After getting up at the crack of dawn yesterday, today I snoozed and then ignored my alarm which was set for rather later. Hopefully I have now caught up with my sleep. However, despite it being rather later in the day than I intended, I did eventually get up and go for a run round the village. It was a beautifully fine morning but still cold, despite various weather apps assuring me it was about 5°. This relatively warmer temperature did not prevent the millponds on my route from still being partly frozen. And by early afternoon the cloud had moved in.
I read that the Palestine Action protestors/prisoners who have been on hunger strike while waiting for their cases to be dealt with have ended their hunger strike, which is a relief. Here is MP Zarah Sultana’s comment on that:
“After 73 days on hunger strike, Palestine prisoners Heba, Kamran and Lewie have ended their protest, having pushed their bodies to the absolute limit alongside their fellow prisoners.
Their collective actions have achieved a major victory in the struggle against the arms trade, as Elbit Systems UK, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, has lost a £2 billion Ministry of Defence contract.
This fight is far from over: we demand immediate bail for all prisoners on remand, the deproscription of Palestine Action and an end to all arms sales to the genocidal apartheid state of Israel.
We continue to stand in solidarity with everyone resisting injustice, opposing genocide and this Labour government’s complicity, and fighting for a free Palestine — from the river to the sea 🇵🇸”
In this collection of photos in the Guardian I came across a photo of yodellers in Switzerland (where else?) taking part in Silvesterchlausen (St Sylvester’s Day festivities), a traditional custom where people chase away the old year and welcome the new one by traveling from farmstead to farmstead to yodel.
So I decided to investigate Saint Sylvester. It turns out he served as Pope from 314 to 335. Medieval legend says he was responsible for the conversion of Emperor Constantine, as well as curing him of leprosy. Was that enough to make him a saint? Goodness knows. He died, or at any rate was buried, on December 31st, New Year’s Eve, and many Western churches celebrate him in their various ways - such as yodelling in silly costumes, it seems.
In Vienna they walk pigs on leashes as a way of ensuring good luck for the coming year.
Some households in Germany follow the custom of “Bleigiessen”, using Silvesterblei (Silvester lead) is melted over a flame in an old spoon and dropped into a bowl of cold water; one's fortune for the coming year is determined by the shape of the lead. If the lead forms a ball (der Ball), luck will roll one's way, while the shape of a star (der Stern) signifies happiness. No odder, I suppose, than the British “first footing” according to which the first person through the door on New Year’s Day should have dark hair and bring coal, to ensure warmth in the house, and bread, to ensure enough food for the coming year. In my childhood it was always my mother, the dark haired parent, who had to go out of the back door, coal and bread in hand, and knock on the front door to be welcomed in by the family!
However, some Israelis consider Pope Sylvester to have been an antisemite and therefore do not celebrate Sylvester or New Year’s Eve, having their own Rosh Hashanah celebrations in September or October. And January Ist is just another working day as a rule. In 2014, a report by a wearable technology manufacturer found that an average of 33% of Israelis went to bed before midnight on 31 December.
Now, there’s a nice bit of terminology: “wearable technology” - defined as “small electronic devices with wireless communications technology designed to be worn on the human body”. Well, that’s one way of looking at it but in fact it’s been around in one form or another since long before the internet was even conceived of.
In the 1500s, German inventor Peter Henlein (1485–1542) created small watches that were worn as necklaces. A century later, pocket watches grew in popularity as waistcoats became fashionable for men. Wristwatches were created in the late 1600s but were worn mostly by women as bracelets.
Pedometers were developed around the same time as pocket watches. The concept of a pedometer was described by Leonardo da Vinci (clever bloke much ahead of his time, possible a time-traveller?) around 1500, and the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg has a pedometer in its collection from 1590.
In the late 1800s, the first wearable hearing aids were introduced.
In 1904, aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont pioneered the modern use of the wristwatch.
We could go on and on! Wearable technology - something we have always made use of.
Perhaps nothing is ever completely new.
Life goes on, stay safe and well everyone!
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