Skip to main content

Umbrella | Religion

 

Umbrella or parasol appears in many belief systems both as a spiritual symbol and physical object carried in religious events, rituals, and festivals. In Ancient Greece, the followers of Dionysus were carrying parasols in bright colors in festivals and processions. More significantly, the carriage of parasols was associated with Skirophoria an Athenian agricultural festival held in the month of final harvest corresponding to May or June. In this festival, the priestess of Athena and the priests of Poseidon and Helios were walking from the Acropolis to a place called Skiron under the cover of a large white umbrella symbolizing the protection of the Attic soil against the burning sun rays. Skirophoria was organized by only Athenian women and dedicated to Demeter who is the goddess of fruitfulness and her daughter Persephone indicating the interpretation of the white umbrella as a pray toward the gods for fertility. The white parasol arises as a deity in Buddhism called “Ushnisha Sitatapatra” which means “The Victorious White Parasol”. In this case, the parasol she carries symbolizes protection from diseases and catastrophes while white color is referring to peace and pacification as her method of protection. Additionally, the umbrella is one of the “eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism” which are a set of objects that were believed to be representative of enlightenment. In Buddhism, the open form of umbrella is considered as the dome of the sky that protects the earth by shadowing it, and the pole symbolizes the axis-mundi that is believed to be the connection between heaven and earth. Therefore, the umbrella is thought to be a mobile temple. Since the umbrella is one of the main symbols in Buddhism, this object can be seen in various religious ceremonies yet its size, color, or material varies. I think the most interesting tradition including this object is the ritual of burning a red umbrella thirty-five days after a funeral.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Magical Umbrella

Have you ever seen an umbrella that opens by itself when there is rain? It would sound ridiculous when one argues that he saw one in real life as if it can only be happening in some kind of a mythological story or in a fairytale that is made to be read by children. This magical object in vast size that one can not see its end, was there to protect all from a sudden change that no one can interfere with. First, people on earth could not understand how it intuits whether it is raining or not. One day, the umbrella stopped closing after the rain, then it became a dome for grounders as would sky. After a long time passes they forgot all about rain and sun rays by adopting it. Then imagine that the protector of yours has disappeared out of the blue, after all of the efforts you put collaboratively to beautify what you had. Now, you do not have anything on the ground to hide from the burning sun shining towards you as like you are under the spotlight on the stage. You are all wet under the r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Umbrella | Project Construction

The project, which has not been entitled yet, aims to construct a black umbrella that can be opened and closed autonomously. This umbrella opens and plays the song called “Katibim” when there is rain in Üsküdar. The song stops simultaneously with the closure of the umbrella when the rain stops. The size of the umbrella has been decided to be three times bigger than the usual personal umbrellas, since the relation between the installed object and where it has been placed has been taken into consideration, and it is meant to be a public umbrella that can cover many. The ready-made garden umbrella is bought yet its original plastic end tip will be replaced by hand made wooden one, and also a handle made of wood will be attached to that in order to present a huge version of an individual one rather than a garden umbrella. Additionally, the cloth of the umbrella will be modified accordingly. Raspberry Pi, a small single-board computer, has been used in the project for the creation of an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Umbrella | Political References

The umbrella can protect people from various factors as well as the rain and sun. In 2014, umbrellas gained the mission of protecting the crowd from pepper spray and rubber bullets during the protests in Hong Kong regarding more transparent elections, which were later named “The Umbrella Movement”. The object, particularly the yellow ones, became a symbol for protests and in general used as a tool for passive resistance. In 2019, during the time of the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement again in Hong Kong, the object carried the importance of collective expression, privacy, and self-defense for protesters in the same manner yet umbrellas have been labeled as weapons by police forces so that the ordering of the object from e-commerce platforms like AliExpress was banned. Beyond being a symbol of resistance, umbrellas were used as camouflage to provide privacy for protesters, as a shield and defense mechanism for protection against police forces as the people from protests clai...
Post a Comment
Read more