A look at October...Octubre.

In the old Roman calendars,  October was the

eighth month of the year and got its name from the word 'Octo' meaning eight. The Saxons called it Wyn Monath because it was the season of wine making. Festivals and Traditions: Among them there are some interesting as St Luke's Little Summer, at the centre of a spell of particularly fine weather; English Pudding Season where pudding started or Punky night which falls on the last Thursday in October and is a Somerset tradition: Some time in the Middle Ages, all the men of Hinto St George went off to a fair. When they failed to return that evening, the women went looking for them by the light of punkies. You should know that Punky is another name for a pumpkin which has been hollowed out and has a candle standing inside it. Traditionally on this night, children in the South of England would carve their ‘Punkies’, (pumpkins) into Jack O'Lanterns. Once carved the children would go out in groups and march through the streets, singing traditional ‘punky’ songs, calling in at friendly houses and competing for best lantern with rival groups they meet. The streets would be lit with the light of the Punkies. Nowadays, on Punky Night in Hinton St George, Somerset, local children join a procession through the village streets, swinging their homemade lanterns and going

house to house, singing traditional ‘punky’ songs and sometimes getting a few pennies at the front door. On October 31st, we celebrate Halloween, thought to be the one night of the year when ghosts, witches, and fairies are especially active. Anniversaries: 1st October 1870 the first official issue of the post card was made in Britain by the Post Office together with the introduction of the halfpenny postage stamp. The first Model T Ford was introduced by Henry Ford. American fast-food chain, McDonald's, opens its first British outlet in London. S.O.S. was established as an international distress signal; Orville Wright became the first to fly an aircraft for over 33 minutes;In London, the Savoy Theatre, Britain's first public building to be lit by electricity, opens with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Patience'; Apollo 7 was launched from Cape Kennedy; Columbus Day is celebrated in the USA; Winnie-the-Pooh was first published and All Hallows Eve is celebrated. And don´t forget that 21st October 1805 The Battle of Trafalgar took place (with the defeat of the Spanish) but Admiral Nelson died that day and a column was erected to his memory in Trafalgar Square.

En el calendario romano Octubre era el octavo mes del año; los sajones lo llamaron el mes del vino porque era cuando empezaba a fabricarse. Dentro de este mes también tienen lugar el llamado "Veranillo de San Martín", la estación del pudding o la noche de Punky, también llamada de la calabaza, que cae en el último jueves de octubre y que es una tradición medieval de Somerset. Entre los aniversarios dentro de este mes destacan la introducción oficial de la postal y su sello de medio penique, la apertura del primer McDonald´s, la noche de los Santos ... que ya conoces, o la conmemoración de la batalla de Trafalgar que supuso la derrota de España.