BC CULTURE
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

Thread: Romanian bear dancers...At the end of the year, boys and men in eastern Romania put on heavy bear costumes, often made of real fur, and dance through the streets of towns and villages...

 They dance to the rhythm of drums. In the end a ritual scene is performed in which the bear collapses because a demon is inside him. The "Gypsy" comes with a knife and bleeds the bear, lets the demon out and the bear gets resurrected

https://t.co/QMEHD8wdmC via @YouTube
In some versions of the tradition, the bear, the Gypsy and the drummers also go from house to house in the village, singing and dancing to ward off evil and bring good luck...
Officially "It’s thought that the tradition of dancing bears originated many centuries ago among the Roma who would visit villages just before New Year with real bears on leashes to dance and chase away bad spirits from the outgoing year"...

https://t.co/JmVZS9ClBG
I can see why people would think that this ritual could have Roma origin...Roma's with their dancing bears were until recently a common scene in Eastern Europe...
I wrote about this in my post about St Gallen and the bear...https://t.co/OIZJrGAmwo
The thing is, at the end of the Solar Year, we also find Dancing bears in Slavic countries of Eastern Europe...But there, the bear is not dancing alone. He is dancing with a goat and a stork...
In Slavic countries however the bear is not the main character in this ritual dance...The goat is...The dancing goat, which also gets killed, bled and then resurrected...

https://t.co/dnBk6Zy3ED
The goat is the most common symbol for winter in Eurasia...

https://t.co/yELaHR8tLV
This is because ibex goats start their mating season at the beginning of winter...End of October beginning of November...

https://t.co/Im9vqopbWm
In Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Central Asia, Mesopotamia...wild goat mating season coincided with the beginning of the rain season which was source of life in those dry areas...Which made the wild goat symbol of rain, life, resurrecting nature...

https://t.co/6KWv1BEl97
But in continental Europe, winter brought by the dancing wild goats wasn't the season of life...It was the season of death by cold...Which is why in Europe goat became symbol of winter cold...

https://t.co/fx5cOpNhkF
Because in continental Europe nature dies at the beginning of winter, and gets resurrected at the end of winter. Because winter is the season of the goat, the goat has to die, so nature can get resurrected...
Which is exactly what is described in the Slovenian legend about Zlatorog (Gold horn): Hunter kills the goat from whose blood grows magic flower...

https://t.co/yiC97vnuXD

And what is depicted by the winter zodiac: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius (When snow melt brings Spring)
Anyway back to the dancing bears...In Slavic end of Solar Year ritual dances, the bear and stork are accompanying the dancing, dying and resurrecting goat, because they are also in a way, dying and resurrecting...
In the past people didn't know what happens with the migratory birds in the autumn...Slavs believed that migratory birds went with the sun to the land of the dead...

https://t.co/FMynv2LTto
Slavs also believed that on their return from the land of the dead, in the spring, the migratory birds brought souls that are ready to be reborn...Sounds suspiciously like "storks bringing babies"???
So storks "died" (went to the otherworld taking with them the souls of the recently deceased) at the end of autumn, when nature died too. And were "resurrected" (came back from the otherworld bringing with them the souls of then future children) when nature was resurrected too...
Now finally back to bears :) The bear disappears at the end of autumn (goes to hibernation, goes underground, to the underworld) where it spends the winter...It comes out of hibernation, underground, underworld at the beginning of spring...With the cubs...
Back to the Romanian bear ritual again:

Bear dances (spring, summer, autumn)
Bear collapses because a demon is inside him (beginning of winter)
Bear is killed and bled to let the demon out (winter, hibernation-death)
Bear gets resurrected and dances again (spring, summer...)
This is just another version of the same death - resurrection of nature ritual, part of the same Old European belief system which was built around European climate...And which was populated by animal symbols, basically animal calendar markers based on animal behavior in Europe...
Bear wandering about in the middle of winter is an unlikely site as bears only dance (are active) during warm part of the year: spring, summer, autumn...

So a bear dancing in the middle of winter is a magic ritual designed to summon spring...
The only bears not in hibernation (the underworld) in the middle of winter were bears owned by the Gipsy bear tamers...Enterprising Gipsies would not miss the chance to earn some money (food, drink) by taking their bears from house to house and performing the "real" bear dance...
So Romanian dancing bears and Slavic dancing bears are not something that had to be an imitation of Gipsy dancing bears...Could actually be the other way round...
For those wondering what the hell am I talking about when I say "animal calendar markers" have a look at articles linked from this jump page

https://t.co/pZF1A0e6Ft
For Europe, start with zodiac animal symbols which all mark part of the year when the animals in questions either mate or give birth...

https://t.co/l8Lh7dvuwT

BTW, the oldest example of a zodiac circle, as we know it today, was found in Croatia: https://t.co/lX63nxQbcf

More from Culture

Operation Cupcake
Operation Cupcake
@PhillipsBarrie
Tony Blair is LOTO, behind the scenes, other Blairites are involved too. Keir Starmer is just a front man, Alexandre Samuel Barros-Curtis is Labour's version of Dominic Cummings, he's THE top man. Everything makes sense from this perspective. #LabourLeak #StarmerOut 👇 #BREXIT


According to his LinkedIn profile, Barros-Curtis’s day job is as a consultant solicitor “Providing specialised legal advice in the area of derivatives and structured finance” in particular “Hedging, project financings, securitisations, credit derivatives” #LabourLeaks #HedgeFund

He has worked extensively on derivatives and structured finance matters in Europe and Hong Kong; as well as formerly working for the Clinton Foundation. Asked to comment on Mr Barros-Curtis and his role in the party Labour said they do not discuss staffing issues. #LabourLeaks

Starmer's team members were accused of what's called "DATA - scraping" - seeking to obtain certain information from a wider set of data. Mr Barros-Curtis was also the DATA controller for Keir's campaign website. Who hired Asaaf Kaplan and When?.

Tony Blair has said he would not want a left-wing Labour party to win a general election.

The former prime minister said that even if he thought a left-wing programme was the route to victory, he would not adopt one. 2015
CULTURE
Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Today in pulp I look at the scandalous history of lady jeans!

Well there's a turn-up...


The denim jean and its predecessor the dungaree have a long history, and were traditionally seen as work wear for men.

But WWII changed all that...


As women headed for the factories and shipyards they found that a sturdy denim bib-n-brace, paired with a stout headscarf, was the way to go!


Coarse heavy 'jeens' were fine for riveting work, but 1940s women didn't take a shine to them as leisure wear. For one thing they were voluminous and shapeless.


Jeans were also seen as clothing for children. No adult wanted to be seen wearing kid's dungarees in public.

Or did they?
CULTURE
Advertisement
Sharon Collins
Sharon Collins
@305local
In a recent article published in the Stern, there is now a criminal complaint filed against Michael Inacker, the then CEO of the PR firm WMP for what includes allegations of the knock out payments from the emirate of Qatar to hide a dossier for their role in financing Hezbollah


That allegedly 750,000 euros, which would have been divided between Jason and Michael.


In return, "Jason" was supposed to keep to himself the information he had researched in Qatar, that a high-ranking person in the emirate of Qatar was financially supporting Hezbollah.


https://t.co/TdaAECu35a


There is an interesting point in the article, WMP (Inacker) still had PR contracts with both Qatar and Saudi and “Jason” had some information about arms deliveries organized by people from Qatar with suppliers in Belarus, Serbia, Macedonia, and Yemen.
CULTURE
Julie Bindel
Julie Bindel
@bindelj
THREAD @ReadingsBooks now 'regret' the apology. This is from @TimesLucy in the Times today (can't find online link): Bookshop forced to apologise for feminist's visit in 2018
The Times (London)

February 11, 2021 Thursday

"A bookshop in Australia has apologised for "any hurt

caused" by an event it hosted three years ago with the feminist campaigner Julie Bindel.

Readings, an independent bookseller in Melbourne, is to host an event on Zoom with Juno Dawson, a transgender author, and Alison Evans, a nonbinary author, on February 25. Transrights

supporters have long accused Bindel of transphobia because she does not believe trans women are women.

Evans, an award-winning author from Melbourne who writes queer sci-fi for young adults, tweeted on Monday: "I agreed to do this event providing Readings publicly apologise for

hosting Julie Bindel. Where is this apology?"

The next day the bookshop said: "Readings prides itself on ensuring everyone in our community feels safe, respected and considered. We apologise for any hurt caused by highlighting the work of an author whose current stance is to

divide our community.

"To that end, Readings regrets programming Julie Bindel in 2018 and thanks our community for opening the dialogue with us. Readings is committed to considering the work of all authors to ensure our future programme of events, reviews and discussions remain
CULTURE
Joy Karmaker
Joy Karmaker
@JoyKarmaker75
The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action film directed by Rob Cohen and starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, and Paul Walker. The Fast and the Furious is first film in the The Fast and the Furious franchise, distributed by Universal Pictures.


The film was released June 22, 2001 and grossed $207.3 million. In 2003, The Fast and the Furious was followed by the sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Brian O'Conner is an undercover Los Angeles copwho aspires to become a detective.


When he is tasked to stop hijackers led by Dominic Torettofrom stealing expensive electronics equipment off of trucks, Brian must choose between his obligation to the LAP and his friendship with Toretto after he becomes good friends with his family.

The film opens at a dockyard where a container is loaded onto the trailer of a semi-truck. The truck then departs the dockyard and one of the dock workers makes a phone call to an anonymous party on the other end, informing them on how to identify the truck.
CULTURE

You May Also Like

Pran Katariya
Pran Katariya
@KatariyaPran
The Straddle is my favorite trade these days. But more often than not, one needs to adjust to make a good return from it. There are many ways to do this depending on your view, psychology and imagination. Will discuss a few that I use

The Straddle is a delta neutral strategy and it is important to keep deltas in check during the course of the Trade and not let them run away from you. Of course Volatility is the elephant in the room- but not going there as that will require a separate discussion

The first and most common method is to go 'inverted.' That is to say to shift the untested side to generate additional Premium and increase the runway to Breakeven. So if you start with a Straddle at 700 and price goes to 740, you can move the PE up to say 720.

How much should you move the untested side? While again this is a matter of skill, experience and artistry, the rule of thumb is to cut deltas by half. Remember, prices will move and you have to allow sufficient room for them to fluctuate

The second method is to shift the entire Straddle in the direction of the move. So if you have a 700 Straddle and Price goes to 740, you can shift the Straddle to 720. If you time this right, it can generally be done at virtually no cost or minimal cost.
ALL , OPTION SELLING , STRADDLE OPTION SELLING
Brianne Kimmel \U0001f4ac
Brianne Kimmel 💬...
@briannekimmel
Shocking fact: Millennial men are less likely to work than any other age and gender demographic in America.

Today, there are 500,000 young men missing from the U.S. workforce.

Research suggests video games & improved leisure tech plays a role in the problem. 👇 Thread:

Following the 2007 to 2009 recession, 25 to 34 year old men exited high school with fewer middle-skill job opportunities than years prior.

During this time, we saw an increased number of men living with parents & choosing unemployment over lower paying jobs.

It's estimated that 24M millennials live w/ their parents.

1 in 4 living in their parents’ home neither go to school nor work.

What's more surprising? 9 in 10 who lived with their parents a year ago are still living there w/ no plans to leave.

Economists are calling millennial men a lost generation.

According to economist David Dorn:

“If you get to the point where you’re turning 30, you’ve never held a real job and you don’t have a college education, then it is very hard to recover at that point.”

Economists suggest this choosiness is a generational trait.

Forbes interview w/ a high school educated man:

"I’m very quick to get frustrated when people refuse to pay me what I’m worth."
“People feel that they have choice nowadays, and they
SOCIETY
Advertisement
Anu Satheesh
Anu Satheesh
@AnuSatheesh5
Thiruvairanikulam Mahadeva Temple
Ernakulam Kerala🚩
#temples

Temple is known as Sabarimala of Women

Thiruvairanikulam Mahadeva Temple is situated on the banks of the Periyar River. Siva Temple has a separate sannidhi for Parvathi Devi which will be open only for 12 days a year


The Nadathurappu Mahothsavam happens every year on Malayalam month of Dhanu. On opening day, a grand procession starting from Akavoor Mana carries the ornaments of Devi to the temple. Swayamvara Archana is the main pooja here to clear the obstacle in marriages.
Legend is that 👇


Vigraham existed in another place called Iranikulam. A Namboodiri of Sreemoolanagaram used to visit the Iranikulam temple regularly. Akavoor Chathan, a boatman will take him to the Iranikulam temple and back. Because of Bhakthi of Namboodiri, Shiva traveled with him to his place.


Akavoor Chathan identified Siva chaitanyam and their family built a temple here. Parvati devi herself will cook Nevidyam here for Shiva, which was witnessed by a priest. Devi was angry at this and decided to leave the place. But when the priest offered his sincere apology👇


Devi blessed him and told that she will be present here 12 days in a year. Thus the period which begins from Thiruvathirai Day in Dhanu is known as the Nadathurappu festival.
Temple Nada opens today night.
Picture credit: Google.
🙏🕉🙏
ALL
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
WEAPONS OF MAHADEV

Sarvaripati Shiva is one of the most fearsome manifestations of Mahadev. Assigned with destroying all of the universes at the end of time, Shiva is one of the most fearsome warriors. He is the Mrityunjaya.
Here are some weapons associated with him:


TRISHULA: the 3 pointed blades denote creation, maintenance, and destruction or the 3 Kalas – Past, Present and Future. They also represent 3 Gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas).
Shiva’s trishul can only be stopped by Shiva himself.
@onlyonenetra @DetheEsha


Trishul is also said to represent Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. These are the three basic nadis – the left, the right and the central – in the pranamaya kosha, or the energy body of the human system.
@iamkamyabuch @unever_followme


PARASHU: axe with 4 cutting edges which Shiva gave to Parashurama. In his anger, Parashurama used the parashu to get rid of the all the Earth’s tyrannical kshatriya caste twenty-one times over.
@harshasherni


CHANDRAHASA SWORD: The divine sword Chandrahasa literally means ‘the laughter of the moon’. Ravana gave this sword to Indrajit on different occasions especially to fight against Devas.
GIRISH: A special sword of Shiva with unique characteristics.
ALL
Savitri Mumukshu - \u0938\u093e\u0935\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u092e\u0941\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0941
Savitri Mumukshu - साव...
@MumukshuSavitri
1/n
The kingdom of Sindh was ruled by its last Hindu king Raja Dahir during the 8th century. When Muhammad-bin-Qasim invaded Sindh, he decimated Sindh in his savage bloodlust. The chronicles of his advent are described in the Chachnama.


2/n
The Chachnama describes in detail how the Arabs led by butcher Qasim conquered Sindh. It tells the terrible tale of bravery, treachery, & carnage marking the entry of Islamic conquest of India’s Hindus.


3/n
When Muhammad-bin-Qasim attacked Sindh, Dahir had collected an army of 50,000 horses and marched from Brahamanabad to Rawar to face the invader. Qasim had an army that numbered in the tens of thousands with camels & horses.

4/n
Earlier Arab Alafis - Syeds from Prophet Mohammed’s own family had fled from Mecca with 500 men to Sindh and Raja Dahir had given them asylum. Trusting these Muslims would prove to be the fatal mistake for the downfall of Sindh & pave the way for Islamic invasion.

5/n
On an “auspicious day” in A.D. 711, fixed by astrologers, Mohammed Bin Qasim started for Sindh at the head of the Iraqi, Syrian, and other Arab soldiers. His horses and camels were disguised to look like lions and elephants. Rebel Jats also joined Qasim’s army.
ALL , GANDHARITIHAS