...fantastical, yet dark underworld that portrays the various tortured souls of the dead. The concept is the souls’ committed sins completed in their lifetime is directly related to the punishment they must face in Hell. Through this, the souls forever remember their sins and face the consequences for eternity. Dante’s illustrative, encompassing journey has served as an image of the environment Hell to warn the sinners of the suffering expected when a particular sin is committed and not repented as soon as possible. The sinners who are positioned in Canto V give in to their sexual desires of lust. They are pulled into a violent storm that exudes intense despair and suffering. The storm represents how those who have sinned felt before death. In Hell, the storm manifests itself into a physical form. Amongst the souls who are engulfed in the storm are two souls that are combined together, Francesca and Paolo. Prior to Francesca and Paolo deaths, Francesca is married but commits...
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...The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that brings families and friends together to pray for the souls of loved ones in their unworldly embark in the afterlife while awaiting their spiritual visit. This tradition is strongly rooted in past indigenous, and Christian practices. The Catholic holiday of All Souls Day was initially what brought The Day of the Dead to light when Spanish priests saw similarities between All Souls Day and the rituals of the Aztecs that they had to honor the dead. In order to convert their beliefs into a more Catholic religious based way, the priests moved Aztec rituals to coincide along with the day of All Souls Day. In this way, The Day of the Dead had rooted from All Souls Day, as a way to influence religion on...
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...The fact that Chichikov has trouble purchasing the dead souls pinpoints the second problem Gogol wanted to focus on – the greedy nature of Russian society. As mentioned previously, a dead peasant ultimately represents a loss for any landowner because a dead peasant literally cannot produce anything, while the landowner must still pay taxes on them. From a purely logical and financial standpoint, it would be in one’s best interest to find a way to rid themselves of ownership of these dead souls. The fact that Chichikov is willing to pay for these dead souls, when they should just be given away for free, indicates the value of the deal Chichikov is offering to the landowners. Yet the landowners hesitate to accept this deal and attempt to bargain...
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...objects are associated with a different holiday called the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, particularly in the Central and South regions, and by the people of the Mexican ancestry living in other places, especially the United States. The Day of the Dead is becoming very popular in the United States. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family members and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and to help support their spiritual journey. The Day of the Dead is a two day celebration. The Day of the Dead occurred on November 1st and...
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...of the Dead Amy Barrows Com/170 10/31/2012 Margaret Munger Similar traditions are held between the Day of the Dead and Halloween, yet they have very different origins. They both started out as their own separate festivals/celebrations but over time they gained either Catholic or Christian tendencies. Which only served to make them even more similar, leading confusion for many Americans now a days. Most people know of the similarities but do not know of the origins of either! Even most Americans who celebrate Halloween do not know of it is origins! Day of the dead was a celebration to celebrate the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, Lady of the dead. They celebrated for about a month long in their calendar what all know as August. They had all the same traditions as they do now but back then the altars/shrines they made were at the graves themselves to bring the family/descend person back to the land of the living. Aztecs would spread the flor de muertos (flower of the dead) from the grave sites to their homes. A way of leading the lost souls to their families and loved ones. Aztecs would even make foods and treats with the deceased name on the calaveras de azucar (skull of sugar). This all went on for many centuries until the Spaniards came and influenced their religion with more Catholic ties. Example being they changed the month-long celebration to be only two days coinciding with November 1, All saints day and November 2, All souls day. The...
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...Assignment-sk ‘. . . if we admit the existence of a higher or permanent Ego in us -- which Ego must not be confused with what we call the "Higher Self," we can comprehend that what we often regard as dreams, generally accepted as idle fancies, are, in truth, stray pages torn out from the life and experiences of the inner man, and the dim recollection of which at the moment of awakening becomes more or less distorted by our physical memory. The latter catches mechanically a few impressions of the thoughts, facts witnessed, and deeds performed by the inner man during its hours of complete freedom. For our Ego lives its own separate life within its prison of clay whenever it becomes free from the trammels of matter, i.e., during the sleep of the physical man. This Ego it is which is the actor, the real man, the true human self. But the physical man cannot feel or be conscious during dreams; for the personality, the outer man, with its brain and thinking apparatus, are paralyzed more or less completely. -- Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, p. 50 Thus,Sleep and death are brothers, according to the old Greek proverb. However, comments G. de Purucker that” they are not merely brothers, born of the same fabric of human consciousness, but are in all verity one, identical. Death is a perfect sleep, with its interim awakenings of a kind, such as in the devachan, and a full human awakening in the succeeding reincarnation. Sleep is an imperfect fulfilment of death, nature's prophecy...
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...Day of the Dead The day of Dead is a celebration in many Hispanic countries; Mexico is one of the countries that celebrate most this specific day. For them is a day in which the living remember their departed relatives. Is a beautiful ritual in which Mexican happily and lovingly remember their loved relatives that have died. This Celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd and there are two very special places where this ritual is impressive: Mixquic (a small town in Mexico City, and Janitzio, a charming little island in the state of Michoacan). By the end of October Mexican families start preparing for the celebration, they decorate with cempasuchil (an orange marigold flower) many Mexican families growth their own cempasuchil, believing that doing so is more appropriate for their offerings. Other tradition is what they call Pan de Muerto (Day of the Dead bread) they used this bread as an offering to the dead relatives that they leave at their tombs in the graveyard. They also prepared the favorites dishes of their relative that they decorated with cempasuchil flowers and they also leave these dishes at their relative’s tombs. On November 1st the ceremony in honor of the Angelitos take place in the cemetery; is a ceremony for the little children that died and that could never experience the happiness and sorrow of adulthood. The way that they celebrate is that very early in the morning the church start ringing the bells calling for the children’s souls and their relatives...
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...believe that their soul will return to their body, they regarded death as a temporary interruption rather than the cessation of life. When they died, they were mummified so the soul would return to their body, giving the breath and life. The household equipment, food, and pet were keep in the outside of burial chamber, including the written or prayers were assist the dead on their way to the afterworld [1]. The method of embalming or treating the dead body by the ancient Egyptian used is called mummification. They use the special process that today we can see the mummy body of Egyptian like they have a live in 3000 year ago. The mummification...
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...well as what it means to be dead. I will argue that the idea of ‘brain death’ -though not exclusive to western culture- is deeply ingrained within our society. There are many ways in which ‘brain death’ may challenge the notions of death held by other societies. I will show that the brain is central to our idea of death by examining the way in which western society determines whether one is dead or not, and how this may be challenged by other cultures. Even within our ‘western’ society there are differing notions of what ‘brain death’ really means. Historically speaking a person was considered “dead” when “the heart stopped beating and a person was...
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...Life After Death. What the specification requires: • An examination of the arguments for and against life after death. • Reincarnation. • Rebirth. • Resurrection. • Immortality of the soul. Introduction. Humans have refused to accept that this life is all we get for thousands of years. As a result of this refusal, humans have developed various theories to explain that when our bodies cease working, there is some kind of existence that takes place after this. Obviously, before getting into this debate, it is important to agree on what is meant by the word ‘death.’ ‘…when respiration and other reflexes are absent; consciousness is gone…an absolute and total loss of the brain function that cannot be reversed.’ This is a medical definition and is based upon medical methods of determining physical (brain) death. These methods are generally the use of an electroencephalograph (EEG) to determine brain function, an examination of pupil size and reaction and obviously, a check of blood flow (pulse), heart beat and respiration. It is generally accepted that once a body exhibits brain stem death, i.e. that there is no activity in the most primitive part of the brain, that death has occurred. What makes a human being? Theories concerning life after death are all interested in whether or not there is a part of the human body which survives the death of all the physical parts and where (or indeed when) it goes. There are a number of theories...
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...CHAPTER TWO: NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIONS Chapter Outline and Unit Summaries Introduction: The Challenges in Studying Native American Religions A. The Contemporary Revival of Interest in Native American Religions 1. Important Role in History of North America 2. Emphasis on Nature and Personal Religious Experience 3. Absence of Formal Organizational Structure B. A Wider Variety of Religious Types Under One Heading 1. A Fifteen to Twenty Thousand Year Legacy 2. Geographic Spread Across a Continent 3. Numerous Forms of Social and Economic Organization C. A Dearth of Reliable Sources on Native American Religions 4. Literary Sources from Only Past Four Hundred Years, with Best Sources from Past One Hundred Years 5. Difficulty of Identifying a Pure Type: Many Changes Fostered by Engagement with Europeans 6. Archaeology Provides Some Clues to Pre-European Era 7. The Necessity of Generalizing about the Entire Field The Spirit World A. A Mixture of Polytheism, Monotheism, and Monism B. Native American Religions Tend Toward Polytheism 1. The World Populated by Numerous Spirits 2. Mother Earth at Heart of Nature 3. Deities Represented by Natural Forces C. Native American Religions Tend Toward Monotheism and Monism1. The Supreme Being / High God Above Lesser Deities 2. High God Generally Uninvolved in World—Lower Deities Hold Sway over Nature and Everyday Life 3. High...
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...person which evolves out of the culture complex and are usually undertaken to revere and honor the dead in particular and to venerate the reality of death in general. Since ancient times funeral rites have been a reflection of the religio-cultural system with each such system having characterized itself with defined funeral rites , well differentiated from the other. Taking this as the building point we can identify and differentiate various funeral rites as per the cultural complex out of which they grows and sustains. These correspond to major religio-cultural system of the world viz. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism,...
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...Since the beginning of human life on Earth, one question has bothered our society more than anything else. This question, as easiest as it might sound, is the one question that had driven our society more and more towards new ideas, new inventions, and new perspectives. Is the one question that while trying to give an answer to it, has defined us: from reasonable to unreasonable, from the most intelligent creation that has ever walked on the face of the Earth, to simply: beasts Man, by nature, is a curious being, always wondering, always asking, and always searching for one thing that he does not have, for one thing that he does not know. Always why and how and what. These questions has driven human society to the edge, only to know that there is something more, only to know that no man can know everything, no man can learn everything, no man can have everything. Despite giving a bunch of answers to the matter and at the same time the inability to give a proper one which would have satisfied everyone, humanity, is still in search for the real truth. Is there life after death? Does our existence ceased once we stop breathing? Do we experience a rebirth, or do we go someplace else? The quest for answering these questions is still on going and humanity will never stop wondering what is his purpose here on Earth and beyond. Throughout ages different explanation were provided, form ancient scriptures, to religions perspectives...
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...When the Day of the Dead comes, it is a time of festivity. Souls who have departed from the corporeal plane of existence and ascended above the heavens come back to the living to visit their families for two days. During this time, homes are brightly decorated and alters are set up in order to accommodate their lost loved ones. However, this doesn’t imply that a holiday exists for the sake of sadly mourning the dead. It’s the opposite. This is a time of celebration – for those who have moved on to the next stage of life. Though their views of death are controversial, and there’s probably several people who greatly disagree with their idea of death – myself included. There are some aspects of this holiday that I can agree with. One of them...
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...superstitious time of year. It is a time when the spirits, fairies, goblins and witches come out to join the living. Not so long ago people believed that, and some still do, that the spirit world is closer on the night of Halloween. It is a night when you can talk with your deceased loved ones, find out who is going to die before the next Halloween or find your mate. Though we no longer hold sacrifices to the Lord of the Dead, we still celebrate with a lot of the same traditions that took place hundreds of years ago. Of all the festivals and celebrations that we observe today, few have a tale stranger than Halloween, also known as the eve of Allhallows – or Hallowmas or All Saints’ Day. All Saints’ Day is one of the gloomiest festivals of the church, while at the same time it observes the supernatural ceremonies with which the church has always been at war. This, after all, is the night when ghosts walk and fairies and goblins are astray. (Linton, 1950) Druids held the earliest celebrations in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival actually fell on November 1. November 1 was also the Celtic New Year’s Day, the beginning of winter and the time known as “the light that loses, the night that wins.”(Linton, 1950 pg. 4) Halloween (Hallowe’en) is one of the world’s oldest holidays still observed around the globe. (History.com) No country has kept the belief of supernatural spirits wandering among the people as much as Ireland. (Kelly...
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