Rastafari is a religion that developed among impoverished and socially
disenfranchised Afro-Jamaican communities in Jamaica during the 1930s.
It is both a new religious movement and a social movement. There is no
central authority and much diversity among practitioners. Rasta beliefs
are based on a specific interpretation of the Bible; a belief in a
single God, Jah, who partially resides within each individual, is
integral. Rastas accord central importance to Haile Selassie (pictured),
Emperor of Ethiopia between 1930 and 1974; many regard him as the Second
Coming of Jesus and Jah incarnate; others see him as a human prophet.
Rastafari is Afrocentric and focuses on the African diaspora. In the
1960s and 1970s, it gained increased respectability and greater
visibility abroad through the popularity of Rasta-inspired reggae
musicians, most notably Bob Marley. There are an estimated 700,000 to
1,000,000 Rastas across the world, the majority of whom are of black
African descent.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1890:
American journalist Nellie Bly completed a circumnavigation of
the globe, inspired by Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, in
a then-record 72 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly>
1971:
Idi Amin seized power from Ugandan president Milton Obote in a
coup d'état, beginning eight years of military rule.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Ugandan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
2006:
Mexican professional wrestler Juana Barraza was arrested in
conjunction with the serial killing of at least ten elderly women.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_Barraza>
2011:
The Egyptian revolution began with protests on the "Day of
Anger", eventually leading to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak
after nearly 30 years of rule.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Egyptian_revolution_of_2011>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Burns night:
An event held on the evening of 25th January in celebration of the
Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (born on that day in 1759),
usually involving Scottish foods and recitals of his poetry.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Burns_night>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is
a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the
beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the
novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed
spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may display, with as little
mixture of the alien and external as possible? We are not pleading
merely for courage and sincerity; we are suggesting that the proper
stuff of fiction is a little other than custom would have us believe it.
--Virginia Woolf
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf>