Got to say the vast majority of those people aren't dressed as Vikings, more like characters from some third rate eighties Hollywood fighting fantasy movie. Sad.
The association of the inverted cross with satanism and evil may date to the time of the Vikings.
When the Vikings first showed up in Britain they were not the bloodthirsty lot represented in popular history. Yes, some of them were what would later become known as pirates or brigands, but as a race they were in general quite a peaceful and cultured bunch by the standard of the times. One thing they weren't, however, was Christians. As such the Christian church took against them an painted a somewhat darker picture of them than was actually true.
Now it just so happens that one of the religious symbols worn by Vikings was the Thor's hammer, a hammer with the head downwards. Not dissimilar to an inverted cross. It has been suggested that the Christian church either deliberately misrepresented this as an inverted cross to emphasize that the Vikings were evil. I think it more likely that the Christians being conditioned to seeing a cross on a chain simply mistook the Thor's hammer for an inverted cross and assumed it to be an affront to Christianity.
When Vikings began to convert to Christianity many of them wore the cross inverted. Reasons speculated for this include; that as a minority they were scared of persecution and therefore wore a symbol which would pass as Thor's hammer; that they didn't completely convert and had a foot in each camp as it were and therefore wore a dual purpose symbol; or that they simply modified their Thor's hammers to resemble a cross. I prefer to think that, being used to the sight of the hammer, to them the inverted cross just looked right. Which fits with the idea that the Christians used to seeing the cross were offended by the hammer.
There is also the fact that some Satanists associate themselves also with the worship of Viking gods, particular Odin the all father, but also Thor. Could this also be a reason why the hammer could have entered into the popular mythology of Satanism?
There are of course certain parallels between the worship of Odin and Christianity. One such is that one of the stories of Odin tells how he was suspended from the world tree for nine days and nights and pierced in the side by his own spear to gain wisom. Compare that tale with that of Jesus on the cross being pierced in the side by a roman spear. You can find similarities in the tales of other religions. Suggesting that many religious tales have common roots. Or perhaps that religious writers were copycats. ;)
Of course the interesting thing about the whole symbolism of the cross is that Jesus was probably crucified on an X shaped cross.
Don't know about France, but here in the UK setting up such a fund could well land you in jail. You'd be looking at a charge of Conpiracy to Defraud or perhaps Conspiracy to Commit Theft or similar.
The one that made me laugh was "celeriac is better known as what?" Well over here it's known as celeriac and nothing else. So the correct answer, where I live at least, is don't be stupid.
Why does everybody have to assume it's a real place? It could be completely from the artist's imagination or it could be a composite, a real diner depicted against a different background. When painting one can make these choices, from something as simple as painting a real scene and leaving out something ugly to iventing the whole scene.
Nobody is every likely to prove this conclusively since the artist never told.
@Tempscire - "too bad Kodachrome didn't get used more often" what are you on? Kchrome was the most popular colour emulsion with professional photographers for decades!
If you like that sort of image quality by yourself a Sigma camera with a Foveon X3 sensor. It's the only digital sensor that comes close to the quality of Kodachrome. Foveons layer three sensors on top of each other one each for red, green and blue, just like colour film. This way you get a nice sharp true colour image, each pixel being exactly as taken.
There are indeed quite a few of these around the world. Some are more convincing than others, and some on a larger scale than others. There's a junction near here where it appears to the waiting driver that they are facing downhill, when they are actually facing slightly uphill. The result being that you will often see the first car in line roll backwards slightly when the lights turn green, you can usually see the look of suprise on the driver's face. The illusion only works for the first driver in line and they are currently redeveloping the whole junction so it will be interesting to see if the illusion remains when the work is completed.
That reverse bass really messes with my head. Before anybody else says it, I'm a bass player so it's pretty easy to mess with my head.
You heard about the bass player who got locked in the car right? The roadie had to break the window to get the keys out of the ignition to let him out.
When the Vikings first showed up in Britain they were not the bloodthirsty lot represented in popular history. Yes, some of them were what would later become known as pirates or brigands, but as a race they were in general quite a peaceful and cultured bunch by the standard of the times. One thing they weren't, however, was Christians. As such the Christian church took against them an painted a somewhat darker picture of them than was actually true.
Now it just so happens that one of the religious symbols worn by Vikings was the Thor's hammer, a hammer with the head downwards. Not dissimilar to an inverted cross. It has been suggested that the Christian church either deliberately misrepresented this as an inverted cross to emphasize that the Vikings were evil. I think it more likely that the Christians being conditioned to seeing a cross on a chain simply mistook the Thor's hammer for an inverted cross and assumed it to be an affront to Christianity.
When Vikings began to convert to Christianity many of them wore the cross inverted. Reasons speculated for this include; that as a minority they were scared of persecution and therefore wore a symbol which would pass as Thor's hammer; that they didn't completely convert and had a foot in each camp as it were and therefore wore a dual purpose symbol; or that they simply modified their Thor's hammers to resemble a cross. I prefer to think that, being used to the sight of the hammer, to them the inverted cross just looked right. Which fits with the idea that the Christians used to seeing the cross were offended by the hammer.
There is also the fact that some Satanists associate themselves also with the worship of Viking gods, particular Odin the all father, but also Thor. Could this also be a reason why the hammer could have entered into the popular mythology of Satanism?
There are of course certain parallels between the worship of Odin and Christianity. One such is that one of the stories of Odin tells how he was suspended from the world tree for nine days and nights and pierced in the side by his own spear to gain wisom. Compare that tale with that of Jesus on the cross being pierced in the side by a roman spear. You can find similarities in the tales of other religions. Suggesting that many religious tales have common roots. Or perhaps that religious writers were copycats. ;)
Of course the interesting thing about the whole symbolism of the cross is that Jesus was probably crucified on an X shaped cross.
FAIL. And so will this. Protest votes have never and will never work.
The one that made me laugh was "celeriac is better known as what?" Well over here it's known as celeriac and nothing else. So the correct answer, where I live at least, is don't be stupid.
Well done!
Nobody is every likely to prove this conclusively since the artist never told.
If you like that sort of image quality by yourself a Sigma camera with a Foveon X3 sensor. It's the only digital sensor that comes close to the quality of Kodachrome. Foveons layer three sensors on top of each other one each for red, green and blue, just like colour film. This way you get a nice sharp true colour image, each pixel being exactly as taken.
You like these images buy Sigma.
You heard about the bass player who got locked in the car right? The roadie had to break the window to get the keys out of the ignition to let him out.