated
the Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries. Triptolemus, who had been cured of a childhood
illness by Ceres, was taken around the world on a chariot and shown the wonders
of nature. When he returned home to Eleusis he built a magnificent temple
to Ceres and established the worship of the goddess. These rites, the Eleusinian
Mysteries, surpassed all other Greek religious celebrations in their solemnity
and splendor.