Monthly Archives: May 2016

Black Monday, 1453

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Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral of Holy Wisdom, was built by the emperor Justinian and was the largest dome in the world until the Astrodome was built. The minarets were added by the Turks when they converted the cathedral into a mosque after they captured the city in 1453.

Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral of Holy Wisdom, was built by the emperor Justinian and was the largest dome in the world until the Astrodome was built. The minarets were added by the Turks when they converted the cathedral into a mosque after they captured the city in 1453.

May 29, 1453. It was a Monday and lived on as “Black Monday” in Orthodox territory because that was the day that the great city of Constantinople fell to the Turks. Byzantium came crashing to a halt and the Ottoman Empire arose from its ashes, ruling much of the Middle East as well as portions of Central and Eastern Europe until it ceased to exit in 1923.

The conquest of Constantinople reinforced Byzantine expectations that the world was about to end. Byzantine churchmen calculated that the world would be 7,000 years old on September 1, 1492 and would therefore end on that day. They thought the Turks were the forerunners of the Antichrist and the Turkish conquest of New Rome, the official title of the city, the beginning of the last period of world history.

The art of the Seljuq Turks is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, through July 24. Among the treasures displayed there are the harpy pitcher (see below). Harpies, birds with the heads of human women, are an image the Turks inherited from the classical Greeks. The Turks associated harpies with the astrological sign of Gemini and brought happiness in their wake. They were considered protective creatures. Spotting one was a good omen. This is all in marked contrast with the classical perception of harpies as wicked, dangerous creatures who delighted in abducting and torturing their victims.

Harpy pitcher

Decoration Day

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Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was created to commemorate the roughly 625,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was created to commemorate the roughly 625,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

Memorial Day, the holiday which many in the US consider the beginning of summer, was originally known as “Decoration Day” and was the commemoration of those fallen in battle — at first, those who had fallen in the battles of the Civil War and then those who had fallen in any battle. People went to the burial grounds to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers and banners. They might also have picnics, an American variation on the ancient “memorial meals” held in honor of the dead.

Decorating graves and meals to mark certain anniversaries of death were common in Greek, Roman, and Jewish, as well as early Christian, societies. One of the benefits of joining a burial society or club in classical Rome was that the club members were obligated to hold meals in honor and memory of the deceased. Sometimes food was left atop the grave for the departed, as well as shared among the living. It was these annual memorial meals at the gravesides of the dead that eventually became the annual saints days to mark the “birthday into heaven” of the dead.

Graves would be decorated not only to mark the burial site but to appease the dead as well, who might come back to harass their heirs for neglecting their graves. Flowers, a marker of life, were among the most common means of appeasing the dead although more substantial and permanent decorations — such as carvings, headstones, or statues — were used by the wealthy.

Nowadays often considered a scary or forbidding location, graveyards and cemeteries were common places for communities to gather. Over the centuries, many rules developed to curtail dancing, markets, drinking, and parties among the graves which only means that people kept dancing and drinking and holding markets or parties among the dead. No one makes rules against things that don’t happen, after all.

This year, how many Americans will mark the unofficial beginning of summer by visiting a graveyard?

Charles IV birthday

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Charles IV is best known today for the Charles Bridge that unites Prague across the Vltava River.

Charles IV is best known today for the Charles Bridge that unites Prague across the Vltava River.

Charles IV, king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, celebrates his 700th birthday on Saturday, May 14! He made Prague the cultural and political capital of Europe and the Beautiful Style that he championed made Prague the artistic center of Europe for nearly 100 years. There are several events in Prague to celebrate Charles’ 700th birthday!

Charles IV wanted his stone bridge, built in 1357, to be a masterpiece of occult workmanship to protect his beloved city of Prague.

Charles IV wanted his stone bridge, built in 1357, to be a masterpiece of occult workmanship to protect his beloved city of Prague.

He is best known today, however, for the magnificent stone Charles Bridge which he had built to span the Vltava River in 1357 to replace the original wooden Judith Bridge which had been washed away by a flood in 1342. In order to protect the city, Charles ordered massive amounts of magical reinforcements to be incorporated into the bridge as it served as the principal means of crossing the Vltava for several hundred miles in either direction and helped make Prague one of the most important business centers in central Europe.

Construction began on Charles Bridge at 5:31am on 9 July 1357 and Charles IV himself laid the first stone. This exact time was very important to the Holy Roman Emperor because he was a strong believer of numerology and this specific time, which formed a numerical bridge or palindrome (135797531), reinforced the bridge’s strength. He had eggs used in mixing the mortar, partly because their chemical composition made the mortar stronger and partly because eggs were so important in alchemy. Charles had a brief poem, each line a palindrome, inscribed on a watchtower on the Old Town side of the bridge in order to confuse any devils that might be lurking in the shadows and waiting to cross the bridge:

SIGNATESIGNATEMEREMETENGISETAUGIS
ROMATIBISUBITOMOTIBUSIBITAMOR

“Reveal yourself as a sign in the sky though in vain you reach for me,
your desire.
Rome, the motion of the stars suddenly brings you love.”

Prague has escaped the ravages of time and history nearly unscathed: no major fires or epidemics, no with hunts, no battles or bombings. The magic of the Charles Bridge seems to have worked!

Click here for events in Prague this year to mark the 700th birthday of Charles IV.