Let's commemorate truly significant events

It's time to put your own stamp on the
coming year, says Gerry Bowler.

GERRY BOWLER
CW Culture Critic

As 2001 stretches before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful and so new, it is time to take down the old year's calendar and put up that fresh one we received from our bank, real estate agent or hardware store. As we flip through it we notice a plethora of special occasions already marked in: Presidents' Day (USA), St David's Day (Wales), National Day in Memory of Those Lost in Dirigible Fires, St. Swithin's Eve, and so on and so forth.

But how many of these days really matter to us? I believe it is time to put our own stamp on the coming year, to mark events that have true significance and deserve to be commemorated—perhaps just by ourselves and our families or perhaps by all of society.

Here are some days I will celebrate this year.You may be moved to mark some of these occasions yourself but, more importantly, I hope you will take time to think of other happy and tragic dates that you might find worthy of incorporating into your own calendar.

January 2: First anniversary of the death of Patrick O'Brian, English writer whose Aubrey-Maturin saga, beginning with Master and Commander, spanned 20 titles written from 1969 to 2000. These books have been justly called "the greatest historical novels ever written."

February 4: Birthday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian and anti-Nazi conspirator. Safe in the United States at the outbreak of the second world war, Bonhoeffer chose to return to Germany. There he opposed Hitler, saying: "Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make the choice in security." Arrested for his part in the underground resistance he was sent to a concentration camp and executed in 1945.

March 16: Death of Jean Brébeuf, S.J. Tortured and cannibalized by Iroquois in 1649 during their genocidal war with the Huron people, Brébeuf evangelized fearlessly, pioneered native language studies and gave us the origins of the beautiful "Huron Carol."

April 13: The 259th anniversary of the first performance of G.F. Handel's great oratorio on the life of Christ, The Messiah. Completed after only 24 days' work, the composer claimed that he was literally inspired: "I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God himself." (His librettist Charles Jennens was less impressed, saying that Handel's treatment of his text was "not near so good as he might and ought to have done...There are some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah.")

April 17: Nineteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the worst idea any Canadian ever had and one that has made us a fractured, litigious and sullen country. Wear black.

June 2: Death of Stan Rogers, Canada's folk music genius and composer of such gems as "Northwest Passage," "Barrett's Privateers" and "The Field Behind the Plough." A poet with a deep understanding of the ordinary person's life, he died tragically young in a 1983 airline accident.

July 28: Birthday of Terry Fox. In 1980 he began his "Marathon of Hope," a cross-Canada run to raise money for the eradication of cancer. The disease had robbed him of his right leg and which would

eventually kill him the next year. His efforts (and those of nearly-forgotten Steve Fonyo) resulted in millions of dollars being given to medical research.

September 10: Birthday of Jean Vanier, Christian writer, philosopher and humanitarian. The son of Canadian Governor-General Georges Vanier, he founded a home for mentally handicapped adults in 1964 which grew into the movement known as L'Arche. In more than 100 communities in 18 countries the "weakest and most fragile" are able to live in a family atmosphere.

November 26: The 12th anniversary of the last time the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup. This team of plucky losers which symbolizes all that is best and most pathetic in the Prairie spirit, has existed since 1910 but has only lifted the coveted mug twice in its long history.

December 17: My birthday. I declare a nationwide holiday in honour of the continent's most beloved culture critic.

Gerry Bowler is a Winnipeg writer and historian. You can contact him by email at gerrybowler@home.com