Feb. 26, Monday — Pure Monday. Moon on the equator. Conjunction of Venus and the moon.
Feb. 27, Tuesday — Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born, 1807. "I shot an arrow into the air. It fell to earth, I knew not where."
Feb. 28, Wednesday — Ash Wednesday. Mary Lyon, founder of Mt. Holyoke College, born, 1797.
March 1, Thursday — St. David. Conjunction of Saturn and the moon. President John F. Kennedy created Peace Corps, 1961.
March 2, Friday — St. Chad. Battle of Bismarck Sea began, 1943. Conjunction of Jupiter and the moon.
March 3, Saturday — Crocuses up in Edgartown, Mass., 1941. First organized ice hockey match, Montreal, 1875. Sun today brings sun through Lent.
March 4, Sunday — First Sunday in Lent. Sunday of Orthodoxy. Stick to your winter flannels until your flannels stick to you. Skunks mate.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: The election taught us all about ballot chads, but who was St. Chad? — F. T., Tallahassee, Fla.
Answer: St. Chad, whose feast day is March 2, marking the day of his death, was the bishop in Lichfield, England, from 669-672 A.D. He was born in Northumbria, probably around 620. After he was canonized, he was primarily known as the patron saint of medicinal springs, and believe it or not, his waters were reputed to heal those with sore eyes! (Those Florida ballot-counters, trying to discern a "pregnant chad" from a mere dimple in the paper might have appreciated that.)
The water in the well at Lichfield was reputed to be unusually pure, and St. Chad was fond of standing in it and praying.
Evidently, there was another well on the east side of Lichfield that also had restorative waters, but that one was known for its laxative powers.
St. Chad also lived during a period of great political divisiveness that might be compared with what we experienced in the Florida ballot-counting period. In Chad's case, it was primarily a religious split between the forces of Christianity and the pagan beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons, but also (within Christianity) a battle between the Roman church and the Celts over their respective versions of Christianity.
In England today, pilgrimages are still made to the church at Lichfield and to St. Chad's well. Some churches also continue the tradition of collecting "Chad-pennies" at Whitsunday, special offerings to help pay for the restoration of buildings owned by the church.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: Did the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow become popular only after his death? — B. T., Clayton, Okla.
Answer: No, Longfellow (1807-1882) enjoyed the fruits of his labor in his own time. In fact, his first published poem, "The Battle of Lovell's Pond," was written when he was just 13, much to the surprise of his family. It appeared in the Portland Gazette and demonstrated the interest in America's history that he came to be known for later in his career.
Longfellow attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and later taught there, as well as at Harvard University, where he was a professor of modern languages from 1836 to 1854. Not only did his work as a poet and lyricist increase his reputation and wealth, but his success also brought him the honor of being the first American whose bust was chosen to be placed in the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.
Longfellow grew up in Portland, Maine, in that city's first all-brick residence. It was there that his father, Stephen Longfellow, had cast his first courtly glances, not at the poet's mother-to-be, but at her sister, Elizabeth Wadsworth, to whom he became engaged. Elizabeth died of consumption, as her older sister, Zilpah, and Stephen sat at her side. If not for Elizabeth's tuberculosis, Zilpah and Stephen might not have had their eight children, including Henry, and we might never have read "The Song of Hiawatha" or "Paul Revere's Ride" or "The Courtship of Miles Standish." Generations of young children would have missed "The Children's Hour" or "There was a little girl, Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead."
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: Is winter savory different from regular savory? — N. G., Nyack, N.Y.
Answer: Winter savory is Satureia montana, sometimes called dwarf savory, and is a sub-species of the more common culinary herb, Satureia hortensis. Either one can be used in stews, stuffings and with game dishes. The common or summer savory is the one generally available at the grocery store. Both are related to mint, an aromatic herb with some of the characteristics of the piney rosemary.
In Germany, savory is considered "the bean-herb" because of its general use with bean dishes, and in Spain and France it's often grown for use in bouquet garni mixes. The plant is native to southern Europe, but the colonists brought it to America, and it grows well here.
John Gerard, in his book "The Herball or General Histories of Plants" (1633), describes savory as looking something like hyssop and makes the herbalist's argument for why it might have been chosen as the bean-herb. Because the actions of the herb are hot and dry, Gerard says, it "maketh thin, cutteth, it cleanses the passages; to be brief, it is altogether of like vertue with Time." Summer savory was considered more appropriate as a medicinal, because it is not as hot, but both do "marvelously prevail against the winde" and, therefore, are good choices "boiled and eaten with beanes, peason, and other windie pulses." Peason was probably a long-cooked pea porridge, and many Epicureans might recognize cucumbers as another of those "windie pulses." Another herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper ("Culpeper's English Physician and Complete Herbal," 1798), believed that snuffing the juices of the savory plant into one's nostrils would quicken "dull spirits in the lethargy." Culpeper also believed that eating the dried herb was beneficial in treating deafness.
Send your questions to: Ask the Almanac, The Old Farmer's Almanac, Main St., Dublin, NH 03444. Web site: www.almanac.com; © Yankee Publishing Inc.