The Tornado Tavern Gallery wishes all a satisfying New Year

With that wish I recognize the new year with a renewed focus on regular blogs. Last year was a challenging year for me, the biggest challenge was vascular and a surprise. Triple bypass, who knew? On the bright side my friends and family comment that I am livelier and “with it” so all seems to be well.

The Tornado Tavern Gallery will not have regular hours for the foreseeable future, probably until my partner has more time. We will continue to open “by appointment” and do road shows/demonstrations. We will gladly consider events suggested by you the reader. The focus of this blog will change a little. We will continue to let you know about coming events and publicize events.

I will also write about my other avocations, mainly history.

Such as:

1/17/1706 - Birthday of Benjamin Franklin a “Founding Father of the United States” and a Polymath, a product of “The Enlightenment” and a true modern “Renaissance Man”.

1/7/1789 - Was the first US Presidential Election, as expected by most George Washington was elected. However, it seems to me that those voting wanted a more permanent “president”. Fortunately Washington had other ideas. By the way, at that time the only citizens who were allowed to vote were white males, who owned property.

1/8/1815 - A small army of regulars, under Andrew Jackson, defeated a larger British army at what was named “The Battle of New Orleans” at Chalmette in Louisiana. The War of 1812 was actually over, but apparently Jackson didn’t know that. Jackson, as president, also was a driver of the removal of the Cherokee and other First Nation groups from the Southeastern states. This later became known as “The Trail of Tears”.

1/7/1610 - Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer and mathematician, discovered the moons of Jupiter with a “homemade” telescope; of course at that time all telescopes were “homemade”. The moons were named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Io was a Priestess of Hera and one of Zeus’s lovers. Europa was the mother of King Minos of Crete and another of Zeus’s lovers. Ganymede was the cupbearer of the Greek gods and another of Zeus’s lovers. Calisto (or Callisto) was a nymph, daughter of Lycaon, associated with the goddess of the hunt Artemis. Calisto was also one of Zeus’s lovers. Keep in mind that Zeus is the Greek equivalent of Roman god Jupiter. This discovery disproved the Aristotelian geocentric universe.

1/15/1559 - Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”, was crowned in Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII.

1/16/1547 - Ivan IV Vasilyevich or “Ivan the Terrible” or a better modern translation “Ivan the Formidable” is crowned the first of Russia. Ivan conquered a huge area and forcibly moved Russia from a medieval state into an empire. It’s difficult to tell how he got his nickname he did conquer a great area but he was also very hard on the Russian nobility, killing his eldest son in a fit of rage.

1/9/1431 - The British begin the laborious trial against Jeanne d’Arc, “The Maid of Orleans”, Joan of Arc. To the French Joan of Arc was a hero of the “Hundred Years War. She was executed on May 30, 1431, exonerated in 1456, and canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920.

1/13/1397 - John of Gaunt marries Katherine Swynford his third wife,  after years of being lovers. John of Gaunt, or the English version of Ghent, was an English nobleman of the “House of Plantagenet”. As a younger brother of Edward, the Black Prince, John exercised great influence over the English throne during the minority of Edward's son, King Richard II, and the ensuing periods of political strife. He also became one of the richest men of the time.

In the next couple of weeks we will be celebrating the following;

January 9^th - Day of Remembrance for Raud the Strong. - Raud the Strong was a Norse Seior priest and seafaring warrior, who resisted conversion to Christianity in the late 10th century AD. He was executed by King Olaf Trggvason of Norway for not converting to Christianity.

January 12^th – St. Distaff Day - This is a holiday that was originally dedicated to Frigg/Frigga, a Norse goddess of the household. The distaff is tool used in spinning and often used to represent the household. In the 13^th century “Saga of Eric the Red” there is a seiokona, named Thorbjorg, who carried a distaff for her symbol and was buried with it. The holiday celebrated when women were finished cleaning up after Yule and could return to household work. It was probably celebrated mostly by those poor neglected husbands.

The next Tornado Tavern Gallery show will be Wolf River Arts League’s Mid-Winter Art Show on February 10^th & 11^th in New London. The show will not be at the High School as in past years. This year’s show will be just North of New London near Highway 54. More information to follow or check their website.