OCTOBER 31 — STUDS TERKEL
American labor, oral historian, “common man” proponent.

OCTOBER 31 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS…
HALLOWEEN. Druids’ SAMHAIN, Autumn sun festival. Ancient Roman
FEAST TO POMONA. Druids held human sacrifices and prayers…
ALL HALLOWS EVE, 10th century. ALL SAINTS EVE. Human sacrifice be-
came cakes left out for the dead, thrown into the fire in the
morning. In Brittany all wore black, etc. Old Celtic NEW YEAR’S EVE.
Struggle between old and new years. FESTIVAL OF INNER WORLDS.

ALSO ON OCTOBER 31 IN HISTORY…
1517 — Martin Luther launches Reformation, Wittenburg, Germany.
1795 — Renowned British lyric poet John Keats born, London, England.
1927 — Kemal Ataturk abolishes the fez, “emblem of ignorance, fanaticism.”
1961 — Uncle Joe Stalin’s body removed from public display in Red Square.
1984 — Indian prime minster Indira Gandhi assassinated in her garden, New Delhi.
2008 — American oral historian, labor journalist Studs Terkel dies, Chicago, Illinois.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective