- The prefix Octo means eighth, yet October is the tenth month. Why is that? October used to be the eighth month in the old Roman calendar. When January and February were added, the names of later months (September, October, November and December) kept their old names.
- Birthstones for people born in October are tourmaline and opal.
- Their birth flower is the calendula.
- The word for October in most European lnaguages is similar to English (Octobre, Oktober, Octubre, Ottobre). Exceptions are the old Dutch Wynmaand, meaning wine month, and the Welsh Hydref, which denotes the lowing of cattle.
- Native American tribes named months after things they observed in nature at that time of year - so October time was variously known by different tribes as Rutting season of mountain sheep, Rutting time of the wild Reindeer, Naked tree month, Flying away and Hoarfrost covers the grass.
- Weather lore for October says that one end of October will be warm and the other freezing (Czech tradition) and if there is no frost at October's full moon, there will be no frost until the full moon of November. A bumper crop of red berries in October means there will be a lot of frost and Snow in the winter to come. Another October warning of a cold winter is if birds and Badgers are fat. A lot of rain in October means December will be windy. If October is warm (an occurrence commonly known as an Indian Summer) the following February will be cold. Whatever the weather is like in October, so it will be the following March according to another English proverb. There is a Kentish proverb, however, which states that there will always be at least nineteen fine days in October.
- Thinking of getting married in October? Married when leaves in October thin, toil and hardships for you begin, declares one folk saying. Another claims that couples who marry in October will either have plenty of love or plenty of money, but not both.
- October has been designated the awareness month for adopting pets, AIDS, asthma, car battery and dryer vent safety, breast cancer, consumer information, cookery and craft books, country music, depression, diversity, domestic violence, family history, lung health, Lupus, hedgehogs, clocks, infertility, pasta, Pizza, Popcorn, spinal health and stamp collecting - to name but a few.
- October is the name of an album by the band U2, released in October 1981.
- In many old spiritual traditions, October marks the start of the descent into winter and the darker aspects - the goddess as the Crone, death, descent into the Underworld and so on. In modern times, the celebration of Halloween and all things dark and spooky is an echo of that.
NEW!
Obsidian's Ark
Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.
Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?
When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?
Themes:
Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.
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