Olympics Games Should It Not Be Olympics Festivals

What we know about the ancient Greek history today â€Å"survived either by pure chance or for literally reasons unconnected with their historical significance† (Crawford and Whitehead ix). Among the interesting activities in the contemporary society that interest me is claim that Olympic Games have its origins in Greek ancient history. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Olympics Games: Should It Not Be Olympics Festivals? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More But does it really? Well, olympiakoi agones is the exact world that supposedly translate to ‘Olympic Games’ (Young 4). However, on more investigation, I am led to believe that while Olympic is actually an exact translation from olympiakoi, the term ‘games’ is not an exact translation from the Greek word agones. In fact, (Young 4) observes that agones is better translated as â€Å"struggles†, â€Å"pains† or â€Å"c ontests†. Following the revelations about the not-so-accurate translation of the term olympiakoi agones, it could then be that the claim that Olympic Games has its genesis in Southwest Greece more than 2,700 years ago, is more of an association of activities rather than a reality. I say this because olympiakoi agon was a religious festival, which was to say the least, not associated with sports, or games for that matter. If anything, it appears that the festival was a struggle, or a contest that would involve play at some point in honor of Zeus (Young 4). Olympic Games as we know them today, involves struggles, contents and even some pains, which are often seen as means to the Olympic medals. Digressing to the definition of the word ‘games’, it appears that activities that qualify as games are not strictly meant to be competitive, and neither are they even meant to be painful or involving struggle (Wittgenstein 33e). At the very basics, games are a way of passin g time and enjoying one self, but them again, there is no an accepted definition of the world games and so I could be wrong. Consider the philosophical thoughts of (Wittgenstein 33e) who argues that explaining what a game is to someone who has no idea is a hard task because â€Å"we do not know the boundaries because none has been drawn†. In other words, no boundaries of description has been drawn to the definition of the word games; as such, activities as diverse as playing cards, playing with words, or playing with balls can be described as card games, word games or ball games respectively. Following this line of thinking, I therefore suppose that the fact that Olympic festivals involved different forms of play is what led historians to relate it with the games as we know them today, and even associate the games’ history to ancient Greece, and hence Olympics.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OF F Learn More Considering the above arguments, I am convinced that the only thing that the Olympic festivals in ancient Greece and the contemporary Olympic games share in common is the frequency of being held every four years, and perhaps the name Olympic. I draw the notion that the frequency of the Olympic festivals and the Olympic Games is alike from the understanding that Greeks’ calculate time intervals inclusively. Beyond that, neither the intent nor the activities in both set of Olympics are similar. Even the inclusion of athletics in olympiakoi agones is contested by (Young 8) who observes that Homer- one of the historians who has written about athletic scenes in the ancient Greece- cannot be taken as an authentic memory of the same, because â€Å"rather than preserving a memory of athletics centuries earlier, he represents athletics in his own time† (Young 8). Yet, it is from Homer’s writing that the contests and games associated with the Olympic s (both the festivals and the contemporary games) are drawn. For example, it is observed that Homer’s poems paint the aristocratic warriors as â€Å"channeling their aggression and mutual rivalry into games and contests† whenever â€Å"they were not on the battlefield† (Crawford and David 46). This then means that if Homer cannot be taken as an authority in telling us about the Olympic athletics, even less should we believe any texts that generally take his writings as absolute truth. I also agree with Glass (155-156 cited by Young 19) who argues that a significant number of texts are unreliable despite modern authors believing in them. The generalizations that link the contemporary Olympic Games to the ancient Olympic festivals seem to have been taken from such ancient texts. In my view, the generalizations are not only anachronistic, but also wrong. But again, I too could be wrong. Overall, I hold the opinion that the olympiakoi agones (if it indeed happened) must have provided the participants and onlookers with a chance to compete and contest for whatever rewards there were (including olive tree crowns) as indicated by (Crawford and Whitehead 48). However, the activities that people in ancient Greece participated in during the festivals may never be absolutely known by the contemporary scholars because there is a possibility that much of the knowledge passed down the generations has been people’s inventions rather than factual. As such, the claim that the Olympics Games tradition goes back to the ancient Greece history is in my opinion, overstretching the truth.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Olympics Games: Should It Not Be Olympics Festivals? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Works Cited Crawford, David, and David Whitehead. Archaic and Classical Greece: A Selection of Ancient Sources in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1983. Print. Wittgenstein, Lu dwig. Philosophical Investigations. Trans. GEM Anscombe. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1958. Young, David. A Brief History of the Olympic Games. London: John Wiley Sons, 2004. Print. This essay on Olympics Games: Should It Not Be Olympics Festivals? was written and submitted by user Tamia V. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Day Of The Dead Essays - Mexican Culture, Mexican Art, Halloween

The Day Of The Dead Essays - Mexican Culture, Mexican Art, Halloween The Day Of The Dead Day of the Dead Imagine yourself in a cemetery, commemorating your great-grandpa. Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is celebrated in Mexico on November 2nd. The Day of the Dead is one of Mexico's traditional holidays reuniting and honoring beloved ancestors, family, and friends. To begin, the historical roots of this celebration date back to the pre-Hispanic cultures of Meso-America of the indigenous people, especially the Nahua (Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecas, Tlaxcaltec, Chichimec, Tecpanec) and others native to Mexico more than 3,000 years ago. Life was seen as a dream. It was believed that only in dying, a human being was truly awake. Death was not a mysterious and fearful presence but a realistic recognizable character as much a part of life as life itself. When Christianity was introduced in the 16th century, religion and its symbols became part of the altars we now find in Mexico today. November 1st, All Saints Day, is when the spirits of the children, called los angelitos (little angels), are expected to return. Traditionally, it is a time when family members share memorable stories that would commemorate their lives together. Secondly, there are many items that people do to celebrate the Day of the Dead. On November 2, family members clean and perhaps paint the headstones, arrange flowers, and lighting candles. Mexican families construct special home altars dedicated to the spirits of their deceased loved ones. The altars range from simple to the very elaborate and are usually filled with objects that provided pleasure to the departed person in life, including favorite food and drink. Altars dedicated to the spirits of deceased children often include toys, candy and other sweets. I think that building alters for the dead is a good concept. They teach the younger generations about the past, as well as commemorate the dead. No matter what kind of a person was, everyone leaves behind a legend. Some books, for example, are biographies, praising and telling about a person in the past or present. Like a book, the alters tell the history of a person. The alters tell a story of the dead individual. Alters tell the age, their likes, and many other interesting facts about the dead individuals life. I think that these alters compensate the work of an earlier generation. The altars or ofrendas as they are called, also usually contain objects made from sugar or sugar sculpture known as alfenique. These objects may be small animals, such as lambs, miniature plates of food (enchiladas with mole), small coffins, often with pop-up skeletons, and of course, the sugar skull or calavera. The skulls are made by pouring a mixture of boiling water, confectioner's sugar and lime into clay molds, which have been previously soaked in water. The calaveras are decorated with paper foil for eyes and a kind of colored icing for hair. Names can be added to the skull and Mexican children often exchange named skulls with their friends. I think that the skeleton represents the spirit still living after it has left it's flesh on this earth. The spirit of an individual lives on forever. Ofrendas often include papel picado or Mexican cut-paper. Papel picado has a long folk tradition in Mexico and the little town of San Salvador Huixcolotla, in the state of Puebla, is known for its fine cut paper. Although papel picado is used as a decoration for many festive occasions such as weddings and baptisms, papel picado with themes relating to Day of the Dead is also very popular. The Mexican papel picado is similar to origami. Although origami is folded, it too has spiritual meaning. In conclusion, I think that Dias De Los Muertos is important for the family to maintain good relationships with the dead for it is they who intercede and bring food fortune to the living. It is a time to come to terms with our mortality and become aware of cycle of life and death. The Day of the Dead is a day for honoring are beloved ones.