25 December 2012

Yuletide

[yool-tahyd]

noun
1. the Christmas season.

adjective

2. of or pertaining to the Christmas season.

Origin: 1425–75; late Middle English; see yule, tide.

Originally, Yuletide was a festival celebrated by Northern Europeans honouring ‘The Wild Hunt’ (a myth about a ghostly hunt), Odin (Nordic God) and Modranicht (Mother’s Night).

Today’s aphorism

‘Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas’.

– Calvin Coolidge

On this day

25 December 1876 – birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the father of Pakistan. Leader of the Muslim League calling for the creation of Pakistan. Served as Pakistan’s first Governor-General from 15 August 1947 until his death on 11 September 1948.

25 December 1914 – Soldiers from Britain, Germany, Russia and France agree to a ‘Christmas’ truce. They crossed no-man’s land and wished each other ‘Merry Christmas’ in each nation’s language.

25 December 1974 – Cyclone Tracy strikes Darwin, Northern Territory, killing 71 people and flattening 70% of the city, leaving 41,000 homeless (out of a population of 47,000). The cyclone had winds up to 240km/h, central pressure of 950 hectopascals,

25 December 1991 – Soviet President Gorbachev resigns, declaring the Soviet presidency extinct, and hands power to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, effectively bringing an end to the Soviet Union.

25 December 2006 – death of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. He was born 3 May 1933.