Stay updated with breaking news from பிரிட்டானிக்கா. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Patron saint, saint to whose protection and intercession a person, a society, a church, or a place is dedicated. The choice is often made on the basis of some real or presumed relationship with the persons or places involved. St. Patrick, for example, is the patron saint of Ireland because he is credited with bringing Christianity to the Irish people. In Roman Catholicism a person often elects a personal patron saint during their confirmation. In some cultures national or local gods are the equivalent of patron saints; e.g., in ChinaK’uei Hsing, the patron of scholars, reputedly passed his civil-service examination with great distinction and will assist others to do the same. ....
Leprechaun, in Irish folklore, fairy in the form of a tiny old man often with a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary by nature, he is said to live in remote places and to make shoes and brogues. The sound of his hammering betrays his presence. He possesses a hidden crock of gold; if captured and threatened with bodily violence, he might, if his captor keeps his eyes on him, reveal its hiding place. But usually the captor is tricked into glancing away, and the fairy vanishes. Leprechaun, illustration by George Denham, from The Irish Fairy Book by Alfred Perceval Graves, 1909. ....
Noah Tesch was Associate Editor for Encyclopædia Britannica. How would it feel to be the last person on Earth who speaks your language? For those of us whose native languages have millions of speakers, it’s almost impossible to imagine. And yet languages have come and gone throughout human history, and they continue to do so. Linguists estimate that of the world’s approximately 6,900 languages, more than half are at risk of dying out by the end of the 21st century. Sometimes languages die out quickly. This can happen when small communities of speakers are wiped out by disasters or war. In El Salvador, for example, speakers of the indigenous Lenca and Cacaopera abandoned their languages to avoid being identified as Indians after a massacre in 1932 in which Salvadoran troops killed tens of thousands of mostly indigenous peasants in order to suppress an uprising. ....
Bioi parallēloi ( Parallel Lives), the drama takes place in 44 bce, after Caesar has returned to Rome. Fearing Caesar’s ambition, Cassius forms a conspiracy among Roman republicans. (For Caesar’s view of Cassius, see video.) He persuades the reluctant Brutus Caesar’s trusted friend to join them. Brutus, troubled and sleepless, finds comfort in the companionship of his noble wife, Portia. Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, alarmed by prophetic dreams, warns her husband not to go to the Capitol the next day (for Caesar’s response, see video). Then, as planned, Caesar is slain in the Senate on March 15, “the ides of March.” His friend Mark Antony, who has expediently shaken the bloodied hands of the conspirators, gives a stirring funeral oration that inspires the crowd to turn against them. Octavius, Caesar’s nephew, forms a triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus; Brutus and Cassius are eventually defeated at the Battle of Philippi, where they kill themselves to av ....