Facts About All: cultural facts

Showing posts with label cultural facts. Show all posts

Sunday, 13 February 2011

Geisha are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.
Originally, geisha were men.
The male Geisha were known as Honko.
Apprentice geisha are called maiko.
A geisha always wear brilliant colored Kimonos.
Kimonos take a long time to make (3 years) because of painting and embroidering.
Geisha actually means "person of the arts".
Having a traditional geisha hairstyle can cause balding on the top of the head. Luckily, the use of wigs is common.
A geisha spend about 120 minutes just to do their makeup, hair, and put on the Kimono.
Initially, the white face make up used to be made with lead.
Geisha are not allowed to be in a sentimental relationship for as long as they choose to be a Geisha.
A geisha is an iconic figure of Japan, much like that of the Samurai.
At the present time, the number of Geisha is estimated to be at about one-thousand to two-thousand.

Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person.
Clothes that are dry cleaned last longer.
The skirt is the second oldest women's garment in history.
The four major current fashion capitals in the world are acknowledged to be Milan, Paris, New York City and London.
Before 1850 clothes were not made for fashion, but rather for commodity.
The fashion industry has long been one of the largest employers in the United States.
In the Eighteenth century it was even considered fashionable to wear fake eyebrows made from mouse skin.
In ancient Egypt, women used to use henna to lighten their hair.
In Cleopatra's time berries and other natural ingredients were used to enhance the face.
The 20th century saw the beginning of convincing-looking false eyelashes, popular in the 1960s.

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven (astronomy) and Earth (geography) to help one improve life by receiving positive Qi.
Feng Shui traces its roots to China over six thousand years ago.
The term Feng shui means "Wind, Water".
Feng Shui uses five Elements - Fire, Metal, Wood, Earth, and Water - to balance our environment.
Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings in an auspicious manner.
There are two types of energy, one being the positive energy (Qi) and another one being the negative energy (Sha Qi).
Qi is often compared to Western notions of energeia or élan vital (vitalism), as well as the yogic notion of prana, meaning vital life or energy, and pranayama, meaning control of breath or energy.
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), one of the founding fathers of Jesuit China missions, may have been the first European to write about feng shui practices.
Feng shui was suppressed in China during the cultural revolution in the 1960s.
Today, feng shui is practiced not only by the Chinese, but also by Westerners.
When feng shui is not applied properly, or rather, without common sense, it can even harm the environment, such as was the case of people planting "lucky bamboo" in ecosystems that could not handle them.
The Roman Catholic Church criticized feng shui along with other New Age practices; calling it "an occult Chinese method".
Today, architects study feng shui as an ancient and uniquely Asian architectural tradition.

Euthanasia (from the Greek word εὐθανασία meaning "good death") refers to the practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering.
In 1984, the Dutch Supreme Court declared euthanasia to be legal.
The word "euthanasia" was first used in a medical context by Francis Bacon in the seventeenth century.
In 1990, nine percent of all deaths in the Netherlands were a result of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Voluntary euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
In the United States medical-assisted suicide in legal only in the states of Washington and Oregon.
In 2002, Belgium legalized euthanasia.
A study in the United States came to the result that approximately 16 percent of physicians would ever consider halting life-sustaining therapy because the family demands it.