#listopad

Powyższe to tylko kilka wybranych przeze mnie najorygnialniejszych imion solenizantów z 10 listopada. Pełna lista (za wikipedią): Andrzej, Anian, Demetriusz, Florencja, Just, Leon, Leona, Lena, Ludomir, Monitor, Nimfa, Probus, Stefan, Tryfena i Uniebog.

Listopad means “leaf fall” and is Czech for November, as it is in Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Slovene. Listopad is also the name of the month of October in Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Rusyn.

Lada illustrates various activities taking place in November. In the center of the illustration is St. Martin of Tours whose feast day is on the 11th. Those in the Czech lands celebrate his feast day in a big way. To the left of his image in the photo is that of a cooked goose, and below that a woman is serving goose to her family which is traditional on the feast day of St. Martin. That is not a turkey and not a Thanksgiving meal (which are U.S. customs). There is also a note in Czech that says, "Svatý Martin přijel na bílém koni." (He arrives on a white horse.) It is believed the first snow of the season comes on his feast day.

Dušičky, All Souls Day, is a tradition of visiting graves, as you see children doing here. Because Bohemian days have begun at sunset, graves are often decorated November 1st especially with candles at night. “Svíčka pro dušičku” (“a candle for the little soul”).

November is a big month (but not the only month) for hunting, perhaps because it is easier to track animals in the snow. Most likely they would be hunting deer or pheasant, which seasons would run to end of January.

Other images are of father and son splitting a tree stump for firewood (tree stumps were a good source of cheap firewood), as part of the annual preparations for winter. The small image below the wood choppers is a bowl of svatomartinské rohlíčky (St. Martin’s rolls). These are crescent-shaped breads traditional for St. Martin’s Day.

On the bottom right there an elderly couple with the woman holding a prayer book, and appear to be coming from Church, possibly from All Saints Day Mass.

In all his monthly illustrations, Lada would often put something representing the astronomical sign for each of his months in his calendar illustrations. Sagittarius is an astronomical sign meaning archer.

Besides St. Martin, there are a couple of other saints observed and their days having a connection to the weather or the foretelling of events. St. Catherine’s Day on the 25th is said that this is when the true cold arrives and when people cozy up indoors. For St. Andrew’s on the 30th it is a day of divination rituals with the main one being is this is the day single women would realize who their future husband would be.