Winter Solstice
The elemental threads woven into the tapestry of traditions we call the Winter Solstice are light, hope, and charity. In the midst of the winter darkness, we beseech the light to return to us with its warmth and fertility, we maintain hope for a healthy and prosperous life, and we share with others, those blessings that we have so graciously been given through kind and thoughtful acts of charity. Dancing through five thousand years of human history, these themes enfold this season in a rich, layered collage of celebrations, folklore and tradition. The mythological creation story recorded in the Pentateuch of the Judeo-Christian Scripture begins that imagery of light:
When the Spirit of Life began to create the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void and there was darkness over the deep,
and the Spirit hovered over the water--like a bird hanging in the air
over its young in the nest.
The Spirit said, "Let there be Light," and there was Light.
The Spirit saw the Light was good, and divided the Light from the darkness.
The Light was called "Day," and the darkness was called "Night."
And there was evening and there was morning the first Day.
(From the Jerusalem Bible with some adaptations)
Mythology gives us a "spirited understanding of how Day was created, which lead to moon-ths, seasons, changing of the seasons and to the solstices. Our myths are, in part, based on fact; and in this age of reason, a scientific explanation of the Winter Solstice is often more to our liking. To understand this explanation is to remind ourselves in this era of abundant energy, heating sources, and electric lights that we are also dependant and have no control over these natural courses of the Earth an...
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...nse to the lavish celebrations of the Winter Solstice, did the Church, some sixteen hundred years ago, begin to create a high holy day of the birth of Christ and attempt to transfer the focus of the celebrations from the sun in the heavens to the Son of God. The Winter Solstice was overlaid with Christmas, and along the way, we lost some of the deep connections of our celebrations to the seasonal, hemispheric event. Many people today are looking to regain the connection; and perhaps, the impulse to hold onto certain traditions; such as candles, evergreens, feasting and generosity; are echoes of a past that extends back in time many thousand of years.
With great respect for all spiritual paths and ethnic backgrounds; may your celebrations of the Winter Solstice holidays draw deep from the abundant joy, fierce hopes, and enduring traditions of all of our ancestors.
Music can be reflection of our life experience. Each genre of music invokes different emotions and reactions in it's listeners. Rap has become a very popular genre in today's society. Is today “Gangster rap” and rappers exploiting society, introducing drugs and instigating violence? In the mid-1980s Gangster rap came to be portray images of violence, guns, gangs, drugs, and sexism. By the 1990s rap music became a major part of the industry and topped the charts. As people begin to operate different things; different music was engendered and that contributed to the variety of music that we have today. This is one of the many things that makes America different but is astringently under looked by everyone. There are many types of different raps
Popular culture was mixed with ecclesiastical culture in many ways. The story of St. John the Baptist is a good example of this. The ancient ritual of bathing and lighting fires during Midsummer's Eve was a remnant of a ritual from the pre-Christian period. Fire and water, symbols of purification, could be seen as the tools of St. John the Baptist, and therefore a combination of the two elements of popular and ecclesiastical culture was obvious. It looks as if the Medieval Church took over the festival and made it theirs. The same thing happened to the Midwinter Festival, which became linked with the birth of Christ, on 25 December.
The sun has been an endless source of inspiration, both physical and spiritual, throughout the ages. For its light, warmth, and the essential role it has played in the maintenance of the fragile balance of life on earth, the sun has been honored and celebrated in most of the world's religions. While the regeneration of light is constant, the relative length of time between the rising and setting of the sun is affected by the changing of the seasons. Hippocrates postulated centuries ago that these changing patterns of light and dark might cause mood changes (9). Seasonal downward mood changes of late fall and winter have been the subject of many sorrowful turn-of-the-century poems of lost love and empty souls. For some, however, “the relationship between darkness and despair is more than metaphoric (6).
Christmas has consumed itself. At its conception, it was a fine idea, and I imagine that at one point its execution worked very much as it was intended to. These days, however, its meaning has been perverted; its true purpose ignored and replaced with a purpose imagined by those who merely go through the motions, without actually knowing why they do so.
...mages of Violence in Rap Music Lyrics: 1979-1997” Journal of Public Health Policy, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Dec., 2009), pp. 395-406
Every major societal change in history has been met with resistance of some kind, and the adoption of rap music into the entertainment industry is no different. There are an innumerable amount of viewpoints on whether rap music is to be admonished for the objectification of and disrespect towards women or simply accepted as another expression of modern society. Even those these two opposing viewpoints are vastly different, there are opportunities for those who listen to this type of music to develop their intelligence on the various topics discussed in modern rap.
All of these characters’ narrations, which can appear incoherent, are, connected through the distorted image of the wooden cross. The posts and other symbols link Christmas and the Testaments together. Light in August functions as a fluid novel though structured distortion of the Gospels.
This is because during the 90’s, rappers such as Tupac Shakur helped ignite rap music into a mainstream genre. This, however, did not come without some controversy. In Carl S. Taylor’s article about hip-hop and youth culture he spoke about the initial outrage of Americans when songs such as “I get around” became popular. This song, and others like it, were scrutinized because they contained vulgar language and promoted immoral behavior. However, at the time of the article Taylor had no definitive evidence of the music actually impacting people’s behavior. Almost exactly 15 years after Carl Taylor’s article was published, a writer by the name of Gretchen Cundiff wrote a scholarly journal entitled, “The influence of rap/hip-hop music: Analysis on audience perceptions of misogynistic lyrics and the issue of domestic violence.” During her research, she analyzed the lyrics of 20 rap/hip-hop songs included in Billboard’s year-end “Hot 100” singles list ranging from 2000-2010. Of the 20 songs, 40 percent were coded for the use of some sort of physical violence in their lyrics, and another 15 percent were coded for referencing rape/sexual assault. This proves not only that the lyrics in hip-hop songs are vulgar, but also that people are still enjoying it anyways. These facts, however, do not provide proof that the music is actually affecting culture. Just because someone listens
It is surprising that music can have such an impact on American society today. The truth is that rap and hip-hop music not only affects teenagers and children that commit violence, but also affects those victims who suffer from the violent acts, Violence and Misogyny is a very serious problem that Americans face today and in order to create peace in our city streets, we must set guidelines to what our children should or should not hear.
Have you ever wondered what was making that horrible racket coming from a teen’s car. The odds are that it would be some type of rap song, yet the beat was too loud for you to hear the lyrics. Based off what the mass knows about rap music, you were lucky to not hear the lyrics right, wrong. Rap lyrics have many senses of great poetry and life lessons that should be heard. At least some of rap songs relate to struggles, deaths they have suffered, or even respect of women that many do not believe that rappers would ever do. Rap music is becoming increasingly meaningful for not only adults but for older youth as well to comprehend about respect and an improved understanding of life with struggles and oppressions.
Richardson, Jeanita W., Kim A. Scott. “Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America’s Culture of Violence in Context.” The Journal of Negro Education 71.3 (2002): 175 – 192.
The power of the auroras is said to be fruitful for the earth, they draw animals to certain areas so that they are plentiful for hunters. The Scandinavian people would say the lights are sunshine reflecting off of the herring in the northern sea. A welcome omen for the fishermen to reel in large amounts of f...
Although it was never celebrated in biblical times, Christmas is celebrated in local churches here in Visalia, California in praise of the fact that God loved us so much; he sent his one and only son to earth. He was wholey god and wholey man. Whereas we have succumbed to the temptations of this earth, Jesus was able to overcome all temptations and live a sinless life. He was then crucified as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. One cannot understand why we celebrate the birth of Christ without seeing the other end of his life. He was crucified for our sins and resurrected.
Advances in biotechnology can be looked at two ways; both positive and negative. People can also differ in what would qualify as positive and negative. Some may think that tinkering with Deoxyribonucleic acid also know as DNA, should not be allowed at all for any reason. Others believe that manipulating human DNA can have many different benefitial outcomes.
Biotechnology is the use of both cellular and biomolecular processes to createnew technology and products that will help improve the lives of people as well as the health of the planet. These improvements include combating disease through the creation of new treatments and drugs, developing renewable fuels, reducing the environmental impact of humans on the planet, and increasing the productivity of farms and other agricultural applications. This idea of using cells and fundamental processes of DNA and other genetic mutations to improve life is not a new concept; it began thousands of years ago, and will continue to work towards new goals in the future.