Posted by Solstice at Stonehenge on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:19 | #

DT, ‘Winter solstice 2015: Everything you need to know as people gather at Stonehenge for the shortest day of the year’ 22 Dec 2015:

Google’s new Doodle celebrates the December solstice, marking the longest night and shortest day of the year with the sun at its lowest point in the sky.

Why do people descend on Stonehenge for the winter solstice?

As scores arrive at the prehistoric monument in Wiltshire to mark the shortest day of the year, we explain why the site is of such importance

People gather at Stonehenge in Wiltshire on the Winter Solstice to witness the sunrise on the shortest day of the year (Eddie Mulholland/The Telegraph)

Why is Stonehenge important?

Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument located in Wiltshire, is carefully aligned on a sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset (opposed to New Grange, which points to the winter solstice sunrise, and the Goseck circle, which is aligned to both the sunset and sunrise).

                               

Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC and it is thought that the winter solstice was actually more important to the people who constructed Stonehenge than the Summer solstice.

The winter solstice was a time when cattle was slaughtered (so the animals would not have to be fed during the winter) and the majority of wine and beer was finally fermented.

The sun rises over Salisbury Plain as light illuminates the mist shrouding Stonehenge.

The only other megalithic monuments in the British Isles to contain a clear, compelling solar alignment are Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland and Maeshowe situated on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland.

Both famously face the winter solstice sunrise.

What exactly is the winter solstice?

The December solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth. This year the solstice occurred on Tuesday December 22nd at 04:49 GMT (Universal time) with the sun rising over Stonehenge in Wiltshire at 08:04.

[...]

Posted by Academics Support Aliya on Sat, 26 Dec 2015 14:11 | #

Support Aliya, recognize those diplomas

New Jerusalem Post, ‘Nearly 30,000 Jews immigrated to Israel in 2015,’ 26 Dec 2015:

Aliya has been on the rise in recent years, driven largely by the flow of immigrants from France and Ukraine; IFCJ to double size of its aliya program.

Nearly thirty thousand Jews moved to Israel in 2015, up from 26,500 last year, the Jewish Agency for Israel announced on Thursday

Aliya has been on the rise in recent years, driven largely by the flow of immigrants from France and Ukraine, with this year’s increase following last year’s thirty two percent surge in newcomers, which was at the time characterized by Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky as “a year of record-breaking aliya.”

France became the leading source of immigrants for the first time last year with almost 7,000, double the number from 2013. This year’s numbers mark a ten percent increase over last year, however, with 7,900 French Jews relocating here.

“Each has his or her reason, including the economic crisis, personal security, terrorist attacks, and, in some places and times, an anti-Jewish mood,” agency spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Though not final, the immigration figure falls short of Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky’s prediction after the kosher market attack following the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January that more than 10,000 French Jews would move to Israel this year.

The shortfall may be accounted for by difficulties white collar immigrants face in obtaining employment here, said Dr. Dov Maimon, senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute.

“Dozen of thousands of french Jews have opened files at Jafi and any more investigate Aliyah. Unfortunately the lack of effort to let them work in their professional training in Israel make them reluctant to take the risk of Aliyah,” he said.

“We are are losing an historical opportunity to welcome a very educated aliya because of short term political calculations and inability to oppose the professional [associations]. Netanyahu has invited the french Jews to join the Zionist adventure but didn’t deliver the promises he [made to] them to ease the recognition of diplomas, and ease their relocation (such as decrease taxation to french Jewish companies who want to relocate and create jobs in Israel for their fellow brethren).”

The issue has aroused such anger that this week French Jewish lawmaker Meyer Habib threatened that he would call on French Jews not to make aliya to Israel if the state does not fully recognize French academic degrees.

“If there is no tangible progress on the matter within three months, I will recommend to French Jews to postpone or cancel their aliya,” he said.

Posted by Shchedryk on Sat, 26 Dec 2015 16:30 | #

Although Carol of the Bells and Shchedryk share the same melody, the lyrics of these two songs have nothing in common.

Shchedryk, shchedryk, a shchedrivka [New Year’s carol]

A little swallow flew [into the household]
and started to twitter,
to summon the master:
“Come out, come out, O master [of the household],
look at the sheep pen,
there the ewes are nestling
and the lambkin have been born
Your goods [livestock] are great,
you will have a lot of money, [by selling them]

if not money, then chaff: [from all the grain you will harvest]
you have a dark-eyebrowed [beautiful] wife.”
Shchedryk, shchedryk, a shchedrivka,
A little swallow flew.

“Shchedryk” (from Ukrainian: Щедрий вечiр, “Bountiful Evening”) is a Ukrainian shchedrivka, or New Year’s carol.

It was arranged by composer and teacher Mykola Leontovych in 1916, and tells a story of a swallow flying into a household to sing of wealth that will come with the following spring. “Shchedryk” was originally sung on the night of January 13, New Year’s Eve in the Julian Calendar (December 31 Old Style), which is Shchedry Vechir. Early performances of the piece were made by students at Kyiv University.[1]

“Shchedryk” was later adapted as an English Christmas carol, “Carol of the Bells”, by Peter J. Wilhousky following a performance of the original song by Alexander Koshetz’s Ukrainian National Chorus at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1921. Wilhousky copyrighted and published his new lyrics (which were not based on the Ukrainian lyrics) in 1936, and the song became popular in the United States, where it became strongly associated with Christmas.

Contents

  1 Origins and translation
  2 Comparison of lyrics
  3 See also
  4 References

Origins and translation

Composer Mykola Leontovych

The song is based on a traditional folk chant whose language was thought to have magical properties. The original traditional Ukrainian text used a device known as hemiola in the rhythm (alternating the accents within each measure from 3/4 to 6/8 and back again). The chant based on an ostinato four-note pattern within the range of a minor third is thought to be of prehistoric origins and was associated with the coming New Year which in Ukraine before the introduction of Christianity was originally celebrated in April.

With the introduction of Christianity to Ukraine, the celebration of the New Year was moved from April to January and the holiday the chant describes became associated with the Feast of Epiphany also known in Ukrainian as Shchedry vechir. The songs sung for this celebration are known as Schedrivky.

The original Ukrainian text tells the tale of a swallow flying into a household to proclaim the plentiful and bountiful year that the family will have.”[2] The title is derived from the Ukrainian word for “bountiful.”

In Ukraine, the carol is currently sung on the eve of the Julian New Year (January 13).

The four-note melody over a minor third of the chant was used by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych as an ostinato theme in a number of arrangements he made. The arrangement for mixed voice choir a cappella was popularized by the Ukrainian Republic Capella directed by Oleksander Koshetz when it toured the West after 1920.

The first English language lyrics to Carol of the Bells (a song based on the same melodic ideas) were written in 1936 by Peter Wilhousky of NBC Radio. The song reminded Wilhousky of beautiful ringing bells and he captured that imagery in his lyrics.

Mykola Leontovych’s Assassination

During the conquest of Kiev on August 31, 1919, the Denikin Army persecuted the Ukrainian intelligentsia. Because of this, Leontovych returned to Tulchyn with his family. There he started the city’s first music school, since the college where he worked previously was closed down by the Bolsheviks. He also began to work on his first major symphonic work, the opera Na Rusalchyn Velykden’ (On the water nymph’s Great Day).

During the night of January 22–23, 1921, Mykola Leontovych was murdered by Chekist (Soviet state security) agent Afanasy Grishchenko. Leontovych was staying at the home of his parents, whom he was visiting for the Orthodox Feast of the Nativity (December 25 of the Julian calendar–which on the Gregorian calendar, adopted by the USSR only in 1918, falls in January). The undercover Chekist had also asked to stay the night at the house and shared a room with Mykola. At dawn he shot the composer (who died of blood loss a few hours later) after robbing his family.

Several facts point to a political motive behind the assassination. Leontovych’s participation in the independence movement, such as commissioning Ukrainian Republic Capella, aimed at promoting Ukraine as an independent state, earned him many enemies. His older daughter Halyna later recalled her father saying, shortly before his death, that he had documents to leave the country to Romania, and that he had these documents with him among his sheet music during a concert. However, after returning from tea following the concert, Leontovych noticed that someone had gone through his papers. His plans to leave the country, along with the fact that he was killed by a Soviet agent, also indicate political reasons for his death.

Posted by immigration absorption minister on Sat, 26 Dec 2015 17:19 | #

An old news article sheds some light on evergreen issues

New Jerusalem Post, ‘Jewish Agency Board of Governors to meet in Ukraine’, 23 June 2013:

Chairman Sharansky says choice of venue is part of effort to strengthen connections with Jewish communities in the FSU.

The Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency For Israel are set to meet on Sunday in Kiev; the first time that the body has convened in the former Soviet Union. The board’s thrice yearly meetings typically take place in Jerusalem.

Chairman Natan Sharansky said that the decision to hold the meeting in Kiev “was part of the Jewish Agency’s efforts to strengthen its connection with the Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union” as well as “a reflection of the shared destiny and the solidarity between world Jewry and Ukrainian Jewry.”

There are somewhere around 200,000 Jews in the Ukraine, according to the Jewish Agency, and “each year thousands of Ukrainians choose to immigrate to Israel.” There has been growing disquiet among members of the local Jewish community over the electoral successes of the far-right Svoboda party, whose leader has been quoted as saying that “Ukraine is being controlled by a Russian- Jewish mafia.”

However, not all Ukrainian Jews have expressed their happiness with the decision to host the meeting in Kiev. In March, Josef Zissels, chairman of the Vaad of Ukraine, sent Sharansky a letter of protest signed by human rights activists and academics, stating that their opposition to the meeting due to the unmistakable “assault on political and social rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens.”

“We, the representatives of the Jewish community and the leaders of a number of Ukrainian Jewish organizations, scholars and former Soviet political prisoners are concerned” about the meeting, he wrote.

However, in response, Oleksandr Feldman, a Jewish member of parliament and the president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, said that he “strongly opposes the call to cancel JAFI board meeting in Ukraine.”

“I, myself and all my colleagues are looking forward to JAFI board meeting in Kiev which we believe will strengthen the bonds between Israel and the Diaspora [and] will help in the revival of the Jewish community of Ukraine.”

Among those scheduled to attend the gathering are immigrant absorption minister Sofa Landver, World Forum of Russian Jewry head Alexander Levin and Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Konstantin Grishchenko.

Posted by Jez Turner: no more space to flee on Fri, 01 Jan 2016 10:16 | #

Radio Aryan, Jez Turner: No More Space to Flee to - Lunar House Demonstration

http://www.radioaryan.com/2015/12/jez-turner-no-more-space-to-flee-to.html

Jez Turner gives the Quenelle to the Antifa

Jez Turner rouses the masses and harangues the Antifa with a speech against immigration outside Lunar House in London.

Lunar House - The asylum centre known locally as the loony bin, where any Mo, Ahmed or Mohammed who wants to come and live in the UK gets their application processed.

The so-called refugees, the whiners and the whingers demanding their ‘rights’ to replace our people, flying in on their privately hired jets to Sweden and Stansted.

Complaining of delays at the border and cut fingers on the fence, claiming their right to a free house, free training, free health care and of course, a large cash allowance.

Negroes, Bushmen, Bantus, Arabs, Chinamen, all are welcome to come and live in Britain, even Jewish mafioso from Russia.

But one group of people are not allowed to settle here and that group are White people from South Africa or Rhodesia.

Even if they are of British heritage, they will not allowed in, because they don’t fit the agenda, they don’t fit the secret plan.

The plan to replace the White race.

Well Jez Turner has a plan as well, a plan to demolish the asylum centre and build a new structure in its place, called the John Tyndall House for repatriation.

Speech by Jez Turner

Jez Turner: No More Space to Flee to – Lunar House Demonstration

Jez Turner’s Appeal to Ukrainian nationalists:

http://www.radioaryan.com/2015/12/jez-turner-plea-to-nationalists-in.html?utm_source=BP_featured

Posted by Xenia Sunic on Winter Solstice on Sun, 03 Jan 2016 12:39 | #

Xenia Sunic

Ivan Lackovic - Baka s potocnicama

Lacković-Baka-s-potočnicama

It’s already winter,

And the sun has gone from your garden

Or perhaps it is hidden in its own shadow,

Away from the sight of those

Whose memory do not reach up to

Celestial world, and stars

Do not fill the people’s souls any more.

And so they wander forgotten and lonely

On silver dust paths, where pristine silence prevails,

Filled with deep stellar memories

In pulsating rhythm of time,

Till one day a rare butterfly

Born out of golden sun’s threads

Will wake up the dozed off sun,

When winter shatters its cold frost

And the birds’ song fills

The bosom of the sleeping forest,

While the new star is being born,

In endless creations of

Miraculous cosmic cycles,

And your garden will bathe again

In warm summer’s rays,

And the sweet smell

Of sky blue, sun-eyed forget-me nots.

By Xenia Sunic, on Winter Solstice Day, 2015, Zagreb, Croatia

Posted by Robert Parry on the neocons in Ukraine on Sat, 09 Jan 2016 20:25 | #

Robert Parry’s views on neocon motives in Urkaine, 6 Jan 2016:

Taking Aim

The Ukraine “regime change” took shape in 2013 after Russian President Putin and President Barack Obama collaborated to tamp down crises in Syria and Iran, two other prime targets for neocon “regime changes.” American neocons were furious that those hopes were dashed. Ukraine became Putin’s payback.

Robert Parry on what the neocons have wanted from the Ukrainian crisis, 2 Mar 2014:

Whenever the neocons meet resistance, they don’t rethink their strategy; they simply take it to the next level. Angered by Russia’s role in heading off U.S. military attacks against Syria and Iran, the neocons escalated their geopolitical conflict by taking it to Russia’s own border, by egging on the violent ouster of Ukraine’s elected president.

Posted by Ukrainian Paganism on Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:55 | #

Mariya Lesiv: Ukrainian Paganism and views on Ukrainian/Russian conflict

Posted by Geopolitics and history of Ukraine on Wed, 27 Dec 2017 12:25 | #

Timothy Snyder: Ukraine, The End of Europe?

Geopolitics and history of Ukraine

Posted by Dobre Viecor Tobi on Sun, 09 Sep 2018 07:43 | #