In the county of Greece, St. Nicholas is called Άγιος Βασίλης. His clothes are soaked with brine and his beard is dripping wet. As the protector of sailors and seamen, his face is covered with perspiration as he tries to reach sinking ships and save men from drowning.
Christmas trees are not traditional symbols in Greek homes. Rather, the symbol of Christmas in Grecian homes is a clay bowl with a piece of wire suspended across the top. Hanging from the wire is a sprig of basil tied around a wooden cross, and below the cross, to keep the basil fresh is a bit of holy water.
Greek tradition says that during the twelve day period, from Christmas to the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, the Killantzaroi, a type of goblin, rises from the
| The tree is symbolized to represent something grown up from. The tree is the past, and it was so much more meaningful before rather than now. The change in importance is due to Gene thinking and reliving it constantly over time.
Imagine if there were no Christmas trees on Christmas. How would it feel? Till this day in almost every American household there is at least one Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is one of the symbols and early traditions from the pagans that early Roman Catholics adopted. Although, the Roman Catholic Church perceived sinful and unacceptable some of the pagan traditions such as the value and behavior that the Anglo-Saxons had towards their cattle and how they sacrificed them to their idols. The church had to synchronize and blend some pagan traditions so they could influence their new strategy to evangelize and attract the heathens.
In this paper I will discuss Social Theories such as Structural Functionalism, Conflict theory; with emphasis on Karl Marx’s early work and how it relates to the conflict theory and Symbolic interaction. I intend to define and discuss relevant sociological terms of these theories and how these theories could apply to my favorite holiday which is Christmas.
The ancient Greeks loved music so much that they put scenes of music on their pottery. One piece of pottery is a water jug. This piece of pottery has a rounded top with a rigged edge. The neck of the pot is short and comes down into a kind of vase. On the vase, there is a person playing a flute. Another person is holding a lyre, which is a wooden stringed instrument. It looks like a music teacher is teaching a student to play an instrument. The handles on the pot are curved outwards like ears. There are spiral-like designs that go around the neck and center of the pot. The pot is entirely black aside from the pictures around the pot. The pictures stand out because they are in gold. This jug was probably used to collect water for special events. Another piece of pottery is used for storage. This jar has very little inward curved handles on each side of the neck. Around the neck of the jar, it looks like a string of olive leaves. From the neck,
However, the artist used Christian meaning in symbols to celebrate their religion. Such symbols were a piece of garland meant victory over death, a tendril was the Eucharist, a nude figure is Christmas, a peacock is immortality, and a flying bird is a soul flying to heaven.
The wheat and grates represent the wine and bread of the Eucharist. The toga was used as symbol of high social status.
You had brought up an excellent point that all religions are very similar to each other. Many traditions in Christianity today come from Pagan origins. This is not surprising as "... Pagans as a religious group collapsed under the pressure of the ever growing Christian community" (Norris, 1996, p. 9). Some Pagan traditions include, cutting pieces of trees in December usually evergreens (Robinson, 2015). This was in recognition of the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year, many had believed that the sun may never appear again and the evergreens contained powers because they stayed green all year around (Norris, 2015). "The ancient Pagan Romans decorated their 'trees with bits of metal and replicas of their god, Bacchus [a
On Friday the 13th, 1370 B.C., the heroic Theseus went on a quest to find his father, Aegeus. Once Theseus found his father,he heard about this barbarous beast, the Minotaur, half man, half bull, who lived in Crete. Theseus bravely entered the Cretan Labyrinth and defeated the great Minotaur by using only his bare hands.
Life is filled with riches. Many people believe that to be wealthy means to have copious amounts of money. There is a far grander meaning. One can be rich in a plethora of ways: friendship, kindness, generosity, family, and happiness. In A Christmas Carol, a fantasy novel by Charles Dickens and adapted into a play by Israel Horovitz, a misanthrope, Ebenezer Scrooge learns what it truly means to be rich. One literary technique Dickens employs to convey his message is symbolism. From Marley’s chain of sins to the gnarled children who represent want and ignorance, his point is made clear, and his minor characters also surround Scrooge with this lesson. Although Dickens created the minor characters for the purpose of serving as a contrast to
A Christmas Carol, a novella written by Charles Dickens, goes through the story of a seemingly bad man by the name of Ebenezer Scrooge. Throughout the story, Dickens gives the audience a greater understanding of why Scrooge is the way he is. One theme that occurs in the novella is social exclusion. Dickens uses a physical, a parallel, and a product symbol to enhance this theme. Dickens employs these symbols to enhance the thematic focus of social exclusion and its impact on Scrooge.
Symbolism is when we use an image or thing to represent another idea. It is very important in the play “A Christmas Carol” and is used every day. In the play they use the three ghost as symbolism for example the ghost of Christmas past symbolised a kind of happy character because she is dressed in light colors and she shows him his past which made him happy and cries tears of joy, the ghost of Christmas future represents darkness because he shows all the bad things that are about to happen if he does not change and one of them is he shows Scrooge his grave!! Another symbolism is sadness because the ghost of Christmas present shows Scrooge how his worker is poor and his son could die soon.Happiness symbolized by the ghost of Christmas past, darkness symbolized by the ghost of Christmas future, sadness symbolized b ghost of Christmas present. Symbolism in “A Christmas Carol” is important because they represent happiness, darkness, sadness and some symbolism and this is why.
In Truman Capote’s short story “A Christmas Memory” imagery and symbolism are used by the author to show that friendship has no age limit. Truman uses very vivid details and many different types of figurative language to show his theme ,which is that friendship has no age. An example of symbolism is, “As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven” (6). After getting the news of his friend’s death, he goes outside and almost expects to see kites. In this example of symbolism, the author shows us how deep a bond Buddy and his friend have by showing us a glimpse of Buddy’s mind and how his heart is going to heaven with his friend. Furthermore, the author uses some imagery when he gives us a vivid description
death. He also warns him that he too wears a chain larger than his and
First, Greek architecture was mainly created to give respect to Gods and create worship areas for the Gods. Representing and respecting Greek Gods appropriately was considered important to the Greek people during this time. A very early Greek architectural example of showing respect towards the Gods, was when trees were used as the first temples as a place of worship. As expressed by Pliny, “The Trees formed the first temples of the Gods.” (Pliny). Trees held a valuable position to the Greeks because they were classified as sacred and even representational to certain Gods. The Greeks believed that trees had relation to certain Gods. For example, The God Zeus’s sacred tree was the oak tree, while, the olive tree was the Goddess Athena’s sacred tree. The olive tree was the first temple for Athena, which was
A common tradition in many households, across America and internationally, is to decorate a tree for a special and popular holiday, Christmas. Some families adorn many adult seedlings. The finished product results in happiness, Christmas spirit, and positivity. Some families even contest with other families to prove the better tree decorator. No matter the outcome, a tree gets decorated beautifully.