• Juneteenth •
Pronunciation: jun-teenth • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, proper
Meaning: Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. This African-American celebration remembers the day, June 19, 1865, when news of the Emancipation Proclamationreached slaves in Galveston, Texas—two and a half years after it was issued.
Notes: Early celebrations evolved into political rallies and later into formal celebrations planned far in advance by Juneteenth committees. June 19, 1865 was a Monday but now Juneteenth is celebrated on the third Saturday of June. In early years these celebrations were commonly relegated by law to the outskirts of towns. However, many Juneteenth organizations eventually purchased tracts of land inside towns for the express purpose of holding the celebration. Many of them were named 'Emancipation Park' and some remain today.
In Play: This year celebrations will be held in more cities across the US than ever before, marking the 140th anniversary of this special day. For details of celebrations in your area, visit the Juneteenth website at www.juneteenth.com.
Word History: Today's Good Word is a blend of June and nineteenth that sounds rather odd, since -teen-th are suffixes that usually attach to numbers (teen is a variant of ten). June was taken from the calendar of the Romans, who named the month after their goddess, Juno, the wife of Jupiter and the goddess of the moon, marriage, and childbirth. Juno's name comes from the same root as the Latinate words, junior, juvenile, and our own Germanic versions, English young and German Jugend "youth". (Let us all join with Larry Brady, who suggested today's word, in celebrating this unique US holiday and the freedom from repression it symbolizes.)
JUNETEENTH
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JUNETEENTH
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I have to thank the Calendar on Excite.com for pointing out that holiday.Holidays like this one - of which, to my surprise, I had never heard before (thanks Dr G and Larry for filling this lacuna !)
- represent a part of US culture and history that made the country loved and respected around the world. And now -
Which world? Certainly not this one?
I think I might have dated Gloria's Mundi's cousin, Mondo Cane, once, long ago . . .sic transit gloria mundi !...
Henri
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Larry, are you really old enough to remember this film ? Then there's no need to ponder over which vowels should be replaced in «gzer» ! In any event, for my part, I loved the flick !......
I think I might have dated Gloria's Mundi's cousin, Mondo Cane, once, long ago . . .
Henri
PS : I think you underestimate how powerful the image of the Declaration of Emancipation (the fine print, that only slaves in territories not under Union control were freed, was overlooked) and Lincoln himself resonated throughout a world that still believed in the possibility of progress - it had, I understand, much the same drawing power as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité....
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Alas, I was a wee bit too young to see it when it came out; I just remembered the title and used it as the quickest thing I could think of to go with Mundi. I did, however, take a date to see Godard's Week-End when it came out. I was old enough to drive then.Larry, are you really old enough to remember this film ? Then there's no need to ponder over which vowels should be replaced in «gzer» ! In any event, for my part, I loved the flick !......
I think I might have dated Gloria's Mundi's cousin, Mondo Cane, once, long ago . . .
Henri
Hmmm, I was thinking more of the modern world. But as for slavery, we have Dutch traders to blame for the start of that "peculiar institution" in the Jamestown Colony. As for the North's commitment to emancipation, one should look for a copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas E. Woods, Ph. D--it's a good read. The so-called "Civil War" was really a power struggle between Northern industrial interests seeking protective tariffs and Southern proponents of free-trade. Northerners didn't want slavery, and didn't want freed slaves in the North, either. But that's fodder for several Ph. D. dissertations.PS : I think you underestimate how powerful the image of the Declaration of Emancipation (the fine print, that only slaves in territories not under Union control were freed, was overlooked) and Lincoln himself resonated throughout a world that still believed in the possibility of progress - it had, I understand, much the same drawing power as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité....
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
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The aspect described by Dr Woods certainly played a vital role in the US Civil War ; indeed, that is one of the reasons why the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed so late in the course of the war - the rich industrialists of the North were as concerned as the rich landowners of the South that «property rights» - even though the «property» concerned was fellow human beings - not be abridged. But to say that the conflict between those who demanded protective tariffs in order to further their industrial interests and those who demanded free trade in order to promote their agricultural interests is what the Civil War really was about is to neglect the myriad other aspects of the war. In the end, for us, I think, the war was about the fate of slavery in a democracy - it tested, as Lincoln put it whether a nation «conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal» «or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure». That it could was a message that reverberated throughout the world.......
As for the North's commitment to emancipation, one should look for a copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas E. Woods, Ph. D--it's a good read. The so-called "Civil War" was really a power struggle between Northern industrial interests seeking protective tariffs and Southern proponents of free-trade. Northerners didn't want slavery, and didn't want freed slaves in the North, either. But that's fodder for several Ph. D. dissertations.
Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
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