orientation
Hello,In the word "orientation" - why orient? why not occidentation, etc.?Thanks,Talgo
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My guess: when you are lost at night, you wait for the sun to come up, when it does, you have found east. The other three directions may then be deduced.Been there, done that.
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In the 18th century, it was the practice to build churches running east-west with the altar at the east end. People were also buried with their feet facing east. This was the original "orientation"...
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Apparently (and Jim could maybe expand on this) the reason is that when Christ returns in the Second Coming he will appear from 'on high in the East', as one site has it.I'll try to dig up a cite.Edit...
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Two things come to mind regarding the religious significance of the East to people in the West. First, the land of Eden has always been considered to be in the far east, the direction to the closest...
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Thanks!I'm not sure if religion is connected, though. I guess the maps were oriented to the east because the sun rises in the east, and the sun is easy to navigate by.Anyhow, the mere fact that maps...
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I'm also not sure that even the Church or Cathedral orientation is for religious reasons as such. Rather the direction of the rising of the sun as the source of life and etc.There are many different...
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Yes, I'm having my doubts now.There's a site here on English parish churches which has a different, and perhaps more plausible, explanation:Speaking of orientation, churches are nearly always oriented...
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In Eastern Orthodoxy, the East has a special significance.And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2: 8)O Jerusalem, look about thee...
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The following is from the New Advent website -- the Catholic encylopedia on line.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11305a.htm"According to Tertullian the Christians of his time were, by some who...
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In the book, Living is With People, the author describes many traditions of small Jewish settlements (each a "shtetl") in eastern Europe. Fiddler on the Roof picked up on many of these traditions, one...
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A slight digression to find a relationship. Orientation as discussed here refers to aligning by a (compass) direction. The other meaning is "a. to set right by adjusting to the facts or principles b....
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I just think that this is a characteristic of Christianity's penchant for syncretism. We've taken over a pre-Christian practice of facing temples to the East. Often, as in the case of the Parthenon,...
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How does this meaning relate to the "East" origin?Not sure what you're asking here, McGook. Orient, the word, derives from the Latin meaning "rising sun" or "east." In Cuba, for example, the eastern...
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OED, s.v. orientate:More commonly used in British English than orient, while the latter is the more freq. of the two in American English. Orientate is commonly regarded as an incorrect usage in...
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Jgorman, I'm asking about the other meaning of orient, relating to training people, not the original post regarding geographical direction. (which is why I qualified my question as a slight...
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Ah, I see. I read your note too fast.But I don't see any difficulty with this extended meaning. Training people is to set them in the right direction, I should think.
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