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Need-fire
In European folklore, a need-fire (; , , , ) is a Fire making#Friction, fire kindled by friction, which is lit in a ritual and used as protective magic against murrain (infectious diseases affecting cattle), Plague (disease), plague and witchcraft. It was a tradition in parts of Europe, practiced by Germanic peoples, Germanic, Gaels, Gaelic and Slavic peoples until the 19th century,James George Frazer, Frazer, James George (1922). ''The Golden Bough, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion''Chapter 62, Section 8: The Need-fire Internet Sacred Text Archive. and by Albanians until the 20th century. A need-fire would usually be lit when there was an epidemic such as an outbreak of plague or cattle disease. In some regions, a need-fire was lit yearly to prevent such disasters. In the Scottish Highlands they were lit each year at Beltane (1 May),Ronald Hutton, Hutton, Ronald. ''The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain''. Oxford University Press, 1996. pp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protective Magic
Apotropaic magic (From ) or protective magic is a type of Magic (paranormal), magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of superstition or out of tradition, as in good luck charms (perhaps some token on a charm bracelet), amulets, or gestures such as crossed fingers or knocking on wood. Many different objects and charms were used for protection throughout history. Symbols and objects Ancient Egypt Apotropaic magical rituals were practiced throughout the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt. Fearsome deities were invoked via ritual in order to protect individuals by warding away evil spirits. In ancient Egypt, these household rituals (performed in the home, not in state-run Egyptian temple, temples) were embodied by the deity who personified magic itself, Heka (god), Heka. The two gods most frequently invoked in these rituals were the hippopotamus-formed fertility ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beltane
Beltane () or ''Bealtaine'' () is the Gaels, Gaelic May Day festival, marking the beginning of summer. It is traditionally held on 1 May, or about midway between the March equinox, spring equinox and summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In Ireland, the name for the festival in both Irish language, Irish and English is (). In Scottish Gaelic it is called (), and in Manx language, Manx Gaelic or . It is one of Quarter days, the four main Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh . Beltane is mentioned in the Early Irish literature, earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology. Also known as ('first of summer'), it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were Transhumance, driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, people and crops, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internet Sacred Text Archive
The Internet Sacred Text Archive (ISTA) is a Santa Cruz, California-based website dedicated to the preservation of electronic public domain religious texts. History The website was first opened to the public on March 9, 1999, by John Bruno Hare (1955–2010), in Santa Cruz, California. Hare started building the website from his home in the late 1990s, as "an intellectual challenge". At the time, he was working as a software engineer with a dot-com company, and started by scanning over 1,000 public domain books on religion, folklore and mythology. The reason for its founding was the promotion of religious tolerance through knowledge. Its texts are organized into 77 different categories. The maintenance costs for the website — which received anywhere from five hundred thousand to two million visits a day — are funded by sales of the website on DVD, CD-ROM, or USB flash drive for monetary donations. Contents The Internet Sacred Text Archive lists three general links, World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caithness
Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The county includes the northernmost point of mainland Britain at Dunnet Head, and also the most north-easterly point at Duncansby Head near John o' Groats. The Flow Country is the largest blanket bog in Europe, and covers a large inland area in the west of the county. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by sea. The land boundary follows a drainage divide, watershed and is crossed by two roads (the A9 road (Great Britain), A9 and the A836 road, A836) and by one railway (the Far North Line). Across the Pentland Firth, ferries link Caithness with Orkney, and Caithness also has an airport at Wick, Highland, Wick. The Pentland Firth island of Stroma, Scotland, Stroma is within Caithne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Pröhle
Christoph Ferdinand Heinrich Pröhle (June 4, 1822 – May 28, 1895) was a German literary historian, teacher ('' Oberlehrer''), writer and folk tale and fairy tale collector (a successor to the Brothers Grimm). Disambiguation of Heinrich The given name " Heinrich" occurs in several cases among the relatives of the writer in question. As far as it is known, all the Pröhle are relatives, whether the family name is written with short Germanic umlaut or long Hungarian umlaut. * Heinrich Andreas Pröhle (1797–1875), Lutheran pastor and poet in Hornhausen, Germany, the father of the writer * Christoph Ferdinand Heinrich Pröhle (1822–1895), the writer * Heinrich Prőhle (1870–1950), a well known pastor and theological professor of the Hungarian Lutherans in Pozsony ( Preßburg or Bratislava) in Austria-Hungary, a cousin of the writer * Heinrich Prőhle (?–?), director of a factory in Mosonmagyaróvár, later a special translator in Budapest, Hungary, the son of the pastor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parsonage
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, presbytery, rectory, or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically owned and maintained by a church, as a benefit to its clergy. This practice exists in many denominations because of the tendency of clergy to be transferred from one church to another at relatively frequent intervals. Also, in smaller communities, suitable housing is not always available. In addition, such a residence can be supplied in lieu of salary, which may not be able to be provided (especially at smaller congregations). Catholic clergy houses in particular may be lived in by several priests from a parish. Clergy houses frequently serve as the administrative office of the local parish, as well as a residence. They are normally located next to, or at leas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the Harz (district), district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg became a center of influence under the Ottonian dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries. The castle, church and old town with around 2,100 Timber framing, timber houses, dating from this time of influence, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, World Heritage List in 1994 because of their exceptional preservation and outstanding Romanesque architecture. Quedlinburg has a population of more than 24,000. The town was the capital of the Quedlinburg (district), district of Quedlinburg until 2007, when the district was dissolved. Several locations in the town are designated stops along a scenic holiday route, the Romanesque Road. History The town of Quedlinburg is known to have existed since at least the early 9th century, when there was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallows
A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks of grain or minerals, usually positioned in markets or toll gates. The term was also used for a projecting framework from which a ship's anchor might be raised so it is no longer sitting on the seabed, riverbed or dock; "weighing [the] anchor" meant raising it using this apparatus while avoiding striking the ship's hull. In modern usage the term has come to mean almost exclusively a scaffold or gibbet used for execution (legal), execution by hanging. Etymology The term "wikt:gallows, gallows" was derived from a Proto-Germanic word ''wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/galgô, galgô'' that refers to a "pole", "rod" or "tree branch". With the beginning of Christianization, Ulfilas used the term ''galga'' in his Gothic language, Gothic T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire Drill (tool)
A fire drill, sometimes called fire-stick, is a device to start a fire by friction between a rapidly rotating wooden rod (the ''spindle'' or ''shaft'') and a cavity on a stationary wood piece (the ''hearth'' or ''fireboard''). Composition The device can be any of the ancient types of hand-operated drills, including a hand drill, bow drill (or strap drill), or pump drill. The spindle is usually 1–2 cm thick and ends in a dull point. The spindle and fireboard are typically made from dry, medium-soft non-resinous wood such as spruce, cedar, balsam, yucca, aspen, basswood, buckeye, willow, tamarack, or similar. The Native American Indians along the western coast of the United-States traditionally made use of dead wood from the buckeye tree for preparing the fire-board. Principle Whatever the method used to drive the shaft, its lower end is placed into a shallow cavity of the fireboard with a "V" notch cut into it. The primary goal is to generate heat by the friction betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Roch
Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79; traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327), also called Rock in English, was a Majorcan Catholic confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he was especially invoked against the plague. He has the designation of Rollox in Glasgow, Scotland, said to be a corruption of Roch's Loch, which referred to a small loch once near a chapel dedicated to Roch in 1506. It is also the name of a football club, St Roch's in Glasgow. He is a patron saint of dogs, invalids, falsely accused people, bachelors, and several other things. He is the patron saint of Dolo (near Venice) and Parma, as well as Casamassima, Cisterna di Latina and Palagiano (Italy). He is also the patron saint of the towns of Arboleas and Albanchez, in Almería, southern Spain, and Deba, in the Basque Country. Saint Roch is known as "São Roque" in Portuguese, as "Sant Roc" in Catalan, as "San Roque" in Spanish (including in former col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Edmund Hutton (born 19 December 1953) is an Indian-born English historian specialising in early modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion, and modern paganism. A professor at the University of Bristol, Hutton has written over a dozen books, often appearing on British television and radio. He held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is a Commissioner of English Heritage. Born in Ootacamund, India, he returned to England with his family, where he attended a school in Ilford and became particularly interested in archaeology. He volunteered in a number of excavations until 1976 and visited the country's chambered tombs. He studied history at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and then Magdalen College, Oxford, before he lectured in history at the University of Bristol from 1981. Specialising in Early Modern Britain, he wrote three books on the subject: ''The Royalist War Effort'' (1981), ''The Restoration'' (1985), and ''Charles the Second'' (1990). H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
