TODAY - December 4

 

NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: DECEMBER 4

New edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Belgium 8 hours and 17 minutes shorter than June 21. Its length is 8 hours and 13 minutes – from 08.27 to 16.39.

See more – also in English – about where you are on:  www.dagenslaengde.dk

TODAY’s NAME:

This day is called BARBARA’s DAY.  She was a young Christian woman, who were locked up in a tower by her non-Christian father.  She was liberated from here by Origines. The legend tells that the mountains opened for them during their escape.  Barbara was later beheaded because of her faith. It happened around 300.

Barbara is called upon by people if they are afraid of strokes of lightening or if they have a very high fever.

The day’s name in Belgium is SAINT JEAN DAMASCÈNE  ( Saint John of Damascus ). He lived in the years 675-749, was born in Damascus, became monk and priest and founded a monastery near Jerusalem.

 

TODAY’s EVENT:

774:   Charlemagne becomes king of the whole of the Francia.

TODAY’s QUESTION:

Gordian knot  -  what is the origin of that expression? And what does it mean?

This expression comes from Apollo’s Oracle in Delphi – the centre of the world in ancient Greece.  The Oracle had predicted that the person who could undo a knot on the harness on a pole of a wagon in the temple of Zeus in Gordion would become the ruler of the world.

Then came Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) and solved the problem by cutting the knot with his sword. And he actually became the ruler of the known world at the time.

Today, the expression to untie the Gordian knot means that you solve a problem, which seems unsolvable.

 

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

Coptic  -  what is that? And what is the history behind it?

47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

EUROPE AT WORK     www.europe-at-work.be

 

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1.  Yesterday’s quote:

One thing is to understand the maritime chart – another thing is to navigate the ship.

This was said by the Danish-Norwegian author Ludvig Holberg  (the Scandinavian Molière).

 

2.  Today’s quote:

Give me six lines in writing about the most honest man. And I will find a pretext to hang him.

Who among today’s personalities has said that?

3.  Famous people born on this day:

1865:  Edith Cavell  ( died 1915 )

1866:  Vassilij Kandinski  ( died 1944 )

1867:  Elvira Madigan  ( died 1889 )

1892:  Francisco Franco  ( died 1975 )

 

4.  Famous people died on this day:

1642:  Cardinal Richelieu  ( 57 years )

1679:  Thomas Hobbes  ( 91 years )

1976:  Benjamin Britten  ( 63 years )

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

niels4europe@gmail.com  

www.simplesite.com/kimbrer   +  EUROPE-AT-WORK    www.europe-at-work.be

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