#clementing

[virokuns]

behold: my contribution to the somnia community on tumblr. i separated the boys (and detwinkified them a bit)

[tomaksl]

Mes premiers rendu 3D sur Maya

[maypoleman1]

23rd November

St Clement’s Day

Clement I Bishop of Rome (c1000 AD). Source: Wikipedia

Today is St Clement’s Day. Clement was one of the early bishops of Rome, held by the Roman Catholic Church to be the fourth Pope. He lived in the first century at a time when Christianity, whereas not yet attracting the wholesale persecution of future years, was being considered a subversive nuisance by the Roman Empire. Clement got the wrong side of the authorities during the reign of the Emperor Trajan and was allegedly executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown overboard to drown, which he did. This made him the patron saint of sailors and blacksmiths.

In former days Clementing parades took place in which mock anvils and axes were carried with Old Clem, a blacksmith in effigy, being the centrepiece. The parades would usually conclude with a feast, a bonfire and the ritual Firing the Anvil, in which a real anvil had a hole made in its side which was then filled with gunpowder and lit. This highly dangerous stunt would result in a loud explosion and the anvil being lifted high in the air, to the watching crowd’s delight unless the now lethal piece of ironmongery happened to land on someone. Celebration of St Clement’s Day was once very widespread but by the end of the nineteenth century it had completely died out, its traditions being subsumed into Bonfire Night.