Posts Tagged ‘Rome’
History of Sukkot: Festival of Booths
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF SUKKOT: FESTIVAL OF BOOTHS Tonight, at sunset on September 25, begins the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths or the Festival of Tabernacles. We’ve talked about the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; Sukkot, which follows five days later, differs in that it is one of…
Read MoreHistory of the Fall of the Roman Empire: the Short Version
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE On September 4, AD 476, Odoacer captured the city of Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustulus, marking the Fall of the Roman Empire. What do we mean by the Fall of the Roman Empire? First, what do we mean by the Roman Empire? This part of the…
Read MoreHistory of September: The Start of Fall
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF SEPTEMBER ou may have noticed that September sounds like the Latin word for seven. And you’d be perceptive — septem is the Latin word for seven, and this month used to be the seventh month of the ancient Roman calendar. This Latin numbering continues through the year’s remaining months, as highlighted below: octo/eight,…
Read MoreHistory of August: Who Is It Named After?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF AUGUST hat’s in a name? The name of this month was not always August; previously, the Romans referred to it as Sextilis. Because the calendar then started in March, this was the sixth month. This was back in the days of Romulus in 753 B.C., when there were originally ten months (… Sept,…
Read MoreHistory of St. John the Baptist Day: Midsummer
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST DAY Podcast version he Feast of St. John the Baptist, or the Nativity of St John the Forerunner, sometimes called St. John the Baptist Day, is celebrated on June 24 in many places worldwide, though not much in the United States, as we’ll see below. The celebration of…
Read MoreHistory of June
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF JUNE June marks the year’s halfway point, the sixth of the twelve months in the Gregorian calendar we currently use in the West and the earlier Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, the namesake of July. Where do we get the name for June? What’s In A Name? Ovid, author of the…
Read MoreHistory of Mother’s Day: Ancient and Modern
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF MOTHER’S DAY he person who initially was most active in opposing the celebration of Mother’s Day is the very person who started this holiday in the U.S. How did that happen?
Read MoreHistory of Easter: The Players – Where are They Now?
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF EASTER: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PLAYERS AFTERWARD Podcast version ou may be asking yourself, “Self,” you ask, “where are they now?” And well you might ask. What happened to our players AFTER the events in the Easter story?
Read MoreHistory of Easter: Why Bunnies and Eggs?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF EASTER: WHY BUNNIES AND EGGS? Podcast version he most joyous of Christian festivals and one of the first celebrated by Christians across the Roman Empire commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is set on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. Why is Easter celebrated then,…
Read MoreHistory of Good Friday: the Crucifixion of Jesus
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF GOOD FRIDAY Podcast version or centuries, pilgrims have walked the Via Dolorosa, “the way of sorrow” in Jerusalem, following Jesus’s path on Good Friday. Starting at the judgment seat of Pilate at the Antonia Fortress in the eastern part of the city, immediately north of the Temple, the path follows fourteen “Stations…
Read MoreHistory of Herod Antipas: Why Jesus called him That Fox
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF HEROD ANTIPAS Podcast version erod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great (whom we met in the Christmas story) and Malthake. After his father died in 4 B.C., he was made tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea in the Trans-Jordan area of Israel, which he ruled as a client state of the…
Read MoreHistory of Pontius Pilate: His Background Before Good Friday
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF PONTIUS PILATE Poscast version he Roman governor who presided over Jesus’s trial and ordered his crucifixion had a complex background. The name Pontius Pilate provides two valuable clues to his background and ancestry. The family name Pontius was that of a prominent clan among the Samnites, the hill cousins of the Latin Romans. They…
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