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All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. Through prayer, intercessions, alms and visits to cemeteries, people commemorate the poor souls in purgatory and gain them indulgences.
Samhain, Sauin or Oíche Shamhna is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. It is also the Irish language name for November. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October or 30 April, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. A similar festival is held by the Brittonic Celtic people, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales.
Yule is a winter festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples that was incorporated into Christmas during the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples. In present times adherents of some new religious movements celebrate Yule independently of the Christian festival. Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the heathen Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht. The term Yule and cognates are still used in English and the Scandinavian languages as well as in Finnish and Estonian to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season. Furthermore, some present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions.
Symbel (OE) and sumbl (ON) are Germanic terms for "feast, banquet".
An agape feast or lovefeast is a term used for various communal meals shared among Christians. The name comes from the Greek word ἀγάπη (agape), which implies love in the sense of brotherly or familial affection.
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures today.
Blót or geblōt are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its meat. Old Norse sources present it as a central ritual in Old Nordic religion that was intimately connected with many wider aspects of life. Large blót are often described as taking place in halls, organised by the rulers of the region who were expected to carry out the practice on behalf of the people. Blót were central to the legitimacy of rulers and Christian rulers refusing to hold them were at times replaced by more willing alternatives and driven out of the land. Smaller, household blót were sometimes recorded as being led by women. Beyond strengthening legitimacy for the ruling elites, the performance of blót was often in order to ensure the fertility of the land, a good harvest and peace, although they are also recorded as being performed for divination or to achieve desired results in legal matters.
A wake, funeral reception or visitation is a social gathering associated with death, held before a funeral. Traditionally, a wake involves family and friends keeping watch over the body of the dead person, usually in the home of the deceased. Some wakes are held at a funeral home or another convenient location. The wake or the viewing of the body is a part of death rituals in many cultures. It allows one last interaction with the dead, providing a time for the living to express their thoughts and feelings with the deceased. It highlights the idea that the loss is borne by the whole community and is a way of honoring the deceased member. The emotional tone of a wake is sometimes seen as more positive than a funeral due to the socially supportive atmosphere and the focus on the life rather than the death of the deceased.
Oblation, meaning "the act of offering; an instance of offering" and by extension "the thing offered", is a term used, particularly in ecclesiastical use, for a solemn offering, sacrifice or presentation to God, to the Church for use in God's service, or to the faithful, such as giving alms to the poor.
As currently used, the terms Chapter Mass and Conventual Mass refer to the Mass celebrated by and for a community of priests or for a community of priests and brothers or sisters.
The Beautiful Festival of the Valley was an ancient Egyptian festival, celebrated annually in Thebes, during the Middle Kingdom period and later.
Aztec cuisine is the cuisine of the former Aztec Empire and the Nahua peoples of the Valley of Mexico prior to European contact in 1519.
Heitstrenging (pl. heitstrengingar) is an Old Norse practice of swearing of a solemn oath to perform a future action. They were often performed at Yule and other large social events, where they played a role in establishing and maintaining good relationships principally between members of the aristocratic warrior elite. The oath-swearing practice varied significantly, sometimes involving ritualised drinking or placing hands on a holy pig that could later be sacrificed. While originally containing heathen religious components such as prayers and worship of gods such as Freyr and Thor, the practice continued in an altered manner after the Christianisation of Scandinavia.
A death anniversary is the anniversary of the death of a person. It is the opposite of birthday. It is a custom in several Asian cultures, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Myanmar, Iran, Israel, Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, as well as in other places with significant overseas Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, and Vietnamese populations, to observe the anniversary on which a family member or other significant individual died. There are also similar memorial services that are held at different intervals, such as every week.
An aonach or óenach was an ancient Irish public national assembly called upon the death of a king, queen, or notable sage or warrior as part of ancestor worship practices. As well as the entertainment, the óenach was an occasion on which kings and notables met under truce and where laws were pronounced and confirmed.
Norse religious worship is the traditional religious rituals practiced by Norse pagans in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times. Norse religion was a folk religion, and its main purpose was the survival and regeneration of society. Therefore, the faith was decentralized and tied to the village and the family, although evidence exists of great national religious festivals. The leaders managed the faith on behalf of society; on a local level, the leader would have been the head of the family, and nationwide, the leader was the king. Pre-Christian Scandinavians had no word for religion in a modern sense. The closest counterpart is the word siðr, meaning custom. This meant that Christianity, during the conversion period, was referred to as nýr siðr while paganism was called forn siðr. The center of gravity of pre-Christian religion lay in religious practice – sacred acts, rituals and worship of the gods.
The sonargǫltr or sónargǫltr was the boar sacrificed as part of the celebration of Yule in Germanic paganism, on whose bristles solemn vows were made in some forms of a tradition known as heitstrenging.
The Zotung people are one of the ethnic groups in Chin State in Myanmar also known as Burma. It is located in central and southern Chin State. Zotunges are a very distinct ethnic people in Burma. It is very difficult to get historical records of these ethnic people as they didn't have written languages for many years. However, their history can still be traced back as far as 900 AD since there are place names in traditional songs that reveal the time period they were composed. There are also local folk tale and legends. These people are from a Tibeto-Burman group and are familiar with all other Chin groups. They have their own written language which is unintelligible with other neighboring languages unless they learn it. These people called themselves "Zo" from the early times of their ancestors which can be traced back to 700 years ago. Neighboring tribes from the north and south called them Zo, and the Mara tribe from the west called them Azyu.
Obiits were an annual endowed service commemorating the dead. Feast days for patron saints were often reserved for endowed masses associated with the obiit, sometimes in a chantry.
Month's Mind is a piece for piano solo composed in 1935 by John Ireland.
References
- ↑ "trental" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ↑ month's mind. Merriam-Webster dictionary . Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ↑ . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 13 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 121.
see para: Drinking of Healths.—The custom of drinking "health" to the living is most probably derived from the ancient religious rite of drinking to the gods and the dead. The Greeks and Romans at meals poured out libations to their gods, and at ceremonial banquets drank to them and to the dead. The Norsemen drank the "minni" of Thor, Odin and Freya, and of their kings at their funeral feasts. With the advent of Christianity the pagan custom survived among the Scandinavian and Teutonic peoples. Such festal formulae as "God's minne!" "A bowl to God in Heaven!" occur, and Christ, the Virgin and the Saints were invoked, instead of heathen gods and heroes. The Norse "minne" was at once love, memory and thought of the absent one, and it survived in medieval and later England in the "minnying" or "mynde" days, on which the memory of the dead was celebrated by services and feasting.
- ↑ Compare: Blount, Thomas (1670) [1656]. "Minnyng days". Glossographia: Or, A Dictionary, Interpreting the Hard Words of Whatsoever Language, Now Used in Our Refined English Tongue; with Etymologies, Definitions, and Historical Observations on the Same. Also the Terms of Divinity, Law, Physick, Mathematicks, War, Music, and Other Arts and Sciences explicated. [...] (3 ed.). London: Tho. Newcomb. p. 417. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
- ↑ McNally, Frank (15 July 2021). "Mind the Gap – Frank McNally on a great Irish institution, the month's mind, from Shakespeare to Joyce". The Irish Times .
- ↑ Regan, Jarlath (November 30, 2020). "'Once you have had your month's mind, you are no longer entitled to be sad or grieve in any way'". Independent.ie .
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Month's Mind". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 786.
