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Mystery Documentary - The History of Halloween - Full Documentary History Channel Best Documentaries
Snap-Apple Night, by Daniel Maclise (1833), shows people feasting and playing divination games on Halloween in Ireland.
Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of All Hallows' Evening),
also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a
celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the
Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance
of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering
the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful
departed.
It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions
originated from Celtic harvest festivals which may have pagan roots,
particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, and that this festival was
Christianized as Halloween.
Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is described as
tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a
way of governing, or simply a way of life. Confucianism developed from what
was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the
Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE), who considered himself a
retransmitter of the values of the Zhou dynasty golden age of several centuries
before. In the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), Confucian approaches edged out
the "proto-Taoist" Huang-Lao, as the official ideology while the
emperors mixed both with the realist techniques of Legalism. The disintegration
of the Han political order in the second century CE opened the way for the
doctrines of Buddhism and Neo-Taoism, which offered spiritual explanations
lacking in Confucianism.
Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is described as
tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic
religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life.
A Confucian revival began during the Tang dynasty of
618-907. In the late Tang, Confucianism developed in response to Buddhism and
Taoism and was reformulated as Neo-Confucianism. This reinvigorated form was
adopted as the basis of the imperial exams and the core philosophy of the
scholar official class in the Song dynasty (960-1297). The abolition of the
examination system in 1905 marked the end of official Confucianism. The New
Culture intellectuals of the early twentieth century blamed Confucianism for
China's weaknesses. They searched for new doctrines to replace Confucian
teachings; some of these new ideologies include the "Three Principles of
the People" with the establishment of the Republic of China, and then
Maoism under the People's Republic of China. In the late twentieth century
Confucian work ethic has been credited with the rise of the East Asian
economy.
With particular emphasis on the importance of the family and
social harmony, rather than on an otherworldly source of spiritual values,[4]
the core of Confucianism is humanistic. According to Herbert Fingarette's
concept of "the secular as sacred", Confucianism regards the ordinary
activities of human life — and especially in human relationships as a
manifestation of the sacred,[6] because they are the expression of our moral
nature (xìng 性), which has a transcendent
anchorage in Heaven (Tiān 天) and a proper respect for the
spirits or gods (shén).[7] While Tiān has some characteristics that overlap the
category of deity, it is primarily an impersonal absolute principle, like the
Dào (道) or the Brahman. Confucianism focuses on the practical
order that is given by a this-worldly awareness of the Tiān. Confucian
liturgy (that is called 儒 rú, or sometimes 正統/正统
zhèngtǒng, meaning "orthoprax" ritual style) led by Confucian priests
or "sages of rites" (禮生/礼生
lǐshēng) to worship the gods in public and ancestral Chinese temples is
preferred in various occasions, by Confucian religious groups and for civil
religious rites, over Taoist or popular ritual.
The this-worldly concern of Confucianism rests on the belief
that human beings are fundamentally good, and teachable, improvable, and
perfectible through personal and communal endeavor especially self-cultivation
and self-creation. Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue and
maintenance of ethics. Some of the basic Confucian ethical concepts and
practices include rén, yì, and lǐ, and zhì. Rén (仁, "benevolence"
or "humaneness") is the essence of the human being which manifests as
compassion. It is the virtue-form of Heaven.Yì (義/义)
is the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition to do good. Lǐ (禮/礼)
is a system of ritual norms and propriety that determines how a person should
properly act in everyday life according to the law of Heaven. Zhì (智)
is the ability to see what is right and fair, or the converse, in the behaviors
exhibited by others. Confucianism holds one in contempt, either passively or
actively, for failure to uphold the cardinal moral values of rén and yì.
Traditionally, cultures and countries in the East Asian
cultural sphere are strongly influenced by Confucianism, including mainland
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, as well as various
territories settled predominantly by Chinese people, such as Singapore. In the
20th century Confucianism's influence reduced greatly. In the last decades
there have been talks of a "Confucian Revival" in the academic and
the scholarly community and there has been a grassroots proliferation
of various types of Confucian churches. In late 2015 many Confucian
personalities formally established a national Holy Confucian Church (孔聖會/孔圣会
Kǒngshènghuì) in China to unify the many Confucian congregations and civil
society organisations.
The earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated
at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE. The island
was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in
the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland. However, English
rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor
conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a
system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the
Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th
century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United
Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the
partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became
increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which
remained a part of the United Kingdom.
Gallarus Oratory, one of the earliest churches built in Ireland
The Hundred Years' War is the modern term for a series of
conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the
Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of
France, for control of the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into
the war. It was one of the most notable conflicts of the Middle Ages, in which
five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the
largest kingdom in Western Europe. The war marked both the height of chivalry
and its subsequent decline, and the development of strong national identities
in both countries.
After the Norman Conquest, the kings of England were vassals
of the kings of France for their possessions in France. The French kings had
endeavored, over the centuries, to reduce these possessions, to the effect that
only Gascony was left to the English. The confiscation or threat of
confiscating this duchy had been part of French policy to check the growth of
English power, particularly whenever the English were at war with the Kingdom
of Scotland, an ally of France.
Clockwise, from top left: The Battle of La Rochelle,
The Battle of Agincourt,
The Battle of Patay,
Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans
Through his mother, Isabella of France, Edward III of
England was the grandson of Philip IV of France and nephew of Charles IV of
France, the last king of the senior line of the House of Capet. In 1316, a
principle was established denying women succession to the French throne. When
Charles IV died in 1328, Isabella, unable to claim the French throne for
herself, claimed it for her son. The French rejected the claim, maintaining
that Isabella could not transmit a right that she did not possess. For about
nine years (1328–1337), the English had accepted the Valois succession to the
French throne. But the interference of the French king, Philip VI, in Edward
III's war against Scotland permitted Edward III to reassert his claim to the
French throne. Several overwhelming English victories in the war—especially at
Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt—raised the prospects of an ultimate English
triumph. However, the greater resources of the French monarchy precluded a
complete conquest. Starting in 1429, decisive French victories at Patay,
Formigny, and Castillon concluded the war in favour of France, with England
permanently losing most of its major possessions on the continent.
Historians commonly divide the war into three phases
separated by truces: the Edwardian Era War (1337–1360); the Caroline War
(1369–1389); and the Lancastrian War (1415–1453). Contemporary conflicts in
neighbouring areas, which were directly related to this conflict, included the
War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364), the Castilian Civil War (1366–1369),
the War of the Two Peters (1356–1375) in Aragon, and the 1383–85 Crisis in
Portugal. Later historians invented the term "Hundred Years' War" as
a periodization to encompass all of these events, thus constructing the longest
military conflict in history.
The war owes its historical significance to
multiple factors. By its end, feudal armies had been largely replaced by
professional troops, and aristocratic dominance had yielded to a
democratisation of the manpower and weapons of armies. Although primarily a
dynastic conflict, the war gave impetus to ideas of French and English
nationalism. The wider introduction of weapons and tactics supplanted the
feudal armies where heavy cavalry had dominated. The war precipitated the
creation of the first standing armies in Western Europe since the time of the
Western Roman Empire, composed largely of commoners and thus helping to change
their role in warfare. With respect to the belligerents, in France, civil wars,
deadly epidemics, famines, and bandit free-companies of mercenaries reduced the
population drastically. English political forces over time came to oppose the
costly venture. The dissatisfaction of English nobles, resulting from the loss
of their continental landholdings, became a factor leading to the civil wars
known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487). Shorn of its continental
possessions, England was left with the sense of being an island nation, which
profoundly affected its outlook and development for more than 500 years. Credits: Wikipedia
The Dutch Slave Coast (Dutch: Slavenkust) refers to the
trading posts of the Dutch West India Company on the Slave Coast, which lie in
contemporary Ghana, Benin, Togo and Nigeria. The primary purpose of the trading
post was to supply slaves for the plantation colonies in the Americas. Dutch
involvement on the Slave Coast started with the establishment of a trading post
in Offra in 1660. Later, trade shifted to Ouidah, where the English and French
also had a trading post. Political unrest caused the Dutch to abandon their
trading post at Ouidah in 1725, now moving to Jaquim, at which place they built
Fort Zeelandia. By 1760, the Dutch had abandoned their last trading post in the
region.
The Slave Coast was settled from the Dutch Gold Coast, on
which the Dutch were based in Elmina. During its existence, the Slave Coast
held a close relationship to that colony.
