NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS
ON: FEBRUARY 20
New 2021 edition
TODAY’s LENGTH:
Today is here in
Belgium 2 hours and 25 minutes shorter than December 21. Its length is 10 hours
and 22 minutes – from 07.45 to 18.08.
See more about
where you are – also in English – on: www.dagenslaengde.dk
TODAY’s NAME:
This day is
called EUCHARIAS DAY. He was a man who against his will was
nominated bishop of Orléans.
Later he was put to prison, because he as bishop worked against king Charles Martel, who
wanted to be the head of the church. After Martel’s victory over the Moors he wanted to get all the
belongings of the church. Consequently, Eucharias was sent to a monestary near
Cologne. He died here in 743.
In Belgium this
day is called SAINTE AIMÉE - after
Sainte Aimée of Assissi, who lived in the 13th century.
TODAY’s EVENT:
1962: John Glenn is the first
American astronaut to circle around the earth in his space ship. The year earlier
the Russian cosmonaut Jurij Gagarin was the first man to make a trip around the
Earth in his space ship.
TODAY’s QUESTION:
When in Rome, do
as the Romans do -
what’s the origin? And what does it mean?
This is an interesting and lengthy historical explanation:
This
expression means: It is polite, and
possibly also advantageous, to abide by the customs of a society when one is a
visitor.
Why
should an English proverb single out Rome and Roman values as especially to be
emulated? Couldn't we have had a 'when in Ipswich, do as the Ipswichians do'
for example? As it turns out, it's all to do with the travel arrangements of a
couple of early Christian saints.
St
Augustine: Letters Volume I
was
translated from the Latin by Sister W. Parsons and published in 1951. Letter
54 to Januarius contains
this original text, which date from circa 390 AD:
Cum
Romanum venio, ieiuno Sabbato; cum hic sum, non ieiuno: sic etiam tu, ad quam
forte ecclesiam veneris, eius morem serva, si cuiquam non vis esse scandalum
nec quemquam tibi.
which was
translated as:
When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here [Milan]
I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you
do not want to give or receive scandal.
Januarius, who was later
canonised as a martyr saint, was Bishop of Naples at the time.
The above
dates the source of the proverb to at least as early as the beginnings of the
Christian church. The implied flexibility on dogma and acceptance of the
religious and social practices of other cultures seems to be more akin to the
contemporary Buddhist teachings of the Dalai Lama than those of present day
Christian authorities.
The use
of the proverb in English isn't recorded until much later - well into the
Middle Ages.
Robert Burton's
The Anatomy of Melancholy
was first published in 1621. Burton
makes oblique reference to the phrase, without using it explicitly:
...like Mercury, the planet, are good with
good, bad with bad. When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done, puritans
with puritans, papists with papists
He was
slightly predated by Henry Porter, who came a little nearer to the present day
version of the proverb in his play The pleasant history of the two angry
women of Abington, 1599:
Nay, I hope, as I have temperance to forbear drink, so
have I patience to endure drink: Ile do as company dooth; for when a man doth
to Rome come, he must do as there is done.
The Interesting
letters of Pope Clement XIV [a.k.a.
Lorenzo Ganganelli] were published in 1777. Letter XLIV [to Prior Dom Galliard] contains the
earliest version of the proverb as currently used in English that I have found
in print:
The siesto, or afternoon's nap of Italy, my most dear
and reverend Father, would not have alarmed you so much, if you had recollected,
that when we are at Rome, we should do as the Romans do - cum Romano Romanus
eris.
The
proverb is so clichéd as to have been adapted to suit many other locations -
this web search
brings up thousands. Its familiarity,
and the expectation that everyone knows the ending, has caused it also to be
used in the shortened version - 'when in Rome...'. This dates back to at least
the 1930s when a play of that title, written by Charles Faber, was performed in
New York.
QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:
Strike when the iron is hot
- where does that come from? And what does it
mean?
47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:
EUROPE AT WORK www.europe-at-work.be
TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :
1.
Yesterday’s quote:
The masses will
follow a leader, who is 20 steps ahead. But if he is a thousand steps ahead of
them, they do not see him, and they do not follow him
This was said by the Danish poet Georg Brandes.
2.
Today’s quote:
I don’t like TV
talk shows. You are slowly fried on the camera grill, and the interviewer is
all the time blowing the charcoal.
Who among this day’s persons has said that?
3.
Famous
people born on this day:
1904:
Alexei Kosygin
( died 1980 )
1911:
P.V. Glob
( died 1985 )
1925:
Robert Altman
( died 2006 )
1927:
Sidney Poitier
- see
photo below
4.
Famous
people died on this day:
1685:
Sophie Amalie
( 57 years )
1920:
Robert Peary
( 64 years )
1963:
Jacob Gade
( 84 years )
1966:
Chester Nimitz
( 81 years )
2007:
Carl-Henning Pedersen
( 94 years )
2010:
Alexander Haig
( 85 years )
Niels Jørgen Thøgersen
niels4europe@gmail.com
www.simplesite.com/kimbrer
+
EUROPE AT WORK
www.europe-at-work.be