SEPTEMBER 17 — HELEN NEARING
“Back-to-the-Land” dropout advocate, ecologist.
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Villiers–Perwin, Belgium: FEAST OF THE PILGRIMS. A ludicrous, raucous
parody of pilgrimages, with nonsense speeches, mock baptisms and fu-
nerals, clowns and pantomime donkeys, feasting and drinking.
Burma: FESTIVAL OF MIN KYAWZWA, God of Drinking and Fireworks.
ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 17 IN HISTORY…
1179 — Hildegard of Bingen, archetypal medieval feminist, dies.
1859 — Self-coronation of Emperor Norton I of U.S., San Francisco, California.
1883 — Poet William Carlos Williams born, Rutherford, New Jersey.
1980 — Former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza assassinated.
1995 — “Back to the Land” radical Helen Nearing dies, Harborside, Maine.