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The game of poker was developed some time during the early 19th century in the United States. Since those early beginnings, poker has grown to become an extremely popular pastime throughout the world.

In the 1837 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, R. F. Foster wrote: "the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of As-Nas." By the 1990s some gaming historians including David Parlett started to challenge the notion that poker is a direct derivative of As-Nas.[citation needed ] There is evidence that a game called poque, a French game similar to poker, was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. The name of the game likely descended from the Irish Poca (Pron. Pokah) ('Pocket') or even the French poque, which descended from the German pochen ('to brag as a bluff' lit. 'to knock'). Yet it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of and the French . The English game (earlier bragg) clearly descended from and incorporated bluffing (though the concept was known in other games by that time). It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now.

A modern school of thought rejects these ancestries, as they focus on the card play in poker, which is trivial and could have been derived from any number of games or made up on general cardplay principles. The unique features of poker have to do with the betting, and do not appear in any known older game. In this view poker originated much later, in the early or mid-18th century, and spread throughout the Mississippi River region by 1800. It was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players (it is a common English practice to reduce the deck in card games when there are fewer players). The development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling.

English actor Joseph Cowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on which player's hand was the most valuable. Jonathan H. Green's book, An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (G. B. Zieber, Philadelphia, 1843), described the spread of the game from there to the rest of the country by Mississippi riverboats, on which gambling was a common pastime. As it spread north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, it is thought to have become a part of the frontier pioneer ethos.

Soon after this spread, the full 52-card French deck was used and the flush was introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850 (when it was first mentioned in print in a handbook of games). During the American Civil War, many additions were made including stud poker (the five-card variant), and the straight. Further American developments followed, such as the wild card (around 1875), lowball and split-pot poker (around 1900), and community card poker games (around 1925).

Hildreth, J. (1836) Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains, Wiley & Long, New York: mentions poker

Green, Jonathan H. (1843). Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling, Philadelphia: Zieber

Cowell, Joe (1844). Thirty Years Passed Among the Players in England and America

Anners, Henry F. (1845) Hoyle's Games: refers to Poker or Bluff, 20-deck Poker, and 20-deck Poke

Bohn, Henry George (1850) New Handbook of Games: stated the rules of poker in print for the first time

Dick, Willium B. (1866) The American card player

Trumps (1868) The Modern Pocket Hoyle New York: Dick & Fitzgerald

Steinmetz, Andrew (1870) The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims, London: Tinsley Brothers

Schenck, Robert C. (1872)Rules for Playing Poker, private circulation

Winterblossom, Henry T (1875) The Game of Draw Poker Mathematically Illustrated

Blackbridge (1875) The Complete Card Player

Developments in the 1970s led to poker becoming far more popular than it was before. Modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began, in 1970. Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments include Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Bobby Baldwin, Doyle Brunson, and Puggy Pearson. Later in the 1970s, the first serious poker strategy books appeared, notably Super/System by Doyle Brunson ( ISBN 1-58042-081-8) and Caro's Book of Poker Tells by Mike Caro ( ISBN 0-89746-100-2), followed later by The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky ( ISBN 1-880685-00-0).

By the 1980s, poker was being depicted in popular culture as a commonplace recreational activity. For example, it was featured in at least 10 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as a weekly event of the senior staff of the fictional ship's crew.

Two significant events in the late 1980s led to the first poker "boom". In 1987, California legalized the flop games of hold'em and Omaha, as well as stud. Previously only draw games were allowed. While there were more poker games in California than anywhere else before this, the number of games and the action hold'em brought both increased dramatically. Cavernous poker rooms like the Commerce Casino and the Bicycle Club began operating in the LA area. In 1988 Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which legalized casino games on Indian lands. Poker rooms began rapidly opening within a few short years. Limit Texas hold'em was the most widely played game by far in the west, and seven card stud was the most widely played game in the east from the late 1980s until 2003.

In the 1990s, poker and casino gambling spread across the United States, most notably to Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1998, Planet Poker dealt the first real money online poker game. In 1999, Late Night Poker debuted on British television.

Poker's popularity experienced an unprecedented spike at the beginning of the 21st century, largely because of the introduction of online poker and hole-card cameras, which turned the game into a spectator sport. Not only could viewers now follow the action and drama of the game on television, they could also play the game in the comfort of their own home. Broadcasts of poker tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour brought in huge audiences for cable and satellite TV distributors. Because of the increased coverage of poker events, poker pros became celebrities, with poker fans all over the world entering into tournaments for the chance to compete with them. Television coverage also added an important new dimension to the poker professional's game, as any given hand could now be aired later, revealing information not only to the other players at the table, but to anyone who cared to view the broadcast.

Following the surge in popularity, new poker tours soon emerged, including the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour, both televised, and the latter sponsored by online poker company PokerStars. Subsequent tours have since been created by PokerStars, such as Latin American Poker Tour and Asia Pacific Poker Tour, as well as other national tours. Beginning in 2003, major poker tournament fields grew dramatically, in part because of the growing popularity of online satellite-qualifier tournaments where the prize is an entry into a major tournament. The 2003 and 2004 World Series of Poker champions, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, respectively, won their seats to the main event by winning online satellites. In 2009 the International Federation of Poker was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland, becoming the official governing body for poker and promoting the game as a mind sport. In 2011 it announced plans for two new events: The Nations Cup, a duplicate poker team event, to be staged on the London Eye on the banks of the River Thames and "The Table", the invitation-only IFP World Championship, featuring roughly 130 of the world's best poker players, in an event to find the 2011 official "World Champion".

After the passage of the UIGEA in October 2006, attendance at live tournaments as well as participation in live and online cash games initially slowed; however, they are still growing and far more popular today than they were before 2003. The growth and popularity of poker can be seen in the WSOP which had a record 7,319 entrants to the 2010 main event. The only nations in Europe that prohibit live poker are Norway, Poland and Albania, according to Dagbladet in 2011.

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The game of poker was developed some time during the early 19th century in the United States. Since those early beginnings, poker has grown to become an extremely popular pastime throughout the world. In the 1837 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, R. F.

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New Orleans in the 1940's Southern Aristocracy By: Pack a' Trojans New Orleans is know as the birthplace of Jazz but in the 1940s the blues became really popular. New Orleans blues, is a sub-genre of blues music and a variation of Louisiana blues that developed in the 1940s and

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Card player with Austrian tarot cards (Industrie und Glück pattern)

Trumps of the Tarot de Marseilles, a standard 18th-century playing card pack, later also used for divination

The tarot (, first known as and later as tarocchi or tarocks) is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot playing cards spread to most of Europe evolving into a family of games that includes German Grosstarok and modern games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. In the late 18th century, French occultists made elaborate, but unsubstantiated, claims about their history and meaning, leading to the emergence of custom decks for use in divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy. Thus there are two distinct types of tarot pack in circulation today: those used for card games and those used for divination. However, some older patterns, such as the Tarot de Marseille, originally intended for playing card games, are occasionally used for cartomancy.

Like the common playing cards, tarot has four suits which vary by region: French suits are used in western, central and eastern Europe, Latin suits in southern Europe. Each suit has 14 cards: ten pip cards numbering from one (or Ace) to ten; and four face cards: King, Queen, Knight, and Jack/Knave/Page. In addition, and unlike standard packs, the tarot also has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit. These tarot cards are still used throughout much of Europe to play conventional card games.

In English-speaking countries where these games are not widely played, only specially designed cartomantic tarot cards, used primarily for novelty and divination, are readily available. The early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric links to ancient Egypt, the Kabbalah, Indic Tantra, or the I Ching, claims that have been frequently repeated by authors on card divination. However, scholarly research demonstrated that tarot cards were invented in northern Italy in the mid-15th century, and confirmed that there is no historical evidence of any significant use of tarot cards for divination until the late 18th century. Historians have described western views of the Tarot pack as "the subject of the most successful propaganda campaign ever launched... An entire false history and false interpretation of the Tarot pack was concocted by the occultists; and it is all but universally believed".

In the occult tradition, tarot cards are referred to as "arcana", with the Fool and 21 trumps being termed the Major Arcana and the suit cards the Minor Arcana, terms not used by players of tarot card games.

Tarot cards, then known as tarocchi, first appeared in Ferrara and Milan in northern Italy, with a Fool and 21 trumps (then called ) being added to the standard Italian pack of four suits: batons, coins, cups and swords. Scholarship has established that the early European cards were probably based on the Egyptian Mamluk deck invented in or before the 14th century, which followed the invention of paper from Asia into Western Europe. By the late 1300s Europeans were producing their own cards, the earliest patterns being based on the Mamluk deck but with variations to the suit symbols and court cards.

The use of tarot playing cards was at one time widespread across the whole of Europe except the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. Having fallen into decline by the 20th century, they later experienced a renaissance in some countries and regions. For example, French Tarot was largely confined to Provence in the 18th century, but took off in the 1950s to such an extent that, in 1973, the French Tarot Association ( Fédération Française de Tarot) was formed and French Tarot itself is now the second most popular card game in France. Tarock games like Königrufen have experienced significant growth in Austria where international tournaments are held with other nations, especially those from eastern Europe that still play such games, including Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Denmark appears to be the only Scandinavian country that still plays tarot games, Danish Tarok being a derivative of historical German Grosstarock. The game of Cego has grown in popularity again in the south German region of Baden. Italy continues to play regionally popular games with their distinctive Tarot packs. These include: Ottocento in Bologna and Sicilian Tarocchi in parts of Sicily. Meanwhile Troccas and Troggu are still played locally in parts of Switzerland.

Playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century, but the origin is unknown. The first records date to 1367 in Berne and they appear to have spread very rapidly across the whole of Europe, as may be seen from the records, mainly of card games being banned. Little is known about the appearance and number of these cards; the only significant information being provided by a text by John of Rheinfelden in 1377 from Freiburg im Breisgau, who, in addition to other versions, describes the basic pack as containing the still-current 4 suits of 13 cards, the courts usually being the King, Ober and Unter ("marshals"), although Dames and Queens were already known by then.

An early pattern of playing cards used the suits of Batons or Clubs, Coins, Swords, and Cups. These suits are still used in traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese playing card decks, and are also used in modern (occult) tarot divination cards that first appeared in the late 18th century.

A lost tarot-like pack was commissioned by Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and described by Martiano da Tortona, probably between 1418 and 1425 since the painter he mentions, Michelino da Besozzo, returned to Milan in 1418, while Martiano himself died in 1425. He described a 60-card deck with 16 cards having images of the Roman gods and suits depicting four kinds of birds. The 16 cards were regarded as "trumps" since, in 1449, Jacopo Antonio Marcello recalled that the now deceased duke had invented a novum quoddam et exquisitum triumphorum genus, or "a new and exquisite kind of triumphs". Other early decks that also showcased classical motifs include the Sola-Busca and Boiardo-Viti decks of the 1490s.

The magician from the Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza pack

The first documented tarot decks were recorded between 1440 and 1450 in Milan, Ferrara, Florence and Bologna, when additional trump cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the common four-suit pack. These new decks were called carte da trionfi, triumph cards, and the additional cards known simply as trionfi, which became "trumps" in English. The earliest documentation of trionfi is found in a written statement in the court records of Florence, in 1440, regarding the transfer of two decks to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.

The oldest surviving tarot cards are the 15 or so Visconti-Sforza Tarot packs painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan.

In 15th century Italy, the set of cards that was included in tarot packs, including trumps, seems to have been consistent, even if naming and ordering varied. There are two main exceptions:

Some late 15th century decks like the Sola Busca tarot and the Boiardo deck had four suits, a fool, and 21 trumps, but none of the trumps match tarot ones. They seem to have been made on the model of tarot decks, but were voluntary departures from an established standard.

The Visconti di Mondrone pack, one of the Visconti-Sforza decks, originally had a Dame and a Maid in each suit, in addition to the standard King, Queen, Knight, and Jack. Additionally, the pack includes three trump cards which represent the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and are not present in any other tarot deck of that era.

Although a Dominican preacher inveighed against the evil inherent in playing cards, chiefly because of their use in gambling, in a sermon in the 15th century, no routine condemnations of tarot were found during its early history.

The Cary sheet, a partial uncut sheet of Milanese tarocchi, c. 1500

Because the earliest tarot cards were hand-painted, the number of the decks produced is thought to have been small. It was only after the invention of the printing press that mass production of cards became possible. The expansion of tarot outside of Italy, first to France and Switzerland, occurred during the Italian Wars. The most prominent tarot deck version used in these two countries was the Tarot of Marseilles, of Milanese origin.

While the set of trumps was generally consistent, their order varied by region, perhaps as early as the 1440s. Michael Dummett placed them into three categories. In Bologna and Florence, the highest trump is the Angel, followed by the World. This group spread mainly southward through the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, and finally down to the Kingdom of Sicily but was also known in the Savoyard states. In Ferrara, the World was the highest, followed by Justice and the Angel. This group spread mainly to the northeast to Venice and Trento where it was only a passing fad. By the end of the 16th century, this order became extinct. In Milan, the World was highest, followed by the Angel; this ordering is used in the Tarot of Marseilles. Dummett also wrote about a possible fourth lineage that may have existed along the Franco-Italian border. It spread north through France until its last descendant, the Belgian Tarot, went extinct around 1800.

In Florence, an expanded deck called was later used. This deck of 97 cards includes astrological symbols and the four elements, as well as traditional tarot motifs. The earliest known mention of this game, under the name of germini, dates to 1506.

Three cards from a Visconti-Sforza tarot deck: Ace of cups, Queen of coins and the Knight of batons

The word "tarot" and German Tarock derive from the Italian Tarocchi, the origin of which is uncertain, although taroch was used as a synonym for foolishness in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The decks were known exclusively as Trionfi during the fifteenth century. The new name first appeared in Brescia around 1502 as Tarocho. During the 16th century, a new game played with a standard deck but sharing a very similar name ( Trionfa) was quickly becoming popular. This coincided with the older game being renamed tarocchi. In modern Italian, the singular term is Tarocco, which, as a noun, is a cultivar of blood orange. The attribute Tarocco and the verb Taroccare are used regionally to indicate that something is fake or forged. This meaning is directly derived from the tarocchi game as played in Italy, in which tarocco indicates a card that can be played in place of another card.

A French tarot game in session

The original purpose of tarot cards was to play games. A very cursory explanation of rules for a tarot-like deck is given in a manuscript by Martiano da Tortona before 1425. Vague descriptions of game play or game terminology follow for the next two centuries until the earliest known complete description of rules for a French variant in 1637. The game of tarot has many regional variations. Tarocchini has survived in Bologna and there are still others played in Piedmont and Sicily, but in Italy the game is generally less popular than elsewhere.

The 18th century saw tarot's greatest revival, during which it became one of the most popular card games in Europe, played everywhere except Ireland and Britain, the Iberian peninsula, and the Ottoman Balkans. French tarot experienced another revival, beginning in the 1970s, and France has the strongest tarot gaming community. Regional tarot games-often known as tarock, tarok, or tarokk-are widely played in central Europe within the borders of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.

Tarocco Piemontese: the Fool card

Italian-suited decks were the oldest form of tarot deck to be made, first devised in the 15th century in northern Italy. Three decks of this category are still used to play certain games:

The Tarocco Piemontese consists of the four suits of swords, batons, cups and coins, each headed by a king, queen, cavalier and jack, followed by the pip cards for a total of 78 cards. Trump 20 outranks 21 in most games and the Fool is numbered 0 despite not being a trump.

The Swiss 1JJ Tarot is similar, but replaces the Pope with Jupiter, the Popess with Juno, and the Angel with the Judgement. The trumps rank in numerical order and the Tower is known as the House of God. The cards are not reversible like the Tarocco Piemontese.

The Tarocco Bolognese omits numeral cards two to five in plain suits, leaving it with 62 cards, and has somewhat different trumps, not all of which are numbered and four of which are equal in rank. It has a different graphical design than the two above as it was not derived from the Tarot of Marseilles.

The Tarocco Siciliano is the only deck to use the so-called Portuguese suit system, which uses Spanish pips but intersects them like Italian pips. Some of the trumps are different such as the lowest trump, Miseria (destitution). It omits the Two and Three of coins, and numerals one to four in clubs, swords and cups: it thus has 64 cards, but the ace of coins is not used, being the bearer of the former stamp tax. The cards are quite small and not reversible.

The sole surviving example of a Spanish-suited deck was produced around 1820 by Giacomo Recchi of Oneglia, Liguria and destined for Sardinia. The plain suit cards are copied from the Sardinian pattern designed just ten years earlier by José Martinez de Castro for Clemente Roxas in Madrid but with the addition of 10s and queens. The trumps are largely copied from an early version of the Tarocco Piemontese. At that time, Liguria, Sardinia, and Piedmont were all territories of the Savoyard state.

The illustrations of French-suited tarot trumps depart considerably from the older Italian-suited design, abandoning the Renaissance allegorical motifs. With the exception of novelty decks, French-suited tarot cards are almost exclusively used for card games. The earliest French-suited tarot decks were made by the de Poilly family of engravers, beginning with a Minchiate deck by François de Poilly in the late 1650s. Aside from these early outliers, the first generation of French-suited tarots depicted scenes of animals on the trumps and were thus called " Tiertarock" ('Tier' being German for 'animal') appeared around 1740. Around 1800, a greater variety of decks were produced, mostly with genre art or veduta. The German states used to produce a variety of 78-card tarot packs, originally using Italian suits, but later switching to French suited cards; some were imported to France. Today, there are only two: both are French-suited patterns of Cego packs - the Cego Adler pack manufactured by ASS Altenburger and one with genre scenes by F.X. Schmid, which may reflect the mainstream German cards of the 19th century. Current French-suited tarot decks come in these patterns:

Industrie und Glück - the Industrie und Glück ("Diligence and Fortune") genre art tarock deck of Central Europe uses Roman numerals for the trumps. It is sold with 54 cards; the 5 to 10 of the red suits and the 1 to 6 of the black suits are removed. There are 3 patterns - Types A, B and C - of which Type C has become the standard, whereas Types A and B appear in limited editions or specials.

Tarot Nouveau - also called the Tarot Bourgeois - has a 78-card pack. It is commonly used for tarot games in France and for Danish Tarok in Denmark. It is also sometimes used in Germany to play Cego. Its genre art trumps use Arabic numerals in corner indices.

- this is an animal tarot that is used in the Upper Rhine valley and neighbouring mountain regions such as the Black Forest or the Vosges It has 54 cards organized in the same fashion as the Industrie und Glück packs. Its trumps use Arabic numerals but within centered indices.

Schmid-Cego - this pack by F.X. Schmid is of the Bourgeois Tarot type and has genre scenes similar to those of the Tarot Nouveau, but the Arabic numerals are centred as in the Adler-Cego pack.

German 'Tarock' cards

From the late 18th century, the south German states manufactured German-suited packs labelled 'Taroc', 'Tarock' or 'Deutsch-Tarok'. Today these survive as 'Schafkopf/Tarock' packs of the Bavarian and Franconian pattern. These are not true tarot packs, but standard 36-card German-suited decks for games like German Tarok, Bauerntarock, Württemberg Tarock and Bavarian Tarock. Until the 1980s there were also Tarock packs in the Württemberg pattern. There are 36 cards; the pip cards ranging from 6 to 10, Under Knave (), Over Knave (), King, and Ace. These use Ace-Ten ranking, like Klaverjas, where Ace is the highest followed by 10, King, Ober, Unter, then 9 to 6. The heart suit is the default trump suit. The Bavarian pack is also used to play Schafkopf by excluding the Sixes.

Deck of the 22 Major Arcana cards inspired by the Tarot of Marseilles, but with the author's graphic style

The earliest evidence of a tarot deck used for cartomancy comes from an anonymous manuscript from around 1750 which documents rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the Tarocco Bolognese. The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antoine Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) in Paris during the 1780s, using the Tarot of Marseilles. French tarot players abandoned the Marseilles tarot in favor of the Tarot Nouveau around 1900, with the result that the Marseilles pattern is now used mostly by cartomancers.

Etteilla was the first to produce a bespoke tarot deck specifically designed for occult purposes around 1789. In keeping with the unsubstantiated belief that such cards were derived from the Book of Thoth, Etteilla's tarot contained themes related to ancient Egypt.

The 78-card tarot deck used by esotericists has two distinct parts:

The Major Arcana (greater secrets) consists of 22 cards without suits. Their names and numbers vary, but in a typical scheme, the names are:
The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World, and The Fool. Cards from The Magician to The World are numbered in Roman numerals from I to XXI, while The Fool is the only unnumbered card, sometimes placed at the beginning of the deck as 0, or at the end as XXII.

The Minor Arcana (lesser secrets) consists of 56 cards, divided into four suits of 14 cards each;
Ten numbered cards and four court cards. The court cards are the King, Queen, Knight and Page/Jack, in each of the four tarot suits. The traditional Italian tarot suits are swords, batons, coins and cups; however, in modern occult tarot decks, the suit of batons is often called wands, rods or staves; the suit of coins is often called pentacles or disks and the suit of cups is often referred to as goblets.

The terms "Major Arcana" and "Minor Arcana" were first used by Jean-Baptiste Pitois (also known as Paul Christian) and are never used in relation to tarot card games. Some decks exist primarily as artwork, and such art decks sometimes contain only the 22 Major Arcana.

The three most common decks used in esoteric tarot are the Tarot of Marseilles (a playing card pack), the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, and the Thoth tarot deck.

Aleister Crowley, who devised the Thoth deck along with Lady Frieda Harris, stated of the tarot: "The origin of this pack of cards is very obscure. Some authorities seek to put it back as far as the ancient Egyptian Mysteries; others try to bring it forward as late as the fifteenth or even the sixteenth century ... [but] The only theory of ultimate interest about the tarot is that it is an admirable symbolic picture of the Universe, based on the data of the Holy Qabalah." However, the origin of the Tarot pack is now well documented, showing that it was invented in Italy in the early 15th century and has no connexion with any "Holy Qabalah".(see history section above).

Some people today use Tarot cards as a tool for self-exploration and development and some psychologists use Tarot cards as a complementary care therapy. Through Tarot cards, it is claimed that the exploration of the inner self leads to greater freedom within the individual.

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4. ^ Decker, Depaulis & Dummett (1996), pp. 28 & 31.

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Daynes, Daniel (April 2000), Le Tarot, ses règles et toutes ses variantes, Bornemann, ISBN 9782851826220

Decker, Ronald; Depaulis, Thierry; Dummett, Micheal (1996), A Wicked Pack of Cards, London: Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-2713-9

Dummett, Michael (1980), The Game of Tarot, London: Duckworth, ISBN 0-7156-1014-7

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The tarot (, first known as and later as tarocchi or tarocks ) is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini.

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The Game is Seven Card Stud: Williams' New Orleans - Virginia Stage Company

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The viscous heat and raucous atmosphere of New Orleans in the 1940s is more than a backdrop for the battle for ascension and mastery that makes the action of A Streetcar Named Desire, it is an active participant. The luxuriousness of bourbon has to exist side by side with the suffocating and cacophonous energy of the Elysian Fields.

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1) The average salary was $1,299.

2) The life expectancy of men was around 60 years while women were expected to live about 68 years.

3) The T-shirt was first introduced in 1942.

4) The first computer was built in 1945.

5) The minimum wage was $0.43 an hour.

6) The 1940s were dominated by World War II, sending the men to war and leaving the women on the home front left to work in factories and also still maintain households.

7) As the result of WWII ended and soldiers returning home, a baby boom was started.

8) In 1942, Anne Frank goes into hiding.

9) In 1941, Mount Rushmore was finished.

10) Only 55 percent of households had indoor plumbing.

11) Polaroid cameras were invented in 1947.

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1) The average salary was $1,299. 2) The life expectancy of men was around 60 years while women were expected to live about 68 years. 3) The T-shirt was first introduced in 1942. 4) The first computer was built in 1945. 5) The minimum wage was $0.43 an hour.

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Jackson Pollock in a Streetcar Named Desire

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Jackson Pollock in a Streetcar Named Desire

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Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) not only put American art on the map with his famous "drip paintings," he also served as an inspiration for the character of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire"--the role that made Marlon Brando famous. Like Brando, Pollock became an icon of rebellion in 1950s America, and the brooding, defiant persona captured in photographs of the artist contributed to his celebrity almost as much as his notorious paintings did. In the years since his death in a drunken car crash, Pollock's hold on the public imagination has only increased. He has become an enduring symbol of the tormented artist--our American van Gogh.

In this highly engaging book, Evelyn Toynton examines Pollock's itinerant and poverty-stricken childhood in the West, his encounters with contemporary art in Depression-era New York, and his years in the run-down Long Island fishing village that, ironically, was transformed into a fashionable resort by his presence. Placing the artist in the context of his time, Toynton also illuminates the fierce controversies that swirled around his work and that continue to do so. Pollock's paintings captured the sense of freedom and infinite possibility unique to the American experience, and his life was both an American rags-to-riches story and a darker tale of the price paid for celebrity, American style.

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Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) not only put American art on the map with his famous "drip paintings," he also served as an inspiration for the character of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire"--the role that made Marlon Brando famous.

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I find the music more Big Band Classical not Jazz.

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AllMusic | Music Search, Recommendations, Videos and Reviews

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AllMusic provides comprehensive music info including reviews and biographies. Get recommendations for new music to listen to, stream or own.

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Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1897 to 1917. It was established by municipal ordinance under the New Orleans City Council, to regulate prostitution and drugs. Sidney Story, a city alderman, wrote guidelines and legislation to control prostitution within the city. The ordinance designated a thirty-eight block area as the part of the city in which prostitution, although still nominally illegal, was tolerated or regulated. The area was originally referred to as "The District", but its nickname, "Storyville", soon caught on, much to the chagrin of Alderman Story.[page needed ] It was bound by the streets of North Robertson, Iberville, Basin, and St. Louis Streets. It was located by a train station, making it a popular destination for travelers throughout the city, and became a centralized attraction in the heart of New Orleans. Only a few of its remnants are now visible. The neighborhood lies in Faubourg Tremé and the majority of the land was repurposed for public housing.

Though developed under the proposed title The District, the eventual nickname Storyville originated from City Councilman Sidney Story, who wrote the legislation and guidelines to be followed within the proposed neighborhood limits. The thirty-eight block area was bounded by Iberville, Basin Street, St. Louis, and N. Robertson streets.[page needed ] His vision came from port cities that legalized prostitution and was officially established on July 6, 1897. For decades most of this former district was occupied by the Iberville Housing Projects (mostly demolished), two blocks inland from the French Quarter.

The District was established to restrict prostitution to one area of the city where authorities could monitor and regulate such activity. In the late 1890s, the New Orleans city government studied the legalized red light districts of northern German and Dutch ports and set up Storyville based on such models. Between 1895 and 1915, "blue books" were published in Storyville. These books were guides to prostitution for visitors to the district wishing to use these services; they included house descriptions, prices, particular services, and the "stock" each house offered. The Storyville blue-books were inscribed with the motto: "Order of the Garter: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense (Shame on Him Who Thinks Evil of It)". It took some time for Storyville to gain recognition, but by 1900, it was on its way to becoming New Orleans's largest revenue center.

Jazz did not originate in Storyville, but it flourished there as in the rest of the city. Many out-of-town visitors first heard this new style of music there before the music spread north.[page needed ] Some outsiders continue to associate Storyville with the origins of jazz. It was a tradition in the better Storyville establishments to hire a piano player and sometimes small bands. Musicians who got their start in Storyville include Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, and Pops Foster.

At the beginning of the United States' involvement in World War I, Secretary of War Newton Baker did not want troops to have distractions while being deployed. The Navy had troops located in New Orleans and the city was pressed to close Storyville. Prostitution was made illegal in 1917 and Storyville was used for the purpose of entertainment. Most of its buildings were later destroyed, and in 1940 its location was used to create the Iberville housing projects.

Blue Books could be purchased throughout the district in various barbershops, saloons, and railroad stations. Primarily they were sold on the corner of Basin Street and Canal Street.

The first Blue Book of Storyville was made between 1895 and 1896, but it wasn't until 1909 that the first popular edition was published. Billy Struve was its main producer in New Orleans. Struve, a manager of the saloon of Thomas Charles Anderson, the "Mayor of Storyville", published the books on the second floor of Lulu White's saloon on the corner of Basin Street and Bienville. Approximately sixteen editions were published until 1915.

Mahogany Hall employed roughly 40 prostitutes. Popular women of Mahogany Hall included Victoria Hall, Emma Sears, Clara Miller, Estelle Russell, Sadie Reed and Sadie Levy. Lulu White advertised these women as having beautiful figures and a gift from nature, and gained a reputation for having the best women around.

Mahogany Hall was originally called the Hall of Mirrors and was built of solid marble with a stained glass fan window over the entrance door. It had four floors, five different parlours, and fifteen bedrooms with attached bathrooms. The rooms were furnished with chandeliers, potted ferns, and elegant furniture. The house was steam-heated, and each bathroom was supplied with hot and cold water. The interiors of the rooms of Mahogany Hall filled the ads in Blue Books and other advertising pamphlets of the period.

Notably the Father of Storyville, Alderman Sidney Story, an American politician, wrote the legislation to set up the District, basing his proposals around other port cities that limited prostitution. Storyville became the nation's only legal red-light district, due to Ordinance No. 13,032, which forbade any and all prostitution in New Orleans outside of a tightly defined district in 1897. The original ordinance, written by Story, read:

From the first of October, 1897 it shall be unlawful for any public prostitute or woman notoriously abandoned to lewdness to occupy, inhabit, live or sleep in any house, room or closet without the following limits: South Side of Customhouse [Iberville] from Basin to Robertson street, east side of Robertson street from Customhouse to Saint Louis street, from Robertson to Basin street.

Story's vision allowed authority to regulate prostitution without technically legalizing it. [1]

Lulu White was one of the best known madams in Storyville, running and maintaining Mahogany Hall. She employed 40 prostitutes and sustained a four-story building that housed 15 bedrooms and five parlors. She often found herself in trouble with law enforcement for serving liquor without a license and was known to get violent when another intervened in her practice. Her clients were the most prominent and wealthiest men in Louisiana and she is remembered for her glamour and jewels "which were like the 'lights of the St. Louis Exposition' just as reported in her promotional booklet"

Prior to leaving New Orleans, White lost $150,000 in her investment schemes following the closure of Storyville.

Thomas C. Anderson, Louisiana state legislator

Louis Armstrong, musician and composer

E. J. Bellocq, photographer

Buddy Bolden, jazz musician

Ann Cook, blues singer

Tony Jackson, musician

Frank Lamothe, promoter

Jelly Roll Morton, musician and composer

Jimmie Noone, musician

Joe "King" Oliver, musician

Eddie Groshell, dance hall operator

Al Rose, author

Pops Foster, jazz musician

Emile Laoume, musician and bandleader

Peter Ciaccio, restaurateur

Pete Lala, owner of Pete Lala's Cafe, restaurant and music venue

Richard Egan, grocer, operated the only grocery store in the district

Frank Early, saloon keeper

Alcide Nunez, musician

Jazz music, while not created specifically in Storyville but all over the city, gave musicians the opportunity to perform in the saloons, brothels, dance clubs, and cribs of Storyville. At the creation of Storyville, black and white musicians were segregated. The red-light district first opened to African Americans who brought their musical background with them. As time went on and white musicians started to enter Storyville, they increasingly were influenced by black performers. The segregation slowly started to diminish, and sharing their common interest brought the races together in some informal musical ventures. Bands signed to labels remained segregated.

In 1908, a train-route connecting Canal and Basin Street was completed, centralizing the location of Storyville in New Orleans. This new train station was located adjacent to the District, leading to citizens' groups protesting its continuance. Prostitutes, often naked, would wave to the train's passengers from their balconies.

At the beginning of World War I, it was ordered that a brothel could not be located within five miles of a military base. The US Navy, driven by a reformist attitude at home, prohibited soldiers from frequenting prostitutes, based on public health. In October 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker said:

These boys are going to France. I want them adequately armed and clothed by their government; but I want them to have an invisible armor to take with them... a moral and intellectual armor for their protection overseas.

In the early days of the war, four soldiers were killed within the district within weeks of each other. The Army and Navy demanded that Storyville be closed down, with the Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels citing the district as a "bad influence".

The New Orleans city government strongly protested against closing the district; New Orleans Mayor Martin Behrman said, "You can make it illegal, but you can't make it unpopular." He then ordered the District be shut down by midnight of November 12, 1917. After that time, separate black and white underground houses of prostitution were set up around the city.

The district continued in a more subdued state as an entertainment center through the 1920s, with various dance halls, cabarets and restaurants. Speakeasies, gambling joints and prostitution were also regularly found in the area despite repeated police raids. Prostitution was made illegal throughout the city in 1917.

Almost all the buildings in the former District were demolished in the 1930s during the Great Depression for construction of public housing, known as the Iberville Projects. While much of the area contained old and decayed buildings, the old mansions along Basin Street, some of the finest structures in the city, were also levelled. The city government wanted to change the area by demolition and new construction. Basin Street was renamed "North Saratoga" (its historic name was restored some 20 years later).

Today there are three known buildings that still exist from the Storyville time period: Lulu White's Saloon, Joe Victor's Saloon, and Tark "Terry" Musa's store, formerly known as Frank Early's Saloon.

William J. Toye painted several works of Storyville, but they were damaged less than two weeks before he was to exhibit them in 1969.

A collection of photographs by E. J. Bellocq, a turn of the century photographer, were discovered in the mid-twentieth century. He had portrayed many Storyville prostitutes. His work was published in 1971 for the first time, under the title Storyville Portraits.

Films with fictional portrayals of Storyville have included New Orleans (1947), Pretty Baby (1978), and Storyville (1992).

In Michael Moorcock's History of the Runestaff the city of Narleen is intended to be a post-apocalyptic New Orleans, with the city-within-a-city of Starvel meant to be Storyville.

David Fulmer has set five mystery novels-Chasing the Devil's Tail, Jass, Rampart Street, Lost River, and The Iron Angel-in Storyville circa 1907-1915.

Anne Rice's novel The Witching Hour mentions Storyville in the chapters regarding Julien Mayfair.

A musical called Storyville in tribute to the historic New Orleans district is performed by the York Theatre Company, with the playwright written by Ed Bullins and the music and lyrics written by Mildred Kayden.

Charlayne Elizabeth Denney's novel Lilly's Angel has the main character, Lilly Marchantel, living as a prostitute in Mahogany Hall, the largest of the Storyville brothels. All of the characters except for Lilly, Marcus, and the brothel's bouncer, Abe, are all historical persons who actually lived in or near Storyville in 1900.

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Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1897 to 1917. It was established by municipal ordinance under the New Orleans City Council, to regulate prostitution and drugs. Sidney Story, a city alderman, wrote guidelines and legislation to control prostitution within the city.

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New Orleans is home to Dixieland Jazz just like gumbo and beignets.

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Dixieland, in music, a style of jazz, often ascribed to jazz pioneers in New Orleans, but also descriptive of styles honed by slightly later Chicago-area musicians. The term also refers to the traditional jazz that underwent a popular revival during the 1940s and that continued to be played into the 21st century. See also Chicago style, New Orleans style.

© Infrogmation of New Orleans (CC BY 3.0)

New Orleans was not the only city where early jazz took root at the turn of the 20th century, but it was the centre of that musical activity, and most of the seminal figures of early jazz, Black and white, were active there. It is likely that both Blacks and whites played the music that came to be known as Dixieland jazz.

New Orleans during the late 19th century was, in effect, two cities: Downtown was home to most whites and Creoles, and Uptown was home to freed Black slaves. The strictness of the city's segregation was evidenced in 1897 with the establishment of Storyville (known as "the district" to locals), a 38-square-block area, designed to isolate such activities as prostitution and gambling, that was split by Canal Street into Black and white areas. Virtually every brothel, tavern, and gambling hall in Storyville employed musicians. The unique urban culture of New Orleans provided a receptive environment for a distinctive new style of music.

The scant available evidence (mostly anecdotal) suggests that the Black and white musicians of New Orleans shared many common influences, although it would appear that white bands tended to draw on ragtime and European music, whereas Black bands also built on their 19th-century ethnic heritage. This distinction is illustrated in the styles of the city's two most popular musicians, "Papa" Jack Laine and Buddy Bolden. Laine, a drummer who led bands in New Orleans from 1891, is often referred to as the father of white jazz. Specializing first in French and German marching music, his band by 1910 had converted almost entirely to ragtime. Nick La Rocca, one of the many musicians who apprenticed with Laine, incorporated the sound, and much of the repertoire, of Laine's band when forming the Original Dixieland Jazz (originally "Jass") Band (ODJB) in 1916. A highly influential group, the ODJB also borrowed from the marching band tradition in employing the trumpet (or cornet), clarinet, and trombone as front-line instruments. The following year, the ODJB cut what is regarded as the first jazz record, "Livery Stable Blues," which also became the first million-selling recording in history. This and subsequent ODJB recordings, such as "Tiger Rag," "Dixie Jazz Band One Step," and "At the Jazz Band Ball," reflected the "white style" of playing: technically proficient but less experimental than Black styles.

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The approach that was more characteristic of Black bands could be heard in the music of Buddy Bolden, known as "the King" to Uptown residents. A flamboyant, tragic figure with a prodigious appetite for women and whiskey, Bolden has been credited as the first jazz cornet player. His bold style showed blues influences as early as the 1890s in his use of "bent" notes and an overtly emotional style. He is also credited with establishing the tradition of group improvisation, as well as being the primary influence on the young Louis Armstrong. Bolden, like other very early jazz figures, was never recorded. Yet traces of his style could probably be heard in the playing of such pioneering figures as Bunk Johnson and Sidney Bechet.

With the closing of Storyville during World War I, many New Orleans musicians who had relied on the district for employment moved elsewhere, many of them to Chicago, which became the next major urban centre of jazz. The form called Dixieland actually flourished and had its greatest success in Chicago. There were two important differences, however, in the cities' styles. New Orleans music had continued to show the heavy influence of marching bands in its square rhythm and in its ensemble focus. The Chicago style incorporated more blues trademarks: the music emphasized the second and fourth beats (the offbeats) in each measure, and the soloist came to the fore.

King Oliver, who moved from New Orleans to Chicago in 1918, made what are considered to be the first authentic New Orleans-style jazz recordings with his Creole Jazz Band in 1923. Featuring the young Louis Armstrong on second cornet, the band exemplified the group improvisation approach to early jazz, in which all members of the ensemble were free to embellish the melody. Particularly effective, and of great interest to jazz historians, are the cornet duets in which Armstrong played harmony to Oliver's lead; their recording of "Dippermouth Blues" is a much-heralded example. Within a few years, Armstrong would emerge as jazz's first great soloist and would influence many white Chicago-area musicians in this regard. The white players of the "Chicago school"-Jimmy McPartland, Bud Freeman, Frank Teschemacher, and Bix Beiderbecke -were the leading practitioners of solo improvisation, the trait that most distinguishes Chicago jazz from New Orleans jazz.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band Frank Driggs Collection/Archive Photos

In the 1930s the big bands overshadowed Dixieland, but by the early 1940s older styles were returning to fashion. The popular recordings (beginning in 1942) of Chicago-based Dixieland bands led by Bunk Johnson are often cited as the catalyst for the revival of traditional jazz. Older Black players, such as Johnson, trombonist Kid Ory, and clarinetist George Lewis, figured prominently in the revival; younger Black musicians avoided associating themselves with the past.

In the years since, much of the music of the traditional revival of the 1940s-particularly that of Wilbur de Paris, Turk Murphy, Lu Watters, Art Hodes, and Chris Barber-has proven to be of great lasting value. Dixieland continued to be essential to the musical life of New Orleans, particularly during Mardi Gras time, and its traditions were carried on in later years by such popular New Orleans natives as clarinetist Pete Fountain and trumpeter Al Hirt.

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Dixieland | Definition, History, Artists, Songs, & Facts

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Dixieland, in music, a style of jazz, often ascribed to jazz pioneers in New Orleans, but also descriptive of styles honed by slightly later Chicago-area musicians. The term also refers to the traditional jazz that underwent a popular revival during the 1940s and that continued to be played into the 21st century.

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Table of Contents

Where did the blues get its name?

How did the blues begin as a musical genre?

Why is the blues considered the "Devil's music"?

How does blues music sound?

blues, secular folk music created by African Americans in the early 20th century, originally in the South. The simple but expressive forms of the blues became by the 1960s one of the most important influences on the development of popular music-namely, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, and country music-throughout the United States.

Form

Although instrumental accompaniment is almost universal in the blues, the blues is essentially a vocal form. Blues songs are lyrical rather than narrative; blues singers are expressing feelings rather than telling stories. The emotion expressed is generally one of sadness or melancholy, often due to problems of love but also oppression and hard times. To express this musically, blues performers use vocal techniques such as melisma (sustaining a single syllable across several pitches), rhythmic techniques such as syncopation, and instrumental techniques such as "choking" or bending guitar strings on the neck or applying a metal slide or bottleneck to the guitar strings to create a whining voicelike sound.

As a musical style, the blues is characterized by expressive " microtonal" pitch inflections (blue notes), a three-line textual stanza of the form AAB, and a 12-measure form. Typically the first two and a half measures of each line are devoted to singing, the last measure and a half consisting of an instrumental "break" that repeats, answers, or complements the vocal line. In terms of functional (i.e., traditional European) harmony, the simplest blues harmonic progression is described as follows (I, IV, and V refer respectively to the first or tonic, fourth or subdominant, and fifth or dominant notes of the scale):

Phrase 1 (measures 1-4) I-I-I-I

Phrase 2 (measures 5-8) IV-IV-I-I

Phrase 3 (measures 9-12) V-V-I-I

African influences are apparent in the blues tonality, the call-and-response pattern of the repeated refrain structure of the blues stanza, the falsetto break in the vocal style, and the imitation of vocal idioms by instruments, especially the guitar and harmonica.

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Blues | Definition, Artists, History, Characteristics, Types, Songs, & Facts

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Blues, secular folk music created by African Americans in the early 20th century, originally in the South. The simple but expressive forms of the blues became by the 1960s one of the most important influences on the development of popular music. Learn more about blues, including notable musicians.

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This is the real music played in New Orlean's in 1940. not what was in the movie a Streetcar Named Desire.

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I've got some great news to let out of the bag for anyone dying to have some fun at a piano or keyboard right away. In its simplest form, the blues has only three chords. That's right, three! (Ahhh, so that's why there are so many blues bands out there ...) You talk about bang for your chord learning buck! Spend about 10 minutes learning three chords, and you will have learned the chords needed to play hundreds of tunes. What a great way to amaze your friends and, most importantly, have hours of fun at the keyboard.

Essentially, the blues is a specific progression that uses the C7, F7, and G7 chords. (For the sake of brevity, I'll only look at playing blues in the key of C). The blues chord progression lasts 12 bars (thus the phrase "12-bar blues") that move in a familiar pattern using those three chords. The chart below shows both the chords to play and the pattern to play them in.

Now that you know what the chords are, the way you can use them is endless. I affectionately call this the "blues buffet" because you can put any combination of chords, or patterns using the chord tones, in either or both hands and it will all come out "tasting" good on the same musical plate.

A simple example of a blues riff might include playing the notes of each chord separately in your left hand in a repeating rhythmic pattern. What's more, the pattern works well for the left or right hands, as well as in combination. For instance, beginners might like to play broken (or arpeggiated) chords with the left hand and full chords with the right hand, and more advanced players might prefer to keep a steady pattern with the left and practice improvising fills with the right, which is what the great boogie pianists, such as Tampa Red, Professor Longhair, and Dr. John, have mastered.

This leads to a lot of fun imitating, exploring, and learning what combinations to play the notes in. The blues has been such a huge influence over popular music in this country, we all know most of these things in our heads already because we've heard them a gazillion times in music we've listened to over the years.

My first book and my website have many examples of blues patterns to practice. To get a quick taste of the "blues buffet," a one-bar example of an arpeggiated C major (notes C, E, and G) chord is shown below. Remember, to turn this combination of notes into a blues progression, simply play the same combination in the chords of C, F, and G in the 12-bar blues pattern. And don't forget to swing!

Even if you don't consider yourself a huge blues fan, you will find that learning to have fun playing the blues chord progression will do wonders for your playing in whatever other genre you enjoy. That is because the blues has been, and still is, such a giant influence on almost all other styles of non-classical music that you use blues inspired "licks" and "riffs" quite often as you play other styles.

Three chords ... hundreds of tunes ... where do I sign up?
Visit Scott Houston's website at www.scottthepianoguy.com

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The Only 3 Chords You Need to Master the Blues on Piano | Making Music Magazine

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I've got some great news to let out of the bag for anyone dying to have some fun at a piano or keyboard right away. In its simplest form, the blues has only three chords. That's right, three! (Ahhh, so that's why there are so many blues bands out there ...)

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In 1977, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started receiving reports that otherwise healthy Southeast Asian men were dying mysteriously in their sleep, some with terrified expressions on their faces. Researchers, at a loss, called it SUNDS-Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome. In particular, SUNDS disproportionately affected Hmong refugees from Laos. At the peak of the "epidemic" in 1981, Hmong men were dying from SUNDS at the same rate as American men in the same age group were dying from the five leading causes of natural death-combined.

"People didn't know at all what was going on," says University of California-San Francisco professor Shelley Adler, who was a graduate student studying medical anthropology at the time. But after interviewing 118 Hmong men and women about their experiences, her suspicions were confirmed. Many attributed the deaths to fatal attacks from dab tsog, an evil nighttime spirit in the traditional Hmong religion that crushes men at night. Their descriptions of dab tsog were similar to sleep paralysis, a disorder in which a person's mind awakens while their body is still asleep or paralyzed; they often feel like they are being crushed and experience hallucinations.

But there were still unanswered questions. "Sleep paralysis alone is not fatal," Adler says. "Sleep paralysis alone does not kill anyone. Why was it fatal for the Hmong?"

SCIENTISTS ARE JUST BEGINNING to understand how cultural beliefs can lead to psychological stress, illness, and even death. American physiologist Walter Cannon was one of the first people to write about the potentially fatal consequences of these intense beliefs. In 1942, reports were streaming in from around the world about "voodoo" death: South American Tupinamba men, condemned by medicine men, died of fright. Hausa people in Niger withered away after being told they were bewitched. Aboriginal tribesmen in Australia, upon seeing an enemy pointing a hexed bone at them, went into convulsions and passed away. "Voodoo" death, according to Cannon, was real: "It is a fatal power of the imagination working through unmitigated terror."

Psychological stress-especially, in these cases, due to cultural beliefs-can be significant enough to cause major health issues.

Researchers today continue to find evidence of it. "I'd been thinking for a long, long time, how I would test this idea that fear makes a difference," says David Phillips, a sociology professor at the University of California-San Diego. He learned from a student that many Chinese and Japanese people are superstitious about numbers, particularly the number four, which is considered unlucky because it sounds like the word for "death." Phillips decided to crunch cardiac mortality figures for all Chinese and Japanese Americans who died from 1973 to 1998 on the fourth of each month. He found that cardiac deaths were seven percent higher than expected for Chinese and Japanese Americans on the fourth day of each month when compared to white Americans. That number rose to 13 percent for chronic heart disease deaths and was at its strongest, at 27 percent, in California, which accounts for almost half of the Chinese and Japanese deaths in the U.S.

After examining other plausible reasons for this phenomenon, Phillips' paper concludes that "the only explanation consistent with the findings is that psychological stress linked to the number four elicits additional deaths among Chinese and Japanese patients."

EVENTUALLY, SCIENTISTS BEGAN PIECING together parts of the SUNDS puzzle. In 1992, researchers identified a genetic mutation called the Brugada syndrome, which causes abnormal electrical impulses in the heart and could be linked to SUNDS and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. An extensive survey and sleep study of Hmong in Wisconsin confirmed that they were six to seven times more likely to have sleep apnea, and 10 times more likely to report frequent sleep paralysis, than non-Hmong.

But the genetics didn't paint a complete picture. SUNDS deaths peaked in 1981, the same year that the number of Southeast Asian refugees migrating to the U.S. was at its highest. Then the deaths gradually stopped. Plus, the Hmong that Adler interviewed had never heard of anyone dying from a dab tsog encounter in Laos.

"If it is a genetic disorder, why aren't people still dying from it?" Adler asks. "Why was there that peak in deaths? Why did the death happen with greater frequency when folks were [in the U.S.] for little over a year?"

The answer, Adler believes, could lie in the very phenomenon that Phillips had observed in Chinese and Japanese deaths: Psychological stress-especially, in these cases, due to cultural beliefs-can be significant enough to cause major health issues.

Adler's interviews with Hmong refugees revealed that many of them had undergone traumatic experiences in the Vietnam War and struggled to transition to life in the U.S. Two-thirds of Hmong surveyed in Wisconsin reported negative experiences from the war, and one-third reported chronic pain; the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and PTSD is high among Hmong and other Southeast Asian refugees. Without the support of tight-knit communities and traditional religious structures and systems, many feared that the protective spirits of their ancestors were unable to defend them against dab tsog. Fear of of dab tsog caused so much stress among Hmong men that some would set their alarm clocks to ring every 20 to 30 minutes to avoid deep sleep.

"[The genetic component] seemed to be compounded by refugee stress, a period of shock," Adler says. The overwhelming stress, in effect, could have "triggered" Brugada to unmask itself.

FOR A LONG TIME, research connecting psychological stress to adverse health consequences was anecdotal. "The more we studied it, the more we realized that power of suggestion is so important," Adler says. Now, studies that use fMRI technology and measure hormones in our saliva and urine can illustrate how mental trauma, stress, or even confidence and self-perception trigger our hormonal, neurobiological, and vascular systems-activating our flight-or-flight response, binding pain receptors to opioids, releasing sugar and adrenaline, or compromising our immune system.

Most importantly, researchers are beginning to step away from the antiquated notion that "voodoo" death and mind-body connections are limited to exotic cultures or foreign people.

Ted Kaptchuk, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a former practitioner of acupuncture and herbal medicine, observed this firsthand: Often, his patients would feel better after getting a consultation, before he had administered any treatment. "At the time the only possible explanation I had was that I was somehow a psychic healer-a role I did not care to embrace," Kaptchuk says. "Afterward I was recruited to evaluate alternative therapies at Harvard Medical School, and it was there that I first learned about placebo effects."

Now the director of Harvard's placebo studies program, Kaptchuk points out that Western medicine, like tribal dance or shaman healing, is also enrobed in rituals that cause placebo effects. In a 2010 study, he split patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome into three groups. One was given no placebo or consultation. The second was given a placebo treatment (fake acupuncture) with a brief consultation with a physician. The last group was given the same placebo treatment and a highly empathetic and warm patient-physician interaction; physicians spent extensive time asking the patient about how their IBS might be related to relationships and lifestyle, communicated confidence about the treatment, and actively listened to the patient.

Six weeks later, all three groups had improved, each one better than the last. In particular, patients who got the augmented relationship with their physician reported significantly more symptom relief and quality of life improvement than either group. With over 60 percent reporting adequate relief, their results were on par with any pharmaceutical ever tested for IBS treatment.

Kaptchuk isn't necessarily saying that alternative medicine works. Instead, his point is that when we put our trust in healers or healing systems-whether it's a physician in a white coat or a Navajo medicine man-we trigger neurobiological pathways that affect our body's sensations and symptoms. It may seem unlikely that psychological stress could cause something as drastic and definite as death, but scientific research is slowly unveiling the possibility. And for illnesses that are highly subjective in nature or affected by stress, like headache, pain, depression, fatigue, and nausea, placebos could be our best bet.

"It's a question of emphasis," Kaptchuk says. "Placebo studies suggest that, in health care, a more balanced approach to the physical and mental would be helpful in making patients feel better."

Mercy Medical Center, located in the Central Valley of California, began making this shift in 2009, when they started inviting shamans to the hospital to help treat Hmong patients. The shamans place lucky objects at doorways, perform healing ceremonies, and provide comfort and reassurance. The doctors heal the body-the shamans take care of the soul.

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'Voodoo Death' and How the Mind Harms the Body

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In 1977, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started receiving reports that otherwise healthy Southeast Asian men were dying mysteriously in their sleep, some with terrified expressions on their faces. Researchers, at a loss, called it SUNDS-Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome. In particular, SUNDS disproportionately affected Hmong refugees from Laos.

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6th Ward New Orleans Jazz FuneralPeople dancing on casket

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The Urban Voodoo Machine is the New Orleans Death March Band

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Every year now, The Voodoo Experience, with its taglines "join the ritual," and "worship the music," pegs its calendar to Halloween. This has become a tradition in New Orleans, much like All Saints' Day, when families head to the graveyards of the French Quarter and beyond to whitewash and sweep the tombs clean and decorate them with fresh flowers.

Jerry Gandolfo, a native New Orleanian whose family has run the Voodoo Museum in the French Quarter since the 1970s, has seen oodles of products and places that take the name voodoo. Sometimes the term is used derogatorily, in terms like voodoo economics and voodoo science. But at a festival held outdoors, under the live oaks, the drums and music could summon the spirits and echo the past, living up to its name Voodoo. "If done right, the music should take possession of you. You won't be able to stand still. And if that happens, you are doing voodoo," he said. "There is a continuity."

Voodoo's New Orleans Roots

Voodoo came to New Orleans in the early 1700s, through slaves brought from Africa's western "slave coast." Like so many things New Orleans, Voodoo was then infused with the city's dominant religion, Catholicism, and became a Voodoo-Catholicism hybrid sometimes referred to as New Orleans Voodoo. In New Orleans, for instance, Legba, the Voodoo deity who controls the gates to the spirit world, becomes St. Peter, who holds the keys to the gates of heaven.

The hybrid was evident in Marie Laveau, a devout Catholic who attended Mass at St. Louis Cathedral and was a close friend of the cathedral's priest, Pere Antoine.

Today, Voodoo lives on in New Orleans through people who see it as part of their culture, through error-prone rumor, and through the long shadow of Laveau, the city's best-known voodooeinne.

In front of Laveau's brick-and-mortar tomb in St. Louis No. 1 cemetery on the outskirts of the French Quarter, fans lay out stacks of nickels, paper flowers, and other offerings. Visiting cemeteries such as this one is one of the most popular things to do in the French Quarter and beyond.

When Laveau was alive and living on St. Ann Street, people used to knock on her door at all hours, looking for legal help, food, or advice about a straying husband. Her death in 1881 didn't stop that. "In Voodoo, an ancestor is as much alive as a living person," Gandolfo said. "You just go to her new home now."

Laveau, who was also known as the Widow Paris after the death of her first husband Jacques Paris, was a striking spiritual figure, a do-gooder and a free woman of color. She adopted orphans, fed the hungry, visited prisoners, and nursed countless patients back to health during the yellow-fever epidemic. She also was a skilled naturopath, treating patients with massage, teas, herbs, salves and tinctures, which likely was more successful with yellow-fever parents than bloodletting and other medical techniques of the day.

Some of the books cite first-hand accounts of neighbors recalling how Laveau had flowers, candles, images of saints, and altars throughout her house, how the front steps were scrubbed every morning with brick dust, to protect the house, and how she had a statue of St Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of finding lost items, that she would turn upside down when she was "working."

Voodoo In New Orleans Today

Hoodoo is a non-religious belief in the objects of Voodoo, or gris gris. Gandolfo likens it to a belief that a four-leaf clover is lucky. New Orleans has had a long line of famous hoodoo practitioners and shops, and people here still talk about spells that use images of saints, chicken feet, graveyard dust, brick dust, gunpowder, pins and needles, candles and incense.

Want to learn more? Read the Know NOLA Guide to Voodoo from our friends at New Orleans & Me.

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The True History and Faith Behind Voodoo

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By: Katy Reckdahl Every year now, The Voodoo Experience, with its taglines "join the ritual," and "worship the music," pegs its calendar to Halloween. This has become a tradition in New Orleans, much like All Saints' Day, when families head to the graveyards of the French Quarter and beyond to whitewash and sweep the tombs [...]

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In New Orleans, exciting events happen all year long. Find holiday-related festivals to plan your trip around, or just come celebrate in a city that truly values celebrating. Delicious food, firework displays, unique parades and one-of-a-kind parties, make New Orleans an ideal destination for any major holiday. From Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day to Halloween and New Years Eve, see what's going on below.

Beginning on Twelfth Night, Jan. 6, the city is obsessed with eating, costuming, bead-tossing and parading that increases in intensity as...

Celebrate the holidays like nowhere else does in New Orleans - from caroling in Jackson Square to delicious traditional dinners and more!

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In New Orleans, exciting events happen all year long. Find holiday-related festivals to plan your trip around, or just come celebrate in a city that truly values celebrating. Delicious food, firework displays, unique parades and one-of-a-kind parties, make New Orleans an ideal destination for any major holiday. From Mardi Gras and St.

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What makes a New Orleans jazz funeral so unique? There are a lot of characteristics of a jazz funeral that are different from a typical end-of-life service.

First, jazz funerals often include two processions, one from the church to the burial site and one that leaves the cemetery after the body has been laid to rest. Second, while a typical funeral is a somber affair, a jazz funeral begins in a melancholy tone but ends as a celebration.

Jump ahead to these sections:

The most crucial difference between a typical funeral and a New Orleans Jazz funeral is the music. Typical funeral music includes somber hymns and songs and a New Orleans Jazz funeral begins with dirges but finishes with flourishes.

Here are some of the most well known New Orleans jazz funeral songs.

COVID-19 tip: If you're hosting a Zoom funeral using a service like GatheringUs, test your audio before the ceremony, so you can anticipate any day-of-funeral issues. Make sure to create a unique playlist for the digital reception, wake, or other gatherings and send the playlist URL to the guests with the funeral thank-you cards.

Best New Orleans Jazz Funeral Songs

We know that the "best" New Orleans Jazz funeral songs are a matter of opinion, but here are some that we think are great. We'll include more somber tunes usually played on the way to the cemetery, as well as the more upbeat songs that you hear after the body has been laid to rest.

1. "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" by Charles Crozat Converse and Joseph Scriven

While "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is undoubtedly a typical funeral hymn, it is also often used as one of the melancholy tunes played on the way to the cemetery in a New Orleans jazz funeral.

2. "Flee as a Bird" by Mary Dana Shindler

Mary Dana Shindler, even though she was only 27, was not a stranger to grief. She wrote, "Flee as a Bird" after the deaths of her husband, infant son, brother, and sister.

3. "As I Lay My Burden Down"

The origins of "As I Lay My Burden Down" are not recorded, but the song is referred to as a "spiritual song." Even though the lyrics include the line "Glory glory, hallelujah," it should not be confused with the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

4. "Feel So Good"

The origins of the song "Feel So Good" are also difficult to find, but this song is often used at New Orleans Jazz funerals. One source lists this song as especially appropriate as "happy music for meditation."

5. "Didn't He Ramble" by J. Rosamond Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, and Bob Cole

This song, written in 1902, begins with the lines,

6. "We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City" by George Lewis

This song has particularly beautiful lyrics. The chorus says,

"We shall walk through the streets of that cityMeeting those that are gone long beforeWe shall meet on the bank of the river

Where we'll meet to part no more."

7. "Just a Little While to Stay Here" by E. M. Bartlett

E.M. Bartlett worked in the 1920s and 1930s and was a leader in southern gospel music. The lyrics are about a Christian's impatient wait to enter paradise after the end of his or her life.

" MORE: How do you host a virtual funeral? Start here

Traditional Jazz Songs and Standards for a Funeral

Most of the songs on this list are traditional songs played at a New Orleans jazz funeral. You may also be interested in researching uplifting funeral songs or goodbye songs as well.

8. "Down By the Riverside"

"Down By the Riverside" is a traditional spiritual, so the composer and lyricist are lost with time. Even though we don't know the origins, it is a beloved song that is often played at New Orleans jazz funerals. It has been used as an anti-war protest song as well.

Louis Armstrong recorded a popular version of "Down By the Riverside."

9. "When the Saints Go Marching In"

When most people think of New Orleans Jazz funerals, they think of the song "When the Saints Go Marching In." Like some of the other songs on this list, the song's composer has been lost with time.

10. "I'll Fly Away" by Albert E. Brumley

"I'll Fly Away," written in 1929, has continued to be a favorite hymn for decades. It is often used by the jazz societies that pay tribute to the deceased at a New Orleans funeral.

11. "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" by Kenneth Morris

Even though Kenneth Morris popularized "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," he may not have written the words or the tune to the song. One account says that Morris heard a porter singing a song at a train station.

Morris was so infatuated with the song that he returned to the station to write down the words. He popularized it and it eventually became commonly used at jazz funerals.

12. "Nearer, My God, to Thee" by Sarah Flower Adams

According to survivors' stories, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" was the last song played on the deck of the Titanic before it sank. Sarah Flower Adams was an English poet who wrote the lyrics for this famous hymn.

13. "Amazing Grace" by John Newton

"Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognized songs in the world and the story regarding its inspiration is often repeated. John Newton was a slave trader. He wrote the lyrics after a spiritual conversion. Read our guide on the best versions of "Amazing Grace" if you're looking for another rendition.

14. "Just Over in the Gloryland" by Ralph Stanley

The lyrics of "Just Over in the Gloryland" read

"Just over in the glory land
I'll join the happy angel band."

The uplifting tune makes it especially appropriate for a New Orleans jazz funeral.

Best Soft Jazz Funeral Songs

There are plenty of soft jazz versions of many funeral songs. The soft versions of these and other songs are commonly used in the slow, stately procession of the deceased on the way to the cemetery. Here are some to consider.

15. "Shall We Gather at the River?" by Robert Lowry

Besides writing music, Robert Lowry also served as a pastor. This song can be played as a soft jazz version for a funeral. River imagery is typical in many hymns and spirituals.

16. "Sweet, Sweet Spirit" by Doris Akers

Doris Akers wrote hundreds of songs during her career. She wrote this song after asking her choir to spend more time in prayer before a performance.

The prayer time was particularly impressive, and Akers reluctantly ended it so the choir could perform. She later wrote "Sweet, Sweet Spirit" to describe the feeling that came from such fervent prayer.

17. "Were You There" by William Eleazar Barton

To be fair, William Eleazar Barton probably did not write, "Were You There." But he is the one who published this song in "Old Plantation Hymns," which was produced in 1899.

18. "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" James Milton Black

Many famous artists recorded this song, including Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Loretta Lynn.

19. "Every Time I Feel the Spirit"

"Every Time I Feel the Spirit" was a spiritual with an unknown composer. Nat King Cole recorded a popular version of this song.

20. "Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe's husband did not approve of her songwriting. Howe was an abolitionist, social activist, and fought for women's suffrage. The history of this song is rather complicated, and its chorus has been used to support many different causes.

21. "Onward, Christian Soldiers" by Sabine Baring-Gould

"Onward, Christian Soldiers" has been played in the background at important moments in history. Besides being chosen for President Eisenhower's funeral, Winston Churchill also chose it to be played at a battleship church service during World War II.

Choose the Best Jazz Funeral Songs

The New Orleans jazz funeral processional is undoubtedly one of the enthusiastic ways to commemorate the end of an individual's life. One who is unfamiliar with the tradition may not understand why the mourners seem so jubilant when they return from the cemetery.

Some say that the practice came from the African slaves who believed that loud noises made the transition from earth to heaven easier. It is also the result of the Christian belief of the afterlife. The family members are celebrating that their loved ones are free from pain and in heaven.

And the umbrellas that mourners often sport on the way back from the cemetery? They are used because it's sweltering in New Orleans, and the mourners need a way to shield themselves from the sun.
Sources

1. "Dixieland Music for Funerals by Dixieland Stomp New Orleans Funeral." premierentertains.com/Dixieland%20Funeral%20Music%20New%20Orleans.htm

2. Morel-Ensminger , Melanie. "Jazz Funeral for the Old Year." Unitarian Universalist Association. www.uua.org/worship/words/ceremony/174619.shtml

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21 Traditional & New Orleans Jazz Funeral Songs | Cake Blog

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What makes a New Orleans jazz funeral so unique? There are a lot of characteristics of a jazz funeral that are different from a typical end-of-life service. First, jazz funerals often include two processions, one from the church to the burial site and one that leaves the cemetery after the body has been laid to rest.

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Gothic definition is - of, relating to, or resembling the Goths, their civilization, or their language. How to use Gothic in a sentence.

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Hermes Psychopompos sits on a rock, preparing to lead a dead soul to the underworld. Attic white-ground lekythos, ca. 450 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2797)

In Greek mythology, the Greek underworld, or Hades, is a distinct realm (one of the three realms that make up the cosmos) where an individual goes after death. The earliest idea of afterlife in Greek myth is that, at the moment of death, an individual's essence ( psyche) is separated from the corpse and transported to the underworld. In early mythology (e.g., Homer's and ) the dead were indiscriminately grouped together and led a shadowy post-existence; however, in later mythology (e.g., Platonic philosophy) elements of post-mortem judgment began to emerge with good and bad people being separated (both spatially and with regards to treatment).

The underworld itself- commonly referred to as Hades, after its patron god, but also known by various metonyms-is described as being located at the periphery of the earth, either associated with the outer limits of the ocean (i.e., , again also a god) or beneath the earth. Darkness and a lack of sunlight are common features associated with the underworld and, in this way, provide a direct contrast to both the 'normality' of the land of the living (where the sun shines) and also with the brightness associated with Mount Olympus (the realm of the gods). The underworld is also considered to be an invisible realm, which is understood both in relation to the permanent state of darkness but also a potential etymological link with Hades as the 'unseen place'. The underworld is made solely for the dead and so mortals do not enter it - with only a few heroic exceptions (who undertook a mythical : Heracles, Theseus, Orpheus, possibly also Odysseus, and in later Roman depictions Aeneas).

Rivers are a fundamental part of the topography of the underworld and are found in the earliest source materials: In Homer's Iliad, the "ghost" of Patroclus makes specific mention of gates and a river (unnamed) in Hades; in Homer's Odyssey, the "ghost" of Odysseus's mother, Anticlea, describes there being many "great rivers and appalling streams", and reference is made to at least four specific rivers. H. A. Guerber assumed that the rivers where Charon sailed mirrored the sky in Greco-Roman thought. In the wider mythological tradition, however, there are multiple bodies of water that are associated with the underworld (varying in number and combination depending on the source), the names of which can be understood to reflect specific associations with death.

The Styx can be considered the most prominent and familiar of the underworld rivers. It is the only named underworld river mentioned in Homer's Iliad - our earliest mythological text - and three of the Homeric Hymns. Not only is it an underworld river but is also, more generally, the inviolable waters upon which the gods swear oaths and a goddess in her own right (the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys). In later traditions it often serves as the entrance to the underworld over which Charon (the ferryman of the dead) rows the deceased in order for them to enter the underworld. It is also known as the river of hatred. There are several Styx-es in the real world: according to Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny it was in Arcadia; while Pausanias locates one in Nonacris.

The Acheron is the river of misery or river of woe. It is mentioned in many early sources of archaic poetry but is less prominent and early than the Styx. In some mythological accounts, Charon rows the dead over the Acheron rather than the Styx. In some alternative sources Acheron is a lake (rather than/as well as the river) and also functions as a synonym for the underworld. Pausanias describes a river named Acheron in Epirus, Thesprotia, which flows into a swampy-lake and converges with a river Cocytus (like its Homeric counterpart) which Pausanias attributes as the inspiration for Homer's description of the underworld. This site is also associated with specific instances of necromantic ritual and/or catabases from the mythic-past. Likewise, later traditions note a Acheron river in Cumae, Italy, which was also identified specifically with Odysseus' necromantic/catabatic activity.

The Pyriphlegethon/Phlegethon is the river of blazing-fire (Pyriphlegéthōn being from the phrase puri phlegethonti, 'blazing like fire'). It has a single mention in Homer's Odyssey (Pyriphlegéthōn) where it is described as flowing into the river Acheron, and then does not appear again in sources until Plato. According to Plato, this river leads to the depths of Tartarus and is associated with punishment (in particular, people who hit their fathers and mothers). There was a river/field of this name near Cumae - maintaining its association with 'burning' due to the local hot springs - which Strabo explicitly associated with the Homeric underworld.

The Cocytus is the river of wailing (from kōkuein, 'to weep, lament'). It too has only a single mention in Homer's Odyssey where it is described as a branch of the Styx that flows into the Acheron. According to Plato, the Cocytus is circular and empties into Tartarus and is associated with the punishment of murderers. It is also the name of a river in Thesprotia and Cumae which merges with the Acheron (see above).

The Lethe is the river of forgetfulness, taking its name from Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion. In later accounts, a poplar branch dripping with water of the Lethe became the symbol of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Some sources reference a plain of Lethe, rather than a river.

Oceanus is the river that encircles the world, and it marks the border of the land of the living and the underworld.

The deceased could enter the underworld through various routes, but perhaps the most common depiction is that of the ferryman Charon to take them across the river. This was a particularly common motif on Athenian white ground lekythoi (funerary vases) of fifth century BCE and it is difficult to date this figure much earlier than the 6th century BCE (perhaps the latest of Hades' inhabitants to 'appear'). While Charon doesn't feature in the earliest mythical sources, there was still a superstition that the unburied couldn't cross over until they receive a proper burial (the most famous examples being Patroclus and Hector in the Iliad). Alternatively, Hermes Psychopompos could also be relied upon to lead the deceased to the underworld and appears first in Homer's Odyssey book 24 (also a common motif on white ground lekythoi). Hades was well-known for its gates (the πύλαι Ἀίδαο: Hom. Il. 5.646, 9.312, 23.71, Od. 14.156), with one of Hades's (the god) epithets being the "gate fastener" (πυλάρτης: Hom. Il. 8.367, 13.415, Od. 11.277).

In some Greek sources Tartarus is another name for the underworld (serving as a metonym for Hades), while in others it is a completely distinct realm separate from the underworld. Hesiod most famously describes Tartarus as being as far beneath the underworld as the earth is beneath the sky. Like Hades, it too is so dark that the "night is poured around it in three rows like a collar round the neck, while above it grows the roots of the earth and of the unharvested sea." The most famous inhabitants of Tartarus are the Titans; Zeus cast the Titans along with his father Cronus into Tartarus after defeating them. Homer wrote that Cronus then became the king of Tartarus. According to Plato's Gorgias ( c. 400 BC), souls are judged after death and Tartarus is where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus is also considered to be a primordial force or deity alongside entities such as the Earth, Night, and Time.

The Asphodel Meadows is the location in the underworld where the majority of the deceased dwell. The name appears as far back as Homer's Odyssey (11.359), where it features in Odysseus' survey of the underworld (technically referred to here as the field of asphodel: ἀσφοδελὸς λειμών). It is unclear exactly what the ancients understood this "field" to be with scholars divided between associating it with flower asphodel (genus, Asphodelus L.) or a field of ash (basing this on the etymological construction of σφοδελὸς > σποδός, "ash").

Elysium/Elysian Fields

The Elysium (also referred to as the Elysian Fields) was a utopian, paradisiacal afterlife reserved for specially distinguished individuals. The Elysian Fields are first referenced in Homer's Odyssey Book 4 where Menelaus is promised that he will go there instead of dying (and so distinguishing it from the afterlife proper): it is described as being located at the edges of the earth (the peirata) and is where life is "easiest for men". However, Menelaus does not achieve this fate not due to anything he has done during his lifetime but rather because he is Zeus' son-in-law (being married to Helen). In Hesiod's Work and Days, however, this is a paradise that heroes could attain. Eventually, as concepts of the afterlife broadened and became more "democratic", the generally righteous could be sent to the Elysian Fields after being judged by the underworld judges, Rhadamanthus and Minos.

Isles of the Blessed

By Hesiod's time, the Elysium would also be known as the Fortunate Isles or the Isles of the Blessed. The isles, which were sometimes treated as a geographical location on Earth, would become known as a place of reward in the underworld for those who were judged exceptionally pure.

Hades (Aides, Aidoneus, or Haidês), the eldest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea; brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, is the Greek god of the underworld. When the three brothers divided the world between themselves, Zeus received the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld; the earth itself was divided between the three. Therefore, while Hades' responsibility was in the underworld, he was allowed to have power on earth as well. However, Hades himself is rarely seen outside his domain, and to those on earth his intentions and personality are a mystery. In art and literature Hades is depicted as stern and dignified, but not as a fierce torturer or devil-like. However, Hades was considered the enemy to all life and was hated by both the gods and men; sacrifices and prayers did not appease him so mortals rarely tried. He was also not a tormenter of the dead, and sometimes considered the "Zeus of the dead" because he was hospitable to them. Due to his role as lord of the underworld and ruler of the dead, he was also known as Zeus Khthonios ("the infernal Zeus" or "Zeus of the lower world"). Those who received punishment in Tartarus were assigned by the other gods seeking vengeance. In Greek society, many viewed Hades as the least liked god and many gods even had an aversion towards him, and when people would sacrifice to Hades, it would be if they wanted revenge on an enemy or something terrible to happen to them.

Hades was sometimes referred to as Pluton and was represented in a lighter way - here, he was considered the giver of wealth, since the crops and the blessing of the harvest come from below the earth.

The Rape of Persephone: Persephone is abducted by Hades in his chariot. Persephone krater Antikensammlung Berlin 1984.40

Persephone (also known as Kore) was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and Zeus. Persephone was abducted by Hades, who desired a wife. When Persephone was gathering flowers, she was entranced by a narcissus flower planted by Gaia (to lure her to the underworld as a favor to Hades), and when she picked it the earth suddenly opened up. Hades, appearing in a golden chariot, seduced and carried Persephone into the underworld. When Demeter found out that Zeus had given Hades permission to abduct Persephone and take her as a wife, Demeter became enraged at Zeus and stopped growing harvests for the earth. To soothe her, Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld to return Persephone to her mother. However, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds in the underworld and was thus eternally tied to the underworld, since the pomegranate seed was sacred there.

Persephone could then only leave the underworld when the earth was blooming, or every season except the winter. The Homeric Hymns describes the abduction of Persephone by Hades:

I sing now of the great Demeter
Of the beautiful hair,
And of her daughter Persephone
Of the lovely feet,
Whom Zeus let Hades tear away
From her mother's harvests
And friends and flowers-
Especially the Narcissus,
Grown by Gaia to entice the girl
As a favor to Hades, the gloomy one.
This was the flower that
Left all amazed,
Whose hundred buds made
The sky itself smile.
When the maiden reached out
To pluck such beauty,
The earth opened up
And out burst Hades ...
The son of Kronos,
Who took her by force
On his chariot of gold,
To the place where so many
Long not to go.
Persephone screamed,
She called to her father,
All-powerful and high, ...
But Zeus had allowed this.
He sat in a temple
Hearing nothing at all,
Receiving the sacrifices of
Supplicating men.

Persephone herself is considered a fitting other half to Hades because of the meaning of her name which bears the Greek root for "killing" and the - phone in her name means "putting to death".

Triple Hecate and the Charites, Attic, 3rd century BCE (Glyptothek, Munich)

Hecate was variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, dogs, light, the Moon, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, necromancy, and sorcery. Hecate is often shown as a tripartite goddess, which allows her to look in multiple directions at once. This emphasizes her role as a protector of the in betweens.

Orestes at Delphi flanked by Athena and Pylades among the Erinyes and priestesses of the oracle, perhaps including Pythia behind the tripod - Paestan red-figured bell-krater, c. 330 BC

The Erinyes (also known as the Furies) were the three goddesses associated with the souls of the dead and the avenged crimes against the natural order of the world. They consist of Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone.

They were particularly concerned with crimes done by children against their parents such as matricide, patricide, and unfilial conduct. They would inflict madness upon the living murderer, or if a nation was harboring such a criminal, the Erinyes would cause starvation and disease to the nation. The Erinyes were dreaded by the living since they embodied the vengeance of the person who was wronged against the wrongdoer. Often the Greeks made "soothing libations" to the Erinyes to appease them so as to not invoke their wrath, and overall the Erinyes received many more libations and sacrifices than other gods of the underworld. The Erinyes were depicted as ugly and winged women with their bodies intertwined with serpents.

Relief from a carved funerary lekythos at Athens: Hermes as psychopomp conducts the deceased, Myrrhine, to Hades, ca 430-420 BCE (National Archaeological Museum of Athens).

While Hermes did not primarily reside in the underworld and is not usually associated with the underworld, he was the one who led the souls of the dead to the underworld. In this sense, he was known as Hermes Psychopompos and with his fair golden wand he was able to lead the dead to their new home. He was also called upon by the dying to assist in their passing - some called upon him to have painless deaths or be able to die when and where they believed they were meant to die.

Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus are the judges of the dead. They judged the deeds of the deceased and created the laws that governed the underworld.

Aeacus was the guardian of the Keys of the underworld and the judge of the men of Europe. Rhadamanthus was Lord of Elysium and judge of the men of Asia. Minos was the judge of the final vote.

Charon is the ferryman who, after receiving a soul from Hermes, would guide them across the rivers Styx and/or Acheron to the underworld. At funerals, the deceased traditionally had an obol placed over their eye or under their tongue, so they could pay Charon to take them across. If not, they were said to fly at the shores for one hundred years, until they were allowed to cross the river. To the Etruscans, Charon was considered a fearsome being - he wielded a hammer and was hook-nosed, bearded, and had animalistic ears with teeth. In other early Greek depictions, Charon was considered merely an ugly bearded man with a conical hat and tunic. Later on, in more modern Greek folklore, he was considered more angelic, like the Archangel Michael. Nevertheless, Charon was considered a terrifying being since his duty was to bring these souls to the underworld and no one would persuade him to do otherwise.

Hades with Cerberus.

Cerberus (Kerberos), or the "Hell-Hound", is Hades' massive multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog with some descriptions stating that it also has a snake-headed tail and snake heads on its back and as its mane. Born from Echidna and Typhon, Cerberus guards the gate that serves as the entrance of the underworld. Cerberus' duty is to prevent dead people from leaving the underworld.

Heracles once borrowed Cerberus as the final part of the Labours of Heracles. Orpheus once soothed it to sleep with his music.

According to the , the ancient Greeks placed a honeycake ( μελιτοῦττα) with the dead in order for the dead to give it to Cerberus.

Thanatos is the personification of death. Specifically, he represented non-violent death as contrasted with his sisters the Keres, the spirits of diseases and slaughter.

Hypnos is the personification of sleep and twin brother of Thanatos. His cave was described as impenetrable by the light of sun and moon alike; it was surrounded by poppies and other soporific plants. The river Lethe also flowed through the cave, and here its murmuring would induce drowsiness.

Melinoe is a chthonic nymph, daughter of Persephone, invoked in one of the Orphic Hymns and propitiated as a bringer of nightmares and madness. She may also be the figure named in a few inscriptions from Anatolia, and she appears on a bronze tablet in association with Persephone. The hymns, of uncertain date but probably composed in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, are liturgical texts for the mystery religion known as Orphism. In the hymn, Melinoë has characteristics that seem similar to Hecate and the Erinyes, and the name is sometimes thought to be an epithet of Hecate. The terms in which Melinoë is described are typical of moon goddesses in Greek poetry.

Nyx is the goddess of the Night. Nyx is the daughter of Chaos.

A deep abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans, Tartarus was also considered to be a primordial deity.

Styx is the goddess of the river with the same name. Not much is known about her, but she is an ally of Zeus and lives in the underworld.

Eurynomos is one of the daemons of the underworld, who eats off all the flesh of the corpses, leaving only their bones.

Zagreus was considered by some ancient authors as an underworld god.

In the Greek underworld, the souls of the dead still existed, but they are insubstantial, and flitted around the underworld with no sense of purpose. The dead within the Homeric underworld lack menos, or strength, and therefore they cannot influence those on earth. They also lack phrenes, or wit, and are heedless of what goes on around them and on the earth above them. Their lives in the underworld were very neutral, so all social statuses and political positions were eliminated and no one was able to use their previous lives to their advantage in the underworld.

The idea of progress did not exist in the Greek underworld - at the moment of death, the psyche was frozen, in experience and appearance. The souls in the underworld did not age or really change in any sense. They did not lead any sort of active life in the underworld - they were exactly the same as they were in life. Therefore, those who had died in battle were eternally blood-spattered in the underworld and those who had died peacefully were able to remain that way.

Overall, the Greek dead were considered to be irritable and unpleasant, but not dangerous or malevolent. They grew angry if they felt a hostile presence near their graves and drink offerings were given in order to appease them so as not to anger the dead. Mostly, blood offerings were given, because they needed the essence of life to become communicative and conscious again. This is shown in Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus had to offer blood of sheep in order for the souls to interact with him. While in the underworld, the dead passed the time through simple pastimes such as playing games, as shown from objects found in tombs such as dice and game-boards. Grave gifts such as clothing, jewelry, and food were left by the living for use in the underworld as well, since many viewed these gifts to carry over into the underworld. There was not a general consensus as to whether the dead were able to consume food or not. Homer depicted the dead as unable to eat or drink unless they had been summoned; however, some reliefs portray the underworld as having many elaborate feasts. While not completely clear, it is implied that the dead could still have sexual intimacy with another, although no children were produced. The Greeks also showed belief in the possibility of marriage in the underworld, which in a sense implies the Greek underworld was little different from the world of the living.

Lucian described the people of the underworld as simple skeletons. They are indistinguishable from each other, and it is impossible to tell who was wealthy or important in the living world. However, this view of the underworld was not universal - Homer depicts the dead keeping their familiar faces.

Hades itself was free from the concept of time. The dead are aware of both the past and the future, and in poems describing Greek heroes, the dead helped move the plot of the story by prophesying and telling truths unknown to the hero. The only way for humans to communicate with the dead was to suspend time and their normal life to reach Hades, the place beyond immediate perception and human time.

The Greeks had a definite belief that there was a journey to the afterlife or another world. They believed that death was not a complete end to life or human existence. The Greeks accepted the existence of the soul after death, but saw this afterlife as meaningless. In the underworld, the identity of a dead person still existed, but it had no strength or true influence. Rather, the continuation of the existence of the soul in the underworld was considered a remembrance of the fact that the dead person had existed, yet while the soul still existed, it was inactive. However, the price of death was considered a great one. Homer believed that the best possible existence for humans was to never be born at all, or die soon after birth, because the greatness of life could never balance the price of death. The Greek gods only rewarded heroes who were still living; heroes that died were ignored in the afterlife. However, it was considered very important to the Greeks to honor the dead and was seen as a type of piety. Those who did not respect the dead opened themselves to the punishment of the gods - for example, Odysseus ensured Ajax's burial, or the gods would be angered.

Orpheus, a poet and musician that had almost supernatural abilities to move anyone to his music, descended to the underworld as a living mortal to retrieve his dead wife Eurydice after she was bitten by a poisonous snake on their wedding day. With his lyre-playing skills, he was able to put a spell on the guardians of the underworld and move them with his music. With his beautiful voice he was able to convince Hades and Persephone to allow him and his wife to return to the living. The rulers of the underworld agreed, but under one condition - Eurydice would have to follow behind Orpheus and he could not turn around to look at her. Once Orpheus reached the entrance, he turned around, longing to look at his beautiful wife, only to watch as his wife faded back into the underworld. He was forbidden to return to the underworld a second time and he spent his life playing his music to the birds and the mountains.

1. ^ Garland, Robert (2001). The Greek way of death (2nd ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. pp. 60-61. ISBN 978-0-8014-8746-0.

2. For use of the metonymic description "the world below" (^ hupenerthe), see Hom. Il. 3.278, 20.61; for the formulaic statement "beneath the depths of the earth" see Hom. Od. 24.204; Il. 22.482-83.

3. ^ Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane (1995). 'Reading Greek death': To the end of the Classical Period. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. p. 72.

4. ^ Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane (1995). 'Reading Greek death': To the end of the Classical period. Oxford, UK: Clarendon. p. 61.

5. ^ Leeming, David (2005). "Styx". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195156690.001.0001. ISBN 9780195156690.

6. ^ Mackie, C. J. (1999). "Scamander and the Rivers of Hades in Homer". American Journal of Philology. 120 (4): 487. doi:10.1353/ajp.1999.0049. JSTOR 1561802. S2CID 162381456.

7. Buxton pg.213

8. Westmoreland, Perry L. (2007). Ancient Greek Beliefs. Lee And Vance Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-9793248-1-9.

9. ^ Amigues, S (2002). "La "Prairie d'Asphodèle" de l'Odyssée et de l'Hymne homérique à Hermès". Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes. 76: 7-14. doi:10.3917/phil.761.0007.

10. Peck, Harry Thurston (1897). Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. Harper & brothers.

11. ^ O'Cleirigh, Padraig (2000). An Introduction to Greek mythology : story, symbols, and culture. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. p. 190.

12. ^ Leeming, David (2005). "Demeter and Persephone". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195156690.001.0001. ISBN 9780195156690.

13. Orphic Hymn 70 or 71 (numbering varies), as given by ^ Richard Wünsch, Antikes Zaubergerät aus Pergamon (Berlin, 1905), p. 26:
Μηλινόην καλέω, νύμφην χθονίαν, κροκόπεπλον,
ἣν παρὰ Κωκυτοῦ προχοαῖς ἐλοχεύσατο σεμνὴ
Φερσεφόνη λέκτροις ἱεροῖς Ζηνὸς Κρονίοιο
ᾗ ψευσθεὶς Πλούτων᾽ἐμίγη δολίαις ἀπάταισι,
θυμῷ Φερσεφόνης δὲ διδώματον ἔσπασε χροιήν,
ἣ θνητοὺς μαίνει φαντάσμασιν ἠερίοισιν,
ἀλλοκότοις ἰδέαις μορφῆς τὐπον έκκπροφανοῦσα,
ἀλλοτε μὲν προφανής, ποτὲ δὲ σκοτόεσσα, νυχαυγής,
ἀνταίαις ἐφόδοισι κατὰ ζοφοειδέα νύκτα.
ἀλλἀ, θεά, λίτομαί σε, καταχθονίων Βασίλεια,
ψυχῆς ἐκπέμπειν οἶστρον ἐπὶ τέρματα γαίης,
εὐμενὲς εὐίερον μύσταις φαίνουσα πρόσωπον.

14. Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, "Orphic Mythology", in ^ A Companion to Greek Mythology (Blackwell, 2011), note 58, p. 100; Apostolos N. Athanassakis, The Orphic Hymns: Text, Translation, and Notes (Scholars Press, 1977), p. viii.

15. Ivana Petrovic, ^ Von den Toren des Hades zu den Hallen des Olymp (Brill, 2007), p. 94; W. Schmid and O. Stählin, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur (C.H. Beck, 1924, 1981), vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 982; W.H. Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890-94), vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 16.

16. Garland pg.70

17. ^ Mystakidou, Kyriaki; Eleni Tsilika; Efi Parpa; Emmanuel Katsouda; Lambros Vlahos (1 December 2004). "Death and Grief in the Greek Culture". OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying. 50 (1): 24. doi:10.2190/YYAU-R4MN-AKKM-T496. S2CID 144183546.

Albinus, Lars (2000). The House of Hades: Studies in Ancient Greek Eschatology. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

Bärsch, Dominic (2023). Mundus ecce nutat et labitur: Weltuntergangskonzepte in der griechischen und lateinischen Literatur. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783525302217.

Buxton, R. (2004). The complete World of Greek Mythology. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 9780500251218.

Fairbanks, Arthur (1900). "The Chthonic Gods of Greek Religion". The American Journal of Philology. 21 (3). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 241-259. doi:10.2307/287716. JSTOR 287716.

Garland, Robert (1985). The Greek Way of Death. London: Duckworth.

Leeming, David (2005). "Demeter and Persephone". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195156690.001.0001. ISBN 9780195156690.

Leeming, David (2005). "Styx". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195156690.001.0001. ISBN 9780195156690.

Long, J. Bruce (2005). "Underworld". Encyclopedia of Religion. 14. Macmillan Reference USA: 9451-9458.

Mirtro, Marina Serena (2012). Death in the Greek world : from Homer to the classical age. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Mikalson, Jon D. (2010). Ancient Greek Religion. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Mystakidou, Kyriaki; Tsilika, Eleni; Parpa, Efi; Katsouda, Elena; Vlahous, Lambros (2004-2005). "Death and Grief in the Greek Culture". Omega. 50 (1). Baywood Publishing Co.: 23-34. doi:10.2190/yyau-r4mn-akkm-t496. S2CID 144183546.

O'Cleirigh, Padraig; Barrell, Rex A.; Bell, John M. (2000). An introduction to Greek mythology : story, symbols, and culture. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press.

Peck, Harry Thurston (1897). Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. Harper.

Pfister, F. (1961). Greek Gods and Heroes. London: Macgibbon & Kee.

Scarfuto, Christine. "The Greek Underworld".

Schmiel, Robert (1987). "Achilles in Hades". Classical Philology. 82 (1). The University of Chicago Press: 35-37. doi:10.1086/367020. JSTOR 270025. S2CID 161299069.

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In Greek mythology, the Greek underworld, or Hades, is a distinct realm (one of the three realms that make up the cosmos) where an individual goes after death. The earliest idea of afterlife in Greek myth is that, at the moment of death, an individual's essence ( psyche) is separated from the corpse and transported to the underworld.

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Creole people are ethnic groups which originated during the colonial era from racial mixing mainly involving West Africans as well as some other people born in colonies, such as French, Spanish, and Indigenous American peoples; this process is known as creolization. Creole peoples vary widely in ethnic background and mixture and many have since developed distinct ethnic identities. The development of creole languages is sometimes mistakenly attributed to the emergence of creole ethnic identities; however, the two developments occur independently.

The English word derives from the French , which in turn came from Portuguese , a diminutive of cria, meaning a person raised in one's house. Cria derives from , meaning "to raise or bring up", itself derived from the Latin , meaning "to make, bring forth, produce, beget"; - itself the source of the English word "create". Creoles originally referred to the descendants of European colonists who had been born in the colonies (and with that meaning the term was used in the Spanish colonies throughout the colonial period). The word Creole has several cognates in other languages, such as crioulo, criollo, creolo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriol, krio, and kriyoyo.

The following ethnic groups have been historically characterized as "creole" peoples:

People of mixed Alaska Native and Russian ancestry are Alaskan Creole, sometimes colloquially spelled "Kriol". The intermingling of promyshlenniki men with Aleut and Alutiiq women in the late 18th century gave rise to a people who assumed a prominent position in the economy of Russian Alaska and the North Pacific Rim.

Atlantic Creole is a term used in North America to describe a mixed-race ethnic group of Americans who have ancestral roots in Africa, Europe, and sometimes the Caribbean. These people are culturally American and are the descendants of a Charter Generation of slaves and indentured workers during the European colonization of the Americas before 1660. Some had lived and worked in Europe or the Caribbean before coming (or being transported) to North America. Examples of such men included John Punch and Emanuel Driggus (his surname was possibly derived from Rodriguez). Also, during the early settlement of the colonies, children born of immigrants in the colonies were often referred to as "Creole". This is found more often in the Chesapeake Colonies.

In the United States, the words "Louisiana Creole" refers to people of any race or mixture thereof who are descended from colonial French La Louisiane and colonial Spanish Louisiana (New Spain) settlers before the Louisiana region became part of the United States in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. Both the word and the ethnic group derive from a similar usage, beginning in the Caribbean in the 16th century, which distinguished people born in the French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies from the various new arrivals born in their respective, non-Caribbean homelands. Some writers from other parts of the country have mistakenly assumed the term to refer only to people of mixed racial descent, but this is not the traditional Louisiana usage.

In Louisiana, the term "Creole" was first used to describe people born in Louisiana, who used the term to distinguish themselves from newly arrived immigrants. It was not a racial or ethnic identifier; it was simply synonymous with "born in the New World," meant to separate native-born people of any ethnic background-white, black, or any mixture thereof-from European immigrants and slaves imported from Africa. Later, the term was racialized after newly arrived Anglo-Americans began to associate créolité, or the quality of being Creole, with racially mixed ancestry. This caused many white Creoles to eventually abandon the label out of fear that the term would lead mainstream Americans to believe them to be of racially mixed descent (and thus endanger their livelihoods or social standing). Later writers occasionally make distinctions among French Creoles (of European ancestry), Creoles of Color (of mixed racial ancestry), and occasionally, Black Creoles (of primarily African descendant); these categories, however, are later inventions, and most primary documents from the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make use of the word "Creole" without any additional qualifier. Creoles of Spanish and German descent also exist, and Spanish Creoles survive today as Isleños and Malagueños, both found in southern Louisiana. However, all racial categories of Creoles - from Caucasian, mixed racial, African, to Native American - tended to think and refer to themselves solely as Creole, a commonality in many other Francophone and Iberoamerican cultures, who tend to lack strict racial separations common in United States History and other countries with large populations from Northern Europe's various cultures. This racial neutrality persists to the modern day, as many Creoles do not use race as a factor for being a part of the ethno-culture.

Contemporary usage has again broadened the meaning of Louisiana Creoles to describe a broad cultural group of people of all races who share a colonial Louisianian background. Louisianians who identify themselves as "Creole" are most commonly from historically Francophone and Hispanic communities. Some of their ancestors came to Louisiana directly from France, Spain, or Germany, while others came via the French and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Canada. Many Louisiana Creole families arrived in Louisiana from Saint-Domingue as refugees from the Haitian Revolution, along with other immigrants from Caribbean colonial centers like Santo Domingo and Havana. The children of slaves brought primarily from Western Africa were also considered Creoles, as were children born of unions between Native Americans and non-Natives. Creole culture in Louisiana thus consists of a unique blend of European, Native American, and African cultures.

Louisianians descended from the French Acadians of Canada are also Creoles in a strict sense, and there are many historical examples of people of full European ancestry and with Acadian surnames, such as the influential Alexandre and Alfred Mouton, being explicitly described as "Creoles." Today, however, the descendants of the Acadians are more commonly referred to as, and identify as, ' Cajuns'-a derivation of the word Acadian, indicating French Canadian settlers as ancestors. The distinction between "Cajuns" and "Creoles" is stronger today than it was in the past because American racial ideologies have strongly influenced the meaning of the word "Creole" to the extent that there is no longer unanimous agreement among Louisianians on the word's precise definition. Today, many assume that any francophone person of European descent is Cajun and any francophone of African descent is Creole-a false assumption that would not have been recognized in the nineteenth century. Some assert that "Creole" refers to aristocratic urbanites whereas "Cajuns" are agrarian members of the francophone working class, but this is another relatively recent distinction. Creoles may be of any race and live in any area, rural or urban. The Creole culture of Southwest Louisiana is thus more similar to the culture dominant in Acadiana than it is to the Creole culture of New Orleans. Though the land areas overlap around New Orleans and down river, Cajun/Creole culture and language extend westward all along the southern coast of Louisiana, concentrating in areas southwest of New Orleans around Lafayette, and as far as Crowley, Abbeville, and into the rice belt of Louisiana nearer Lake Charles and the Texas border.

Louisiana Creoles historically spoke a variety of languages; today, the most prominent include Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole. (There is a distinction between "Creole" people and the "creole" language. Not all Creoles speak creole-many speak French, Spanish, or English as primary languages.) Spoken creole is dying with continued 'Americanization' in the area. Most remaining Creole lexemes have drifted into popular culture. Traditional creole is spoken among those families determined to keep the language alive or in regions below New Orleans around St. James and St. John Parishes where German immigrants originally settled (also known as 'the German Coast', or La Côte des Allemands) and cultivated the land, keeping the ill-equipped French Colonists from starvation during the Colonial Period and adopting commonly spoken French and creole (arriving with the exiles) as a language of trade.

Creoles are largely Roman Catholic and influenced by traditional French and Spanish culture left from the first Colonial Period, officially beginning in 1722 with the arrival of the Ursuline Nuns, who were preceded by another order, the sisters of the Sacred Heart, with whom they lived until their first convent could be built with monies from the French Crown. (Both orders still educate girls in 2010). The "fiery Latin temperament" described by early scholars on New Orleans culture made sweeping generalizations to accommodate Creoles of Spanish heritage as well as the original French. The mixed-race Creoles, descendants of mixing of European colonists, slaves, and Native Americans or sometimes Gens de Couleur (free men and women of colour), first appeared during the colonial periods with the arrival of slave populations. Most Creoles, regardless of race, generally consider themselves to share a collective culture. Non-Louisianans often fail to appreciate this and assume that all Creoles are of mixed race, which is historically inaccurate.

Louisiane Creoles were also referred to as criollos, a word from the Spanish language meaning "created" and used in the post-French governance period to distinguish the two groups of New Orleans area and down river Creoles. Both mixed race and European Creole groups share many traditions and language, but their socio-economic roots differed in the original period of Louisiana history. Actually, the French word Créole is derived from the Portuguese word Crioulo, which described people born in the Americas as opposed to Spain.

The term is often used to mean simply "pertaining to the New Orleans area," but this, too, is not historically accurate. People all across the Louisiana territory, including the pays des Illinois, identified as Creoles, as evidenced by the continued existence of the term Créole in the critically endangered Missouri French.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast region has a significant population of Creoles-especially in Pass Christian, Gulfport, Biloxi, Pascagoula, surrounding areas and also areas around the Mississippi River where Mississippi borders with Louisiana. Here, Creole is used to describe descendants of French or Spanish colonists with a mixed racial heritage-French or Spanish mixed with African American or Native American. The area was first settled by French colonists. In 1720, the capital of French Louisiana was Biloxi, MS. A community known as Creoletown is located in Pascagoula, MS - with its history on record. Many in this location are Catholic and have also used Creole/French and English languages.

Texas Gulf Coast may have a population of Creole in Southeast Texas areas such as ( Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange).

There is deep hostility regarding Creole peoples of South Africa. The colonisation of the Southern Tip of Africa by Europeans and their Malaysian, African and Asian slaves led to a development of the area's first Creole language in the early 1700s. It is generally considered that South African Coloureds (people of Mixed Race Origin), Cape Malay and the South African Afrikaner Boer are a Creole people bringing into question the purpose of Apartheid. The Fifty First Years Project is documenting the Mixed-Creole origins of many of the South African family surnames, such as van Wijk, Erasmus, Slabbert, Van Wyk, Steyn and Pretorius.

In Sierra Leone, the mingling of newly free black and mixed race immigrants from the Western hemisphere and Liberated Africans - such as the Akan, Bacongo, Igbo people, and Yoruba people - over several generations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries led to the eventual creation of the aristocratic ethnic group now known as the . Thoroughly westernized in their manners and bourgeois in their methods, the Creoles established a comfortable dominance in the country through a combination of British colonial favouritism and political and economic activity. Their influence in the modern republic remains considerable, and their language Krio serves as an important lingua franca.

The extension of these Sierra Leoneans' business and religious activities to neighbouring Nigeria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - where many of them had ancestral ties - subsequently caused the creation of an offshoot in that country, the . Now often considered to be part of the wider Yoruba ethnicity, the Saros have been prominent in politics, the law, religion, the arts, and journalism.

The Crioulos of mixed Portuguese and African descent eventually gave rise to several major ethnic groups in Africa, especially in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, Equatorial Guinea (especially Annobón Province), Ziguinchor ( Casamance), Angola, Mozambique. Only a few of these groups have retained the name crioulo or variations of it:

the dominant ethnic group, called Kriolus or Kriols in the local language; the language itself is also called " Creole";

The usage of creole in the islands of the southwest of the Indian Ocean varies according to the island. In Mauritius, Mauritian Creoles will be identified based on both ethnicty and religion. Mauritian Creoles being either people who are of African ancestry or those who are both racially mixed and Christian. The Mauritian Constitution identifies four communities namely, Hindu, Muslim, Chinese and the General Population. Creoles are included in the General Population category along with white christians.

The term also indicates the same to the people of Seychelles. On Réunion the term creole applies to all people born on the island.

In all three societies, creole also refers to the new languages derived from French and incorporating other languages.

In regions that were formerly colonies of Spain, the Spanish word (implying "native" or "local") historically denoted a class in the colonial caste system, comprising people born in the colonies but of totally or at least largely Spanish descent. The word came to refer to things distinctive of the region, as it is used today, in expressions such as "comida criolla" ("country" food from the area).

In the latter period of settlement of Latin America called La Colonia, the Bourbon Spanish Crown preferred Spanish-born Peninsulares (literally "born in the Iberian Peninsula") over Criollos for the top military, administrative, and religious offices due to the former mismanagement of the colonies on a previous Habsburg era.

In Argentina, in an ambiguous ethnoracial way, criollo currently is used for people whose ancestors were already present in the territory in the colonial period, regardless their race. The exception are dark-skinned blacks and current indigenous (while non-indigenous amerindians usually also are referred as criollos).

The word criollo is the origin and cognate of the French word creole.

The racially-based caste system was in force throughout the Spanish colonies in the Americas, since the 16th century. By the 19th century, this discrimination and the example of the American Revolution and the ideals of the Enlightenment eventually led the Spanish American Criollo elite to rebel against the Spanish rule. With the support of the lower classes, they engaged Spain in the Spanish American wars of independence (1810-1826), which ended with the break-up of the former Spanish Empire in the Americas into a number of independent republics.

Racial mixture in the Spanish Philippines occurred mostly during the Spanish colonial period from the 16th to 19th century. The same Spanish racial caste system imposed in Latin America extended also to the Philippines, with a few major differences.

Persons of pure Spanish descent born in the Spanish Philippines were those to whom the term Filipinos originally applied, though they were also called ("islanders", i.e. Spaniard born in the Philippine islands) or Criollos ("Creoles", i.e. [Philippine-born Spaniard] "Locals"). Persons of pure Spanish descent, along with many mestizos and castizos, living in the Philippines but born in Spanish America were classified as "Americanos". The Philippine-born children of "Americanos" were classified as "Filipinos". During this era, the term "Filipinos" had not yet extended to include the majority indigenous Austronesian population of the Philippines to whom Filipinos has now shifted to imply.

The social stratification based on class that continues to this day in the Philippines has its beginnings in the Spanish colonial era with this caste system. Officially, however, the Spanish colonial caste system based on race was abolished after the Philippines' independence from Spain in 1898, and the word 'Filipino' expanded to include the entire population of the Philippines regardless of racial ancestry.

In many parts of the Southern Caribbean, the term Creole people is used to refer to the mixed-race descendants of Europeans and Africans born in the islands. Over time, there was intermarriage with residents from Asia as well. They eventually formed a common culture based on their experience of living together in countries colonized by the French, Spanish, Dutch, and British.

A typical creole person from the Caribbean has French, Spanish, Portuguese, British, and/or Dutch ancestry, mixed with sub-Saharan African, and sometimes mixed with Native Indigenous people of the Americas. As workers from Asia entered the Caribbean, Creole people of color intermarried with Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Javanese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Hmongs. The latter combinations were especially common in Guadeloupe. The foods and cultures are the result of creolization of these influences.

"Kreyòl" or "Kweyol" or "Patois" also refers to the creole languages in the Caribbean, including Antillean French Creole, Bajan Creole, Bahamian Creole, Belizean Creole, Guyanese Creole, Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patois, Trinidadian Creole, Tobagonian Creole, and Sranan Tongo, among others.

People speak Antillean Creole on the following islands:

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Creole people are ethnic groups which originated during the colonial era from racial mixing mainly involving West Africans as well as some other people born in colonies, such as French, Spanish, and Indigenous American peoples; this process is known as creolization. Creole peoples vary widely in ethnic background and mixture and many have since developed distinct ethnic identities.

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In a sweltering New Orleans, a wilted Southern belle collides with the dysfunctional marriage of her sweet sister and brutish brother-in-law. This is the plot of Tennessee Williams's classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire, which opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947. But the story of its making and legacy is even wilder than Stanley Kowalski's screaming.

1. WILLIAMS SET THE PLAY IN HIS CHOSEN HOME.

The boy born Thomas Lanier Williams III lived in Columbus, Mississippi, until he was 8 years old. From there, his traveling salesman father bounced the family around Missouri, moving 16 times in just 10 years before abandoning them. As he forged a path of his own, Williams wandered from St. Louis's Washington University to the University of Iowa to the New School in New York City, and even spent some time working on a chicken ranch in Laguna Beach, California. But at 28, he found his "spiritual home" in New Orleans. There he officially changed his given name to the college nickname he'd come to prefer. Inspired by the culture of the French Quarter, he wrote short stories and what would become one of his most popular plays. There he became Tennessee Williams, in more ways than one.

2. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE WAS NAMED AFTER A REAL STREETCAR LINE.

Named for its endpoint on Desire Street in the Ninth Ward, the Desire line ran down Canal Street onto Bourbon and beyond. It operated from 1920 to 1948-meaning that shortly after becoming famous on Broadway, it was retired in favor of buses that were quieter and put less stress on the streets and surrounding buildings. Gone but not forgotten, one of the Desire cars was restored in 1967, and was made a tourist attraction. In 2003, the city even proposed resurrecting the streetcars and this famous line's name, but this dream died when federal funding was denied.

3. STANLEY KOWALSKI WAS INSPIRED BY TWO MEN.

The name "Stanley Kowalski" was borrowed from a factory worker Williams met while living in St. Louis. But the playwright's true muse was Amado 'Pancho' Rodriguez y Gonzales, a Mexican boxer who was once Williams's lover, and who argued the character he inspired should be Latino, not Polish.

Ten years his junior, Gonzalez met Williams when the writer traveled to Mexico City in late 1945. Entranced by the macho 24-year-old, Williams invited Gonzalez to move into his New Orleans home. Their relationship lasted only two years. By the time Streetcar Named Desire hit Broadway, Williams had moved on to who would be the love of his life, aspiring writer Frank Merlo.

4. BLANCHE MAY HAVE BEEN A STAND-IN FOR WILLIAMS.

As a gay man, the writer had been mocked all his life, called "sissy" by sneering peers, and "Miss Nancy" by his drunken, abusive father. In some respects, he was like Blanche, a gentle Southern soul, thirsty for love and kindness, yet dangerously fascinated by gruff men. Elia Kazan, who directed both the original Broadway production of Streetcar and its movie adaptation, once said of Williams, "If Tennessee was Blanche, Pancho was Stanley....Wasn't he [Williams] attracted to the Stanleys of the world? Sailors? Rough trade? Danger itself? Yes, and wilder. The violence in that boy, always on a trigger edge, attracted Williams at the very time it frightened him."

The closest Williams came to commenting on this comparison was saying of his work, "I draw every character out of my very multiple split personality. My heroines always express the climate of my interior world at the time in which those characters were created."

5. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE WAS WILLIAMS'S SECOND BIG BROADWAY HIT.

In 1945, Williams broke through with his groundbreaking autobiographical drama The Glass Menagerie. Just a year and a half after this acclaimed production closed, A Streetcar Named Desire opened to even greater praise. Reportedly, the standing ovation lasted for 30 minutes after the curtain descended on opening night.

6. THE PLAY WAS DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT FROM ITS BROADWAY CONTEMPORARIES.

In her historical essay on Williams, critic Camille Paglia notes that A Streetcar Named Desire was a total change from The Glass Menagerie. Where the former had a "tightly wound gentility," the latter boasted "boisterous energy and eruptions of violence." But more than that, " Streetcar exploded into the theater world at a time when Broadway was dominated by musical comedies and revivals." She adds, "the shocking frankness with which Streetcar treated sex-as a searingly revolutionary force-was at odds with the dawning domesticity of the postwar era and looked forward instead to the 1960s sexual revolution."

7. IT CEMENTED WILLIAMS'S REPUTATION AS A MAJOR VOICE IN AMERICAN THEATER.

The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson proclaimed, "Mr. Williams is a genuinely poetic playwright whose knowledge of people is honest and thorough and whose sympathy is profoundly human." A Streetcar Named Desire went on to run for more than 800 performances, and would win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. Jessica Tandy earned a Tony Award for originating the role of Blanche, and Williams was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

8. STANLEY KOWALSKI LAUNCHED MARLON BRANDO.

At 23, Brando was a method actor who was drawing praise in a string of Broadway roles. The year before A Streetcar Named Desire debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York critics had voted him "Broadway's Most Promising Actor" because of his powerful performance in Maxwell Anderson's Truckline Café. His portrayal as Kowalski delivered on that promise, and then some. Playwright Arthur Miller wrote that he seemed "a tiger on the loose, a sexual terrorist ... Brando was a brute who bore the truth." And this intensity was captured in the 1951 film adaptation, which earned the actor an Oscar nomination for what was only his second film role.

9. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE REDEEMED WILLIAMS'S HOLLYWOOD REPUTATION.

Following the success of The Glass Menagerie's Broadway run, Warner Bros. hired Williams to draft an adapted screenplay for a movie version. But seeking a more commercial offering, they hired another writer to tack on a happy ending, behind Williams's back. The result was a critically panned dud that the playwright denounced as a " travesty." Nonetheless, Williams returned to Warner Bros. with A Streetcar Named Desire. This time, however, the director and most of the cast from the Broadway show were kept on for the film, which went on to earn an impressive 12 Academy Award nominations, winning four, including Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter) and Best Actress (Vivien Leigh).

10. JESSICA TANDY WAS THE ONLY LEAD OF THE BROADWAY PLAY NOT CAST IN THE MOVIE.

Hollywood didn't care about her Tony or her rave reviews. Warner Bros. needed a big name to assure the film's success. So Tandy was dropped in favor of Leigh, who'd played the role of Blanche in a London production of A Streetcar Named Desire, but more importantly was a household name thanks to her first Oscar-winning role, that of Scarlett O'Hara in 1939's historical epic Gone With The Wind.

11. THE FILM WAS TAMER THAN THE PLAY.

With mounting pressure from a public concerned about the influence movies have on children, Hollywood created The Motion Picture Production Code, a series of guidelines about what was acceptable and not in film. Thus, A Streetcar Named Desire's movie adaptation was forced to tone down some coarser language, and cut some of its most scandalous elements, like Blanche's promiscuity and her late husband being a closeted homosexual. For instance, in the play Blanche demands of her sister, "Where were you? In bed with your pollack!" In the film, she says, "In there with your pollack!"

12. WILLIAMS FOUGHT TO KEEP BLANCHE'S RAPE FROM BEING CUT.

Following their climactic confrontation, the play implies Stanley rapes Blanche. But Warner Bros. felt this was too dark for the movie. Williams and Kazan sparred with the studio over this. The former argued, "[The] rape of Blanche by Stanley is a pivotal, integral truth in the play, without which the play loses its meaning which is the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate by the savage and brutal forces of modern society." Like in the play, this grievous crime occurs between scenes, but its implication is clear by the violent events that lead up to a fade to black.

13. ONCE AGAIN, HOLLYWOOD TACKED ON A HAPPY ENDING.

The compromise on including the rape was that Stanley would have to be punished for the act. So just as they did with The Glass Menagerie, Warner Bros. softened the end of William's acclaimed tragedy with a script change. In this case, a line is included, where Stella declares she won't go back to her abusive husband. It's a stark contrast to the play, which concludes with the stage direction "He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse," as Stanley coos to her. Williams would go on to say the adaptation was "only slightly marred by [a] Hollywood ending."

14. THE FILM MADE A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE ICONIC.

Brando's tour de force performance may not have won him the Oscar, but his brutish performance, tight white t-shirt, and signature "Stella!" cry made the movie one that would not be forgotten. Today, the play is considered a classic, and has been revived on Broadway eight times. In 1999, the movie adaptation was added to the National Film Registry, which aims to preserve "culturally, historically or aesthetically" works of cinema. And in 2005, the American Film Institute included Kowalski's agonized scream of "Stella! Hey, Stella!" among its 100 greatest movie quotes of the last 100 years. It came in at number 45.

15. EVERY SPRING, NEW ORLEANS THROWS A FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF THE PLAY.

Called the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, the annual five-day event celebrates Williams's world-famous work, showcases emerging writers, and provides educational opportunities for literary students. It also offers tours of the French Quarter locations where Williams walked, conversed and worked, like the Hotel Maison de Ville, the restaurant Galatoire's, which gets a mention in Streetcar; and the apartment where he lived with Pancho, which overlooked the Desire line.

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15 Facts About Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire

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In a sweltering New Orleans, a wilted Southern belle collides with the dysfunctional marriage of her sweet sister and brutish brother-in-law. This is the plot of Tennessee Williams's classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire, which opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947. But the story of its making and legacy is even wilder than Stanley Kowalski's screaming.

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Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection

In the early twentieth century, Louisiana reluctantly became subject to the abolition, or prohibition, of alcoholic drinks as a result of the federal law. The ban on alcohol mandated by the 18 th amendment to the US Constitution, commonly known as the Volstead Act, was approved by Congress in December 1917, ratified with the approval of thirty-six of the forty-eight states in January 1919, and became law on January 16, 1920.

The effort to eliminate alcohol, or the "dry" movement, as it was often known, actually began in earnest in the 1840s. In 1869 an official Prohibition Party emerged to coordinate dry efforts. By 1873 the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) eclipsed other national antialcohol movements, emerging as a potent political force across much of the South and Midwest. The Louisiana branch of the WCTU boasted a large membership of politically active "drys." During the Progressive era (1890--1920), the Anti-Saloon League established itself as an umbrella organization to coordinate prohibition efforts.
Attitudes about Prohibition
Louisiana proved an uneasy partner in the "noble experiment." Much of north central Louisiana, portions of the Florida Parishes, the Black Belt parishes along the Mississippi River, and the western Sabine River parishes were dominated by strongly pro-prohibition Baptist and Methodist adherents. Yet the majority of Louisiana residents opposed the prohibition of alcohol. Many Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and German Lutherans across the southern part of the state intensely resisted the new law. Business interests in New Orleans and other southern Louisiana urban areas also opposed prohibition due to the economic implications it entailed. Many "wets" enjoyed the opportunity to consume alcohol, while others resisted the law in the belief that government had no right to legislate morality.

Unlike some states that exhibited near homogeneity in their stance on drinking hard liquor, Louisiana endured deeply entrenched divisions. Many residents accepted prohibition arguments that alcohol contributed to moral depravity and illicit behavior. Others believed it advanced the misery and debauchery of the poor, especially among newly freed African Americans. Still others claimed alcohol served as a root cause of Louisiana's exceptionally high rates of violence. Yet, alcohol had always played a prominent role in Louisiana life. Whether celebrating Mardi Gras, joining in a corn shucking, or enjoying an elegant meal at a New Orleans restaurant, alcoholic drinks proved a normal concomitant to Louisiana culture.
Prohibition Takes Effect
When the law took effect in January 1920, Louisianans quickly perfected numerous methods to circumvent it. Indeed, some have argued that drinking liquor became even more popular in Louisiana after it was declared illegal. Rumrunning became a major industry; smugglers brought so many shiploads of illegal liquor to Louisiana that the price actually began to decline. A 1926 survey of social workers nationwide identified New Orleans as the "wettest" city in America. A similar 1924 report issued by the US Attorney General's office declared southern Louisiana to be 90 percent wet. In rural upstate parishes, illicit stills concealed in the vast woodlands provided customers with prodigious quantities of moonshine liquor, ranging from "Blind Tiger" to "Busthead" whiskey.

The political atmosphere of the state facilitated Louisianans' ability to resist prohibition. Some members of the New Orleans city council sought to have alcohol declared a food supplement in order to circumvent the law. When asked by the mayor of Atlanta what his administration was doing to enforce prohibition, Louisiana governor Huey P. Long famously responded "not a damn thing." Scores of Louisiana residents, whether they consumed alcohol or not, simply resented the intrusion of government into what they perceived as private affairs. Thus, they refused to support enforcement of the law.

Despite such obstacles, federal agents worked aggressively to enforce their mandate. Coast Guard cutters stepped up interdiction of rumrunning throughout the 1920s, even firing on and sinking some runners such as the Canadian-registered schooner, I'm Alone, in the Gulf of Mexico. Liquor raids peaked in New Orleans in 1925 when 200 agents uncovered and destroyed more than 10,000 cases of liquor. By December 1926, New Orleans had more padlocked speakeasies or saloons illegally selling alcohol than any city in the nation. When repeal of the prohibition law occurred in April 1933, more than nine hundred retail beer permits were issued in the Crescent City in the first week.

In Louisiana, as elsewhere, prohibition did reduce the overt consumption of alcohol. Yet it also contributed to social degradation by promoting multiple forms of criminal behavior such as rumrunning, moonshining, and violent turf wars, not to mention increasing hostility toward government agents and the legal authority they represented. In the end, prohibition may have been a noble experiment, but its legacy was short lived in Louisiana. As recently as the 1980s, the Louisiana legislature proved willing to temporarily forgo federal highway construction appropriations rather than raise the drinking age to twenty-one. Consuming alcoholic beverages has proven a deeply ingrained dynamic of Louisiana culture that even the federal government cannot mitigate.

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In the early twentieth century, Louisiana reluctantly became subject to the abolition, or prohibition, of alcoholic drinks as a result of the federal law. The ban on alcohol mandated by the 18 th amendment to the US Constitution, commonly known as the Volstead Act, was approved by Congress in December 1917, ratified with the approval of thirty-six of the forty-eight states in January 1919, and became law on January 16, 1920.

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Tennessee Williams On His Obsession With Death | The Dick Cavett Show

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A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams | Themes

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Light and Flower theme in A Streetcar Named Desire

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Light and Flower theme in A Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams | Symbols

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A Streetcar Named Desire | Music symbolism | 60second Recap®

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Mexican Vendor: Sells rosses for the dead. Tin flowers to display at funerals.(p.147)The vendor symbolizes Blanche's death. Quote: Stanley: He thought she had never been more kissed by a fellow! But sister, Blanche is no Lily! Ha-ha! Some Lilly she is!" (p.119) The white Calla Lilly are used in funeral arrangements.

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The use of flowers in A Streetcar Named Desire 

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Mexican Vendor Breakdown Quote: "A vendor comes around the corner. She is a blind Mexican woman in a dark shawl, carrying bunches of those gaudy tin flowers that lower class Mexicans display at funerals and other festive occasions. She is calling barely audibly. Her figure is

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French for beautiful dream and the name of the plantation where the sisters grew up in 'The Streetcar Named Desire". A dream that crumbled when they loose it.

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Represents death and immanent disaster. Tune changes from a major to a minor when distorted in the play to reflect Blanches state of mind. The second song, the “Varsouviana,” is the polka that was playing when Blanche and her husband went dancing the night he killed himself. This theme is played when Blanche enters a state of reverie, and we are led to believe that she hears it in her head as she refers to it during her final interactions with Mitch. It always ends, she says, with a gunshot.

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In many cultures across the world Moths mean death. Latest popular work to present this is 'The Silence of the Lambs". The moth is a master of disguise in the animal kingdom.

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Many people believe there to be a certain signifance when they come across a moth, and look to relate this back to recent life events. In a nutshell, moth symbolism relates to the meaning, power and spirituality associated with moth encounters.

Moth symbolism is referenced throughout cultural stories, religious verses and mainstream works, although very few web archives review the diversity and significance of this throughout conscious thought. My website aims to be the definitive guide for everything you need to know about what moths symbolize, reviewing this in depth across a range of religions, cultures and eras.

Have you had a recent encounter with moths, and wanted to know what it meant?

We've got guides covering everything from moths in dreams to their spiritual significance.

Animal symbols play a key part in our lives, and this is no different when it comes to moths. Totems serve as a means of identifying our spirituality and how we associate ourselves with the natural world.

Having a moth as your totem is generally associated with optimism and means that you're always heading towards the 'lighter side'. This relates to a moth's attraction to light, and is generally personified by individuals who are great listeners and motivators.

Moth totems also mean you're well equipped to handle personal transformation, tackling head-on any situation that comes your way. You're able to take on change and embrace it, just as the moth goes through its own metamorphosis.

Common Concepts that Moths Represent

Although it's common for moth symbolism to evoke similar concepts to that of butterflies, there is a key difference in behavior that is often overlooked. While butterflies are diurnal, meaning that they are active during the daytime only, moths are a noctural species. From a philosophical perspective this difference is significant, as while butterflies often symbolize more expressive notions, the noctural nature of the moth represents more responsive and indirect energies.

After reviewing a range of texts, we've compiled a list of the most common examples of moth symbols below to help you make sense of your recent encounters.

Vulnerability

We are all most likely aware of a moth's attraction to light, and I'm sure at some stage or another we've had one repeatedly crashing into our table lamp or fluorescent tube. But what causes this?

Although the reasons remain unknown, one common hypothesis is that moths utilise a technique called transverse orientation. This is a celestial navigation technique (following the sun, moon, stars etc) in which moths look to maintain a constant angular relationship with a bright light in the sky. Add an artificial light to the mix, and a moth will become instantly fixated.

Vulnerability is commonly associated with moths as this obsession with light leaves them open to predators. The moth will constantly plummet toward the light, not at any stage caring to be vigilant of careful.

Moth Symbolism and Faith

Heading towards the light comes with plenty of religious connotations, and consequently it's rather unsurprising that moths are often seen to symbolize faith, or even blind faith for that matter.

Moths never question their path towards the light, and will proceed to do so with such determination. This is often in the face of a range of dangers, including predators and exhaustion.

As many humans do, the moth holds a belief throughout its existence and keeps completely focused on its perceived purpose, even in the face of apprehension.

Still touching on moth's celestial navigation techniques, although this comes for a train of thought where moths are believed to be physically attracted to light. Sensuality is a close relative of physical attraction, which has led to this rather unusual example of moth meanings as the moth is seen to have become at whim of the light's seduction. You can read more about moth's attraction to light in this post by NPR.

For creatures of such charm, it is difficult to comprehend that moths are a symbol of death in many cultures across the world. For example, the landing of a moth on a newborn child has been considered a sign of imminent death in European cultures.

A certain type of moth, the Death's Head Hawkmoth, is very commonly associated with themes of death due to it's unique skull-like patterns on its thorax. This has been present in many popular works through the last century, most notably 'The Silence of the Lambs'.

Adaptation

Known as a master of disguise amongst the animal kingdom, the moth's ability to camouflage and hide from predators has been admired throughout the ages.

This is often seen as a symbol of adaptation, in which we must learn to utilise our environment (both physical and psychological) to our advantage, and adjust to fit in with the bigger picture where necessary.

Divinity and the Afterlife

The metamorphosis of moths leaves us in awe, and although this has represented many things across cultures it is often seen to represent the different stages of a person's life.

Typically we are compared to the caterpillar, whose lowly existence is in preparation for a greater purpose - as realized through transforming. This is often likened to the afterlife, as death itself can be considered a transformation of life.

Personal Growth & Transformation

As we grow as individuals, we often shed the unnecessary elements that hinder our existence. This allows us to empower ourselves towards more happiness and fulfillment.

Moths and butterflies are never too far from concepts of transformation, given the metamorphosis they take during their incredible lives. The development into a full grown moth is easily likened to personal growth as we look to shed our hindrances and strive towards a better state of living.

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Many people believe there to be a certain signifance when they come across a moth, and look to relate this back to recent life events. In a nutshell, moth symbolism relates to the meaning, power and spirituality associated with moth encounters.

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Part of the underworld. The final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous in Greek Mythology and religion.

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The ancient Greeks had their own version of the afterlife: an Underworld ruled by Hades. There, according to the works of Homer, Virgil, and Hesiod bad people are punished while the good and heroic are rewarded. Those who deserve happiness after death find themselves in Elysium or the Elysium Fields; descriptions of this idyllic place changed over time but were always pleasant and pastoral.

Hesiod lived at about the same time as Homer (8th or 7th century BCE). In his Works and Days, he wrote of the deserving dead that: "father Zeus the son of Kronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of the earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the Islands of the Blessed along the shore of deep swirling Okeanos (Oceanus), happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Kronos rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. And these last equally have honor and glory."

According to Homer in his epic poems written around the 8th century BCE, Elysian Fields or Elysium refers to a beautiful meadow in the Underworld where the favored of Zeus enjoy perfect happiness. This was the ultimate paradise a hero could achieve: basically an ancient Greek Heaven. In the Homer tells us that, in Elysium, "men lead an easier life than anywhere else in the world, for in Elysium there falls not rain, nor hail, nor snow, but Oceanus [the giant body of water surrounding the entire world] breathes ever with a West wind that sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to all men."

By the time of the Roman master poet Vergil (also known as Virgil, born in 70 BCE), the Elysian Fields became more than just a pretty meadow. They were now part of the Underworld as the home of the dead who were judged worthy of divine favor. In the Aeneid, those blessed dead compose poetry, sing, dance, and tend to their chariots.

As the Sibyl, a prophetess, remarks to the Trojan hero Aeneas in the epic Aeneid when giving him a verbal map of the Underworld, "There to the right, as it runs under the walls of great Dis [a god of the Underworld], is our way to Elysium. Aeneas talks to his father, Anchises, in the Elysian Fields in Book VI of the Aeneid. Anchises, who is enjoying the good retired life of Elysium, says, "Then we are sent to spacious Elysium, a few of us to possess the blissful fields."

Vergil wasn't alone in his assessment of Elysium. In his the Roman poet Statius claims that it's the pious who earn the favor of the gods and get to Elysium, while Seneca states that it's only in death that the tragic Trojan King Priam achieved peace, for "now in the peaceful shades of Elysium's grove he wanders, and happy midst pious souls he seeks for his [murdered son] Hector."

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What Were the Elysian Fields or Ancient Greek "Heaven?"

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The ancient Greeks had their own version of the afterlife: an Underworld ruled by Hades. There, according to the works of Homer, Virgil, and Hesiod bad people are punished while the good and heroic are rewarded. Those who deserve happiness after death find themselves in Elysium or the Elysium Fields; descriptions of this idyllic place changed over time but were always pleasant and pastoral.

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Blanches journey to her sisters place represents the journey of her life. Desire, Cemeteries and then Elysian Fields.

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In literature, symbols are widely used by authors as a means of emphasising certain atmospheres and characteristic features of people and places. A symbol is an object or image that stands for itself and also for something else. In a sense, all language is symbolic considering that letters form words which stand for, or symbolise, real things. However, in literature, a symbol can be thought of as an image that evokes a different aspect of reality in order to suggest another level of meaning.
Names:
Blanche DuBois is the main character of the play and also the most thoroughly described one. The name Blanche is French and means white or fair. Her last name DuBois is of French origin as well and translates as made of wood.

Since the colour white stands for purity, innocence and virtue, the symbolism of Blanche's first name reveals these qualities, which stand in contrast to her actual character traits. The name suggests that Blanche is a very innocent and pure person, but throughout the play it becomes obvious that Blanche cannot call any of these traits her own. Only the illusory image which she tries to create for herself suggests these traits, but her true nature is not like that at all. She constantly tries to hide her embarrassing past from all of her new acquaintances, because she fears that they might not accept her anymore. In order to maintain her apparent social status among her new neighbours and friends, she builds this intertwined net of lies which creates a false image of herself. She herself believes in this imaginary world, and as soon as there is the slightest sign of its destruction, she seems to be lost, and her nervous condition worsens. Therefore all she cares about is to keep that image alive. Her first name is therefore quite ironic since it means the exact opposite of Blanche's true nature and character.

Her last name, however, stands in contrast to her first name. ' Made of wood' suggests something solid and hard, which is the exact opposite of her fragile nature and nervous condition. However, woodcan also be associated with forest or jungle, and regarding her past, the connection becomes clear. Blanche used to indulge in a rather excessive lifestyle. She had sex with random strangers and was known throughout her hometown for that. So her former life was more like a jungle or a forest, because it was hard to see through all this and detect the real Blanche. As in a jungle, Blanche could not find a way out of this on her own. The term jungle appears in the play as well. In scene ten, when is about to rape Blanche, "the inhuman jungle voices rise up" (Williams 215). The jungle can be associated with wildness, brutality and inhuman behaviour.

As already mentioned above, The wood represents something hard, or hard-working. Du in front ofthat, however, suggests something aristocratic and noble. There seems to be a contradiction in these two terms which can be explained with the nature of her character. The way Blanche tries to create an aristocratic and sophisticated image of herself, but is in fact the complete opposite, displays this ambiguity.

Combined with her first name, her entire name would translate as "white wood," which she explains to Mitch in scene three, "It's a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods" (Williams 150). Blanche DuBois cannot only be translated as white wood but also as white and made of wood, which makes it easier for the reader to detect that she seems pure and innocent on the outside, but is really quite tough and calculating when it comes down to her image and her future, especially concerning her search for a husband.

Overall, Blanche's entire name is heavily symbolic because it reflects her true nature in a very clear way. Just as first and last name are being read out in an exact order, Blanche's character is revealed in the same way. At first she seems to be innocent and pure, but later her past and her true nature can be discovered.

Stella is a Latin term which simply means star. Stars in general are considered to be the light which breaks through the darkness. Considering that light is the opposite of darkness, and darkness itself stands for not-knowing and intellectual dullness, the stars can be regarded as reality and knowledge shining through ignorance. Stars can also be a symbol for high ideals or goals set too high. Stella represents Blanche's ideal concerning the fact that she is leading a contented life.

The deeper significance of her name reveals her role in the play. The symbol of a star suggests light, hope and stability. This is quite a good description of her role and her position in the play. Stella is the connection between Blanche and Stanley, the two major characters, because she contains character traits of both of them, and can therefore relate to them better than anyone else can. Therefore she can be considered to be the stabilising element of the play. She is the negotiator between the two so very different characters. Stella and Blanche have the same rather wealthy and cultivated background, which is the connection between the two women. Stella also has several things in common with Stanley.One of them is their love for wild sex (Ehrenhaft 72). During a conversation with Blanche, Stella tells her about her wedding night:

Stella:Why, on our wedding night - soon as we came in here - he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it.

Blanche: He did - what?

Stella: He smashed all the light-bulbs with the heel of my slipper!

Blanche: And you - you let him? Didn't run, didn't scream?

Stella: I was - sort of - thrilled by it. (Williams 157).

This excerpt clearly shows the connection between Stella and Stanley, but there is something else that ties them together. Stella is, just like , very down to earth and has a very open and honest nature. She does not lie or try to hide anything in her life by creating a false image of herself, as Blanche does.

For both, Stanley and Blanche, Stella is their star and their hope. They always seek her support and shelter. Stella is the stable element of the play, because she does not show any sign of rapid mood swings like Blanche and Stanley do, and this is what makes her the small and quiet star of the play.

Belle Reve is the name of the sisters' family's plantation in their hometown . The name is again of French origin and means beautiful dream, which again emphasises Blanche's tendency to cling to her illusions. The term suggests an illusion, which is not quite true, for the plantation really once existed. On the other hand, beautiful dream suggests that something beautiful, which has once existed, faded away. Therefore, the name's symbolic meaning became true. But in contrast to Blanche's other illusions, this is the only one that ever truly existed, and it s the only one that Stella and Blanche are both connected to, because it is their heritage, and it was real. However, looking more closely at the name, it reveals that there is a grammatical mistake. The adjective belle is feminine, but it should be masculine, for reve is masculine. Tennessee Williams probably did this on purpose and not by mistake, because it underlines the fact that Belle Reve was just a dream which crumbled. The grammatical mistake also implies a certain imperfection, which is also apparent and true for Blanche's beautiful dream, her net of lies and false illusions.

At thebeginning of the play Williams introduces three terms which do not reveal their symbolic meaning right away, but the reader comes to realise their sense and importance later in the play. In scene one, Blanche describes to Eunice her journey to her sister's place: "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields"(Williams 117).Blanche's journey on New Orleans' streetcars represents the journey of her own life.

is her first step, just as it was the first step of her life after her husband Allan had died. Still struggling with this loss, she was desperately longing for love and companionship, but ended up leading a life which was filled with sex with random men, who never cared about her: "Yes, I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan - intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with..." (Williams 205). At this time she was hence obsessed by desire.

The next step of her journey is Cemeteries, which is an obvious symbol for death. Her promiscuous lifestyle had got her into trouble. She lost her job because she had had an affair with one of her students, and was banned from opposite (of death) is desire"(Williams 206). This underlines that her life turned into the exact opposite of what it had been.

is the name of the street where Stella and Stanley live, and it is a mythical allusion to Book VI of . According to Roman mythology, Elysian Fields Elysium (or Elysian Fields) was a part of the underworld and a place of reward for the virtuous dead. Elysian Fields, though, was just a temporary place of the souls' journey back to life:

The light plays an important symbolic role throughout the play because it clearly reflects Blanche's and Stanley's characters. The light is considered to be the basis for sight and recognition, and, as already mentioned above, it is the opposite of darkness which symbolises intellectual dullness and ignorance (Becker 171). Blanche and Stanley stand in contrast concerning their attitudes towards light, which again underlines their different characters.

Blanche's relation to light is quite obvious because she tries to avoid bright light of any kind as well as she can. Her reaction to light can be regarded as an attempt to hide her true nature as well as her vanishing beauty and youth. By hiding from the light she tries to escape reality, for light clearly represents reality in this play. The first time that Blanche's aversion to light becomes obvious is in scene one: "And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare"(Williams 120).

In scene three, she covers the naked light bulb with a Chinese paper lantern: " I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action" (Williams 150). This remark shows that Blanche would rather hide behind polite phrases than accept truth and reality. The paper lantern is not very stable, though, and it can easily be destroyed, just like Blanche's illusions.

In scene six, she takes Mitch home with her and says, " Let's leave the lights off" (Williams 177). Blanche thinks of Mitch as a future husband, and therefore she does not want him to know her past or her true age, and the best way to hide her age is to stay out of bright light where he could possibly see her wrinkles and fading youth in her face. Later in that scene, Blanche tells Mitch about her husband Allan: 'When I was sixteen, I made the discovery - love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me' (Williams 182).

Therefore, in her past, light used to represent love, but now it represents something destructive for her. Allan's suicide erased the light or love, and thus she now does not believe in it any longer and tries to escape from the light and therefore escapes reality: "...electric light bulbs go on and you see too plainly" (Williams 196). This again shows her fear of light since for her it represents reality, and in scene nine this becomes even more obvious. When Mitch tears off the paper lantern in order to take a closer look at her in the bright light, "she utters a frightened gasp" (Williams 203). Then she tells him: 'I don't want realism...I'll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth. I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! - Don't turn the light on' (Williams 204).This is Blanche's first statement concerning her true intention and nature, and it is probably the only time where she ever confesses that she builds up an illusory image of herself.

has a different attitude concerning light and reality. He is very down to earth and realistic and displays this with his brutal honesty. For , the bright light exposes everything for what it is. He can only accept a literal truth, which can be experienced by his fanatic investigation of Blanche's past: "You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going" (Williams 199).In this passage, Stanley tries to remind Stella of the fact that when they met she was just like Blanche, but that he made her face reality again. As already mentioned above, light is the opposite of darkness and therefore the opposite of ignorance. considers himself to be knowing and constantly tries to increase his knowledge, especially the one concerning Blanche's past.
Colour:
T he first apparent use of colour in the play is the symbolic meaning of Blanche's name, which, as already mentioned above, is French and means white. When she appears in scene one, "she is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and ear-rings of pearl, white gloves and a hat..." (Williams 117).

As already mentioned above, the colour white stands for purity and innocence, but it is also the colour of light and represents perfection and virginity (Becker, 330). This association stands in complete contrast to her actual behaviour and actions. Blanche is a seductive and promiscuous woman, who lies in order to maintain her image, and therefore Williams' use of this colour for her name and her outer appearance is quite ironic.

In scene two Blanche talks to about honesty: 'Yes - yes - cards on the table....Well, life is too full of evasions and ambiguities, I think. I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours, primary colours. I don't like pinks and creams and I never cared for wishy-washy people' (Williams 137). This paragraph clearly shows the irony in her words, because she herself is the one who is embodying a distinct difference between her actions and her statements. She is the one who is neither straight-forward nor honest, but pretends to expect this from other people to a certain extent.

In scene nine, she changes her clothes from soft colours to strong bold ones for the first time: "She has on her scarlet satin robe" (Williams 200). The colour red symbolises love, passion and fertility on the positive side, but also fire and blood on the negative one, so this is the first time that her outer appearance actually matches her intentions (Becker 244). She is meeting Mitch in this scene, and her dress certainly shows the seductress in her. Mitch refuses to marry her because of her past, and after that, in scene ten, she wears a white satin evening gown, which implies that she returned to her habit of soft colours in order to underline her pureness and virtuous nature.

's tendency concerning colours is the exact opposite of Blanche's. He and his friends usually dress in rather solid materials, like cotton, or denim, and their clothes are mainly coloured in blue, and sometimes green. The first time their clothes' colours are mentioned is in scene one: "Two men come around the corner, Stanley Kowalski and Mitch. They are about twenty-eight or thirty years old, roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes" (Williams 116).

The colour blue is considered to be a symbol for the divine or heavenly, but also for the truth (Becker 44). Once again, Williams uses a certain colour to express a person's human qualities, although, in this case, the association is not ironic, but matches the person's behaviour. is an honest person with no sympathy for lies and superficiality. The colour blue also represents strength, masculinity, calm and authority, which clearly underlines 's character. however is not the only character displayed in this way. His friends' colours, especially Mitch's are being described as well. Williams points out the aspect of masculinity in the following excerpt and underlines it by mentioning the men's clothing colours: 'The poker players - Stanely, Steve, Mitch, and Pablo - wear coloured shirts, solid blues, a purple, a red-and-white check, a light green, and they are men at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colours' (Williams 143).

Later, in scene nine, Mitch "comes around the corner in work clothes: blue denim shirt and pants. He is unshaven" (Williams 200). In this scene he meets Blanche, who is wearing her red satin robe. The confrontation of the colours red and blue, symbolises the confrontation between femininity and masculinity.
:
The blue piano is first mentioned in the introductory stage directions of the first scene: "This 'blue piano' expresses the spirit of the life which goes on there" (Williams 115). Throughout the play, the blue piano always appears when Blanche is talking about the loss of her family and Belle Reve, but it is also present during her meeting and kissing the young newspaper man. The blue piano thus stands for depression, loneliness and her longing for love, which the adjective blue already suggests. This quality is not identical with the colour symbolism of blue. It describes Blanche's emotions and represents her need for companionship and love, but also her hope, as the scene with the paper-boy shows. Mitch tells her in scene nine that he will not marry her due to her promiscuous past, "the distant piano is slow and blue" (Williams 207). Later, in scene ten, it grows louder when she is on the phone trying to get in touch with Shep Huntleigh. In this situation, her hopes are rising, and so does the piano. In the last scene, Blanche is being taken away to a mental institution, and Stanley and his friends play poker again: "The luxurious sobbing, the sensual murmur fade away under the swelling music of the 'blue piano' and the muted trumpet" (Williams 226). The blue piano, accompanying the card game, symbolises 's victory over Blanche.

The Varsouviana Polka on the other hand appears when Blanche is being confronted with her past and the truth, or when she talks about Allan. The reason for this seems obvious, for exactly this polka had been played when her husband Allan committed suicide. The polka represents death and immanent disaster. Blanche tells Mitch in scene six about Allan, and how she caught him cheating on her: "Polka music sounds, in a minor key faint with distance" (Williams 183). When Stanley gives her a ticket back to for a birthday presents, the situation means disaster for Blanche. She realises that she is not wanted anymore, and that she has nowhere to go, for is an unacceptableplace to go to after all the incidents there: "The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing" (Williams 198). Again, the polka represents disaster.

In scene eleven, the connection between the polka and Blanche's state of mind and emotion becomes even more obvious. She gets totally lost in her illusions about Shep Huntleigh and runs into her room when the doctor arrives: "The Varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle" (Williams 222). Thus the polka's weird distortion matches the confusion in her mind.
:
In the first scene, Blanche is compared to an animal: "There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth" (Williams 117). Both butterflies and moths start life as ugly caterpillars and only later transform into something more beautiful. The butterfly and cocoon symbol reflects Blanche's attempts to re-create herself and, so to speak, spring forth a new, beautiful person from her cocoon of lies. In contrast to the butterfly, who lives during daytime, the moth mainly lives during the night, which makes it a creature of the darkness, and the butterfly one of the light. As already mentioned above, the butterfly leaves the dark cocoon to live in the light, but the moth stays in darkness for that is the time when it is feeding. This can be adapted to Blanche as it seems as though-contrasting with her name-it is her fate to live in the darkness, which symbolises ignorance. Blanche does not find a way out: at the end of the play she is being taken away to the mental institution, which means that she finall

In contrast to Blanche, displays brutal and wild behaviour-from her perspective: 'He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There's something - sub-human - something not quite the stage of humanity yet! Yes, something - ape-like about him, like one of those pictures...' (Williams 163). is at this point compared to an ape. Characteristic traits of apes are mobility, intelligence, deceit, but also lasciviousness, the drive to imitate and quarrelsome stinginess (Becker 11). Especially the lasciviousness matches 's character, for it can be detected in his love for wild sex, and his raping Blanche. With 's connection to the ape, Williams again builds up a link to the jungle. Apes often live in the jungle, for it is their habitat. Therefore 's habitat, the Elysian Fields, can be considered to be a jungle. It appears to be an appropriate place for Blanche to visit, when the "white woods" actually camouflage the "noises of the jungle" dominating her mind.

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In literature, symbols are widely used by authors as a means of emphasising certain atmospheres and characteristic features of people and places. A symbol is an object or image that stands for itself and also for something else. In a sense, all language is symbolic considering that letters form words which stand for, or symbolise, real things.

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Stars you see in the fall synonymous with celebrating and honouring the cycle of death, loss and grief.

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Between Autumn and Winter if you look up to the sky, you will see a cluster of seven stars known as the Pleiades.

As they shine so brightly, the Pleiades stars have been recorded in ancient texts and drawings across many civilizations including the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Japanese, and more.

In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were referred to as the Seven Sisters and were beautiful, strong women that were placed into the sky to calm the seas and watch over sailors.

In Celtic traditions, the Pleiades would be seen rising during the season of Autumn, a time synonymous with celebrating and honoring the cycle of death, therefore the Seven Sisters were linked to death, loss, and grief, but were also believed to bring comfort to those in mourning.

Along with ruling over the cycle of death, the Seven Sisters were known to bring strong feminine energy and also hardship.

The Pleiades sit at around 28-29 degrees of Taurus to 0 degrees of Gemini and according to traditional astrology, whenever there was a planet or alignment close to this degree, it was typically seen as a bad omen.

This negative connotation however, was more likely due to the way feminine energy was interpreted at the time these records were made. As we know today, feminine energy is not inferior, unlucky or weaker than masculine energy, it is just different and necessary in its own way.

Today, in modern astrology, many believe that the highly advanced feminine energy held by the Pleiades has the ability to bring deep healing and connection into our lives, rather than bad omens.

Pleiadean energy is also associated with building healthy communities, learning to live off the land in a harmonious way, and creating a sense of love and belonging.

There are many mystics, healers, and astrologers that also claim to have received loving downloads from Pleiadean beings, and some Starseeds also feel the Pleiades is their original home. These Starseeds are known for their empathic qualities and their ability to shine their light on the darkest corners of humankind.

As the Pleiades sit at the end of Taurus and start of Gemini, if you are born on the cusp around May 18-22nd or have any natal planets close to this degree, it is likely that you have strong Pleiadean energy. The Seven Sisters are by your side!

Just the same, between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, in our respective hemispheres of the world, we are able to tap into the wisdom of these Seven Sisters with greater ease.

The brightest star in the Pleiades is Alcyone and she is often viewed to be the female equivalent of Sirius.

Just like Sirius, Alcyone is a high vibrational star that is extremely powerful and potent. If we think of Sirius as our Spiritual Sun, Alcyone could almost be like our Spiritual Moon.

Alcyone is also said to bring waves of feminine energy to Earth as a way of reminding us to tap into more of these qualities.

Remember, feminine energy goes beyond gender. It represents our ability to go with the flow, to listen and trust our intuition, to tap into our deeper senses, and to favor nourishment over action.

Feminine energy is our ability to be patient and compassionate, and to practice self-love, but this is not just about loving ourselves when things are good. We have to learn to love it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Feminine energy also rules over the shadow sides of life and the darker emotions that we all feel from time to time.

Perhaps it is these darker qualities that society does not encourage us to look at that also contributed to the negative association with the Seven Sisters in the past.

But, there is nothing negative about this energy, and rather than shying away from these darker emotions, we can instead learn to embrace them in order to lead more meaningful and whole lives.

We all have a shadow side, we all know what it's like to crawl through the darkness of death before a rebirth occurs, and getting comfortable in this space is what the Seven Sisters call on us to do.

By strengthening our feminine energy, it can also help us to remain rooted in our process, even when darkness falls in our lives.

When the Pleiades are bright in the sky, we can tap into our feminine energy with more ease and learn to be comfortable sitting in our own darkness. We all have wounds, we all have pains and fears, and there is a power in accepting this.

Under the light of the Pleiades, we can also be reminded of the impermanence of life and the fact that death is a part of nature and part of our story too.

The Pleiades is a dominant force in our cosmic atmosphere here on Earth, and as feminine energy continues to rise and balance out the strong masculine energies that have long-dominated our energy field, we are going to be able to awaken to more of what this Pleiadean energy can bring to the world and to our lives.

So, if it is Autumn where you currently reside, take a moment to look out for the Seven Sisters. See them shining in the night sky, reminding you to celebrate the journey of life and death, and to celebrate the feminine power that lives within us all.

Read More:
Star Seeds, Star People, and Star Systems 5 Ways to Strengthen your Feminine Energy Are You a Starseed? 21 Signs to Look For

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The Seven Sisters of Pleiades - Forever Conscious

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Between Autumn and Winter if you look up to the sky, you will see a cluster of seven stars known as the Pleiades. As they shine so brightly, the Pleiades stars have been recorded in ancient texts and drawings across many civilizations including the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans, Japanese, and more.