Dyngus Day

5:05 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Soaking a Polish girl on Śmigus-Dyngus
Śmigus-Dyngus (also known as lany poniedziałek, meaning "Wet Monday") is a celebration held on Easter Monday in Poland. It is also observed by Polish diaspora communities, particularly among Polish Americans, who call it Dyngus Day. Similar celebrations are held in the Czech Republic andSlovakia (Oblévačka in Czech, Oblievačka in Slovak, both meaning "Watering") and in Hungary, where it is known as Vízbevető or Water Plunge Monday. Traditionally, boys throw water over girls and spank them with pussy willow branches on Easter Monday, and girls do the same to boys on Easter Tuesday. This is accompanied by a number of other rituals, such as making verse declarations and holding door-to-door processions, in some regions involving boys dressed as bears. The origins of the celebration are uncertain, but it may date to pagan times (before 1000 AD); it is described in writing as early as the 15th century. It continues to be observed in central Europe, and also in the United States, where certain patriotic American elements have been added to the traditional Polish ones.

Activities[edit]

Getting a soaking in Hungary onVizbeveto, Water Plunge Monday
The festival is traditionally celebrated by boys throwing water over girls they like and spanking them with pussy willows.[1] Boys would sneak into girls' homes at daybreak on Easter Monday and throw containers of water over them while they were still in bed.[2] This was usually accompanied by a rhyme; in the Polish-American community of Pine Creek, Wisconsin, the boys would chant Dyngus, dyngus, po dwa jaja; nie chce chleba tylko jaja[3] ("Dyngus, dyngus, for two eggs; I don't want bread but eggs").[4]
After all the water had been thrown, the screaming girls would often be dragged to a nearby river or pond for another drenching.[2] Sometimes a girl would be carried out, still in her bed, before both bed and girl were thrown into the water together.[5] Particularly attractive girls could expect to be soaked repeatedly during the day.[6] The use of water is said to evoke the spring rains needed to ensure a successful harvest later in the year.[5] Girls could save themselves from a soaking by giving boys "ransoms" of painted eggs (pisanki), regarded as magical charms that would bring good harvests, successful relationships and healthy childbirths.[2] Although in theory the girls are supposed to wait until the following day to get their revenge by soaking the boys, in practice both sexes throw water over each other on the same day.[5]
Pussy willows appear to have been adopted as an alternative to the palm leaves used elsewhere in Easter celebrations, which were not obtainable in Poland. They were blessed by priests on Palm Sunday, following which parishioners whipped each other with the pussy willow branches, saying "Nie ja bije, wierzba bije, za tydzień, wielki dzień, za sześć noc, Wielkanoc" ("It's not me who strikes, the willow strikes, in a week, holy week, in six nights, Easter"). The pussy willows were then treated as sacred charms that could prevent lightning strikes, protect animals and encourage honey production. They were believed to bring health and good fortune to people as well, and it was traditional for three pussy willow buds to be swallowed on Palm Sunday to promote good health. As with the water-throwing, boys would whip girls with pussy willows on Easter Monday and girls would do the same to boys on the following Tuesday.[7]

Pentecost

4:59 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Pentecost
Icon-Pentecost.jpg
An icon of the Christian Pentecost, in the Greek Orthodox aesthetic tradition but prepared for aWestern Christian audience using the Roman alphabet. This is the Icon of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. At the bottom is anallegorical figure, called Kosmos, which symbolizes the world.
Observed byRoman Catholics, Old Catholics,Protestants, Eastern Orthodox,Oriental Orthodox, Anglicans and other Christians.
TypeChristian
SignificanceCelebrates the descent of theHoly Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus
CelebrationsReligious (church) services, Festive meals, Processions,Baptism, Confirmation,Ordination, Folk customs, Dancing, Spring & woodland rites, Festive clothing.
Observances
Prayer, Vigils, Fasting (pre-festival), Novenas, Retreats
Holy Communion, Litany
DateEaster + 49 days
2014 date
June 8 (Western)
June 8 (Eastern)
2015 date
May 24 (Western)
May 31 (Eastern)
2016 date
May 15 (Western)
June 19 (Eastern)
Related toShavuot, historically and symbolically; Septuagesima,Sexagesima, Quinquagesima,Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday,Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday which lead up to Easter; and Ascension, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christiwhich follow it.
Pentecost (Ancient Greek: Πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], Pentēkostē [hēmera], "the fiftieth [day]") is the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai. This feast is still celebrated in Judaism as Shavuot. Later, in the Christian liturgical year, it became a feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ (120 in all), as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31.[1] For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described by some Christians today as the "Birthday of the Church".
In the Eastern church, Pentecost can also refer to the whole fifty (50) days between Easter and Pentecost, hence the book containing the liturgical texts for Paschaltide is called the Pentecostarion. The feast is also called White Sunday, or Whitsunday, especially in England, where the following Monday was traditionally a public holiday. Pentecost is celebrated fifty days (i.e. 49 days with the first day counted, seven weeks) after EasterSunday, hence its name.[2] Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday (which falls 40 days after Easter).
The Pentecostal movement of Christianity derives its name from the New Testament event.

Old Testament[edit]

Main article: Shavuot
Pentecost is the old Greek and Latin name for the Jewish harvest festival, or Festival of Weeks (Hebrew חג השבועות Hag haShavuot or Shevuot, literally "Festival of Weeks"), which can be found in the Hebrew Bible. Shavuot is called the Festival of Weeks (Hebrew: חג השבועות, chag ha-Shavuot, Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10 ); Festival of Reaping (Hebrew: חג הקציר, chag ha-Katsir, Exodus 23:16 ), and Day of the First Fruits (Hebrew יום הביכורים, Yom ha-Bikkurim, Numbers 28:26 ).

Extra-Biblical and Post-Biblical Jewish Texts[edit]

The Talmud refers to Shavuot as Atzeret (Hebrew: עצרת, literally, "refraining" or "holding back"), referring to the prohibition against work on this holiday and to the conclusion of the holiday and season of Passover. Since Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Hellenistic Jews gave it the name Pentecost.(πεντηκοστή, "fiftieth day").[citation needed]
According to Jewish tradition, Pentecost commemorates God giving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus. The Talmud derives this from a calculation based on Biblical Texts.[3]
There is a Jewish tradition that David was born and died on Pentecost. This may be why, in Peter's speech found in Acts 2, he explains the current happenings using David's tomb and some of his quotes (Acts 2:29ff).[citation needed]

New Testament[edit]

Liturgical year
Western
Eastern
This template: 
The biblical narrative of Pentecost is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Present were about one hundred and twenty followers of Christ (Acts 1:15), including the Twelve Apostles (i.e. the Eleven faithful disciples and Matthias who was Judas' replacement) (Acts 1:13, 26), his mother Mary, various other women disciples and his brothers (Acts 1:14).[4]
Their reception of Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room is recounted in Acts 2:1–6:
While those on whom the Spirit had descended were speaking in many languages, the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy ("I will pour out my spirit").[6] In Acts 2:17, it reads: "'And in the last days,' God says, 'I will pour out my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams." He also mentions (2:15) that it was the third hour of the day (about 9:00 AM). Acts 2:41 then reports: "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."[7]
Peter stated that this event was the beginning of a continual outpouring that would be available to all believers from that point on, Jews and Gentiles alike.[8]

Earthquake Prediction: possible techniques

8:25 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Electromagnetic variations
Various attempts have been made to identify possible pre-seismic indications in electrical, electric-resistive, or magnetic phenomena.[49] The most touted, and most criticized, is the VAN method of professors P. Varotsos, K. Alexopoulos and K. Nomicos – "VAN" – of the National and Capodistrian University of Athens. In a 1981 paper[50] they claimed that by measuring geoelectric voltages – what they called "seismic electric signals" (SES) – they could predict earthquakes of magnitude larger than 2.8 within all of Greece up to 7 hours beforehand. Later the claim changed to being able to predict earthquakes larger than magnitude 5, within 100 km of the epicentral location, within 0.7 units of magnitude, and in a 2-hour to 11-day time window.[51] Subsequent papers claimed a series of successful predictions.[52] However, the VAN group generated intense public criticism in the 1980s by issuing telegram warnings, a large number of which were false alarms.
Objections have been raised that the physics of the VAN method is not possible. None of the earthquakes which VAN claimed were preceded by SES generated SES themselves, as would have been expected. Analysis of the wave propagation properties of SES in the Earth’s crust showed that it would have been impossible for signals with the amplitude reported by VAN to have been transmitted over the several hundred kilometers distances from the epicenter to the monitoring station.[53] In addition, VAN’s publications do not account for (i.e. identify and eliminate) possible sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Taken as a whole, the VAN method has been criticized as lacking consistency in the statistical testing of the validity of their hypotheses.[54] In particular, there has been some contention over which catalog of seismic events to use in vetting predictions. This catalog switching can be used to conclude that, for example, of 22 claims of successful prediction by VAN[55] 74% were false, 9% correlated at random and for 14% the correlation was uncertain.[56]
In 1996 the journal Geophysical Research Letters presented a debate on the statistical significance of the VAN method;[57] the majority of reviewers found the methods of VAN to be flawed, and the claims of successful predictions statistically insignificant.[58] In 2001, the VAN method was modified to include time series analysis, and Springer published an overview in 2011.[59]
Further information: VAN method
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred, a group led by Antony C. Fraser-Smith of Stanford University reported that the event was preceded by disturbances in background magnetic field noise as measured by a sensor placed in Corralitos, California, about 4.5 miles (7 km) from the epicenter.[60] From 5 October, they reported a substantial increase in noise in the frequency range 0.01–10 Hz. The measurement instrument was a single-axis search-coil magnetometer that was being used for low frequency research. Precursory increases of noise apparently started a few days before the earthquake, with noise in the range .01–.5 Hz rising to exceptionally high levels about three hours before the earthquake. Though this pattern gave scientists new ideas for research into potential precursors to earthquakes, and the Fraser-Smith et al. report remains one of the most frequently cited examples of a specific earthquake precursor, more recent studies have cast doubt on the connection, attributing the Corralitos signals to either unrelated magnetic disturbance[61] or, even more simply, to sensor-system malfunction.[62]

Islam in Europe

10:51 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Islam in Europe
by percentage of country population[1]
  < 1%
  1–2%
  2–4%
  4–5%
  5–10%
  10–20%
  20–30%
Cyprus
  30–40%
Rep. of Macedonia
  40–50%
Bosnia–Herzegovina
  80–90%
Albania
  90–95%
Kosovo
  95–100%
Islam gained its first foothold in continental Europe in 711 with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. They advanced into France but in 732, were defeated by the Franks at the Battle of Tours. Over the centuries the Umayyads were gradually driven south and in 1492 the Moorish Emirate of Granada surrendered to Ferdinand V and Isabella. Muslim civilians were expelled from Spain and by 1614 none remained.[2]
Islam entered Eastern and Southeastern Europe in what are now parts of Russia and Bulgaria in the 13th century. The Ottoman Empire expanded into Europe taking portions of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries. Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire also gradually lost almost all of its European territories, until its collapse in 1922. However, parts of the Balkans (such as Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia) continued to have a large populations of Muslims.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries substantial numbers of Muslims immigrated to Europe. By 2010 an estimated 44 million Muslims were living in Europe.

History[edit]

Iberia and Southern France[edit]

A manuscript page of theQur'an in the script developed in al-Andalus, 12th century.
Main articles: Al-Andalus and Moors
The Moors request permission fromJames I of Aragon, Spain, 13th century
Muslim forays into Europe began shortly after the religion's inception, with a short lived invasion of Byzantine Sicily by a smallArab and Berber force that landed in 652. Islam gained its first foothold in continental Europe from 711 onward, with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The invaders named their land Al-Andalus, which expanded to include what is now Portugal and Spain except for the northern highlands of Asturias, Basque country, Navarra and few other places protected by mountain chains from southward invasions.
Al-Andalus has been estimated to have had a Muslim majority by the 10th century after most of the local population converted to Islam.[3]:42 This coincided with the La Convivencia period of the Iberian Peninsula as well as the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. Pelayo of Asturias began the Christian counter-offensive known as the Reconquista after the Battle of Covadonga in 722. Slowly, the Christian forces began a conquest of the fractured taifa kingdoms of al-Andalus. By 1236, practically all that remained of Muslim Spain was the southern province of Granada.
In the 8th century, Muslim forces pushed beyond Spain into Aquitaine, in southern France, but suffered a temporary setback when defeated by Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, at the Battle of Toulouse (721). In 725 Muslim forces captured Autun in France. The town would be the easternmost point of expansion of Umayyad forces into Europe; just seven years later in 732, the Umayyads would be forced to begin their withdrawal to al-Andalus after facing defeat at the Battle of Tours by Frankish King Charles Martel. From 719 to 759, Septimania was one of the five administrative areas of al-Andalus. The last Muslim forces were driven from France in 759, but maintained a presence, especially in Fraxinet all the way into Switzerland until the 10th century.[4] At the same time, Muslim forces managed to capture Sicily and portions of southern Italy, and evensacked Rome in 846 and later sacked Pisa in 1004.

Sicily[edit]

Muslim musicians at the court of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, 12th century
Sicily was gradually conquered by the Arabs and Berbers from 827 onward, and the Emirate of Sicily was established in 965. They held onto the region until their expulsion by the Normans in 1072.[5][6]
The local population conquered by the Muslims were Romanized Catholic Sicilians in Western Sicily and partially Greek speaking Christians, mainly in the eastern half of the island, but there were also a significant number of Jews.[7] These conquered people were afforded a limited freedom of religion under the Muslims as dhimmi, but were subject to some restrictions. The dhimmi were also required to pay the jizya, or poll tax, and the kharaj or land tax, but were exempt from the tax that Muslims had to pay (Zakaat). Under Arab rule there were different categories of Jizya payers, but their common denominator was the payment of the Jizya as a mark of subjection to Muslim rule in exchange for protection against foreign and internal aggression. The conquered population could avoid this subservient status simply by converting to Islam. Whether by honest religious conviction or societal compulsion large numbers of native Sicilians converted to Islam. However, even after 100 years of Islamic rule, numerous Greek speaking Christian communities prospered, especially in north-eastern Sicily, as dhimmi. This was largely a result of the Jizya system which allowed co-existence. This co-existence with the conquered population fell apart after the reconquest of Sicily, particularly following the death of King William II of Sicily in 1189.

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