Month: April 2020

As Slow As Possible

As Slow as Possible is a musical piece by American avant-garde composer John Cage, who deliberately neglected to specify how slowly it should be played. Piano performances of the score usually last from 20 to 70 minutes. However, a performance that began in 2001 at a church in Germany is still going on and is expected to continue until 2640. The church’s organ continuously emits the low hum of a chord that began several years ago. When will the next note-change occur?

Source: The Free Dictionary

Annual Lantern Ceremony

The Annual Lantern Ceremony takes place each year on the eve of Patriots’ Day, a public holiday in Massachusetts and Maine on the third Monday in April. The ceremony is held at the Old North Church in Boston, where, on April 18, 1775, the church sexton displayed two lanterns from the steeple, signaling Paul Revere‘s message that the British would come to Lexington and Concord across the Charles River. The Annual Lantern Ceremony commemorates the lighting of the two lamps. The centerpiece of the ceremony each year is a keynote address by a notable leader of the Boston area or beyond.

Source: The Free Dictionary

Lazarus

In the New Testament, two apparently separate people are named Lazarus. One is raised from the dead by Jesus after having spent four days in a tomb. The other is a leper who dies at the gate of a selfish rich man, then goes to heaven. Upon his own death, the rich man arrives in hell, where, in his suffering, he begs the leper Lazarus for water. This Lazarus is the only person in a New Testament parable who is named. Though the rich man is not named, he is commonly referred to as Dives. Why?

Source: The Free Dictionary

Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival

More than 2,000 Japanese Americans and performers from Japan participate in this festival in San Francisco’s Japantown that takes place over two consecutive weekends in April, based on the traditional Hanami festival in Japan. The climax of the festival is a three-hour parade from City Hall to the Japan Center at Post and Fillmore Streets. The parade includes singers and dancers, floats, Akita dogs, Taiko drummers, the Cherry Blossom Queen, and the traditional Taru Mikoshi, a portable shrine piled so high with casks of sake that it takes 100 people to carry it. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Razia Sultana

Believing that all of his sons were incompetent, Sultan Iltutmish of Delhi appointed his daughter Razia to succeed him as the first female Muslim sultan. After the sultan’s death in 1236, the nobles instead installed Razia’s brother, but he was assassinated shortly thereafter. For the next few years, Razia served as an able and devoted ruler. There are many accounts of how she died. One states that she was killed in a power struggle stemming from a scandal in which she was accused of what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Maimuna

Jews in North Africa commemorate the philosopher and rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) on the evening of the last day of Passover and the day that follows. In Morocco, special displays of food are arranged on tables, including bowls of flour with eggs, broad green beans, stalks of wheat, and dates. Surrounding the bowls are honey, fruit, nuts, cookies, lettuce, wine, and a type of pancake known as muflita. After going to the synagogue, people stop to bless their friends and sample the refreshments at each home. Wherever possible, people dip their feet in streams, rivers, or the sea. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Pyroclastic Flow

One of the deadliest parts of a volcanic eruption, a pyroclastic flow is a gigantic current of gases and bits of rock that surges downhill at speeds of up to 450 mph (724 km/h) and temperatures of about 1,800° F (1,000° C). These deadly flows can cross water bodies and have the potential to generate tsunamis. During the 1902 eruption of Martinique’s Mount Pelée, a pyroclastic flow destroyed the entire city of Saint-Pierre, killing some 28,000. What other city was famously destroyed in this way? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary