There are a lot of holidays, and holy days, this month.
OCTOBER 2 (evening), ending in the evening of OCTOBER 4 - Rosh Hashanah. Happy 5777 on the Jewish calendar
OCTOBER 10 - Thanksgiving (Canada). Columbus Day (US), which has been OFTEN supplanted by Indigenous Peoples Day, for reasons you can read about here
OCTOBER 11 (evening), ends in the evening of OCTOBER 12 - Yom Kippur
OCTOBER 24 - United Nations Day
OCTOBER 31 - Halloween, All Hallows Eve
And there are OTHERS.
I'd reviewed a book called Apocrypha Now, a slightly OFF-kilter book about the religious works that didn't find their way into the King James Version of the Bible, such as the Jewish midrash, the Catholic Douay books of the Apocrypha, and those New Testament gospels that did not make the cut.
ONE story was about God giving Moses the 10 commandments, then getting really annoyed by the golden calf worship thing and temporarily abandoning Israel. But ultimately God came around.
The nation of Israel was so overcome by God's forgiveness that everyone spent the day crying, and that got God crying, and soon everyone was just a big emotional mess.
"That was great," Moses said. "Really cathartic."
"You know what? Let's celebrate this day every year. We can call it 'Apology Day.' Everyone who deserves an apology gets one, and everyone who needs to apologize gets to," God suggested...
"I thought the climax of my relationship with the human race was going to be giving you the law," God said. "But it wasn't. It was forgiving you for breaking it."
Apology Day came to be known as Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar...
On the Ark [of the Covenant] they inscribed two of God's many names - Elohim: God the Powerful, and Adonai: God the Merciful.
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Wonderful post.... and yes, some years ago I've started studying theology ... there is so much which is not to be found in the bible, quit a pity if I may say so...
ReplyDeleteI would like for people in general to honor more Gods wishes, religious or not, they apply on trying to be a good person, doing good to the other person is doing good to one selve.
A very informative post!October is special no doubt!
ReplyDeleteA good intro to the letter O!
ReplyDeleteO my God! Overwhelming indeed!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Roger:)
I like the Jewish calendar! Thank you for taking the trouble to show us the important holidays.
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ReplyDeleteexcellent.
Don't know if my comment got through ...thank you for hosting Roger! Have to (finally) look up the origin of All Hollows Eve ... Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteObvious October is OK!
ReplyDeleteMy "O" is for the westernmost island of Greece, OTHONOI...
Outstanding overview!
ReplyDeleteMy "O" is for OXFORD!
Now I understand the reason for the Day of Atonement. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOctober may be an obvious option, but it's also outstanding.
ReplyDeleteThanks for another ABC prompt! Letter "O" Day inspired this new poem: Over and Out - A Musette to Offset
very interesting! Thanks for the elucidation!
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ReplyDeletenice.