Month: August 2020

Puccini Festival

The Puccini Festival is held annually each summer in Torre del Lago in Tuscany, Italy, to honor and celebrate Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), the Italian composer of such beloved operas as La Boheme and Madame Butterfly. Throughout August, the festival presents distinguished and often innovative productions of Puccini’s works. The productions take place in an open-air theatre close to the Villa Mausoleum, where Puccini lived and worked. Events such as talks and art exhibitions about Puccini’s life and work are held throughout the area all summer as well. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Sephirot

Kabbalah is an esoteric system of interpretation of Jewish scriptures based upon a tradition claimed to have been handed down orally from Abraham. One of its principle sources is the 1894 Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation. It develops, in a series of monologues supposedly delivered by Abraham, the doctrine of the Sephirot. Kabbalists believe that Sephirot are powers emanating from God through which the world is created and its order sustained. There are 10 of them. What are they? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Dai-Chochin Matsuri (Lantern Festival)

Chochin are cylindrical lanterns made out of paper stretched over a split bamboo frame. One of the best-known Chochin festivals is held on August 26-27 in Isshiki, Aichi Prefecture. The primary attractions are 12 huge chochin, each about 30 feet high and 18 feet across, that are hoisted by means of pulleys up three huge pillars at the Suwa Shrine. As night nears, priests begin to illuminate the lanterns—a process that may take several hours. At the end of the festival the lanterns are lowered after religious dances and songs have been offered. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Geysers

Located in the Mayacamas Mountains north of San Francisco, California, The Geysers is a complex of geothermal power plants that draw steam from more than 350 wells. Discovered in 1847, the area became the site of the first commercial geothermal electric plant in the US in 1960. Today, it boasts the largest complex of such plants in the world. The steam is produced by a magma chamber heating water underground, but the features that gave The Geysers its name are not really geysers. What are they? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Fuji-Yoshida Fire Festival

Climbing Mount Fuji is such a popular sport in Japan that the season has a formal opening and closing. It begins on July 1 and ends with a fire festival in the city of Fujiyoshida on or near the evening of August 26. Huge torches more than 10 feet high are set up along the streets, and families pile up firewood in front of their houses. At about 5 p.m., two portable shrines are brought down from the mountain and carried through the main street of Fujiyoshida. About an hour later, all the torches and family bonfires are lit simultaneously, and the flames continue long past midnight. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, AKA Mother Teresa (1910)

In 1927, 17-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu left her native Macedonia and became a Catholic nun in India, changing her name to Teresa. She never saw her family again. Her decades of devoted charity to the poor earned her global recognition and a 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. Though she was a prominent religious figure, she suffered from a crisis of faith that lasted decades. Since her death in 1997, she has rapidly progressed toward being declared a saint. Why was an exorcism once performed on Mother Teresa? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Derbent

Derbent is a city in the southeast Russian republic of Dagestan. It stands on a narrow strip of land between the Caucasian foothills and the Caspian Sea that forms a natural pass. Historically, Derbent’s strategic position allowed it to control Eurasian traffic, and the city boasts massive fortifications dating to the 6th century CE. Though they were probably built by the Persians to guard against northern invaders, the walls are sometimes associated with what legendary structure? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary