White Moments of Life (The)

The red-letter days or happy moments of life. The Romans used to mark unlucky days, in their calendars, with black chalk, and lucky ones with white chalk; hence Notare diem lactea gemma or alba means to mark a day as a lucky one.

“These, my young friend, these are the white moments of one’s life.”—Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary, chap. iii.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.