We can describe the Supreme Court’s Friday decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in several ways: monumental, transcendent, momentous. This decision was 50 years in the making, and it seems that the heavens were rooting for Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion. There were many holidays and other significant events that fell on June 24, 2022. Here is a rundown of them.
Planetary Alignment
Early Friday morning, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter all lined up in order, making for a spectacular view for denizens of planet Earth. The peak of the show was Friday, but it continued throughout the weekend.
Those planets will not align in the same way until 2040. When those planets do re-align, perhaps some great triumph will follow once more.
March for Life Founder’s Birthday
In October 1973, months after the court handed down Roe v. Wade, pro-life leaders gathered at the home of Nellie Gray, who had dedicated her life to fighting abortion after the initial decision. The result was the annual March for Life, which has been held in Washington, D.C., every year since 1974, calling for an end to the practice.
Gray died in 2012, but the ruling came out on what would have been her 98th birthday. Though she could not be here to see the result of her hard work, she still received the best birthday present one could ask for.
Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist
June 24 also commemorates the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. In the Gospel of Luke, when the Virgin Mary came to visit her pregnant cousin, Elizabeth, John leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb because he knew that Mary was bearing Jesus.
The first person (other than his mother) to recognize Jesus after he was conceived was an unborn baby, and it is quite fitting for a decision that will help protect children in utero to be adjudicated on his feast day. Now, each year when we celebrate the Dobbs decision, we will do so on that feast.
Inti Raymi
While the decision occurred on many happy feasts, it also occurred on one unhappy holiday. Every June 24, Peruvians celebrate Inti Raymi, the festival of the Incan sun god for whom the feast is named. While the holiday is generally a happy occasion with dances and celebrations, it has a dark history. The Incans would offer child sacrifices to Inti.
Whenever there were times of serious turbulence, such as during famines or after the death of the emperor, whom they believed to be the son of the sun god, the Incans would sacrifice children who were specially bred to be offerings. On the festival of a sun god for whom an ancient culture would kill its most vulnerable members, America offered more protections for its innocent. That is poetic.