The Swastika symbol has been used for thousands of years already in almost all human civilizations as a sign for good luck, protection, as a materialization of life and the changing seasons of the year. The word 'SWASTIKA' is taken from the Sanskrit's 'SVASTIKAH', an ancient Indian language. In Sanskrit the word means 'being happy'.Swastika symbol is found in numerous and diverse cultures around the world, including the cultures of Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. It has been prominently used and seen in India, Japan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and many other countries.
Speaking of connotative meaning, Swastika is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune for the Eastern people. Specially for Hinduism and Buddhism. They think it represents the revolving sun, power, fire, life and good luck so they use that symbol at their temples, house, school, shop and anywhere possible where they wish to have good fortune. It has been like that for thousands of years. All in all the eastern audiences took Swastika as a sign of peace. Then came the Nazis...
In the year of 1920, Adolf Hitler's Nazi adopted the Swastika symbol at the Slazburg Congress in August 7th for World War II. The Nazis used the symbol to murder millions of people, Hitler then became a villain to the western civilization. From then the people of Europe and sub-continents know the Swastika as a symbol of murder, violence, death and hatred. The connotative meaning of Swastika represents fear and all the horror moments from world war II. Virtually the Nazis gave that ancient symbol a new worst meaning possible.
The swastika existed as a symbol of good fortune thousands of years before the Nazis even existed. The eastern people still thinks the symbol as a positive meaning but the Western side of the world knows Swastika as the logo of the evil. The better thing is people didn't forgot the symbol yet. Many countries like India, Greece, Germany, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Argentina, France and Sri Lanka is still using the Swastika symbol for many different purposes.I personally find the fact very amazing that the same symbol represents completely opposite connotations to the Eastern and the Western civilization.
References: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika) & (http://www.swastika-info.com)
1 comment:
I would call this an excellent post, except that copied from many sources (some which you did not cite in your references, such as
http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/swastika.html
and
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~sidneys/Swastika.htm
and
http://reclaimtheswastika.com/
There is far too much copying in this to give you a good grade for this blog. Which is too bad because the parts that are your own writing are quite excellent.
Post a Comment