Turkey Elections: Opposition Lead in Polls Against Erdogan

Matthew Norman
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Turkey Elections: Opposition Lead in Polls Against Erdogan
Erdogan Turkey
Local elections are underway in Turkey, with the main opposition party currently leading in major cities Istanbul and Ankara. Credit: Turkish Presinency

Turkey’s main opposition party is closing in on victory in the major cities of Istanbul and Ankara, in important local elections that are a test for President Erdogan.

Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who gained control of the city in 2019, said that he was “very happy” so far. Erdogan had made it his goal, one year after securing a thif term as president, to win back the city where he grew up and became mayor.

Supporters of the opposition celebrated as Imamoglu closed in on victory, and with 80 percent of the vote counted in Istanbul, he was almost 10 points ahead of his rival from Erdogan’s AK Party.

In Turkey’s capital Ankara, Imamoglu’s colleague in the secular opposition CHP, Mansur Yavas, was miles ahead of his rival, which led him to declare victory when fewer than half the votes were in.

President Erdogan had led his party’s election campaign in Istanbul, promising a new era in Turkey’s largest city. The result is understood to be a huge blow to the man who has led Turkey for the past 21 years.

Local elections began in Turkey earlier today with the vote a strong indication of President Erdogan’s popularity, deciding who gains control of Istanbul and capital Ankara, both of which he lost in 2019.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to recover control of important urban areas he lost to the opposition five years ago.

Voting stations opened today (Sunday, March 31) at 7am local time in eastern Turkey, with voting in other regions having begun at 8am and ending at 5pm.

The vote is a representation of Erdogan’s popularity and will ultimately determine who gets to control the economic center of Istanbul and the capital Ankara, both of which the president lost in 2019.

The 70-year-old Turkish politician set his aim to take back Istanbul, a city housing 16 million people, where he was born and raised, and where he began his career in politics as mayor in 1994.

“Winning major cities is more of a deal for the opposition, but also it means access to foreign funds, having transnational links with both economic actors and political actors,” Evren Balta, professor of political science at Turkey’s Ozyegin University, told Al Jazeera. “If you are governing a major global city, it means you have visibility in the international scene.”

Background on Turkey’s Local Elections

It is probable that a strong showing for Erdogan’s Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party, or the AK Party, would concretize his goal to bring in a new constitution – one that would represent his conservative values and permit him to rule beyond 2028, when his current term ends, analysts say.

For the opposition, largely divided and demoralized after a loss in last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, holding onto Istanbul and Ankara would be a huge boost and help remobilize supporters.

Around 61 million people, including more than a million first-time voters, are eligible to cast ballots for all metropolitan municipalities, town and district mayorships, as well as neighborhood administrations.

During Sunday’s local elections, clashes between two groups in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast left one dead and 12 people wounded, a local official told AFP.

The incident that occurred in Agaclidere village, 30km (18 miles) from the city of Diyarbakir, turned violent and included guns, the official said. One bullet reportedly hit the car of a local journalist.

Turnout for elections is typically high in Turkey, however this time the vote arrives against the backdrop of the stark cost of living crisis. Observers have stated that disillusioned opposition advocates may choose to remain home, full of doubt in its ability to change the situation.

On the other hand, it was thought that governing party supporters might also opt not go to to the polls in protest against the economic downturn that has left many struggling to pay for food, utilities and rent.

Around 594,000 security personnel will be on duty across the country to ensure the vote goes smoothly, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told Al Jazeera.

Polls were pointing to a close race between Istanbul’s incumbent mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, of the main opposition, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the AK Party’s candidate Murat Kurum, a former urbanisation and environment minister.

Manuscript of Ancient Greek Astronomer Ptolemy Finally Deciphered

Tasos Kokkinidis
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Manuscript of Ancient Greek Astronomer Ptolemy Finally Deciphered
ancient Greek Ptolemy manuscript
Ptolemy was one of the most influential Greek astronomers and geographers of his time. Public Domain

Researchers have managed to decipher the manuscript of the ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy 200 years after its discovery.

The manuscript is thought to have been written during the first century AD and was discovered by a Roman Catholic cardinal Angelo Mai in 1819.

The findings were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Archive for History of Exact Sciences.

Ptolemy’s manuscript on an instrument called Meteoroscope

The effort to decipher this ancient Ptolemy manuscript was the culmination of over 200 years of work from numerous different researchers.

This was because someone literally wrote on top of it. In addition, as the Jerusalem Post reports, someone tried to “clean” the parchment to make Ptolemy’s original writing clearer by applying a reagent to several pages. This not only didn’t make the original writing clearer, but it ended up covering the parchment with dark brown stains that made reading it even more difficult.

Finally, after 200 years, modern methods deciphered the manuscript which contains information regarding a scientific instrument known as a Meteoroscope.

This was a tool used by astronomers in antiquity to study stars and distances. In particular, Ptolemey’s Meteoroscope could be used for a number of applications. These included telling time by predicting the equinox or solstice and ascertaining one’s latitude and the location of a planet.

Armillary Sphere at the San Jacinto Battle Field in La Porte, Texas
Armillary Sphere at the San Jacinto Battle Field in La Porte, Texas. Credit: Jim Evans , CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikipedia

What hadn’t survived was detailed information about what the Meteoroscope looked like and how it worked, other than the fact that it involved nine rings. However, that mystery might finally be solved.

According to the translated text, the Meteoroscope’s nine rings had the following names and functions:

  1. Ring bearing a suspension or “bearer”: A fixed ring that was seemingly used to hang it from something
  2. Hektemoros or “six-parter”: A ring fixed perpendicular to the bearer, intersecting it twice and equal in size
  3. “Horizon”: This ring is fixed at the cardinal points to the bearer and the six-parter
  4. “Meridian”: this is located inside the bearer and kept in place by flanges, but its orientation can be adjusted according to latitude
  5. “Revolver: This is inside the meridian ring and pivots on the points representing celestial poles.
  6. “Zodiac”: Equal in size to the revolver, it’s fixed to it at right angles at specific points.
  7. “Astrolabe“: Located inside the revolver and zodiac rings, it pivots on the points representing ecliptic poles.
  8. “Upright”: Located inside the astrolabe and pivoting on the points of the revolver representing celestial poles. It can represent any arbitrary meridian.
  9. “All-tilter”: Located inside the upright and pivoting on the points representing where the abritrary meridian intersects with the equator, it can represent any horizon and set in any plane.

Essentially, the completed Meteoroscope would look like a large series of rings located inside each other, tilting around as needed.

The tool’s construction and usage were detailed in the manuscript, which seems to imply that the treatise was meant to help practitioners use it and to help teachers demonstrate how some conclusions are reached.

Ptolemy propounded the geocentric theory

Ptolemy,  was one of the most influential Greek astronomers and geographers of his time. He propounded the geocentric theory in a form that prevailed for 1400 years. His work has generated more discussion and argument than any other.

Born in Roman-era Alexandria in Egypt, Ptolemy wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic, and Western European science.

The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathēmatikē Syntaxis or Mathematical Treatise, and later known as The Greatest Treatise.

The second is Geography, which is a thorough discussion on maps and the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world.

The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.

The Akathist Hymn: A Lyric Poem of Unparalleled Beauty

Tasos Kokkinidis
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The Akathist Hymn: A Lyric Poem of Unparalleled Beauty
Akathist Hymn
The Akathist Hymn is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The Akathist Hymn, which is chanted on the first five successive Fridays of Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is a profound devotional poem dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Devotional hymns to the Theotokos are as ancient as the first Christian church. The Byzantine Empire from its very inception in Constantinople during the fourth century closely allied itself to the Virgin Mary and always sought Her protection and intercessions.

The Akathist Hymn, which in its present form is the work of many different ecclesiastical hymnographers, existed even before it was formally accepted by the Church in 626 AD.

The Kontakion “To the Invincible Champion… we ascribe the victory” was added at that time.

Akathist Hymn got its name because of a miracle

It came to be known as “The Akathist Hymn” because of the following miracle, which was attributed to the intercession of the Theotokos.

The Emperor of Byzantium Heracleios was starting out on an expedition to fight an incursion of the Persians on their own lands when there suddenly appeared barbaric hordes, consisting mostly of Avars, outside the walls of Constantinople.

The siege lasted several months, and it was apparent that the outnumbered troops of the Queen City were becoming desperate. However, as history records, the faith of its people made the impossible, possible.

The Venerable Patriarch Sergius, accompanied by clergy and the Byzantine official Vonos, marched unceasingly along the great walls of Constantinople, holding an icon of the Theotokos, which bolstered the faith of the defenders of freedom when they saw it. And the hoped-for miracle came soon after.

Suddenly, as the chronicler narrates, a great storm with huge tidal waves destroyed most of the enemy fleet, and a full retreat from Constantinople ensued quickly thereafter.

Seeing this miracle take place before them, the faithful of Constantinople spontaneously ran to the Church of the Theotokos at Vlachernae on the Golden Horn.

With the Patriarch Sergius officiating, they prayed all night, singing praises to the Virgin Mary—without even sitting down. Hence the title of the Hymn “Akathistos,” which means “not seated” in Greek.

Akathist Hymn
Icon of the Akathist of the Theotokos. Fresco detail, 1644. Church of the Deposition of the Robe of the Mother of God, The Kremlin, Moscow. Source: Wikipedia

Honored by other Christians

Although the Akathist is a strictly Orthodox service which originated from a historical event involving Byzantium, it has been highly honored by other Christian denominations.

The deeply emotional poem has been metrically translated by outstanding poets in English, Latin, German, Russian, Rumanian, Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, and other languages.

The great appeal of the Akathist Hymn is due to the lyric quality of the composition, as well as the simplicity of the plot: the happy mystery of the Incarnation of the Logos of God.

This is the theme of a recent presentation on the study of “The Bible as Literature,” by scholar Emmy Karavellas, at Indiana State University.

Karavellas says that it relates to man’s absolute need to glorify and praise what is sacred, and especially the Incarnation of the Lord through the Virgin Mary.

This tendency of mankind to incarnate the supernatural and “immaterialize” what is material gives people a sense of deliverance, which we all seek and yearn for in our lives.

Year after year, people crowd the Orthodox churches on Friday evenings to listen to this wonderful service which has the power to bring human beings closer to their Creator and whose music, rhyme, and meter instill in them a spiritual euphoria.

The iconic hymn has also been sung by popular Greek singer Glykeria.

Truffles: From Ancient Greek Delicacy to Today’s Hunting

Philip Chrysopoulos
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Truffles: From Ancient Greek Delicacy to Today’s Hunting
Truffles
Truffles have great nutritional value. Credit: Meteora Museum

The truffle in ancient Greece was called “Hydnon.” Philosophers, historians, and travelers have praised the rare mushroom with the high nutritional value, aphrodisiac properties, and delicate taste.

Plutarch, Pliny, Cicero, Dioscorides, Theophrastus, Galen, and Athenaeus often mentioned the hydnon (plural hydna) in their writings.

Recent historiographical sources indicate the Babylonians, and, subsequently, the Sumerians were the first to enjoy the earthy delicacy. We can infer that the discovery of truffle and its use on the table dates to the year 3,000 BC.

The first written mention of truffles is made by Theophrastus in the 4th century BC. He wrote about truffles grown in Ilia, Thrace, Mytilene, Samos, and other places across ancient Greece.

Ancient Greek philosophers pondered on the origins of this delicate fungus that grows underground. Mythology has Zeus launching one of his powerful thunderbolts down to earth. The heat of the thunderbolt, along with the natural moisture in the ground, led to the production of the subterranean fungus near an oak tree.

In classical times, Plutarch, Cicero, and Dioscorides, in trying to interpret the inexplicable presence of truffles underground specifically found on the roots of trees, considered them to be the result of lightning falling on the earth.

Latin scholar Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) in his book Historie Naturalis described the tuber, as truffles were called at the time, as a miraculous product of nature that sprouted and grew without roots. Athenaeus (170-223 AD) in his book Deipnosophists, considered the first cookery book, devotes several pages to truffles.

Ancient Athenians appreciated the truffle to the point of granting honorary citizenship on a certain Cherippo for having invented new and tasty recipes based on the underground  ingredient.

Greek philosopher Porphyry (234-305 AD) called truffles “the children of the gods” and Cicero (106-43 BC)”daughters of the earth.” Nero valued them as “food of the gods.”

What exactly are truffles?

Growing underground, truffles are mushrooms ,and, like all fungi, they do not have basic  vegetative organs such as roots, stem, and seeds in the botanical sense of the term, as is the case with phanerogamous – spermatophytes.

Dioskouridis and Theophrastus, as botanists, gave the description of truffles with wonderful precision and brevity. “The hydno is a round root without leaves, without a stem, yellowish, which is uprooted in the spring. It is edible and can be eaten raw or cooked,” Dioskouridis wrote.

According to Theophrastus, “The hydno has neither stem, nor branch, nor twig, nor leaf, nor flower, nor fruit, nor skin or heart wood or fibers or vessels.” The origin of the fungus  remained unexplained for quite a long time, and botanists faced many difficulties until they determined the true nature of these mushrooms.

The apparent absence of any kind of reproductive organ has been the main obstacle to explaining their manner of reproduction and gives the impression that truffles are  randomly created on earth. The spores of mushrooms, in general, in contrast to the seeds of flowering plants, are microscopic and invisible to the naked eye, and the world was almost oblivious to their existence before the microscope was discovered.

Truffles, like all other mushrooms, multiply with spores, which are produced in special ascomorphic reproductive organs and are almost always dispersed on the earth by natural factors, such as wind and water. One cannot help but admire the perspicacity of our ancestors, who, despite the level of scientific research of that time, correctly supported the origin of truffles from seeds.

Truffles are macroscopically distinguished by the coloring and morphology of their skin, which is smooth or rough, and white, tan, or black in color.

Truffle Hunting
Truffle hunting in Meteora. Credit: Efi Pantazi / Greek Reporter

Truffle hunting in Meteora

Today, truffles are found in many gourmet tables across Greece. Truffle hunting has become a game with delicious culinary rewards. It is also a profit-making enterprise that finds new fans every year.

The Natural History Museum of Meteora and the Mushroom Museum organize the Truffle hunting in Meteora every year. In the beautiful forests of the area, at a very short distance from Kalambaka, visitors can enjoy a unique truffle hunt.

The area of Meteora is ideal for truffle hunting. It has wild truffles, and accessibility is quite easy, as a bus coach may conveniently make its way there. Visitors may partake in truffle hunting either in combination with visiting monasteries and other attractions or as an independent activity.

Truffle hunting
Truffle hunting in Meteora. Credit: Efi Pantazi / Greek Reporter

There is a trained truffle hunter with his truffle dogs, and the search begins immediately in each corner of the forest. Visitors enjoy following the dogs that never stop searching. The animals find the truffles and hunters take them to the chefs. The rest belongs to the chefs who start cooking the famous truffle pasta.

Chefs tell the secret of how to make pasta with truffles and offer hunters different kinds of wild mushrooms for tasting. Bottles of wine are opened and hunters enjoy a great meal of new flavors.

Truffle hunting
Truffle hunting in Meteora. Credit: Efi Pantazi / Greek Reporter

The Mushroom Museum

What follows is the visit to the Mushroom Museum. It is a tour of various types of mushrooms focusing on the nutritional and therapeutic value of each fungus. Finally, visitors may choose from seventy traditional kinds of mushroom and truffle products.

The whole program takes about three hours and is available at all hours of the day. Visitors may join either in groups of up to fifty people or private groups of up to ten. School groups may attend at a reduced price.

The hunting season runs from March until the end of October. Off season visits can be arranged after negotiation.

For further information, those interested in learning more may consult the website or get in touch through email or by phone as detailed below.

Websites: www.meteoramuseum.gr, www.trufflehunting.net                                        Emails: info@meteoramuseum.gr, info@trufflehunting.net                                        Phone: (+30) 24320 24959

When Exactly Did Jesus Christ Die?

Caleb Howells
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When Exactly Did Jesus Christ Die?
Jesus Christ Crucifixion
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the two thieves. Credit: Travis / flickr CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED

Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus of Nazareth was executed by the Romans. The traditional year in which he is believed to have died is 33 CE. However, some modern sources say that he died in 30 CE. What does the evidence really show? Do we even have enough evidence to be able to say with certainty when Jesus Christ really died?

The fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius

The first-century accounts of Jesus’ life, the four gospels, provide us with some helpful chronological information. The first piece of information is about when Jesus started his preaching work.

In the Book of Luke, we learn that John the Baptist began his preaching in the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius. Since Tiberius became emperor in September of the year 14 CE, his fifteenth year would run from September 28th to September 29th CE.

Therefore, we know that John the Baptist began his preaching somewhere within that timeframe. Jesus, meanwhile, started his work some time after John. The Bible does not tell us exactly how long passed between the two, but the gospels’ description of John’s work suggests it lasted for at least several months before Jesus came on the scene.

Within the governorship of Pontius Pilate

With this information in mind, we can see that the start of Jesus’ preaching cannot realistically be placed before the start of 29 CE. But what about the end of his life? According to the gospels and the Roman historian Tacitus, Roman governor Pontius Pilate was the one who ordered the execution of Jesus.

The gospels specifically present Pilate as being the governor of Judea when Jesus died. Historically, we know he was the governor of Judea from 26 to 36 CE. By combining these two chronological markers, we can see roughly when Jesus must have died. It must have been after 29 CE but before 36 CE. Can we get even more specific than that?

A Passover when Jesus Christ died

Gospel accounts provide yet another very important piece of information about when Jesus died. They tell us that he died on the same Jewish day as the Passover. This was the religious festival held on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month Nisan. It existed to commemorate the Exodus.

On the night before he died, Jesus gathered with his apostles for the Passover meal. Since the Jewish days lasted from sunset to sunset, it was still the same Jewish day (the day of the Passover) the following morning and afternoon. It was during that afternoon that Jesus died. Therefore, Jesus died on the day of Passover.

Of course, Passover occurred every year, so this might not seem very helpful. However, it fell on a different day of the week each year just like Christmas. This is a very useful fact.

A great Sabbath

The Book of John mentions that the day after Jesus’ death was a “great Sabbath.” The day after Passover was always a Sabbath. However, when that day happened to coincide with the regular Sabbath (that is, Saturday), this made it a “great Sabbath.”

In other words, the fact that the day after Jesus’ execution was a “great Sabbath” shows that Jesus died on a Friday. This allows us to narrow down when these events occurred.

Recall that Jesus must have died between 29 and 36 CE. Within those years, there were only two times in which the Passover fell on a Friday (beginning Thursday evening). This occurred in 30 CE and in 33 CE. Of the two of them, which one is the best match for when Jesus really died?

Jesus preached for several years before he died

Again, the gospel accounts make the answer to this very clear. The records of his activities, with all the travel that was involved and all the work that was done to build up his following, make it clear that it did not involve a period of just one year.

However, beyond just seeming implausible, the gospels directly rule out this possibility. In the Book of John, we find at least three, possibly four, references to sequential Passovers. Remember that Passover was an annual festival. Therefore, Jesus’ preaching work lasted for parts of at least three years or even four.

With this in mind, since his preaching started in 29 CE at the earliest, it is impossible for him to have died in 30 CE. Thus, the only possible conclusion for when Jesus Christ died must be the year 33 CE. In that year, the daylight portion of the day of the Passover fell on April 1st in our Gregorian calendar. In the Julian calendar (often used in historical contexts), this would be April 3rd.

Greece Arrests Member of Gang That Made $21b from Illegal Fuel Sales

Matthew Norman
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Greece Arrests Member of Gang That Made $21b from Illegal Fuel Sales
Gas pipeline
Greece arrests senior member of gang which made $21b from illegal fuel product sales. Credit: Public Domain

Greek authorities took into custody a senior member of an international criminal gang that smuggled Latin American fuel products for illegal sale across the globe, making an estimated profit of more than $21 billion, police said on Saturday.

The arrested gang member is an Italian national whom Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for – he was found in a southern Athens suburb on Friday, a police official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

The warrant ordered the gang member’s arrest and his extradition to Venezuela to be tried for crimes including the illegal transport and trade of resources and strategic importance, the official said.

The criminal organization stole the fuel products that were loaded onto its oil tankers from ports in Latin America, and turned off tracking transponders to keep shipping brokers out of the know, police said in a statement.

The gang made a profit of more than $21 billion from the smuggling, causing harm to both brokers and their countries, police said.

Other Gang-Related Fuel Fraud Operations

Back in 2020, law enforcement authorities from 23 EU Member States struck a blow at organized crime gangs involved in fuel fraud by arresting 59 individuals in a year-long operation. The joint operation was supported by Europol as part of the European multidisciplinary platform against criminal threats (EMPACT).

The operation, led by the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration (Nemzeti Adó- és Vámhivatal, NTCA) and the Slovak Financial Administration (Finančná správa Slovenskej republiky), began in early 2019, based on intelligence on the modus operandi, routes, types of products and economic operators involved in this particular type of fuel fraud.

Fuel fraud gangs is a growing phenomenon and typically involves base-oil fraud, also known as designer fuel fraud. This type of fraud requires relevant expertise and is usually only available from trained chemists. Designer fuel is a mixed product, which in some cases is exempt from tax in the EU.

To avoid that the fuel is subject to excise regime once on the market, criminals produce a mixture of gas oil and other added compounds to modify the final physical features of the product, and they can sell it in the black market.

Europol’s Analysis Project (AP) Smoke has supported the operation throughout with SIENA (Europol’s secure platform for information exchange) and facilitating international cooperation between the involved Member States, running cross-checks and providing analytical support and operational expertise. The Customs Cooperation Working Party (CCWP) and the World Customs Organization (WCO) also supported the initiative.

One of the national highlights of the initiative was in Italy in October 2019, when complex investigative work performed by the Italian Finance Corps (Guardia di Finanza) resulted in the apprehension of six individuals from gangs, the seizure of over 86,000 litres of designer fuel and 12 vehicles, and the dismantling of huge storage facilities in the province of Naples.

Did Easter Come From an Ancient Greek Festival?

Caleb Howells
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Did Easter Come From an Ancient Greek Festival?
Statue of the Greek hunting goddess Artemis.
Statue of the Greek goddess of hunting Artemis. Credit: Mark Cartwright/CC BY-SA 4.0

Easter is traditionally known as the annual festival to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, scholars have long linked the customs involved in this celebration with pagan festivals that already existed before Jesus.

Could an ancient Greek festival have influenced the development of Easter? This article will examine some of the evidence for this possible connection.

The non-Christian origin of Easter

First of all, what is the basis for saying that Easter is not simply a festival that emerged naturally out of Christian tradition? One simple basis for this conclusion is that there is no Christian tradition from which it could have emerged.

Some researchers like to say that it came from the custom of celebrating the Lord’s Evening Meal once a year. This was something that Jesus specifically said to keep on doing, and we know that the early Christians did this once a year. However, this was the commemoration of his death, not his resurrection.

Regarding the association between rabbits or hares and Easter, some researchers claim that this comes from the fact that hares were believed to reproduce asexually, meaning without a partner. This would link well with the concept of the Virgin Mary. The obvious problem with this explanation is that Easter is supposed to be about Jesus’ resurrection, not his birth.

The simple reality is that there no basis for an annual celebration of Jesus’ resurrection in early Christian tradition, nor for many of the specific customs associated with Easter. However, we do know that from the late-first century onwards, the Christians started adopting philosophies and customs from the Greeks and the Romans, as well as from others.

Eostre, Anglo-Saxon goddess of the spring

In particular, scholars have linked the celebration of Easter to the festival dedicated to Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess. At least, the name ‘Easter’ allegedly came from this, as well as at least some of the customs.

Then, for many decades in the 20th century, scholars doubted the existence of this goddess. She is only known through the writings of Bede, an English historian from the eighth century. Some suggested that Bede made her up entirely.

Unfortunately, this outdated opinion is still very popular among the general public, but scholarship has long since moved on. Inscriptions from the Roman period attest to the existence of cognate Germanic goddesses.

Furthermore, linguistic evidence demonstrates very clearly the fact that Eostre is merely the Anglo-Saxon expression of a goddess that we see across numerous Indo-European cultures. She is cognate with the Greek Eos, the Roman Aurora, the Scandivania Austri, and numerous other well-attested deities.

The ancient Greek festival of Artemis

It is interesting to note that the ancient Greeks had a spring festival to Artemis. Of course, the fact that they had a spring festival in itself is not a significant connection to Easter, since the Greeks had festivals at various times throughout the year. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of them was at about the same time as Easter.

What is significant is that this festival was dedicated to Artemis, to whom the hare was sacred. According to one encyclopedia:

“Thus, the fertile hare served as attribute and messenger of Artemis.”

Another interesting fact about this festival is that the Greeks would offer bread to Artemis during their festival to her. This is interesting because bread has a strong connection to Easter. Not only are there the famous hot-cross buns, but various countries around Europe also have specific breads for Easter.

Artemis in Britain

It also might be significant that the hare had associations with another goddess who may have been worshipped at spring. In Britain, there was a goddess called Andraste. One Roman source mentions that the war leader Boudicca called on Andraste after releasing a hare. This suggests that the hare was sacred to Andraste.

Notably, Andraste herself was worshipped in Britain during the Roman period as a combination with Diana. This was the Roman version of Artemis. This reinforces the connection between Artemis and hares.

Although we cannot be certain whether this means that Andraste was worshipped in the spring like Artemis was, it is a reasonable conclusion. After all, spring is when nature seems to come to life. Therefore, it is only logical that Artemis, the goddess of the wilderness and wildlife, would be worshipped at that time of year. Since the Romano-Britons identified Andraste with Artemis, the two deities evidently had similar attributes.

All in all, we do not know the whole story behind exactly which festivals and customs led to the development of Easter. Nonetheless, it is a distinct possibility that the popular spring festival of Artemis, for whom the hare was a sacred animal and for whom bread was offered, had an impact on the creation of Easter among lands with a strong Greek connection.

Australian Magnate Reaffirms Commitment to Building Titanic II

Matthew Norman
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Australian Magnate Reaffirms Commitment to Building Titanic II
Titanic
Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer has reaffirmed his commitment to building Titanic II. Credit: public domain

Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer, who has been pitching the idea of building a ‘Titanic II’ since 2012, a hundred years since the original ship sank, has recently reaffirmed his commitment to the project, saying it will be an antidote to woke politics.

The original Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people who were aboard, and Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer is still proposing the construction of a replica of the original RMS Titanic, but nothing has yet been done.

The mining magnate first announced his plans in 2012, with the future Titanic II, if it comes to fruition, being operated by his company Blue Star Line. The company would create a historically accurate tribute to its namesake even down to the not-so-roomy steerage cabins.

There will reportedly be some changes to ensure the ship reaches its destination this time with Palmer promising it will be fit with cutting-edge navigation equipment, safety systems, and lots of lifeboats.

Amid the several setbacks in the project, including payment disputes and scrapped plans to build in a Chinese shipyard, not a lot of the core idea has been altered, with Palmer repudiating skeptics by reminding them that he has the money and determination to finish the project.

The only difference now seems to be that Palmer, who in the last ten years has served in Australian parliament and chaired a right-wing political party he founded, describes the symbolism of Titanic II, and the original, in a clearer way.

The symbolism of Titanic II according to Palmer

During a press conference earlier this month at the Sydney Opera House, Palmer reaffirmed his commitment to building Titanic II, saying it would be a beacon of hope amid war in Ukraine and Gaza. He also asserted it would bring people together after the period of Covid lockdowns and would embody traditional values rather than “woke” politics.

Speaking about traditional values instead of “woke” values in an interview with Rolling Stone, Palmer said, “There’s been a concept in society that you can cancel people. I think you know what I mean by ‘canceled’ people, and we think that’s a terrible concept.”

He added that “the United States was founded on the rights of men to be different. The diversity that we’ve had in our economy, in our intellectual development has really meant that’s developed our society to a higher level. I’m talking about Western society in general. So the French Revolution, the American Revolution, all those things were brought about by individuals [claiming] their rights to express an opinion or view. I mean, you should have the right to be wrong.”

Palmer also told the magazine that he has allocated a couple of hundred million dollars to the project and added that there’s more available if needed. Additionally, he said vaccine requirements will not be in place for Titanic II, stating, “We won’t have any. We don’t believe people should be compelled. You might be aware of it, but I recently funded a case in Queensland where we had the vaccines declared unlawful because we believe that impeded on individual choice and freedom. And the courts agreed with us as well, the superior court—so it’s the first in the world.”

But he does stress that people who are vaccinated are still very welcome to come aboard.

Poland PM Urges Leaders to Ready for War in Europe

Matthew Norman
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Poland PM Urges Leaders to Ready for War in Europe
Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk has warned that war in Europe is a real possibility.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that war in Europe is a real possibility. CC BY 2.0/flickr

Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk has warned that all-out war is a strong possibility in the near future, and Russia must not defeat Ukraine. Otherwise, it could destabilize the whole of Europe.

The Polish Prime Minister said war was “no longer a concept from the past,” adding “it’s real and it started over two years ago.” Tusk’s remarks came in the wake of Russia’s massive attack on Ukraine’s energy system on Thursday, March 28th.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that Moscow had “no aggressive intentions” towards NATO countries. He added that the idea that Russia, armed with one of Europe’s and the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, would attack Poland, the Baltic states, and the Czech Republic—all members of the NATO alliance—in an act of war, was “complete nonsense.”

But he did warn that if Ukraine uses Western F-16 warplanes from airfields in other countries, they would become “legitimate targets, wherever they might be located.” On the heel of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, relations with the West have reached their lowest point since the tragic days of the Cold War.

Nearly a hundred missiles and drones were employed by Russia in its latest attack on neighboring Ukraine, which left a number of areas with partial blackouts. It was the second attack of its kind in which Russia fired a large number of weapons at the same time to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses in the space of a week.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has coined the tactic “missile terror” and claims attacks on hydro-electric power plants could lead to a major environmental disaster. Speaking to the BBC, the mayor of Kharkiv, a city where small businesses are running on generators and industry is suffering due to blackouts, said the damage to the grid was “very serious” and could take two months to fully recover.

The escalating situation in Ukraine and the possibility of war in Europe

Tusk warned that the next two years would be critical to determining the future of this pre-war era in Europe, saying, “We are living in the most critical moment since the end of the Second World War.”

During his bleak commentary on the security of Europe, he highlighted that Russia had attacked Kyiv with hypersonic missiles in daylight for the first time in the war. He commented that Putin’s efforts to blame Ukraine for the jihadist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall with no evidence showed the Russian President “evidently feels the need to justify increasingly violent attacks on civil targets in Ukraine.”

Tusk has urged leaders around Europe to bolster their defenses, saying that the continent did not need to create “parallel structures to NATO” but it would be a more attractive partner to the US if it became more self-sufficient militarily regardless of which candidate wins the US presidential election in November.

Poland now spends four percent of its economic output on defense, while many European nations have not yet achieved the NATO target of two percent.

Greek Journalist Acquitted After Challenging Jerusalem Holy Fire Miracle

Matthew Norman
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Greek Journalist Acquitted After Challenging Jerusalem Holy Fire Miracle
Hundreds of religious people gather every year to experience the tradition of holy fire in Jerusalem.
Hundreds of religious people gather every year to experience the tradition of Holy Fire in Jerusalem. Credit: sharbm75. CC BY 2.0/flickr

Greek journalist Dimitris Alikakos, who had been in a five-year legal battle with the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem for “fabricating evidence” to prove the Holy Fire in Jesus’s tomb does not ignite miraculously but through the use of matches, has been acquitted.

Alikakos walked out of the court in Athens yesterday (Friday, March 29) leaving behind the shackles of prosecution for the first time in nearly half a decade.

The Greek journalist had been in a legal battle with the Jerusalem Patriarchate, the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Land, and several of its priests since 2019, when he published a book challenging the miracle of the Holy Fire, the flames that emerge on Great Saturday, the day before Easter, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus is said to have been resurrected.

The blue light is said to have emitted within Jesus’s tomb, rising from the marble slab covering the stone bed believed to be that upon which Jesus’s body is to have been placed for burial. The Greek state in cooperation with the Greek Orthodox Church arranges an elaborate ceremony each year for the arrival of the Holy Fire to Athens and to the rest of the country.

Following a visit to Jerusalem in 2018 to investigate the ritual, Alikakos wrote a book titled Redemption—About the Holy Light, in which he gathered testimonies from people involved in the process of touching the light, such as guardians of the Holy Sepulcher and Patriarchs. These testimonies led to the conclusion, as some of them admit, that it is not a miracle but rather the touch is facilitated by human intervention.

What did Alikakos’s book claim about the Holy Fire in Jerusalem?

In his book, Alikakos presents an interview with the skeuophylax Archbishop Isidoros of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in which the latter admits that the “Sleepless Candle,” which he himself places in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the morning of the Holy Saturday, is ignited by him with a lighter.

The former (1984–1988) skeuophylax (chamberlain) Archbishop Nikiforos makes the same acknowledgement with the only difference being that he uses matches.

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He said he would never accept that the Holy Fire was a miracle. “Miracles happen when God decides, Not when we decide…Such “miracles” are performed by charlatans and magicians, not the Church. “Our faith cannot be based on scams,” Nikiforos said.

Alikakos also posted videos on YouTube showing testimony that the priests themselves lit the flames.

The Jerusalem patriarchate hit back at Alikakos’ claims about the Holy Fire, publishing a statement in 2019 which read, “What is written in the disputed book is the product of fictional stories invented by the author with the obvious aim of scandalizing the faithful and obtaining financial benefit from the sales of the book.”

It was said the timing of the book’s release, just before Easter, was proof of “the deeper motives of the author and the publishing house.”

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