Monthly Archives: April 2014
257.WHO WAS BUDDHA?
Buddhism is one of the great religions of the world. Most of its followers live in Ceylon, China, Japan, Korea, and Thailand, but there are Buddhists everywhere.
The founder of this religion was Prince Gautama Siddhartha, born to luxury. One day, as he left his palace he saw three men, one very sick, one very old, and one dead. Very disturbed by this evidence of man’s suffering, he began to wonder how man might find true and lasting happiness.
256.WHEN WERE THE WEDDING RINGS FIRST WORN?
The wearing of a wedding ring is one of the oldest and most universal customs of mankind. The tradition goes back so far that no one can really tell how it first began.
The fact that the ring is a circle may be one reason why it began to be used. The circle is a symbol of completeness. In connection with marriage, it represents the rounding out of the life of a person. We can see how a man without a wife, or a woman without a husband, could have been considered incomplete people. When they are married they make a complete unit, which the circle of the ring symbolizes.
255.WHAT IS THE WILL-O’-THE WISP?
If man didn’t have a wonderful power of imagination, we’d probably have no superstitions at all. Also, if people didn’t learn more and more about certain things that happen in nature, these superstitions would probably never die.
The will-o’-the-wisp has been the subject of many amazing superstitions for hundreds of years. There are many tales told of travelers who lost their way in swamps and marshes by following a blue flame that seemed to dance ahead of them. This was the will-o’-the-wisp, or jack-o’-lantern, and it was supposed to be an evil spirit that lured men to their death.
