Sep 2 2021 - The Month of Birthdays

 

This is the month of most Birthdays, according to several articles.  Another says that it is August for the U.S. But supposedly the most common birthday on the planet is September 9th, followed by September 19th.  What about this question?  Do humans have mating seasons? This is the LINK to a heat map showing the countries from the Polar Zone to the North Temperate Zone to Tropical, Equator, and then South Temperate zone.  The map shows peak birth months shifting farther to the right as one moves down the latitudes.  Once you’ve entered the middle latitudes, or the tropical zone, September and October become the highest-ranking months by average number of live births per day, followed by November and December, with some spilling over into the next year. There are a few studies on this. The Journal of Reproductive Rhythms says the ideal time of the year to conceive is when the sun is out for 12 hours and the temperature is between 50 and 70 ° F. For reasons that are not totally understood, these are the perfect conditions for conception, either because they stimulate sperm production or ovulation--or a combination of both. And the earliest birthday mention?  The Bible has the earliest mention of a birthday - around 3,000 B.C.E.  and it is Pharaoh's that is referenced.  It was their birth as a god, or coronation date, not the coming into the world as a human. Then the Greeks have a part to play. The Greeks offered moon-shaped cakes and put candles on them for the glowing radiance of the moon to celebrate their lunar goddess. Celebrating the common person's birthday? That is attributed to the Ancient Romans - for men only.   All of the articles say that female birthdays weren't celebrated until around the 12th century.  But alas, there is no history of female birthday celebrations and how they were missed out for so long and then came into being so late. And our final contribution comes with a bit of a sour note, given birthdays are about sweet and sugary cakes.  Don't look to Christian history for any happy contribution to the celebration of birthdays.  Early Christians considered birthday celebrations evil as humans were born with "original sin" so were tied to pagan gods.  It wasn't until they caught up to the civilizations before them and decided to celebrate the birthday of Jesus around the 4th century, that birthdays got new status.   The extensive Wikipedia entry also shows the heat map of births through the year. And our picture today for September's calendar is the wonderful Sumach.

When I get to 99

How many things should I know today?  Is it five, six, seven, ten or 200?  The search list stops inserting a number after 10, so 200 things I should know today will retrieve 10 things. Of course some of the things retrieved relate to dates in the past July, September 2018 or even May. As I moved up the numbers, I got to 26 and here are some of the 26 things you need to know about: trucking  foods to learn to cook things to do on your birthday in Vancouver old investing books taught me swimming across the English Channel and so on.  I continued my retrieval game, and thought there was a strong preference for 26, but find there are 27, 28 and 29 things.   We find a humorous moment at 29: Here's the picture for 29 things we do wrong every day.  As we get into 30 things, we move into habits. And every year has # of things to do before you reach the age of #.  # should be the same number in the equation. What would be retrieved with "66" - yes! it would be 66 things to do on Route 66! Is 99 a special number? It certainly is.  Look at the quote it retrieves in proliferation.  I consider this a moment of pure cynicism.  Who would count 99 things they've done for something?  And so many presentations of the this pessimistic view.  Here it is: "You can do 99 things for someone and all they'll remember is the one thing you didn't do" Anon And our pictures today show the autumn colours of Sumac, one of our native plants.

October's Calendar - Dancing Leaves

For October's image, autumn's colours show on a Sumach Tree, with reds and oranges.