September is the ninth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the first month of autumn in the northern half of the world and the first month of spring in the southern half. September comes from the Latin word septem, meaning “seven,” because at the time it was the seventh month of the early Roman calendar.

🍇On the 1st September 1985, almost 75 years after the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, a joint American-French expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard found the wreckage. The ship was lying upright in two pieces on the ocean floor at a depth of 12,500 feet - about 350 miles southeast from Newfoundland, Canada.

🍇The ancient Horn Dance is an annual event held traditionally on the first Monday after the first Sunday after 4th September in Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, England. This famous tradition is performed by twelve dancers, six carrying reindeer antlers, accompanied by the hobby horse, a jester, maid Marian, a boy carrying a bow and arrow, a musician playing an accordion and a boy playing the triangle keeping the beat of the music for the dancers. The dancers follow a 10 mile course and perform the ritual in 12 different locations in and around the village.

🍇On the 7th September 1838, Grace Darling, daughter of the keeper of Longstone lighthouse on the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland, risked her life to rescue shipwrecked mariners. With her father, she rowed a tiny boat for over a mile through treacherous seas at the height of the storm to rescue nine people marooned on a rock. They were the only survivors of the steamship Forfarshire, which had run aground and broken up. The courage that Grace and her family showed on that day is now legendary.

The newspapers of the time reported on Grace's bravery and a media frenzy ensued. She received several awards, including a Gold Medal of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society and a Silver Medal for Gallantry from the RNLI. Admirers sent letters, money and fine gifts to Grace, and even Queen Victoria sent £50. Artists travelled to Longstone to paint her portraits, which were sold to the curious public and Grace became immortalised in plays, songs, poems and memorabilia.

Grace was besiged with letters, visitors and request for public appearances. However, she did not enjoy being the focus of so much attention, preferring to live quietly at home with her parents.

Sadly four years after her brave act, aged only 26, Grace died of tuberculosis. Her funeral was a grand occasion, with hundreds of people crowding the little village of Bamburgh to say goodbye. 

🍇Cleopatra's Needle, an Egyptian obelisk, was erected on the Thames Embankment in London on the 12th September 1878. It was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan Muhammad Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.

🍇The 13th September is Roald Dahl day

🍇International Talk Like a Pirate Day (yes really) is an annual event taking place on the 19th September. It was started by two Americans who thought it would be fun to talk like a pirate for one day!!

🍇On September the 21st 1915 Cecil Chubb bought Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK, in a property auction for £6,600. Chubb remained Stonehenge's owner for three years and then, on the 26th October 1918, he formally gave it to the nation. Stonehenge is still owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage.

🍇Harvest festivals are celebrations of the food grown on the land and are traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the Harvest Moon, the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox (about Sept. 23). In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon ocurs in September, at other times it occurs in August.

Thanksgiving ceremonies and celebrations for a successful harvest are worldwide and very ancient. In Britain, we have given thanks for successful harvests since pagan times. We celebrate this day by singing, praying and decorating our churches with baskets of fruit and food in a festival known as 'Harvest Festival'.

🍇"Calling the Mare" comes from an old farming tradition.
In Medieval England the 24th September was known as the Harvest month when farmers would gather in the last of their crops. Trying to prove that they had reaped the best crops they would try and beat their neighbouring farmers to complete the work first.

After gathering the last sheaf of the harvest and shaping it into a mare shape, the farmer would deliver it to the neighbouring farmers land, shouting “Mare, Mare”. This was supposed to signify that wild horses would come and eat their harvest if they didn’t gather it in quickly.

Once the receiving farmer had finished gathering his crop, he would pass it onto the next farmer who had not finished until it reached the last farmer. This last farmer would then have to keep the “Mare” on display for a year to show that he was the slowest farmer.
Similarly, corn dolls were also weaved into shapes and placed in the corn fields as farmers believed that these corn dolls were the spirit of the corn goddess. It was believed that if you did not place a corn doll in your fields the corn goddess would die and so would your crops.

🍇Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is one of Judaism's holiest days. It will begin in the evening of Sunday the 25th September and end in the evening of Tuesday the 27th September.

🍇The George Cross was instituted by a Royal Warrant dated the 24th September 1940. It is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom and is only awarded "for acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger".

🍇Greenwich Mean (or Meridian) Time is the average time that the earth takes to rotate from noon-to-noon. The use of Greenwich Meantime (GMT) began at 3pm on the 25th September 1676, when two very accurate clocks were set in motion at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. Greenwich Mean Time became standard for England, and in 1884 it became standard for the world.

🎂September the 26th is my birthday 🎉 

🍇On the 28th September 1894 an immigrant pedlar from Poland and a Yorkshireman with a head for figures teamed up to create the first Penny Bazaar in Britain - and one of the most famous business partnerships in the world. Today fourteen million people shop at Marks & Spencer every week. Isaac Dewhirst from Leeds met Michael Marks from Poland and lent him a fiver to set up as a market trader - and introduced him to his cashier, Tom Spencer. When Marks decided to acquire his first permanent stall in Leeds's covered market, he invited Spencer to join him. They signed the agreement on 28 September 1894. Mark's slogan was "Don't ask the Price - it's a Penny". The first Penny Bazaar store in Manchester multiplied to twelve in the first six years. Today Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a major British retailer, with over 895 stores in more than 40 territories around the world.

🍇Michaelmas Day is the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, celebrated on the 29th September. St. Michael is the patron saint of the sea and maritime lands, of ships and boatmen, of horses and horsemen. He was the Angel who hurled Lucifer (the devil) down from Heaven for his treachery.

🍇The building of Nelson’s Column in London’s Trafalgar Square, began on the 30th September 1840 and completed in 1843. The 56 m (171 feet) high column is made from granite and features acanthus leaves, cast from British cannons at the top. At the very top stands a 5.5m (18 feet) statue of Nelson.

I hope you have enjoyed these fun/historical facts.

∼ Be safe and well∼

Polly x