Myths page:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/myths_mymyth.htm
Religions pages:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/tools/quizzes/ (Jordi)
Shinto
Shinto has no known founder or single sacred scripture.The essence of Shinto is the Japanese devotion to invisible spiritual beings and powers called kami, to shrines, and to various rituals.
Shinto is not a way of explaining the world. What matters are rituals that enable human beings to communicate with kami.
Kami are not God. They are spirits that have a relation with human beings.
Shinto is based on belief in kami. The best English translation of kami is 'spirits'.
The most controversial Shinto shrine is at Yasukuni and honours 2.5 million Japanese soldiers.
Shinto history
Shinto has been a major part of Japanese life and culture throughout the country's history, but for the greater part of that history Shinto has shared its spiritual, cultural, and political roles with Buddhism and Confucianism.(JORDI)
Sikhism
There are 20 millions Sikhs in the world.
Sikhism was founded in the 16th century in the Punjab district of what is now India and Pakistan. It was founded by Guru Nanak.
The most important thing in Sikhism is the internal religious state of the individual.
- Sikhism is a monotheistic religion
- Sikhism stresses the importance of doing good actions rather than merely carrying out rituals
- Sikhs believe that the way to lead a good life is to:
- keep God in heart and mind at all times
- live honestly and work hard
- treat everyone equally
- be generous to the less fortunate
- serve others
- The Sikh place of worship is called a Gurdwara
- The Sikh scripture is the Guru Granth Sahib.
A Gurdwara is the place where Sikhs come together for congregational worship.
(CRISTINA GRANADOS)
Buddhism
Buddhism is a tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development. Buddhists strive for a deep insight into the true nature of life and don’t worship gods or deities. Buddhism teaches that all life is interconnected, so compassion is natural and important.
• Buddhism is 2,500 years old
• There are currently 376 million followers worldwide
• Buddhism arose as a result of Siddhartha Gautama's quest for Enlightenment in around the 6th Century BCE
• There is no belief in a personal God. It is not centred on the relationship between humanity and God
• Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent - change is always possible.
• Buddhism is a very colourful faith with many festivals throughout the year
• Buddhists can worship both at home or at a temple
More information:
The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom.
Meditation involves the body and the mind. For Buddhists this is particularly important as they want to avoid what they call 'duality' and so their way of meditating must involve the body and the mind as a single entity.
meditation is a way of taking control of the mind so that it becomes peaceful and focused, and the meditator becomes more aware.
The purpose of meditation is to stop the mind rushing about in an aimless (or even a purposeful) stream of thoughts.
They pray using mantras. A mantra is a word, a syllable, a phrase or a short prayer that is spoken once or repeated over and over again (either aloud or in a person's head) and that is thought to have a profound spiritual effect on the person.
For Buddhists, karma has implications beyond this life. Bad actions in a previous life can follow a person into their next life and cause bad effects (which Westerners are more likely to interpret as 'bad luck').
Buddhists try to cultivate good karma and avoid bad. However, the aim of Buddhism is to escape the cycle of rebirth altogether, not simply to acquire good karma and so to be born into a more pleasant state. These states, while preferable to human life, are impermanent: even gods eventually die.
(Laura Farrés)
Hinduism
Hinduism is the religion of the majority of people in India and Nepal. It also exists among significant populations outside of the sub continent and has over 900 million adherents worldwide.
In some ways Hinduism is the oldest living religion in the world, or at least elements within it stretch back many thousands of years. Yet Hinduism resists easy definition partly because of the vast array of practices and beliefs found within it. It is also closely associated conceptually and historically with the other Indian religions Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.Unlike most other religions, Hinduism has no single founder, no single scripture, and no commonly agreed set of teachings.
Some claim that one is 'born a Hindu', but there are now many Hindus of non-Indian descent. Although it is not easy to define Hinduism, we can say that it is rooted in India.
-Hinduism originated around the Indus Valley near the River Indus in modern day Pakistan.
-About 80% of the Indian population regard themselves as Hindu.
-Most Hindus believe in a Supreme God, whose qualities and forms are represented by the multitude of deities which emanate from him.
-Hindus believe that existence is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, governed by Karma.
-Hindus believe that the soul passes through a cycle of successive lives and its next incarnation is always dependent on how the previous life was lived.
-The main Hindu texts are the Vedas and their supplements (books based on the Vedas). Veda is a Sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge'. These scriptures do not mention the word 'Hindu' but many scriptures discuss dharma, which can be rendered as 'code of conduct', 'law', or 'duty'
-Hindus celebrate many holy days, but the Festival of Lights, Diwali is the best known.
-The 2001 census recorded 559,000 Hindus in Britain, around 1% of the population.
(LAURA S)
Taoism
Taoism is also referred to as Daoism, which is a more accurate way of representing in English the sound of the Chinese word.
Taoism is about the Tao. This is usually translated as the Way. But it's hard to say exactly what this means. The Tao is the ultimate creative principle of the universe. All things are unified and connected in the Tao.
- Taoism originated in China 2000 years ago
- It is a religion of unity and opposites; Yin and Yang. The principle of Yin Yang sees the world as filled with complementary forces - action and non-action, light and dark, hot and cold, and so on
- The Tao is not God and is not worshipped. Taoism includes many deities, that are worshipped in Taoist temples, they are part of the universe and depend, like everything, on the Tao
- Taoism promotes:
- achieving harmony or union with nature
- the pursuit of spiritual immortality
- being 'virtuous' (but not ostentatiously so)
- self-development
- Taoist practices include:
- meditation
- feng shui
- fortune telling
- reading and chanting of scriptures
Taoist ideas have become popular throughout the world through Tai Chi Chuan, Qigong, and various martial arts, the Asian taoism symbols are the carps, ying-yang, an example of modern taoistic symbol is Winnie the Pooh.
(Fern)
Stars from a Sandbox (Myth)
This myth explain us how Zeus(the greek god, and leader of the pantheon) created the stars and costellations.
(FERN)
Children of the World (Myth)
This short myth, talks about how Earth created the humanity. I've chosen this myth because I find it nice and quite interesting.
(LAURA FARRÉS)
A black crow(Myth)
This myth talks about a bad man who tried to know why Crowsiph's neighbors are happy.
He investigated and discovered that it was due to white doves, and when he tried to catch one, the pigeon became crow. I've chosen this myth because it's very interesant
(JORDI)
"Luna y Estrella" (Myth)
This myth speaks of a people who only have a child and adult people. She wanted them to come girls her age, until one day he was crying and went to the creek. When she got to the creek, she kneeled down and prayed to the gods for little children to appear. The next day saw many people his age and especially spoke to a named Estrella.
Together they became best friends. The people from the village never saw the sky so illuminated with light until Luna and Estrella died; they saw that they were the moon and the star after all.
I´ve chosen this myth because I find it very interesting and I like the stories of friendships.
(CRISTINA GRANADOS)
How tennis was created
My myth talks about how and when tennis was created. It was a casuality.
(LAURA SÁNCHEZ)
Soulmates
This myth explains that a long ago, we had two heads and four legs and God separated us, creating two different people, but our soul was divided too, and since then we feel like we are missing something, the other part of our soul and we spent our life searching, looking for that special someone who makes us complete.
I think that this myth is very beautiful because it tells us why we look for that special someone. Is the person with whom we share the soul, the same soul.
(Laura Farrés)
Ice Demon
This myth talks about the ice demon who decides to change the world. Then the demon of ice, fire and earth continued to fuss and so the sea, glaciers, volcanoes, tsunamis, mountains and earthquakes.
I choose this myth because I find it very interesting and fun.
(CRISTINA GRANADOS)
"Love at first sight"
This myth talks about the love at first sight. One day a girl she was walking in the street when she tripped. One boy helped to get up and they smiled.
(LAURA SÁNCHEZ)
