Calliope articles from January 2005

Calliope archives from January 2005

Zoroastrianism's beginnings.(Musings)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Happiness unto him through whom happiness comes to others. --Zarathushtra, from the Yasna 43.1 WITHOUT A DOUBT, HISTORICAL EVENTS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ARE INTERTWINED. WHILE ECONOMICS, NATIONALITY, AND RACE PLAY DEFINITE ROLES IN HOW,...

A force against evil.
January 1, 2005... According to Zoroastrians, at the time when Zarathushtra was born in the land of the Iranians, the world was full of sorcerers, wizards, evil priests, and all kinds of evil beings. After Zarathushtra's mother, Dugdow, was told to flee the...

Zarathushtra.(Biography)
January 1, 2005... Little is known about Zarathushtra, who is regarded as the prophet of the world's oldest revealed religion. Both when and where he lived are uncertain. According to the most widely held belief, he lived sometime between the 18th and 14th...

Good vs. evil.
January 1, 2005... At the beginning of the world, there were two great kingdoms, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. The Lord of Light was the All-knowing Lord Ahura Mazda (also known as Ohrmazd). His adversary, the Lord of Darkness was Angra Mainyu...

The Amesha Spentas.
January 1, 2005... When Ahura Mazda created the World of Thought, he made six spiritual beings. Known as the Amesha Spentas, they were Good Thought, Best Order, Well-Deserved Command, Beneficent Devotion, Wholeness, and Immortality. Zoroastrians consider Ahura...

The religion of Empires.
January 1, 2005... In October 539 B.C.E., Cyrus, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire (an ancient Iranian dynasty), entered newly conquered Babylon. Cyrus' famous inscription on a clay cylinder tells us that "he clasped the hands of Marduk," which meant that he...

The Avesta.
January 1, 2005... The Avesta is composed in an Iranian language that died out a long time ago (much like Latin in Europe). This language was spoken in Central Asia and Afghanistan between 3,500 and 2,500 years ago. The people who composed it called themselves...

What's what in Avestan?(Fun With Words)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Avestan language contains many letters for sounds that are not found in English. To express these letters, it is customary to add dots and lines to regular English letters. Avestan is written from right to left and a dot separates each word...

Avestan language word search.(Activity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Use the clues provided at left to discover the words buried in the word search grid below. 1. These are the songs Zoroastrians believe Zarathushtra composed more than 3,000 years ago. 2. Kings from this empire ruled Persia about 2,500...

Let's play backgammon: learn its symbolism, then play and win!(Activity)
January 1, 2005... Need: * cardboard * scissors * ruler * pencil * markers * air-dry clay * 2 dice Today, backgammon is a popular board game. But for the Sasanians of ancient Iran, it was an important way to express their...

Heaven, hell & limbo.
January 1, 2005... Zoroastrians believe that when an individual dies, his or her soul sits near the head of the corpse for three days and nights. During this period, demons are thought to prey upon the soul, but they can be kept away by a fire that the deceased...

Funerary towers or darhmas.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The practice of placing dead bodies in dakhmas ("funerary towers") appears to have been introduced in order to prevent corpses from polluting the holy earth, fire, and water. Zoroastrian doctrine holds that pollution occurs if a corpse is...

The fravashis.
January 1, 2005... The fravashis (also known as frawahr or farouhar) are some of the most interesting figures in Zoroastrian mythology. All are thought to have been made by Ahura Mazda or his helpers, and every living being--whether a divinity, a human being, or...

Celebrating Navruz.
January 1, 2005... The arrival of spring, on the day of the vernal equinox, around March 20 or 21, heralds the beginning of the new year for Zoroastrians. Navruz, which translates into English as "new day," celebrates this event and is the most important festival...

Other Zoroastrian festivals.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Khordad Sal: Zarathushtra's birthday is celebrated on the sixth day of the new year. Tirgan: Celebrated in midsummer, primarily as a rain festival, Tirgan calls on Tir Yazad, a guardian spirit, to enhance the harvest and not allow drought....

Zoroastrianism's impact on other religions.(From Past to Present)
January 1, 2005... Religion is a universal human phenomenon, so there are bound to be certain similarities between individual faiths with regard to mythology, symbolism, and ritual. To measure the impact of one belief system upon another is rather like trying to...

Zoroastrians and western thought.
January 1, 2005... From the mid-fifth century B.C.E. onward, the Greeks recorded their encounters with Iranians, not just on the battlefield, but also as observers of their beliefs and practices. Xanthus of Lydia (500-450 B.C.E.) was the first Greek to record the...

Rites of passage.(Navjote ceremony - initiation into the religion )(Excerpt)
January 1, 2005... The Initiation Ceremony Between the ages of 7 and 15, every Zoroastrian boy and girl is initiated into the religion with the Navjote ceremony. The word Navjote is derived from nav and zot, which mean "a new birth." The ritual is also known...

Fire temples.(Zoroastrian rites )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Early Zoroastrian rites were conducted both in buildings set aside for religious purposes and in natural settings. By medieval times, however, most services were conducted within complexes known as fire temples. Zoroastrians regard fire as one...

Ask Calliope.
January 1, 2005... I know the Iliad and the Odyssey are the Greek epics, but what is the Persian epic? --Stan, 9, Web post One of the most popular works in the Persian-speaking world today is the Shah-nameh ("Book of Kings"), which tells of the trials...

The Legacy of Zarathushtra.(Books)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2005... The Legacy of Zarathushtra, edited by Roshan Rivetna (FEZANA, 2002), is a well-researched, easy-to-understand introduction to the religion, history, and culture of the Zoroastrians. Among the chapter headings are "Beliefs and Teachings,"...

Zoroastrianism.(Books)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2005... Zoroastrianism, by Paula R. Hartz (Facts On File, 2004, www.factsonfile.com) traces the history and beliefs of Zoroastrianism and tells the story of its followers' determination to carry the torch of their belief through centuries of...

I Believe In ... Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Young People Speak About Their Faiths.(Books)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2005... I Believe In... Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Young People Speak About Their Faiths, by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins (Cricket, 2004, www.cricketmag.com), includes approximately 100 in-depth interviews about what it means to belong to a certain faith....

Cobblestone resources.(Off the Shelf)(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... Materials that complement this issue's topic, "Zoroastrianism," and are available from Cobblestone Publishing include: Hinduism (CAL9303) Judaism (CAL9403) Buddhism (CAL9503) Early Christianity (CAL9603) Islam (CAL9701)...

On the net.(Off the Shelf)(Directory)
January 1, 2005... For an excellent overview of Zoroastrianism with links to Zoroastrian Web sites, check out: http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/ nrms/Zoro1.html For a site with a wealth of links to a variety of Zoroastrian-related pages, go to:...

A turn of events.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Arab conquest of the Sasanian Empire began gradually in the 600s C.E. In the centuries that followed, economic hardship and conversion to Islam reduced the status and number of Zoroastrians. A religious tax was imposed on all Zoroastrians,...

The Indian diaspora.(Parsis)
January 1, 2005... The Zoroastrians in India are known as the Parsis ("Persians"). After arriving on the western coast of India in the 10th century C.E., the immigrants gradually spread out to towns along the coast and became farmers, carpenters, weavers, and...