torch
A torch is a lighting fixture in the shape of a stick that is provided with or wrapped in combustible material. It is lit at the top, from where it gradually burns down. At the lower end you hold the torch in your hand or put it in a (wall) holder.
An older form of the torch is a wooden stick coated at the top with pitch or thickened oil. Nowadays, torches are rarely used for lighting purposes, but rather on special occasions. Wax torches are used for entertainment purposes, while jugglers and fire- eaters use Kevlar fabric torches with petroleum or lamp oil. Magnesium torches are used as a means of signaling ("deep sea torch") or as a so-called Bengali fire . The shape that has not yet been lit is also called a torch. Torches serve as a light source and can therefore - like other historical light sources - have a symbolic meaning.
etymology
The German word Fackel is a very old borrowing of the synonymous Latin facula (vulgar Latin also facla ), which in turn is a diminutive form of fax (Gen. facis ), " Kienspan ". It can already be found in some of the oldest written documents in Old High German (8th century, in forms such as facchala , fachala or fackala ), as well as in Old Saxon ( fakla ) and in Old English ( fæcele ); in Gothic it is still missing, likewise in Old Norse . The Scandinavian languages took over the word from German around 1700 ( Danish and Norwegian fakkel , Swedish fackla ), in Dutch fakkel it has been attested since the 13th century; it also made its way into Hungarian fáklya and Czech fakule via German .
While the Latin loan word is naturalized in the languages mentioned, as in German today, i.e. is hardly or no longer perceived as a foreign word, the corresponding descendants of Latin facula are in the Romance languages ( French facule , Italian fiaccola , Catalan falla , Spanish hacha and Portuguese facha ) in the literal sense of the word "torch" are more or less uncommon today or have experienced a noticeable narrowing of meaning , in any case have all been replaced by borrowings or equivalents of French torche or Occitan entorche (it. torcia , cat. torxa , sp. antorcha , port. tocha ; also English torch ), which originally probably means "wipe, tuft of straw, broom" (cf. French torcher "wipe, sweep, clean"). In Spanish, hacha is hardly used in the sense of "torch", but primarily in the sense of " sacrificial candle , altar candle, procession candle"; In German, the opposite is the case, here French torche could only establish itself in dialect with precisely this special ecclesiastical meaning , especially in Alemannic and Bavarian (“Tortsche”), but also in Westphalian (“ Torste ”, today mostly a processional stick without a wick, wax or flame, but with flowers). In Catalan falla i. S. v. "Torch" equally obsolete or obsolete and is now only associated with the customary straw or paper figures that are ceremoniously burned in Catalonia at certain church festivals, especially the fall de Sant Josep , which can be visited every March in Valencia, before they are lit.
Cultural history
In the sanctuaries of the Mithras cult , the torch pointing upward represented the sunrise , the torch pointing downward represented the sunset . The torch was also a divine attribute in many other pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religious systems, such as the Syrian goddesses Astarte and Anath or the Persian Anahita . In Greek mythology , the torch was an attribute of Hecate and a prop in the Eleusinian Mysteries , as Demeter carried a torch when searching for her kidnapped daughter .
In the Christian doctrine of virtues , the torch held upright is a symbol for the cardinal virtue of wisdom .
In the Hebrides , torches were used to ward off evil as long as a child was not baptized : a torch was carried around the cradle three times a day until baptism in order to drive away evil spirits.
From the 17th century the torch stood - often together with the book - as a symbol of spiritual enlightenment : The Statue of Liberty in New York carries a torch and a book to show that the United States has free access to education and knowledge for all citizens would allow. In this sense, the torch is the “speaking” name of a cultural-political journal from the time before National Socialism, edited by the Austrian essayist Karl Kraus .
Until the 1960s, German student customs included the torchlight procession to honor - mostly academic - personalities. In some cultures, torchlight parades are common on different occasions, for example on Walpurgis Night .
The Olympic torch is a symbol of peace and solidarity between peoples.
The " Big Zapfenstreich " is traditionally celebrated in the dark by the light of torches.
In 2015, as part of the application for the Olympic Games, 20,000 people in Hamburg around the Inner Alster lit torches at the same time, which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, exceeded the previous record of 3,777 participants.
Artistic commitment
The juggling torch is constructed in a similar way to a juggling club , except that the upper end of the wooden stick has a metal jacket and a kevlar fabric winding for the petroleum or lamp oil.
In addition, similar but specially shaped torches are used for fire- swallowing.
Use as a signaling device
So-called hand torches are often used as signaling devices . In the modern age, pyrotechnic sets, called from Bengali fire , are used.
However, torches have been used on signal fire mountains since at least the early Middle Ages. Field names like Vogelsang were also derived from signal fireplaces ( sengen and Fackel , especially in southern German dialects Fåckel ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torch That. In: Digital dictionary of the German language . (The information there on the etymology corresponds to the entry Fackel. In: Wolfgang Pfeifer: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen. 2nd edition. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1993).
- ↑ torch. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 3 : E – research - (III). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1862, Sp. 1227 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ Lemma Fakkel im Ordbog over det danske Sprog (online edition)
- ↑ Lemma fackla in the Svenska Academies ordbok (online edition)
- ↑ Lemma fakkel (toorts) . In: Marlies Philippa et al .: Etymologically Woordenboek van het Nederlands. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2003-2009.
- ↑ Lemma falla 1 in the Gran Diccionari de la llengua Catalana (online edition).
- ↑ bundeswehr.de, The Great Zapfenstreich.
- ↑ Medieval Lexicon: Signalfeuer , accessed on April 10, 2019.
- ↑ Josef Stern: Where rolled Romans wheels: reflections on the history of Roman roads. Volume 24 of the Austrian Archaeological Institute: Special writings. Verlag A. Hartleben - Dr. W. Rob Verlag, 1994, ISBN 978-3-9500221-0-0 .
- ^ Places of power in Tennengau
