16 April 12

When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

--Lines from Walt Whitman, reflecting in 1865 on the death of Abraham Lincoln on April 15 that same year. Lilacs are also very appropriate for April 15/16 each year because it is Lilac Day on the French Republican Calendar. Our own lilacs are particularly bright this year.