Month: July 2019

Naadam

This Mongolian festival spotlights the “three manly games” for a Mongolian, and its history goes back to the 13th century. Today, it is held from July 11-13 in provinces throughout the country. The fairs bring together the nomadic people, who pitch a city of yurts or gers (felt tents). Wrestling is usually the first event, the second is archery, and the last of the traditional sports is horse racing. When night falls, a bowed stringed instrument called a matouqin is played, and people sit by their yurts talking, dancing, and drinking butter tea and kumys. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Hephaestion

Hephaestion was a Macedonian general who supervised the foundation of cities and colonies in Bactria, central Asia, and India. He was a close friend of Alexander the Great, who called him “my Patroclus”—in reference to the friend of the Greek hero Achilles. In 324 BCE, Hephaestion married Alexander’s sister-in-law, Drypetis, but died suddenly in the same year at Ecbatana, the capital of ancient Media, in what is now northwestern Iran. How did Alexander mark Hephaestion’s death? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Cheltenham International Festival of Music

Established in 1945 to give first performances of works by British composers, the two-week Cheltenham International Festival of Music has since expanded its scope considerably. Its musical repertoire now includes both British and foreign composers offering operas as well as symphonic, chamber, and choral music. Special master classes are also offered each year on such subjects as string quartets, piano trios, and brass instruments. Recitals and chamber music concerts are held in the Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham Spa’s most important Regency structure. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Pliny’s Natural History

Pliny the Elder was a Roman scholar famous for his Historia Naturalis—Natural History—an encyclopedia published in 77 CE. His one surviving work, it is divided into 37 books that survey all the known sciences of the day, notably geography, anthropology, zoology, mineralogy, and botany. Although the work was the European authority on scientific matters up to the Middle Ages, it is of uneven accuracy. Pliny was in the process of revising the work when he died observing what disaster? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Savonlinna Opera Festival

The Savonlinna Opera Festival is a month-long music festival in Savonlinna, Finland. Considered one of Europe’s most important musical events, it began in 1967 with a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio. In 1992, for its 25th anniversary, Fidelio was presented again, as well as George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, produced by Opera Ebony of New York and conducted by Estonian maestro Eri Klas. The main site of the festival is the Olavinlinna Castle, the best-preserved medieval fortress in Finland. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

1981 Irish Hunger Strike

The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. It began when the British Government withdrew from convicted paramilitary prisoners Special Category Status, a de facto prisoner-of-war status granting them privileges like those specified in the Geneva Convention. Twenty-three such prisoners participated in the strike, refusing food for weeks and, in many cases, months. How many of them ultimately died of starvation? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

San Fermin Festival

The festivities surrounding this well-known festival in Pamplona, Spain, begin with a rocket fired from the balcony of the town hall. Bands of txistularis—with dancers, drummers, and txistu players (a musical instrument like a flute)—march through the town playing songs announcing the “running of the bulls,” an event that has taken place here for 400 years. Each morning, young men, dressed in typical Basque costumes, risk their lives running through the streets ahead of the bulls being run to the bullring where the bullfights will be held. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary