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New Year Foods
New Year's foods are dishes traditionally eaten for luck in the coming year. Many traditional New Year dishes revolve around the food's resemblance to money or to its appearance symbolizing long life, such as long noodles or strands of sauerkraut. Some cultures and religions have evolved complex food traditions associated with the new year. History The winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere was viewed as the demarcation point between one year and the next, and was traditionally a cause of feasting and celebration. Feasting during this period symbolized prosperity in the coming year. In Europe multiple pre-Christian festivals observed between the end of October and January such as Saturnalia, Hogmanay, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, and Kalends of January were held to ensure the return of the Sun, and they typically required feasting, gift-giving, and partying. In early Christianity these were converted into Christian feast days such as Halloween, All Saints' Day, All Souls' D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winter Solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky. Either pole experiences continuous darkness or twilight around its winter solstice. The opposite event is the summer solstice. The winter solstice occurs during the hemisphere's winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (usually 21st or 22nd December) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (usually 20th or 21st of June). Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment, the term also refers to the day on which it occurs. The term midwinter is also used synonymously with the winter solstice, although it carries other meanings as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vasilopita
Vasilopita ( el, Βασιλόπιτα, ''Vasilópita'', lit. '(St.) Basil-pie' or 'Vassilis pie', see below) is a New Year's Day bread or cake in Greece and many other areas in eastern Europe and the Balkans which contains a hidden coin or trinket which gives good luck to the receiver, like the Western European King Cake. It is associated with Saint Basil's day, January 1, in most of Greece, but in some regions, the traditions surrounding a cake with a hidden coin are attached to Epiphany or to Christmas. It is made of a variety of dough, depending on regional and family tradition, including tsoureki. In some families, instead of dough, it is made from a custard base called galatopita (literally milk-pita). The pie is also known as ''Chronópita'' (Χρονόπιτα < χρόνος: ''chrónos ⇨ time/year'' + πίτα: ''píta ⇨ pie''), meaning "New Year's pie". In other areas of the Balkans, the tradition of cake with a hidden coin during winter holidays exists, but is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Word Play
Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, double entendres, and telling character names (such as in the play '' The Importance of Being Earnest'', ''Ernest'' being a given name that sounds exactly like the adjective ''earnest''). Word play is quite common in oral cultures as a method of reinforcing meaning. Examples of text-based ( orthographic) word play are found in languages with or without alphabet-based scripts, such as homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese. Techniques Some techniques often used in word play include interpreting idioms literally and creating contradictions and redundancies, as in Tom Swifties: :"Hurry up and get to the back of the ship, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incipit
The incipit () of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin and means "it begins". Its counterpart taken from the ending of the text is the explicit. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits, as with for example '' Agnus Dei''. During the medieval period in Europe, incipits were often written in a different script or colour from the rest of the work of which they were a part, and "incipit pages" might be heavily decorated with illumination. Though the word ''incipit'' is Latin, the practice of the incipit predates classical antiquity by several millennia and can be found in various parts of the world. Although not always called by the name of ''incipit'' today, the practice of referring to texts by their initial words remains commonplace. Historical examples Sumerian I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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