Hello lovelies and Hello to October ♡
I hope you had a Sensational September, sparkling with kindness.
My month was pretty much a washout due to a flare up of CFS symptoms, but after a month of almost complete rest, I’m feeling a little more recharged and hopeful for this brand new month ahead.
For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we’ve welcomed autumn in and Mother Nature has already started to put on her spectacular art show…
I’m such a sunshine summer girl, but seeing all the stunning colours of autumn softens the blow a little of summer ending, and I couldn’t help but choose a pretty autumnal leaf design for this month’s kindness calendar.
Here are some interesting facts about the new month ahead:
- October received it’s name from the Latin numeral ‘octo’ which means number eight, as in the Roman calendar it was the eighth month.
- The Anglo-Saxons named it Winterfylleth, which means ‘fullness of winter’ because it had the first full moon of the winter season.
- This month’s gemstones are the semi-precious stone Opal, known as the Queen of Gems as it encompasses the colours of all the other gems, and Tourmaline which comes in a rainbow of colours – my favourite is Paraiba Tourmaline, a relatively new discovery with striking ocean-like blues and greens.
- October’s flower is the Calendula, the common marigold, and symbolises comfort, gratitude, grace and good luck. It’s known for its medicinal and healing properties.
- Astrologically October starts in Libra (23rd Sept – 22nd Oct) and ends in Scorpio (23rd Oct – 21st Nov)
- Oktoberfest, which features live music, games, amusement rides, beer tents, and a traditional Bavarian fair, is a 16 day festival which starts late September and ends early October. It began in 1810 when Prince Ludwig of Bavaria invited his people to celebrate his marriage to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Believe it or not, the largest beer drinking festival in the world was originally alcohol-free!
- Halloween began as a Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, which means ‘the end of summer’ . It was part of the ancient Celtic religion in Britain and other parts of Europe. On All Hallows’ Eve – the night before All Saints’ Day on 1st November – the Celts had a big party, which was all about scaring away the ghosts and spirits. The holiday became popular in the United States when Irish immigrants arrived during the 19th century.
- More US presidents have been born in October than in any other month: Jimmy Carter, 1st October 1924; Rutherford B. Hayes, 4th October 1822; Chester A. Arthur, 5th October 1829; Dwight D. Eisenhower, 14th October 1890; Theodore Roosevelt, 27th October 1858; and John Adams, 30th October 1735
- Famous October birthdays include: 2nd Gandhi, 1869; 7th Desmond Tutu, 1931; 8th Jesse Jackson 1941; 9th John Lennon, 1940; 11th Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884; 13th Margaret Thatcher, 1925; 16th Oscar Wilde, 1854; 25th Pablo Picasso, 1881; Hilary Clinton, 1947; 27th Captain James Cook, 1728; and 28th Bill Gates, 1955
sources: bbc.co.uk, express.co.uk, wixonjewelers.com, list-of-birthstones.com, paraibadealers.com, opal by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com, rhsplants.co.uk
Here is October’s Kindness Calendar:
And you can download it for free here:
Kindness Calendar October 2017
(Please note if you subscribe to my blog and are receiving this post by email, please click here to come through to the main site and you can download it easily from there.)
As always, I try to make the acts on my Kindness Calendars quick, easy and cheap (well, mostly free actually). So anyone and everyone can join in.
You may want to mix it up and swap the acts around, adapt the acts to suit you, or even create your own kindness acts. And don’t worry if you can’t do an act of kindness every single day, sometimes it’s just not possible as I know too well with the nature of my CFS flare ups.
But even if every one of us manages to do just one kindness act on one day this month – imagine how amazing that would be!
Again, it would be really brilliant and deeply appreciated if you could share this with family, friends, work colleagues, classmates… and share all over social media. 🙂
Every single extra act of kindness counts, together we are making the world a kinder place. So let’s get as many people as we can involved.
And don’t forget to join me on my kindness community page on Facebook, and if you post about your kindness act, please use the hashtag #KindnessCalendar so we can all keep track of all the wonderful kindness we are sharing.
Kindness Advent Calendar 2017
One final note: as my thoughts start turning towards this year’s Kindness Advent Calendar, I’d love to hear your favourite kindness acts. Which kindness acts would you like to see on this year’s Advent Calendar? Let me know and I’ll do my best to include them. I’m also thinking of including an optional donation of £1/$1 to a charity which promotes kindness – I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Let’s have a fun month, and let’s remember to be kinder to ourselves as well, we are definitely worth it!
Have an OUTSTANDING OCTOBER and thank you so much for spreading a little more kindness.
☆♡☆
