2024 October Trivia and History

Name History

Latin: October. From the word octo, eight (it was the 8th month in the old Roman calendar).

October is:

• Domestic Violence Awareness Month
• Filipino American History Month (in United States)
• Italian Heritage Month
• National Arts and Humanities Month (in United States)
• National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (in United States)
• National Cyber Security Awareness Month (in United States)
• Polish American Heritage Month

Special 2024 October weeks:

• World Space Week from October 4th to 10th.
• Fire Prevention Week from October 6th-12th.
• Earth Science Week from Sunday, October 13th-Saturday, 19th.
• United Nations Week - Sunday, October 20th-Saturday, 26th
  
• National Chemistry Week from Sunday, October 20th-Saturday, 26th.

Special 2024 October periods:

• Oktoberfest - September 21st-October 6th, 2024 (16 days through first Sunday in October is 6th).*

Special 2024 October Days:

•  0th* • (Monday)
  • (1st Monday) NNN - HHH*
  • (First Friday) NNN - HHH*
  • (Observed, Second Monday) NNN - HHH*
  • (Second Monday) aka Native American Day - HHH*
  • (Second Saturday) NNN - HHH*
  • (Third Saturday) NNN - Celebrated in the Midwestern United States, and parts of the Northeastern United States, also in the northern part of Florida on the third Saturday in October. It is a day to share romantic deeds or expressions. 10 states and parts of two states observe Sweetest Day*
  • (Third Saturday) NNN - HHH*
  • (Third Wednesday for 2024) NNN - HHH*
  • (always October 5th) NNN - HHH*
  • NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • EEE NNN - HHH*
  • for southwestern U.S. NNN - HHH*
•  2nd* • (Wednesday)  Rosh Hashanah (begins at sundown on the evening of the 2nd this year, and continues for 2 days)*

October special historical dates:

• 1996 - 24th-26th - A blizzard covered the Midwest. Halloween was canceled.
• 1991 - 3rd - A blizzard covered the Midwest. Halloween was canceled.
• 1976 - A Proclamation by President Gerald Ford made the week of October 10th Native Awareness Week during the year of the Bicentennial. No such Proclamation has continued since that time. Learn more: Proclamation 4468
• 1582 - Gregorian Calendar was introduced and adopted by Catholic countries, and its territories abroad (including lands in the "New World" such as Florida, Texas, parts of the southwest, and some of the Mississippi basin claimed by Spain). England and its New World territories did not adopt the calendar until 170 years later (September 1752). Learn more: Calendar Adoption
• 1492 - 28th - Cuba discovered by Columbus

October Trivia Question

Some months are 30 days long, some are 31, and February is 28, or 29 on leap year. October has 31 days but at one time, the number of days was less than 31 but the number still ended with a 1. When?

Quotes relating to October

October.
This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February. • Samuel Clemens
The Mark Twain effect is the phenomenon of stock returns in October being lower than in other months (supposedly caused by this quote).

Lyrics relating to October

•  “we fell in love in October
  we fell apart in July
  I fell for you in December
  you rejected me in May - From Song: We Fell In Love In October” • Girl in Red*
•  “I'm gonna miss you when it's over - I hope we never see October. - From Song: October” • Alessia Cara*
•  “i keep the letters that you wrote
  in a secret place
  everynow and then i go
  down memory lane
  october passed me by
  just like any month
  but i still think of the times
  you took the breath out of my lungs - From Song: October Passed Me By” • Girl in Red*

Poetry of October

There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October. • Nathaniel Hawthorne

A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
Blackbirds and the Sun of October Summery
On the hill's shoulder. • Poem in October - Dylan Thomas

Perhaps the most famous icon of the holiday is the jack-o-lantern. Various authorities attribute it to either Scottish or Irish origin. However, it seems clear that it was used as a lantern by people who traveled the road this night, the scary face to frighten away spirits or faeries who might otherwise lead one astray. Set on porches and in windows, they cast the same spell of protection over the household (the American pumpkin seems to have forever superseded the European gourd as the jack-o-lantern of choice). Bobbing for apples may well represent the remnants of a Pagan 'baptism' rite called a seining, according to some writers. The water-filled tub is a latter-day Cauldron of Regeneration, into which the novice's head is immersed. The fact that the participant in this folk game was usually blindfolded with hands tied behind the back also puts one in mind of a traditional Craft initiation ceremony.
• All Hallow's Eve, Mike Nichols

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter. • Nova Bair

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
• Robert Frost, October

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
• Carol Bishop Hipps

The harvest moon hangs round and high
It dodges clouds high in the sky,
The stars wink down their love and mirth
The Autumn season is giving birth.
Oh, it must be October
The leaves of red bright gold and brown,
To Mother Earth come tumbling down,
The breezy nights the ghostly sights,
The eerie spooky far off sounds
Are signs that it's October.
The pumpkins yellow, big and round
Are carried by costumed clumsy clowns
It's Halloween - let's celebrate.
• Pearl N. Sorrels, It Must be October

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

• George Cooper, October's Party

I see that old hammock out back,
Swaying lightly in the wind
That Autumn oft expels in October,
Waiting for me to come and dream,
But the bulbs that fill my tired Hands,
leaving trails of rusty earth
Must first be laid to rest,
I must tend to their needs first.

• B. R. Jording, Fall Planting

To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labeled, “To be eaten in the wind.” It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit. . . The era of the Wild Apple will soon be past. It is a fruit which will probably become extinct in New England. I fear that he who walks over these fields a century hence will not know the pleasure of knocking off wild apples. Ah, poor soul, there are many pleasures which you will not know! . . . the end of it all will be that we shall be compelled to look for our apples in a barrel.*
• Henry David Thoreau

When clear October suns unfold mallee tips of red and gold
children on their way to school discover tadpoles in a pool,
iceplants sheathed in beaded glass spider orchids and shivery grass,
webs with globes of dew alight budgerigars on their first flight,
tottery lambs and a stilty foal a papers slough that a snake shed whole,
and a bronzewing's nest of twigs so few that both the sky and the eggs show through.
• Flexmore Hudson, Mallee in October

Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush
• Van Morrison, Moondance

October Trivia Question Answer:

... October has 31 days but at one time, the number of days was less than 31 but the number still ended with a 1. When? In 1582, October had only 21 days, ... but not in all countries. Based on the computations of Aloysius Lilius, a physician from Naples, via Calabria (some modifications were made by the commission that studied his work, made mostly by Christopher Clavius), it was determined that the calendar year was off from the solar year. This was a flaw in the Julian calendar. To get back on track, Pope Gregory XIII (after whom the Gregorian Calendar is named) decreed that 10 days had to be jumped over. Therefore, the decree was that Thursday, October 4th would be followed by Friday the 15th. For this one year, October had 21 days, but only in those countries that switched in 1582 (most Catholic countries). Consider that in 1582, the American Colonies did not exist as we think of it today, except for the Spanish in Florida. Spanish outposts did switch near the same time, as they got word from Spain. Eventually, (what became) the American Colonies switched in September 1752 but by then 11 days had to be dropped out. It is not clear exactly when Florida switched, but most likely it was still sometime in 1582. Imagine what it would have been like just before the American Colonies switch in 1752. There were two calendars in effect, with 11 days difference in dates. Thank goodness it was straightened out by 1763 when Florida became part of the United States. Some other countries held out until years later. Some waited so long that by then, they had to jump over even more than 11 days. Since the changes took place in different months for different countries, several months have at one time had a different number of days, just depending on where in the world you consider your point of reference. Learn more: Calendar Adoption