title: Celine Dion

text: On 21 May 2007, Dion released the French-language album "D'elles" "(About Them)", which debuted at the top of the Canadian album charts, selling 72,200 copies in its first week. It marked her tenth No. 1 album in the SoundScan era, and her eighth to debut at the top position. In Canada, the album has been certified 2× platinum, and within the first month had already shipped half a million units worldwide. "D'Elles" also reached No. 1 in France and Belgium. The first single "Et s'il n'en restait qu'une (je serais celle-là)" (meaning "And If There Was Only One Woman Left (I Would Be That One)") debuted at the top of the French singles chart a month earlier. Later in same year, she released the English album "Taking Chances" on 12 November in Europe, and 13 November in North America. Her first English studio album since 2003's "One Heart", it featured pop, R&B, and rock inspired music. For this album, she collaborated with John Shanks and ex-Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody, as well as Kristian Lundin, Peer Åström, Linda Perry, Japanese singer Yuna Ito, and R&B singer and songwriter Ne-Yo. Dion stated, "I think this album represents a positive evolution in my career ... I'm feeling strong, maybe a little gutsier than in the past, and just as passionate about music and life as I ever was." She launched her year-long global Taking Chances Tour on 14 February 2008 in South Africa, performing 132 dates in stadiums and arenas across 5 continents.


title: Celine Dion

text: The Taking Chances Tour was a great success in the United States, reaching the No. 1 spot on the "Billboard" Boxscore, having sold out every concert in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, she appeared on Idol Gives Back for a second year in a row. Dion was nominated for six Juno Awards in 2008, adding to her 53 previous nominations (an all-time record). Her nominations included Artist of the Year, Pop Album of the Year (for "Taking Chances"), Francophone Album of the Year (for "D'elles") and Album of the Year (for both "Taking Chances" and "D'elles"). The following year, she was nominated for 3 Juno Awards including the Fan Choice Award, Song of the Year (for "Taking Chances"), and Music DVD of the Year (for "Live in Las Vegas — A New Day...")


title: Celine Dion

text: On 22 August 2008, Dion presented a free outdoor concert, mostly in French, on the Plains of Abraham, for the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. The celebration gathered approximately 490,000 people. The concert, called "Céline sur les Plaines", was released on DVD on 11 November 2008, in Quebec and was released on 20 May 2009, in France. Late October 2008 saw the worldwide release of a comprehensive English-language greatest hits album, "".


title: Celine Dion

text: In May 2009, Dion was named the 20th best-selling artist of the decade and the second-best-selling female artist of the decade in the United States, selling an estimated 17.57 million copies of her albums there since 2000. In June 2009, "Forbes" reported she earned $100 million during 2008. In December 2009, Pollstar announced she was the highest-grossing solo live music act in North America of the decade, second overall behind only the Dave Matthews Band. she grossed $522.2 million during the decade, a large portion of sum coming from her five-year residency at Caesars Palace.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 17 February 2010, Dion released into theatres a documentary film about her "Taking Chances Tour", titled, "". The documentary shows behind-the-scenes footage of her both onstage and offstage, along with footage of her with her family as they travelled the world with her. The distributor is the Sony Pictures subsidiary, Hot Ticket. The film was later released on Blu-ray and DVD on 4 May 2010, along with the CD/DVD, "". At the 52nd Grammy Awards in February 2010, Dion joined Carrie Underwood, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, and Smokey Robinson to perform the song "Earth Song" during the 3-D Michael Jackson tribute.


title: Celine Dion

text: In January 2010, the "Los Angeles Times" presented its annual list of the top ten largest earners of the year, revealing Dion took the top spot for the entire decade, with $US747.9 million in total revenue from 2000–2009. The largest haul came from ticket sales, totalling $522.2 million. Additionally, she was named "Artist of the Decade" in Quebec, announced by "Le Journal de Québec" in December 2009. A public online survey asked responders to vote for whom they believe deserved the above-mentioned accolade.


title: Celine Dion

text: Furthermore, in a May 2010 Harris Poll, Dion was named the most popular musician in the United States, ahead of U2, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles while factoring in gender, political affiliations, geographic region of residence, and income. Specifically, she was the most popular musician in the female demographic, as well as among all Democrats, those who live in the eastern United States and southern United States, and those who have incomes between US$35k and US$74.9k.


title: Celine Dion

text: In September 2010, she released the single "Voler", a duet with French singer Michel Sardou. The song was later included on Sardou's album. In addition, it was announced in October 2010 Dion wrote and composed a new song for Canadian singer, Marc Dupré entitled "Entre deux mondes".


title: Celine Dion

text: In an interview with "People" published in February 2010, Dion announced she would be returning to Caesars Palace for "Celine", a three-year residency for seventy shows a year, beginning 15 March 2011. She stated the show will feature, "all the songs from my repertoire people want to hear" and will contain a selection of music from classic Hollywood films. To promote her return to Las Vegas, Dion made an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on 21 February, during the show's final season, marking her record twenty-seventh appearance. In 2018, "Billboard" stated her residency "Celine" is the second most successful residency of all time. By the end of 2011, Dion has sold 331,000 albums (despite not releasing any studio album since 2007) and 956,000 digital tracks in the United States.


title: Celine Dion

text: For a record sixth time, she performed at the 83rd Academy Awards, where she sang the song "Smile", as part of the ceremony's "In Memoriam" segment. On 4 September, she appeared on the 2011 MDA Labor Telethon Event and presented a prerecorded performance of "Open Arms" from her new Las Vegas show. On 1 October 2011, the OWN Network premiered a documentary on Dion's life, detailing the months before, during and after her pregnancy, to the makings of her new Las Vegas Show, called, "Celine: 3 Boys and a New Show". The documentary became the second highest rated show on TV OWN Canada. In October, FlightNetwork.com conducted a poll asking 780 participants which celebrity they would most like to sit next to on an airplane. Dion was the top favourite, with 23.7% of the vote. Also, in September, she released the 14th perfume from her Celine Dion Parfums Collection, called "Signature". On 15 September, she made an appearance at the of Andrea Bocelli in Central Park. In 2012, she performed at the 16th Jazz and Blues Festival in Jamaica.


title: Celine Dion

text: In October 2012, Sony Music Entertainment released "The Best of Celine Dion & David Foster" in Asia. She began recording songs for her next English and French albums during April and May 2012. The French-language album, "Sans attendre" was released on 2 November 2012, and was a smash success in all French-speaking territories, especially in France where it achieved diamond status. The English-language album was postponed to 1 November 2013. Titled "Loved Me Back to Life", it included collaborations with an exceptional team of songwriters and producers, including duets with Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder. The lead single, "Loved Me Back to Life" was released on 3 September 2013. Dion embarked on the Sans attendre Tour in November 2013 and performed in Belgium and France. "Breakaway", "Incredible" and "Water and a Flame" were chosen as next singles.


title: Celine Dion

text: In June 2013, Dion co-produced the show titled ""Voices"" by Véronic DiCaire at Bally's Hotel & Casino's Jubilee Theatre and was presented 145 times up until 2015.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 16 May 2014, Dion released a three-disc set (2CD/DVD and 2CD/Blu-ray) titled "Céline une seule fois / Live 2013", which reached top ten on the album charts in France, Canada and Belgium Wallonia.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 13 August 2014, Dion announced the indefinite postponement of all her show business activities, including her concert residency at Caesars Palace, and the cancellation of her Asia Tour, because of the worsening of her husband's health after he underwent the removal of a cancerous tumor in December 2013. However, on 20 March 2015, she announced she would be returning to The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in late August 2015. On 14 January 2016, she cancelled the rest of the January performances due to her husband's and her brother's death from cancer. Dion resumed the residency on 23 February to a sold-out crowd and rave reviews.


title: Celine Dion

text: In October 2015, Dion announced on social media she had begun working on a new French album, posting a photo by the side of Algerian singer Zaho. Dion's French single, "Encore un soir", was released on 24 May 2016. On 20 May, she released a cover of Queen's song "The Show Must Go On", featuring Lindsey Stirling on violin. She performed "The Show Must Go On" at the 2016 "Billboard" Music Awards on 22 May, and received the "Billboard" Icon Award (presented to her by her son, René-Charles) in recognition of her career spanning over three decades.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion's new French album, "Encore un soir", was released on 26 August 2016. It features fifteen tracks performed in French and, according to the singer, has a personal choice of the songs – more uplifting lyrics were chosen. "Encore un soir" topped the charts in France, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, and was certified Diamond in France, 2× Platinum in Canada and Platinum in Belgium and Switzerland. It has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In 2016 and 2017, Dion toured Europe and Canada with two sold-out concert tours. On 9 September 2016, she released "Recovering", a song written for her by Pink after Angélil died in January 2016. Dion also recorded "How Does a Moment Last Forever" for the "Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack", released in March 2017. Her compilation, "Un peu de nous" topped the chart in France in July and August 2017.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 3 May 2018, she released the single "Ashes" from the film "Deadpool 2". The remix version of the song topped the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart in July 2018. From June to August 2018, she toured the Asia-Pacific region and grossed $56.5 million from 22 shows. On 24 September 2018, she announced the end of her Las Vegas residency "Celine", with the final date set for 8 June 2019. She is working on a new English album. In January 2019, she performed "A Change Is Gonna Come" at the "Aretha! A Grammy Celebration for the Queen of Soul" Franklin's tribute concert, to be broadcast in March 2019. In March 2019, she was one of 11 singers from Quebec, alongside Ginette Reno, Diane Dufresne, Isabelle Boulay, Luce Dufault, Louise Forestier, Laurence Jalbert, Catherine Major, Ariane Moffatt, Marie Denise Pelletier, and Marie-Élaine Thibert, who participated in a supergroup recording of Renée Claude's 1971 single "Tu trouveras la paix" after Claude's diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease was announced. On 3 April 2019, during a Facebook Live event, Dion announced her 2019/2020 Courage World Tour, beginning in Quebec City on 18 September 2019. She also announced a new English-language album of the same name, released in November 2019.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 18 September 2019, Dion released three songs, "Lying Down", "Courage", and "Imperfections" from her upcoming album, "Courage". On 26 February 2020, Dion released two songs as exclusive Spotify singles: an acoustic version of Imperfections, and a cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game. Isaak joined Dion and sang vocals on the track. On 10 June 2020, Dion announced her Courage World Tour will kick off again in 2021, after the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 21 May 2021, it was announced Dion would return to Las Vegas, in November of the same year, for a limited-run installment of ten dates in collaboration with Resorts World Las Vegas. "Billboard" listed Dion as the third top paid musician of 2020 (second by female artist), with total of earnings of $17.5 million.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 15 January 2022, a statement posted to Dion's website and social media accounts announced the U.S. and Canadian concert dates for March–April 2022 were canceled because of "severe and persistent muscle spasms" are preventing Dion from performing onstage. On 8 December 2022, Dion announced she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disease, and that it was the cause of her spasms. All future tour dates were cancelled as a result.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion cites idols as varied as Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Charles Aznavour, Carole King, Anne Murray, Barbra Streisand, and the Bee Gees, all of whom she would eventually collaborate with. Michael Jackson in particular was a major motivation for her to learn English as early as in the 1980s. Her music has been influenced by numerous genres, including pop, rock, gospel, R&B, and soul, and her lyrics focus on themes of poverty, world hunger, and spirituality, with an emphasis on love and romance. After the birth of her first child, her work increasingly focused on maternal love.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion has faced considerable criticism from critics, who state that her music often retreats behind pop and soul conventions, and is marked by excessive sentimentality. According to Keith Harris of "Rolling Stone" magazine, "[Dion's] sentimentality is bombastic and defiant rather than demure and retiring ... [she] stands at the end of the chain of drastic devolution that goes Aretha–Whitney–Mariah. Far from being an aberration, Dion actually stands as a symbol of a certain kind of pop sensibility—bigger is better, too much is never enough, and the riper the emotion the more true." Her francophone releases, by contrast, tend to be deeper and more varied than her English releases, and consequently have achieved more credibility.


title: Celine Dion

text: Critics have stated that Dion's involvement in the production aspect of her music is fundamentally lacking, which results in her work being overproduced and impersonal. However, coming from a family in which all of her siblings were musicians, she dabbled in learning how to play instruments like piano and guitar, and practised with a Fender Stratocaster during the recording sessions for her album "Falling into You".


title: Celine Dion

text: Occasionally, Dion has contributed to the writing of a handful of her English and French songs, as well as writing a few songs for other artists such as Marc Dupre. Additionally, as her career progressed, she found herself taking charge in the production of her albums. On her first English album, which she recorded before she had a firm command of the English language, she expressed disapproval, which could have been avoided if she had assumed more creative input. By the time she released her second English album "Celine Dion", she assumed more control of the production and recording process, hoping to dispel earlier criticisms. She stated, "On the second album I said, 'Well, I have the choice to be afraid one more time and not be 100% happy, or not be afraid and be part of this album.' This is my album." Besides her contributions to some of her early French albums, Dion wrote a few of the songs on "Let's Talk About Love" (1997) and "These Are Special Times" (1998).


title: Celine Dion

text: She is often the subject of media ridicule and parody and is frequently impersonated on shows such as "MADtv", "Saturday Night Live", "South Park", "Royal Canadian Air Farce", and "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" for her strong accent and onstage gesticulations. However, she has stated that she is unaffected by the comments, and is flattered that people take the time to impersonate her. She even invited Ana Gasteyer, who parodied her on "SNL", to appear onstage during one of her performances in New York City. While she is rarely politically outspoken, in 2005 following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Dion appeared on "Larry King Live" and tearfully criticized the US government's slow response in aiding the victims of the hurricane: "There's people still there waiting to be rescued. To me that is not acceptable ... How can it be so easy to send planes in another country to kill everybody in a second and destroy lives. We need to serve our country." After her interview, she stated, "When I do interviews with Larry King or the big TV shows like that, they put you on the spot, which is very difficult. I do have an opinion, but I'm a singer. I'm not a politician."


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion once claimed to be a mezzo-soprano. However, attempts to adapt classical voice types to other forms of singing have been met with controversy. Without making a classification, Kent Nagano, maestro of the Munich Symphony Orchestra, remarked, "All you just sang was full lyric soprano", after Dion auditioned with two solos from "Carmen", wanting to know if she could sing opera. Her timbre has been described as "thin, slightly nasal" with a "raspy" lower register and "bell glass-like high notes".


title: Celine Dion

text: According to Linda Lister in "Divafication: The Deification of Modern Female Pop Stars", she has been described as a reigning "Queen of Pop" for her influence over the recording industry during the 1990s, alongside other female artists, including Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. In a countdown of the "22 Greatest Voices in Music" by "Blender Magazine" and MTV, she placed ninth (sixth for a female), and she was also placed fourth in "Cover Magazine" list of "The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists". MTV Australia ranked Dion at fourth place in their list of Top 10 music divas of all time. Dion is often compared to Houston and Carey for her vocal style, and to her idol Barbra Streisand for her voice.


title: Celine Dion

text: She is often praised for her technical virtuosity. Jim Santella of "The Buffalo News" writes "Like an iron fist in a velvet glove, the power of Celine Dion's voice is cloaked in a silky vibrato that betrays the intensity of her vocal commitment." Jeff Miers, also of "The Buffalo News", says of Dion "Her singing voice is absolutely extra-human. She hits notes in full voice, with a controlled vibrato and an incredible conception of pitch, like she's shucking an ear of corn." Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" states that Dion has "a good-sized arsenal of technical skills. She can deliver tricky melismas, produce expressive vocal catches and sustain long notes without the tiniest wavering of pitch. And as her duets ... have shown, she is a reliable harmony voice." In an interview with "Libération", Jean-Jacques Goldman notes that she has "no problem of accuracy or tempo". According to Kent Nagano, she is "a musician who has a good ear, a refinement, and a degree of perfection that is enviable". Charles Alexander of "Time" states, "[Her] voice glides effortlessly from deep whispers to dead-on high notes, a sweet siren that combines force with grace."


title: Celine Dion

text: In her French repertoire, Dion adorns her vocals with more nuances and expressiveness, with the emotional intensity being "more tender and intimate". Additionally, Luc Plamondon, a French singer-songwriter who has worked closely with Dion claims that there are three chanteuses (stylistically) that she uses: the Québécois, the French, and the American. Her self-titled 1992 album was promoted with the slogan "Remember the name because you'll never forget the voice."


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion is regarded as one of pop music's most influential vocalists. She has been referred to as the "Priestess of Pop" and "Queen of Power Ballads" by various media outlets. Ed Christman from "Billboard" called Dion the "Queen of Pop". Her music and vocal styling, alongside that of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, have been said to shape how the bulk of modern female pop vocalists sing. These three artists have been widely credited with reviving the power ballad, and in doing so reshaping the adult contemporary radio format, making it one of the most popular formats of the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2002, "Billboard" named her as the "Best-selling contemporary female artist in history".


title: Celine Dion

text: According to producer, musician, and former "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, Dion, Houston, and Carey are the voices of the modern era. Music critic and Dion biographer Carl Wilson notes that her "fame and influence is also renewed and expressed regularly these days by "American Idol", the largest mass musical phenomenon of the past decade, where Celine's stood solidly in its pantheon of singers for young people to emulate". Many contestants on the countless televised talent competitions that have risen at the turn of the millennium often emulate Dion, Houston and Carey and cite them as idols. MTV also praised Dion by saying: "Céline Dion was better than almost anyone at capitalizing on pop's ability to articulate feelings in sensational, over-the-top ways."


title: Celine Dion

text: Numerous artists have either mentioned Dion as a major influence or as one of their favourite singers including: Britney Spears, Rihanna, Adele, Josh Groban, Delta Goodrem, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, Vanessa Hudgens, Kelly Clarkson, Perrie Edwards, Loren Allred, Brazilian singer Wanessa Camargo, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Frank Ocean, Ava Max, Charlotte Cardin, and V (from BTS) among many others. Country singer Martina McBride is widely heralded by the press as the "Celine Dion of Country music".


title: Celine Dion

text: Many artists have also praised Dion's voice, singing ability or expressed an interest in working with her including Met Opera conductor and musical director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Beyoncé, Carlos Santana, Elton John, OneRepublic, Coldplay, Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger, Ne-Yo, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, Bee Gees, Sir George Martin, Justin Bieber, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Drake and Cher.


title: Celine Dion

text: Timbaland stated "Celine has such a beautiful, mesmerizing voice. She is so talented. I think we could create something that is a classic like she is already." Josh Groban remarked "She's a powerhouse. In this day and age, when more and more studio-produced, tiny-tiny voices are being rewarded ... she has this extraordinary instrument." According to Diane Warren, "Celine is the best singer by far of her generation", an opinion shared by Quincy Jones, Tommy Mottola, and David Foster. Moreover, Shania Twain and Jennifer Lopez have praised her dynamic stage presence, with Jennifer Lopez commenting on "American Idol": "Celine gets on stage, she owns the stage, she runs all over that stage, she stops that stage." Leona Lewis is also a huge fan of Céline Dion saying "Celine is someone I aspire to be like in every way. "Gosh – I can't wait. I'm in the middle of picking out dresses at the moment. Celine is definitely one of my heroes. She is amazing." American singer and actress Lea Michelle said that she listened to Céline Dion's music while in the process of making her sophomore album 'Places' and cited her as one of her vocal influences.


title: Celine Dion

text: Godmother of Soul Patti LaBelle called Dion as one of the greatest singers ever. Pop singer Kelly Clarkson also praised Dion's vocal ability saying: "she has two sets of lungs when she sings." and also called her the most gifted vocalist on the planet.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion holds the Guinness World Record for the most Juno Awards won for Album Of The Year (tied with Michael Buble & Arcade Fire). She won 3 out of the 13 nominations she received in the category throughout her career. Dion is the 3rd most decorated artist in "Juno Awards" history, winning 20 out of the 75 total nominations ever, becoming the most nominated artist in the awards history as well.


title: Celine Dion

text: On a cultural level, Dion is credited for introducing francophone music to many non-francophone countries around the globe. Her albums "D'eux" and "S'il suffisait d'aimer" remain the best selling francophone albums in history, gaining unprecedented success in non-Francophone markets such as the United Kingdom, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Japan, and New Zealand. According to RFI Musique, she "has done her bit for French music over the years, assuring the success of French songs which would probably never have got beyond Francophone borders without her ... Without Celine, French record sales would be dramatically lower!" In May 2008, she was awarded France's highest award, as Knight of the Legion of Honour by President of France Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy praised Dion and stated: "France thanks you because your talent and success have contributed to the influence of the French language outside our borders".


title: Celine Dion

text: She is also credited for both revitalizing and revolutionizing the entertainment scene in Las Vegas with the gargantuan successes of her residencies there. She signed a multi-million dollar deal (worth $100 million) to do a residency in Vegas and is considered one of the most lucrative and risky in the touring industry.


title: Celine Dion

text: "Billboard" credits Dion as the one who pioneered modern residencies saying: "Since Dion's debut, hundreds of artists have tried their hand at Vegas residencies, including, most recently, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Usher, Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, Rod Stewart and Sting. Once considered the domain of artists long past their peak, today's Las Vegas residency shows are big business, generating millions in sales." Moreover, "Billboard" also said: "She changed history and she completely changed Las Vegas," said Nelson, who notes the new residencies being announced for artists like Cardi B, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez aren't really at the same production level or scale of what Dion created with her husband René Angélil, as well as Meglen, Nelson and former AEG CEO Tim Leiweke." Dion is popularly referred as the reigning ""Queen of Las Vegas"" by various media outlets for her impact and legacy in the city.


title: Celine Dion

text: According to Gary Bongiovanni, president and editor-in-chief of "Pollstar", ""Celine redefined what artists can do in Las Vegas, helping to make it arguably the busiest entertainment city in the world"."


title: Celine Dion

text: Kurt Melien, vice-president of entertainment at Caesar's Palace stated "Celine was a pioneer without question ... Twenty years ago, we couldn't have got someone the stature of Britney Spears to appear in Vegas. Stars likes her would never have considered it if Celine hadn't paved the way. "She changed the face of modern Vegas"."


title: Celine Dion

text: The Guardian listed Dion's Vegas residency as one of the "50 gigs that changed music", crediting her as the one who revived it, further saying: "it was Céline Dion who turned Caesars into the stage for a glorious pop comeback. Her initial five-year run was followed by a further eight years – and prompted copycat turns by Britney Spears, Pink and Katy Perry.


title: Celine Dion

text: Regarding her financial impact on Las Vegas, Stephen Brown, director of the Centre for Business and Economic Research in Las Vegas, commented: "People will come to the city just for her and they will spend money and as a consequence, she has an outsized impact on the economy", then adding "Bigger than Elvis, Sinatra and Liberace put together? Definitely." Estimations indicate that Dion's show will create up to 7,000 indirect jobs and around $114 million worth of new economic activity in each of the three years for which she has been contracted.


title: Celine Dion

text: "Forbes" also discussed how entrepreneurs can reclaim the power in their business by being like Céline Dion as an example saying: "Well, remember back in 2017 when Dion launched her handbag line? During a press conference, she admitted her late manager (and husband) had always handled everything for her. Every aspect of her shows was pre-decided; every move, appearance and interview was programmed in advance. She just showed up and executed (which she did brilliantly). At the end of her handbag launch press release, she said "Now ... I'm the boss." Starting right then and there, she'd be the one calling the shots for her shows, her kids, her handbags and everything else that mattered to her. She was going to do things her way."


title: Celine Dion

text: Celine Dion has received various acclaims from fashion critics for reinventing her fashion style over the years. "The Guardian" called her "The Joyous New Queen of Fashion". "Harper's Bazaar" also praised Dion for being an ultimate fashion risk-taker and called her a "Fashion Chameleon". "Billboard" dubbed her as "Streetwear Icon" after recapping the global icon's style evolution through the years. "Vogue" named her as one of music's most exuberant dressers, beloved as much for her glorious voice as her extravagant sense of style. "Tatler" discussed in an article how Cardi B might be the next Céline Dion of Paris Fashion Week, proving that Céline is the standard for the occasion. Fashion stylist and image architect Law Roach praised Celine Dion, calling her "The Queen of Camp" and "The Queen of Glitter & Sequins". Dion further cemented her name in the fashion world by wearing the reverse tuxedo at 1999 Academy Awards, which became one of the most talked ensembles of that time. "Vogue" also listed her iconic 1999 reverse tuxedo as one of the most controversial looks of all time saying it was undeniably the highlight of the year. "W" also listed the iconic ensemble as one of the most memorable dresses of all time. In February 2020, Sergio Guadarrama, a contestant of "Project Runway", copied the idea of reverse tuxedo and claimed it was his original idea and had even claimed that he had no idea about the iconic tuxedo, which left the fans of the show disappointed.


title: Celine Dion

text: "Vice" discussed how Dion's music made impact in Nigerian culture, saying: "By the 2000s, Celine Dion was basically the "queen of Nigerian airwaves". It was impossible to watch TV or listen to the radio without hearing her music – either on adverts, or in Nollywood films featuring heartthrobs like Genevieve Nnaji and Ramsey Nouah."


title: Celine Dion

text: "Billboard" also discussed how Dion's appearance at Jamaica Jazz & Blues changed the festival's future. According to Walter Elmore, CEO of Art of Music Productions said Dion is by far the most expensive artist he has ever booked, further saying: "I have already received calls from the management of several major US artists who want to perform here next year because they heard Celine's comments about our show's production quality," Elmore said. ""Her performance confirms that we can bring the biggest artists on the planet to our little island"."


title: Celine Dion

text: In 2012, Dion visited Jamaica for the very first time which broke attendance records and caused traffic congestion around the concert venue. "Vice" discussed how Dion's music has been constant in dancehall clubs for decades, as many Jamaican dancehall artists cover her songs and remixing her ballads into anthems of dance hall. Further adding: "Several current dancehall musicians continue to use utilize Dion's tunes with the addition of upbeat guitars, pan flutes, and backbeat shuffles that transform the music for consumption by dancehall fans."


title: Celine Dion

text: The Canadian comedy music group The Arrogant Worms released an album called "Dirt" in 1999 which contained a song called "Celine Dion", about the singers' stalker-like affection for her. Dion has also been referred/mentioned in various hit songs including "Dark Fantasy" by Kanye West, "911/Mr. Lonely" by Tyler, the Creator, "That Girl" by Pharrell Williams, "Work" by A$AP Ferg, and "What's The Use" by Mac Miller, to name a few.


title: Celine Dion

text: Jazz vocalist Ranee Lee released an album titled ""Because You Loved Me,"" covering some of Dion's biggest songs. Lee praised Dion stating: "I love Céline as a vocal musician, she's fantastic. There's no one who can surpass her ability and range these days"


title: Celine Dion

text: In 1999, Dion received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2004, one which she dedicated to her father, who had died the month prior. In May 2003, she placed at No. 10 on VH1's list of "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era". Dion's album "Falling into You" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list. "My Heart Will Go On" was included in the list of "Songs of the Century", by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2021, Dion was ranked by "Forbes" as the third richest woman in entertainment with an estimated net worth of US$460 million. In August 2008, she received an honorary doctorate in music from the Université Laval in Quebec City.


title: Celine Dion

text: In October 2010, Dion was named a Goodwill Ambassador, a program created by the UN in 1999, sharing this accolade with Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon. She also received several state decorations. In 2004, she was awarded the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 26 July 2013, she was awarded the highest rank of the Order of Canada, the Companion of the Order of Canada, by the Governor General of Canada and the investiture ceremony was held at Citadelle of Quebec, in which they said: "An incomparable artist, she is equally known for her compassion, generosity and commitment to a number of social and humanitarian causes. She is notably the national celebrity patron for Cystic Fibrosis Canada and honorary patron of the CHU Sainte-Justine. In addition, through her foundation, she also helps children in need and their families here in Canada and abroad."


title: Celine Dion

text: By the end of 1998, Dion was recognized by "Billboard" as the "Woman of the Year". They also stated how Céline's voice was featured in eight charting albums on Billboard 200 year-end chart which sold 18 million units during a calendar year (excluding her own catalog sales and recent releases at that time).


title: Celine Dion

text: West University of Timișoara conducted a research study that analyzes Céline Dion's contributions to global music culture in both spatial and temporal terms, In November 2013, Dion was inducted at the American Gaming Association Hall Of Fame for her outstanding contributions to the growth and stature of the gaming industry.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion was referenced as an antagonist character named "Feline Dion" from the hit animated series "Totally Spies!", which was aired in an episode in 2013. Dion was also featured on the 7th episode of the animated series "Total Drama Island". In 2022, Dion was also referenced in the animated fantasy film "Turning Red". She was cast as a villain in Angloman, a 1995 satirical comic by Mark Shainblum and Gabriel Morrissette.


title: Celine Dion

text: In 2021, French actress and filmmaker Valérie Lemercier released "Aline", a film which fictionalized Dion's life with Lemercier playing a singer named "Aline Dieu".


title: Celine Dion

text: In 1997–1998, Dion sold more than 60 million albums, and was estimated to sell a record once every 1.2 seconds. In 2017, Dion broke records across the UK as the highest grossing artist at each UK venue where she performed including dates at London's O Arena, Leeds' First Direct Arena, Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena and Glasgow's SSE Hydro. John Meglen, president and co-CEO, Concerts West commended her by saying: "She really is the voice of our lifetime."


title: Celine Dion

text: In 2018, there were over 300,000 Taiwanese fans that clambered for the 20,000 tickets available for Célines first concert ever in Taiwan which caused the system to lag for 30 minutes. The demand caused them to add two additional shows eventually.


title: Celine Dion

text: Les Productions Feeling Inc., also known as Feeling Inc. or just Feeling, is an artist management company based in Laval, Québec, Canada, and owned by Dion and her husband and manager, Rene Angélil. She is also founder of Nickels Restaurant food chain. She and her husband also own Le Mirage Golf Club and Schwartz's Restaurant. In association with Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf and Shaquille O'Neal, she opened a popular night club called "Pure", located at Caesars Palace.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion became an entrepreneur with the establishment of her franchise restaurant "Nickels" in 1990. She has since divested her interests in the chain and is no longer affiliated with "Nickels", as of 1997. In 2003, Dion signed a deal with Coty, Inc. to release "Celine Dion Parfums". Her latest fragrance, "Signature", was released in September 2011 with an advertising campaign by New York agency Kraftworks NYC. Since its inception, "Celine Dion Parfums" has grossed over $850 million in retail sales. In October 2004, Air Canada hired Dion as part of their promotional campaign to unveil new service products and an updated livery. "You and I", the theme song sung by Dion, was written by advertising executives working for Air Canada.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion also launched an eponymous bag and accessories line ""Céline Dion Collection"". According to Innee-Sedona International, the Asia partner for Bugatti Group said that it already topped $10 million sales after just three collections.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion has actively supported many charity organizations, worldwide. She has promoted the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) since 1982, and became the foundation's National Celebrity Patron in 1993. She has an emotional attachment to the foundation; her niece Karine died from the disease at the age of sixteen, in Dion's arms. In 2003, she joined a number of other celebrities, athletes, and politicians, including Josh Groban and Yolanda Adams to support "World Children's Day", a global fundraising effort sponsored by McDonald's. The effort raised money from more than 100 nations and benefited orphanages and children's health organizations. In addition, she has been a major supporter of the T. J. Martell Foundation, the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, and many health and educational campaigns. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she donated $1 million to the victims of the storm, and held a fund-raising event for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which subsequently raised more than $1 million. After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, she donated $100,000 to China Children & Teenagers' Fund and sent a letter showing her consolation and support. Since 2004, she is involved, alongside husband René Angelil, with the Québec gay community by supporting the publication of health and HIV prevention materials in "Gay Globe Magazine", owned by journalist Roger-Luc Chayer. She is also a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism. In November 2018, she launched a gender-neutral clothing line for kids, "Celinununu". In 2009, Dion joined an effort along with Leonardo DiCaprio, James Cameron and Kate Winslet, to donate money to support the nursing home fees of the then-last living survivor of the sinking of the "Titanic", Millvina Dean. The campaign resulted in $30,000 as donation.


title: Celine Dion

text: As the youngest of 14 children, Dion grew up wearing hand-me-downs and sharing a bed with several sisters. As a baby, she slept in a drawer to save on a crib. She was bullied at school and called "Vampire", owing to her teeth and skinny frame. Local tabloids even dubbed her "Canine Dion" in the teenage years of her career. She often spoke of running home from school to play music in the basement with her brothers and sisters. "I detested school", she would later write in her autobiography. "I had always lived surrounded by adults and children a lot older than me. I learned everything I needed to know from them. As far as I was concerned, real life existed around them." Dion's eldest sister was already in her twenties, married, and pregnant with her first child at the time Dion's mother, Thérèse, was pregnant with Celine.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion first met René Angélil, her future husband and manager, in 1980, when she was 12 and he was 38, after her brother, Michel Dondalinger Dion, had sent him a demonstration recording of "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" ("It Was Only a Dream/Nothing But A Dream"), a song she, her mother Thérèse, and her brother Jacques Dion had jointly written. Over subsequent years, Angélil guided her to stardom in francophone territories.


title: Celine Dion

text: After the dissolution of Angélil's second marriage, he and Dion took a professional break and he spent the major part of the year in Las Vegas, while Dion was learning English and taking dance and vocal lessons in Montreal. Upon his return, "he avoided being alone with me for too long a time", she said in her 2000 autobiography "My Story, My Dream". Meanwhile, she kept a photo of Angélil under her pillow, writing, "Before I fell asleep, I slipped it under the pillow, out of fear that my mother, who always shared a room with me, would find it." She also wrote "Less and less could I hide from myself the fact that I was in love with Rene; I had all the symptoms," and "I was in love with a man I couldn't love, who didn't want me to love him, who didn't want to love me." Dion's mother, who traveled everywhere with the singer until she was 19, was initially wary of her daughter's growing infatuation with a much older and twice-divorced Angélil, but Dion was insistent, telling her mother "I'm not a minor. This is a free country. No one has the right to prevent me from loving whoever I want to."


title: Celine Dion

text: Their professional relationship eventually turned romantic after Dion's win at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1988; she was 20. The romance was known to only family and friends for five years, though Dion nearly revealed all in a tearful 1992 interview with journalist Lise Payette. Many years later, Payette penned the song "Je cherche l'ombre" for Dion's 2007 album "D'elles".


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion and Angélil became engaged in 30 March 1993, which was Dion's 25th birthday, and made their relationship public in the liner notes of her 1993 album "The Colour of My Love". They married on 17 December 1994, at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec. On 5 January 2000, Dion and Angélil renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas.


title: Celine Dion

text: In May 2000, Dion had two small operations at a fertility clinic in New York to improve her chances of conceiving, after deciding to use in vitro fertilization because of years of failed attempts to conceive. Their first son, René-Charles Angélil, was born on 25 January 2001. Dion suffered a miscarriage in 2009. In May 2010, Angélil announced that she was 14 weeks pregnant with twins after a sixth treatment of in vitro fertilization. On Saturday, 23 October 2010, at 11:11 and 11:12 am respectively, Dion gave birth to fraternal twins by Caesarean section at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, The twins were named Eddy, after Dion's favourite French songwriter, Eddy Marnay, who had also produced her first five albums; and Nelson, after former South African President Nelson Mandela. She appeared with her newborn sons on the cover of 9 December 2010 issue of the Canadian edition of "Hello!" magazine.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 14 January 2016, Angélil died at age 73 of throat cancer. His funeral was held on 22 January 2016, in Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, where he and Dion wed 21 years earlier. The couple's eldest son, René-Charles, gave the eulogy just three days before his 15th birthday. Following Angélil's death, Dion became the sole owner and president of her management and production companies, including CDA Productions and Les Productions Feeling.


title: Celine Dion

text: Two days after Angélil's deathon what would have been her husband's birthdayDion's brother, Daniel, died at age 59, also of cancer.


title: Celine Dion

text: On 22 March 2018, Dion's management team announced that she had been dealing with hearing irregularities for the previous 12–18 months due to patulous Eustachian tube and would undergo a minimally invasive surgical procedure to correct the problem after ear-drop medications appeared to be no longer working.


title: Celine Dion

text: Owing to her slight frame, Dion has for decades been subject of eating disorder rumors, which she has consistently denied: "I don't have an eating problem, and there's nothing more I can say about it". "My work requires me to be in great physical shape. I wouldn't have been able to give up to a hundred shows a year and travel ceaselessly from one end of the world to the other if I had eaten too much or not enough, or if, as certain magazines have claimed, I made myself throw up after each meal." She has often spoken about having been bullied at school and lacking confidence in her early years in the business: "I didn't have, visually, what it took. I was not pretty, I had teeth problems, and I was very skinny. I didn't fit the mold".


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion took up ballet under the guidance of her former dancer, Naomi Stikeman, who also previously performed for The National Ballet of Canada and La La La Human Steps, and former Cirque du Soleil dancer-turned-fashion-illustrator, Pepe Muñoz, who is also part of her styling team. She is also a skier and a regular at her son René-Charles' hockey games.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion resides in Henderson, Nevada, in a house she bought with her husband in 2003. She previously owned homes in Montreal, Quebec, and Jupiter Island, Florida.


title: Celine Dion

text: Dion's older son René-Charles Angélil loves music and has tried to follow a musical path. Under the stage name Big Tip, he released in May 2018 on his SoundCloud account 6 rap songs including originals "The Kid", "The Apple" and "Never Stop" and two adaptations from The Weeknd songs, "Catwalks" sampling on The Weeknd's "Sidewalks" and a remix of The Weeknd's "Loft Music" as "Loft Music Remix". He also released the 5-track EP "CasiNo. 5" in December 2020 using the artistic name RC Angelil. The EP includes the tracks "Mamba Mentality", "Money, Thrills and Rest", "No Ls", "GG4" (featuring PAKKA) and "LV".


title: Celine Dion

text: In December 2022, Dion disclosed that she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a neurological disorder affecting her muscles.


title: Celine Dion

text: On December 8, 2022, Dion made a public announcement that she was diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, consequently postponing her 2023 European tour.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It continues to be used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It generally takes the form of a cross, the arms of which are of equal length and perpendicular to the adjacent arms, each bent midway at a right angle.


title: Swastika

text: The word "swastika" comes from , meaning "conducive to well-being". In Hinduism, the right-facing symbol (clockwise) () is called "", symbolizing ("sun"), prosperity and good luck, while the left-facing symbol (counter-clockwise) () is called sauwastika, symbolising night or tantric aspects of Kali. In Jain symbolism, it represents Suparshvanathathe seventh of 24 Tirthankaras (spiritual teachers and saviours), while in Buddhist symbolism it represents the auspicious footprints of the Buddha. In several major Indo-European religions, the swastika symbolises lightning bolts, representing the thunder god and the king of the gods, such as Indra in Vedic Hinduism, Zeus in the ancient Greek religion, Jupiter in the ancient Roman religion, and Thor in the ancient Germanic religion. The symbol is found in the archeological remains of the Indus Valley Civilisation and Samarra, as well as in early Byzantine and Christian artwork.


title: Swastika

text: Used for the first time by far-right Romanian politician A. C. Cuza as a symbol of international antisemitism prior to World War I, it was a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck for most of the Western world until the 1930s, when the German Nazi Party adopted the swastika as an emblem of the Aryan race. As a result of World War II and the Holocaust, in the West it continues to be strongly associated with Nazism, antisemitism, white supremacism, or simply evil. As a consequence, its use in some countries, including Germany, is prohibited by law. However, the swastika remains a symbol of good luck and prosperity in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain countries such as Nepal, India, Thailand, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, China and Japan, and by some peoples, such as the Navajo people of the Southwest United States. It is also commonly used in Hindu marriage ceremonies and Dipavali celebrations.


title: Swastika

text: In various European languages, it is known as the "fylfot", "gammadion", "tetraskelion", or "cross cramponnée" (a term in Anglo-Norman heraldry); German: ; French: ; Italian: ; Latvian: "ugunskrusts". In Mongolian it is called хас ("khas") and mainly used in seals. In Chinese it is called 卍字 ("wànzì"), pronounced "manji" in Japanese, "manja" (만자) in Korean and "vạn tự / chữ vạn" in Vietnamese.


title: Swastika

text: Reverence for the swastika symbol in Asian cultures, in contrast to the stigma attached to it in the West, has led to misinterpretations and misunderstandings.


title: Swastika

text: The word "swastika" has been used in the Indian subcontinent since 500 BCE. The word was first recorded by the ancient linguist Pāṇini in his work "Ashtadhyayi". It is alternatively spelled in contemporary texts as "svastika", and other spellings were occasionally used in the 19th and early 20th century, such as "suastika". It was derived from the Sanskrit term (Devanagari ), which transliterates to "" under the commonly used IAST transliteration system, but is pronounced closer to "swastika" when letters are used with their English values.


title: Swastika

text: An important early use of the word swastika in a European text was in 1871 with the publications of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered more than 1,800 ancient samples of the swastika symbol and its variants while digging the Hisarlik mound near the Aegean Sea coast for the history of Troy. Schliemann linked his findings to the Sanskrit .


title: Swastika

text: The word "swastika" is derived from the Sanskrit root , which is composed of 'good, well' and 'is; it is; there is'. The word occurs frequently in the Vedas as well as in classical literature, meaning "health, luck, success, prosperity", and it was commonly used as a greeting. The final is a common suffix that could have multiple meanings. According to Monier-Williams, a majority of scholars consider it a solar symbol. The sign implies something fortunate, lucky, or auspicious, and it denotes auspiciousness or well-being.


title: Swastika

text: The earliest known use of the word swastika is in Panini's "Ashtadhyayi", which uses it to explain one of the Sanskrit grammar rules, in the context of a type of identifying mark on a cow's ear. Most scholarship suggests that Panini lived in or before the 4th century BCE, possibly in 6th or 5th century BCE.


title: Swastika

text: By the 19th century, the term "swastika" was adopted into the English lexicon, replacing "gammadion" from Greek . In 1878, Irish scholar Charles Graves used "swastika" as the common English name for the symbol, after defining it as equivalent to the French term "croix gammée"a cross with arms shaped like the Greek letter gamma (Γ). Shortly thereafter, British antiquarians Edward Thomas and Robert Sewell separately published their studies about the symbol, using "swastika" as the common English term.


title: Swastika

text: The concept of a "reversed" swastika was probably first made among European scholars by Eugène Burnouf in 1852, and taken up by Schliemann in "Ilios" (1880), based on a letter from Max Müller that quotes Burnouf. The term "sauwastika" is used in the sense of "backwards swastika" by Eugène Goblet d'Alviella (1894): "In India it [the "gammadion"] bears the name of "swastika", when its arms are bent towards the right, and "sauwastika" when they are turned in the other direction."


title: Swastika

text: All swastikas are bent crosses based on a chiral symmetry, but they appear with different geometric details: as compact crosses with short legs, as crosses with large arms and as motifs in a pattern of unbroken lines. Chirality describes an absence of reflective symmetry, with the existence of two versions that are mirror images of each other. The mirror-image forms are typically described as left-facing or left-hand (卍) and right-facing or right-hand (卐).


title: Swastika

text: The compact swastika can be seen as a chiral irregular icosagon (20-sided polygon) with fourfold (90°) rotational symmetry. Such a swastika proportioned on a 5×5 square grid and with the broken portions of its legs shortened by one unit can tile the plane by translation alone. The Nazi swastika used a 5×5 diagonal grid, but with the legs unshortened.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika was adopted as a standard character in Chinese, "" () and as such entered various other East Asian languages, including Chinese script. In Japanese the symbol is called or .


title: Swastika

text: The swastika is included in the Unicode character sets of two languages. In the Chinese block it is U+534D 卍 (left-facing) and U+5350 for the swastika 卐 (right-facing); The latter has a mapping in the original Big5 character set, but the former does not (although it is in Big5+). In Unicode 5.2, two swastika symbols and two swastikas were added to the Tibetan block: swastika , , and swastikas , .


title: Swastika

text: European hypotheses of the swastika are often treated in conjunction with cross symbols in general, such as the sun cross of Bronze Age religion. Beyond its certain presence in the "proto-writing" symbol systems, such as the Vinča script, which appeared during the Neolithic.


title: Swastika

text: According to René Guénon, the swastika represents the north pole, and the rotational movement around a centre or immutable axis ("axis mundi"), and only secondly it represents the Sun as a reflected function of the north pole. As such it is a symbol of life, of the vivifying role of the supreme principle of the universe, the absolute God, in relation to the cosmic order. It represents the activity (the Hellenic "Logos", the Hindu "Om", the Chinese "Taiyi", "Great One") of the principle of the universe in the formation of the world. According to Guénon, the swastika in its polar value has the same meaning of the yin and yang symbol of the Chinese tradition, and of other traditional symbols of the working of the universe, including the letters Γ (gamma) and G, symbolising the Great Architect of the Universe of Masonic thought.


title: Swastika

text: According to the scholar Reza Assasi, the swastika represents the north ecliptic north pole centred in ζ Draconis, with the constellation Draco as one of its beams. He argues that this symbol was later attested as the four-horse chariot of Mithra in ancient Iranian culture. They believed the cosmos was pulled by four heavenly horses who revolved around a fixed centre in a clockwise direction. He suggests that this notion later flourished in Roman Mithraism, as the symbol appears in Mithraic iconography and astronomical representations.


title: Swastika

text: According to the Russian archaeologist Gennady Zdanovich, who studied some of the oldest examples of the symbol in Sintashta culture, the swastika symbolises the universe, representing the spinning constellations of the celestial north pole centred in α Ursae Minoris, specifically the Little and Big Dipper (or Chariots), or Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. Likewise, according to René Guénon the swastika is drawn by visualising the Big Dipper/Great Bear in the four phases of revolution around the pole star.


title: Swastika

text: In their 1985 book "Comet", Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan argue that the appearance of a rotating comet with a four-pronged tail as early as 2,000 years BCE could explain why the swastika is found in the cultures of both the Old World and the . The Han dynasty "Book of Silk" (2nd century BCE) depicts such a comet with a swastika-like symbol.


title: Swastika

text: Bob Kobres, in a 1992 paper, contends that the swastika-like comet on the Han-dynasty manuscript was labelled a "long tailed pheasant star" ("dixing") because of its resemblance to a bird's foot or footprint. Similar comparisons had been made by J.F. Hewitt in 1907, as well as a 1908 article in "Good Housekeeping". Kobres goes on to suggest an association of mythological birds and comets also outside of China.


title: Swastika

text: In Native American culture, particularly among the Pima people of Arizona, the swastika is a symbol of the four winds. Anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing noted that among the Pima the symbol of the four winds is made from a cross with the four curved arms (similar to a broken sun cross), and concludes "the right-angle swastika is primarily a representation of the circle of the four wind gods standing at the head of their trails, or directions."


title: Swastika

text: The earliest known swastika is from 10,000 BCEpart of "an intricate meander pattern of joined-up swastikas" found on a late paleolithic figurine of a bird, carved from mammoth ivory, found in Mezine, Ukraine. It has been suggested that this swastika may be a stylised picture of a stork in flight. As the carving was found near phallic objects, this may also support the idea that the pattern was a fertility symbol.


title: Swastika

text: In the mountains of Iran, there are swastikas or spinning wheels inscribed on stone walls, which are estimated to be more than 7,000 years old. One instance is in Khorashad, Birjand, on the holy wall Lakh Mazar.


title: Swastika

text: Mirror-image swastikas (clockwise and counter-clockwise) have been found on ceramic pottery in the Devetashka cave, Bulgaria, dated to 6,000 BCE.


title: Swastika

text: Some of the earliest archaeological evidence of the swastika in the Indian subcontinent can be dated to 3,000 BCE. The investigators put forth the hypothesis that the swastika moved westward from the Indian subcontinent to Finland, Scandinavia, the Scottish Highlands and other parts of Europe. In England, neolithic or Bronze Age stone carvings of the symbol have been found on Ilkley Moor, such as the Swastika Stone.


title: Swastika

text: Swastikas have also been found on pottery in archaeological digs in Africa, in the area of Kush and on pottery at the Jebel Barkal temples, in Iron Age designs of the northern Caucasus (Koban culture), and in Neolithic China in the Majiabang and Majiayao cultures.


title: Swastika

text: Other Iron Age attestations of the swastika can be associated with Indo-European cultures such as the Illyrians, Indo-Iranians, Celts, Greeks, Germanic peoples and Slavs. In Sintashta culture's "Country of Towns", ancient Indo-European settlements in southern Russia, it has been found a great concentration of some of the oldest swastika patterns.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika is also seen in Egypt during the Coptic period. Textile number T.231-1923 held at the V&A Museum in London includes small swastikas in its design. This piece was found at Qau-el-Kebir, near Asyut, and is dated between 300 and 600 CE.


title: Swastika

text: The "Tierwirbel" (the German for "animal whorl" or "whirl of animals") is a characteristic motif in Bronze Age Central Asia, the Eurasian Steppe, and later also in Iron Age Scythian and European (Baltic and Germanic) culture, showing rotational symmetric arrangement of an animal motif, often four birds' heads. Even wider diffusion of this "Asiatic" theme has been proposed, to the Pacific and even North America (especially Moundville).


title: Swastika

text: In Asia, the swastika symbol first appears in the archaeological record around 3000 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilisation. It also appears in the Bronze and Iron Age cultures around the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. In all these cultures, the swastika symbol does not appear to occupy any marked position or significance, appearing as just one form of a series of similar symbols of varying complexity. In the Zoroastrian religion of Persia, the swastika was a symbol of the revolving sun, infinity, or continuing creation. It is one of the most common symbols on Mesopotamian coins.


title: Swastika

text: The icon has been of spiritual significance to Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The swastika is a sacred symbol in the Bön religion, native to Tibet.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika is an important Hindu symbol. The swastika symbol is commonly used before entrances or on doorways of homes or temples, to mark the starting page of financial statements, and mandalas constructed for rituals such as weddings or welcoming a newborn.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika has a particular association with Diwali, being drawn in "rangoli" (coloured sand) or formed with deepak lights on the floor outside Hindu houses and on wall hangings and other decorations.


title: Swastika

text: In the diverse traditions within Hinduism, both the clockwise and counterclockwise swastika are found, with different meanings. The clockwise or right hand icon is called "swastika", while the counterclockwise or left hand icon is called "sauwastika" or "sauvastika". The clockwise swastika is a solar symbol (Surya), suggesting the motion of the Sun in India (the northern hemisphere), where it appears to enter from the east, then ascend to the south at midday, exiting to the west. The counterclockwise "sauwastika" is less used; it connotes the night, and in tantric traditions it is an icon for the goddess Kali, the terrifying form of Devi Durga. The symbol also represents activity, karma, motion, wheel, and in some contexts the lotus. According to Norman McClelland its symbolism for motion and the Sun may be from shared prehistoric cultural roots.


title: Swastika

text: In Buddhism, the swastika is considered to symbolise the auspicious footprints of the Buddha. The left-facing sauwastika is often imprinted on the chest, feet or palms of Buddha images. It is an aniconic symbol for the Buddha in many parts of Asia and homologous with the "dharma wheel". The shape symbolises eternal cycling, a theme found in the "samsara" doctrine of Buddhism.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika symbol is common in esoteric tantric traditions of Buddhism, along with Hinduism, where it is found with chakra theories and other meditative aids. The clockwise symbol is more common, and contrasts with the counter clockwise version common in the Tibetan Bon tradition and locally called "yungdrung".


title: Swastika

text: In Jainism, it is a symbol of the seventh "tīrthaṅkara", Suparśvanātha. In the Śvētāmbara tradition, it is also one of the "aṣṭamaṅgala" or eight auspicious symbols. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar. Jains use rice to make a swastika in front of statues and then put an offering on it, usually a ripe or dried fruit, a sweet ( ), or a coin or currency note. The four arms of the swastika symbolise the four places where a soul could be reborn in "samsara", the cycle of birth and death"svarga" "heaven", "naraka" "hell", "manushya" "humanity" or "tiryancha" "as flora or fauna"before the soul attains "moksha" "salvation" as a "siddha", having ended the cycle of birth and death and become omniscient.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika is an auspicious symbol in China where it was introduced from India with Buddhism. In 693, during the Tang dynasty, it was declared as "the source of all good fortune" and was called by Wu Zetian becoming a Chinese word. The Chinese character for () is similar to the swastika in shape and can be appeared into two different variations:《》and 《》. As the Chinese character ( and/or ) is homonym for the Chinese word of "ten thousand" () and "infinity", as such the Chinese character is itself a symbol of immortality and infinity. It was also a representation of longevity.


title: Swastika

text: The Chinese character could be used as a stand-alone《》or《》or as be used as pairs《 》in Chinese visual arts, decorative arts, and clothing due to its auspicious connotation.


title: Swastika

text: Adding the character ( and/or ) to other auspicious Chinese symbols or patterns can multiply that wish by 10,000 times. It can be combined with other Chinese characters, such as the Chinese character 《》for longevity where it is sometimes even integrated into the Chinese character to augment the menaning of longevity.


title: Swastika

text: The paired swastika symbols ( and ) are included, at least since the Liao Dynasty (907–1125 CE), as part of the Chinese writing system and are variant characters for 《萬》 or 《万》 ("wàn" in Mandarin, 《만》("man") in Korean, Cantonese, and Japanese, "vạn" in Vietnamese) meaning "myriad".


title: Swastika

text: When the Chinese writing system was introduced to Japan in the 8th century, the swastika was adopted into the Japanese language and culture. It is commonly referred as the "manji" (lit. "10,000-character"). Since the Middle Ages, it has been used as a "mon" by various Japanese families such as Tsugaru clan, Hachisuka clan or around 60 clans that belong to Tokugawa clan. On Japanese maps, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing swastika is often referred to as the or , and can also be called .


title: Swastika

text: In Chinese and Japanese art, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called "sayagata" in Japanese, comprises left- and right-facing swastikas joined by lines. As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.


title: Swastika

text: In Armenia the swastika is called the "arevakhach" and "kerkhach" () and is the ancient symbol of eternity and eternal light (i.e. God). Swastikas in Armenia were found on petroglyphs from the copper age, predating the Bronze Age. During the Bronze Age it was depicted on cauldrons, belts, medallions and other items. Among the oldest petroglyphs is the seventh letter of the Armenian alphabet: Է("E" which means "is" or "to be") depicted as a half-swastika.


title: Swastika

text: Swastikas can also be seen on early Medieval churches and fortresses, including the principal tower in Armenia's historical capital city of Ani. The same symbol can be found on Armenian carpets, cross-stones ("khachkar") and in medieval manuscripts, as well as on modern monuments as a symbol of eternity.


title: Swastika

text: Old petroglyphs of four-beam and other swastikas were recorded in Dagestan, in particular, among the Avars. According to Vakhushti of Kartli, the tribal banner of the Avar khans depicted a wolf with a standard with a double-spiral swastika.


title: Swastika

text: Petroglyphs with swastikas were depicted on medieval Vainakh tower architecture (see sketches by scholar Bruno Plaetschke from the 1920s). Thus, a rectangular swastika was made in engraved form on the entrance of a residential tower in the settlement Khimoy, Chechnya.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika shape (also called a "fylfot") appears on various Germanic Migration Period and Viking Age artifacts, such as the 3rd-century Værløse Fibula from Zealand, Denmark, the Gothic spearhead from Brest-Litovsk, today in Belarus, the 9th-century Snoldelev Stone from Ramsø, Denmark, and numerous Migration Period bracteates drawn left-facing or right-facing.


title: Swastika

text: The pagan Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contained numerous items bearing the swastika, now housed in the collection of the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The swastika is clearly marked on a hilt and sword belt found at Bifrons in Kent, in a grave of about the 6th century.


title: Swastika

text: Hilda Ellis Davidson theorised that the swastika symbol was associated with Thor, possibly representing his Mjolnirsymbolic of thunderand possibly being connected to the Bronze Age sun cross. Davidson cites "many examples" of the swastika symbol from Anglo-Saxon graves of the pagan period, with particular prominence on cremation urns from the cemeteries of East Anglia. Some of the swastikas on the items, on display at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, are depicted with such care and art that, according to Davidson, it must have possessed special significance as a funerary symbol. The runic inscription on the 8th-century Sæbø sword has been taken as evidence of the swastika as a symbol of Thor in Norse paganism.


title: Swastika

text: The bronze frontispiece of a ritual pre-Christian () shield found in the River Thames near Battersea Bridge (hence "Battersea Shield") is embossed with 27 swastikas in bronze and red enamel. An Ogham stone found in Anglish, Co Kerry, Ireland (CIIC 141) was modified into an early Christian gravestone, and was decorated with a cross pattée and two swastikas. The Book of Kells () contains swastika-shaped ornamentation. At the Northern edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, there is a swastika-shaped pattern engraved in a stone known as the Swastika Stone. A number of swastikas have been found embossed in Galician metal pieces and carved in stones, mostly from the Castro culture period, although there also are contemporary examples (imitating old patterns for decorative purposes).


title: Swastika

text: The swastika is an ancient Baltic thunder cross symbol ("pērkona krusts;" also fire cross, "ugunskrusts"), used to decorate objects, traditional clothing and in archaeological excavations.


title: Swastika

text: According to painter Stanisław Jakubowski, the "little sun" (Polish: "słoneczko") is an Early Slavic pagan symbol of the Sun; he claimed it was engraved on wooden monuments built near the final resting places of fallen Slavs to represent eternal life. The symbol was first seen in his collection of Early Slavic symbols and architectural features, which he named "Prasłowiańskie motywy architektoniczne" (Polish: "Early Slavic Architectural Motifs"). His work was published in 1923.


title: Swastika

text: The Boreyko coat of arms with red swastika was used by several noble families in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


title: Swastika

text: The Russians, according to Boris Kuftin, unlike of some other Slavic peoples, the swastika was often used as a decorative element and was the basis of the ornament on traditional weaving products. Many samples are described on the instance of a women's folk costume at the Meshchera Lowlands.


title: Swastika

text: In modern Russia, the name "kolovrat" (, literally "spinning wheel"), is popularly associated with the swastika, but there are no ethnographic sources confirming this. According to some authors, Russian names popularly associated with the swastika include "veterok" ("breeze"), "ognevtsi" ("little flames"), "geese", "hares" (a towel with a swastika was called a towel with "hares"), or "little horses". At the same time, similar word ""koleso"" ("wheel") for the name of rosette-shaped amulets, such as a hexafoil-"thunder wheel" (e.g. ), are presents in authentic folklore, in particular, of the Russian North.


title: Swastika

text: An object very much like a hammer or a double axe is depicted among the magical symbols on the drums of Sami "noaidi", used in their religious ceremonies before Christianity was established. The name of the Sami thunder god was Horagalles, thought to derive from "Old Man Thor" ("Þórr karl"). Sometimes on the drums, a male figure with a hammer-like object in either hand is shown, and sometimes it is more like a cross with crooked ends, or a swastika.


title: Swastika

text: Ancient Greek architectural, clothing and coin designs are replete with single or interlinking swastika motifs. There are also gold plate fibulae from the 8th century BCE decorated with an engraved swastika. Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially "gammadion", or rather the tetra-gammadion. The name "gammadion" comes from its being seen as being made up of four Greek gamma (Γ) letters. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with the interlinking symbol.


title: Swastika

text: In Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in Romanesque and Gothic art in the West, isolated swastikas are relatively rare, and the swastika is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tessellation. The swastika often represented perpetual motion, reflecting the design of a rotating windmill or watermill. A meander of connected swastikas makes up the large band that surrounds the Augustan Ara Pacis.


title: Swastika

text: A design of interlocking swastikas is one of several tessellations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France. A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif, and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element. A swastika border is one form of meander, and the individual swastikas in such a border are sometimes called "Greek keys". There have also been swastikas found on the floors of Pompeii.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika was widespread among the Illyrians, symbolising the Sun. The Sun cult was the main Illyrian cult; the Sun was represented by a swastika in clockwise motion, and it stood for the movement of the Sun.


title: Swastika

text: In Christianity, the swastika is used as a hooked version of the Christian Cross, the symbol of Christ's victory over death. Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kyiv, Ukraine dating from the 12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan.


title: Swastika

text: A ceiling painted in 1910 in the church of St Laurent in Grenoble has many swastikas. It can be visited today because the church became the archaeological museum of the city. A proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens, which was built on top of a pagan site at Amiens, France in the 13th century, is considered unlikely. The stole worn by a priest in the 1445 painting of the Seven Sacraments by Rogier van der Weyden presents the swastika form simply as one way of depicting the cross.


title: Swastika

text: Swastikas also appear in art and architecture during the Renaissance and Baroque era. The fresco "The School of Athens" shows an ornament made out of swastikas, and the symbol can also be found on the facade of the "Santa Maria della Salute", a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of Venice.


title: Swastika

text: In the Polish First Republic the symbol of the swastika was also popular with the nobility. According to chronicles, the Rus' prince Oleg, who in the 9th century attacked Constantinople, nailed his shield (which had a large red swastika painted on it) to the city's gates. Several noble houses, e.g. Boreyko, Borzym, and Radziechowski from Ruthenia, also had swastikas as their coat of arms. The family reached its greatness in the 14th and 15th centuries and its crest can be seen in many heraldry books produced at that time.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika was also a heraldic symbol, for example on the Boreyko coat of arms, used by noblemen in Poland and Ukraine. In the 19th century the swastika was one of the Russian Empire's symbols, and was used on coinage as a backdrop to the .


title: Swastika

text: Swastikas can be seen in various African cultures. In Ethiopia the Swastika is carved in the window of the famous 12th-century Biete Maryam, one of the Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela. In Ghana, the swastika is among the adinkra symbols of the Akan peoples. Called "nkontim", swastikas could be found on Ashanti gold weights and clothing.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika is a Navajo symbol for good luck, also translated to "whirling log". Though it was also used by some Native American groups, many object to its use today. The symbol was used on state road signs in Arizona.


title: Swastika

text: In the Western world, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late 19th century of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans, whose proto-language was not coincidentally termed "Proto-Indo-Germanic" by German language historians. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorised that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors", linking it to ancient Teutons, Greeks of the time of Homer and Indians of the Vedic era. By the early 20th century, it was used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and success.


title: Swastika

text: Schliemann's work soon became intertwined with the political "völkisch" movements, which used the swastika as a symbol for the "Aryan race"a concept that theorists such as Alfred Rosenberg equated with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, the swastika has been associated with Nazism, fascism, racism in its white supremacy form, the Axis powers in World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the West. The swastika remains a core symbol of neo-Nazi groups.


title: Swastika

text: The Benedictine choir school at Lambach Abbey, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended for several months as a boy, had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard by 1868. Their origin was the personal coat of arms of Abbot Theoderich Hagn of the monastery in Lambach, which bore a golden swastika with slanted points on a blue field.


title: Swastika

text: The British author and poet Rudyard Kipling used the symbol on the cover art of a number of his works, including "The Five Nations", 1903, which has it twinned with an elephant. Once Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power, Kipling ordered that the swastika should no longer adorn his books. In 1927, a red swastika defaced by a Union Jack was proposed as a flag for the Union of South Africa.


title: Swastika

text: The Danish brewery company Carlsberg Group used the swastika as a logo from the 19th century until the middle of the 1930s when it was discontinued because of association with the Nazi Party in neighbouring Germany. In Copenhagen at the entrance gate, and tower, of the company's headquarters, built in 1901, swastikas can still be seen. The tower is supported by four stone elephants, each with a swastika on each side. The tower they support is topped with a spire, in the middle of which is a swastika.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika, or the Thor's hammer as the logo was called, was used as the logo for H/f. Eimskipafjelag Íslands from its founding in 1914 until the Second World War when it was discontinued and changed to read only the letters Eimskip.


title: Swastika

text: The Swastika Laundry was a laundry founded in 1912, located on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, a district of Dublin, Ireland. In the 1950s, Heinrich Böll came across a van belonging to the company while he was staying in Ireland, leading to some awkward moments before he realised the company was older than Nazism and totally unrelated to it. The chimney of the boiler-house of the laundry still stands, but the laundry has been redeveloped.


title: Swastika

text: In Finland, the swastika ( meaning "crooked-head", and later , meaning "hook-cross") was often used in traditional folk-art products, as a decoration or magical symbol on textiles and wood. The swastika was also used by the Finnish Air Force until 1945, and is still used on air force flags.


title: Swastika

text: The , an elaboration on the swastika, is used by scouts in some instances, and by a student organisation. The Finnish village of Tursa uses the as a kind of a certificate of authenticity on products made there, and is the origin of this name of the symbol (meaning "heart of Tursa"), which is also known as the ("walrus-heart"). Traditional textiles are still made in Finland with swastikas as parts of traditional ornaments.


title: Swastika

text: The Finnish Air Force used the swastika as an emblem, introduced in 1918, until January 2017. The type of swastika adopted by the air-force was the symbol of luck for the Swedish count Eric von Rosen, who donated one of its earliest aircraft; he later became a prominent figure in the Swedish Nazi movement.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika was also used by the women's paramilitary organisation Lotta Svärd, which was banned in 1944 in accordance with the Moscow Armistice between Finland and the allied Soviet Union and Britain.


title: Swastika

text: The President of Finland is the grand master of the Order of the White Rose. According to the protocol, the president shall wear the Grand Cross of the White Rose with collar on formal occasions. The original design of the collar, decorated with nine swastikas, dates from 1918 and was designed by the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The Grand Cross with the swastika collar has been awarded 41 times to foreign heads of state. To avoid misunderstandings, the swastika decorations were replaced by fir crosses at the decision of president Urho Kekkonen in 1963 after it became known that the President of France Charles De Gaulle was uncomfortable with the swastika collar.


title: Swastika

text: Also a design by Gallen-Kallela from 1918, the Cross of Liberty has a swastika pattern in its arms. The Cross of Liberty is depicted in the upper left corner of the standard of the President of Finland.


title: Swastika

text: In December 2007, a silver replica of the World War II-period Finnish air defence's relief ring decorated with a swastika became available as a part of a charity campaign.


title: Swastika

text: The original war-time idea was that the public swap their precious metal rings for the state air defence's relief ring, made of iron.


title: Swastika

text: In 2017, the old logo of Finnish Air Force Command with swastika was replaced by a new logo showing golden eagle and a circle of wings. However, the logo of Finland's air force academy still keeps the swastika symbol.


title: Swastika

text: Latvia adopted the swastika, for its Air Force in 1918/1919 and continued its use until the Soviet occupation in 1940. The cross itself was maroon on a white background, mirroring the colors of the Latvian flag. Earlier versions pointed counter-clockwise, while later versions pointed clock-wise and eliminated the white background. Various other Latvian Army units and the Latvian War College (the predecessor of the National Defence Academy) also had adopted the symbol in their battle flags and insignia during the Latvian War of Independence. A stylised fire cross is the base of the Order of Lāčplēsis, the highest military decoration of Latvia for participants of the War of Independence. The Pērkonkrusts, an ultra-nationalist political organisation active in the 1930s, also used the fire cross as one of its symbols.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika symbol (Lithuanian: "sūkurėlis") is a traditional Baltic ornament, found on relics dating from at least the 13th century. The swastika for Lithuanians represent the history and memory of their Lithuanians ancestors as well as the Baltic people at large. There are monuments in Lithuania such as the Freedom Monument in Rokiškis where the swastika can be found.


title: Swastika

text: The Swedish company ASEA, now a part of ABB, in the late 1800s introduced a company logo featuring a swastika. The logo was replaced in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. During the early 1900s, the swastika was used as a symbol of electric power, perhaps because it resembled a waterwheel or turbine. On maps of the period, the sites of hydroelectric power stations were marked with swastikas.


title: Swastika

text: Starting in 1917, Mikal Sylten's staunchly anti-semitic periodical, "Nationalt Tidsskrift" took up the swastika as a symbol, three years before Adolf Hitler chose to do so.


title: Swastika

text: The headquarters of the Oslo Municipal Power Station was designed by architects "Bjercke and Eliassen" in 1928–1931. Swastikas adorn its wrought iron gates. The architects knew the swastika as a symbol of "electricity" and were probably not yet aware that it had been usurped by the German Nazi party and would soon become the foremost symbol of the German Reich. The fact that these gates survived the cleanup after the German occupation of Norway during WW II is a testimony to the innocence and good faith of the power plant and its architects. The architects Bjercke and Eliassen knew the swastika as a symbol of power plants on maps in Scandinavia, and as the logo of Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget, ASEA.


title: Swastika

text: The left-handed swastika was a favorite sign of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She wore a talisman in the form of a swastika, put it everywhere for happiness, including on her suicide letters from Tobolsk, later drew with a pencil on the wall and in the window opening of the room in the Ipatiev House, which served as the place of the last imprisonment of the royal family and on the wallpaper above the bed.


title: Swastika

text: The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally rotated swastikas in their centres. The banknote design was initially intended for the Mongolian national bank but was re-purposed for Russian ruble after the February revolution. Swastikas were depicted and on some Soviet credit cards (sovznaks) printed with clichés that were in circulation in 1918–1922.


title: Swastika

text: During the Russian Civil War, the swastika was present in the symbolism of the uniform of some units of the White Army Asiatic Cavalry Division of Baron Ungern in Siberia and Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, which is explained by the significant number of Buddhists within it. The Red Army's ethnic Kalmyk units wore distinct armbands featuring the swastika with "РСФСР" (Roman: "RSFSR") inscriptions on them.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika motif is found in some traditional Native American art and iconography. Historically, the design has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, and on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It is also widely used by a number of southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo, and plains nations such as the Dakota. Among various tribes, the swastika carries different meanings. To the Hopi it represents the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it is one symbol for the whirling log ("tsin náálwołí"), a sacred image representing a legend that is used in healing rituals. A brightly coloured First Nations saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.


title: Swastika

text: The Passamaquoddy Nation, whose homeland within Dawnland extends across the Canada–United States border between Maine and New Brunswick, used an elongated swastika on their war canoes in the American colonial period as well as later. A carving of a canoe with a Passamaquody swastika was found in a ruin in the Argonne Forest in France, having been carved there by Moses Neptune, an American soldier of Passamaquody heritage, who was one of the last American soldiers to die in battle in World War I.


title: Swastika

text: Before the 1930s, the symbol for the 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army was a red diamond with a yellow swastika, a tribute to the large Native American population in the southwestern United States. It was later replaced with a thunderbird symbol.


title: Swastika

text: A swastika shape is a symbol in the culture of the Guna people of Guna Yala, Panama. In Guna tradition it symbolises the octopus that created the world, its tentacles pointing to the four cardinal points.


title: Swastika

text: In February 1925, the Guna revolted vigorously against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and in 1930 they assumed autonomy. The flag they adopted at that time is based on the swastika shape, and remains the official flag of Guna Yala. A number of variations on the flag have been used over the years: red top and bottom bands instead of orange were previously used, and in 1942 a ring (representing the traditional Guna nose-ring) was added to the center of the flag to distance it from the symbol of the Nazi party.


title: Swastika

text: The town of Swastika, Ontario, Canada, and the hamlet of Swastika, New York were named after the symbol.


title: Swastika

text: From 1909 to 1916, the K-R-I-T automobile, manufactured in Detroit, Michigan, used a right-facing swastika as their trademark.


title: Swastika

text: The swastika was widely used in Europe at the start of the 20th century. It symbolised many things to the Europeans, with the most common symbolism being of good luck and auspiciousness. In the wake of widespread popular usage, in post-World War I Germany, the newly established Nazi Party formally adopted the swastika in 1920. The Nazi Party emblem was a black swastika rotated 45 degrees on a white circle on a red background. This insignia was used on the party's flag, badge, and armband. Hitler also designed his personal standard using a black swastika sitting flat on one arm, not rotated.


title: Swastika

text: In his 1925 work , Adolf Hitler writes: "I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black hooked cross in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the hooked cross."


title: Swastika

text: When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party, he sought to incorporate both the swastika and "those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation". (Red, white, and black were the colours of the flag of the old German Empire.) He also stated: "As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the hooked cross, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work."


title: Swastika

text: The swastika was also understood as "the symbol of the creating, effecting life" () and as "race emblem of Germanism" ().


title: Swastika

text: The concept of racial hygiene was an ideology central to Nazism, though it is scientific racism. High-ranking Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg noted that the Indo-Aryan peoples were both a model to be imitated and a warning of the dangers of the spiritual and racial "confusion" that, he believed, arose from the proximity of races. The Nazis co-opted the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan master race.


title: Swastika

text: On 14 March 1933, shortly after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the NSDAP flag was hoisted alongside Germany's national colors. As part of the Nuremberg Laws, the NSDAP flagwith the swastika slightly offset from centerwas adopted as the sole national flag of Germany on 15 September 1935.


title: Swastika

text: During World War II it was common to use small swastikas to mark air-to-air victories on the sides of Allied aircraft, and at least one British fighter pilot inscribed a swastika in his logbook for each German plane he shot down.


title: Swastika

text: Because of its use by Nazi Germany, the swastika since the 1930s has been largely associated with Nazism. In the aftermath of World War II it has been considered a symbol of hate in the West, and of white supremacy in many Western countries.


title: Swastika

text: As a result, all use of it, or its use as a Nazi or hate symbol, is prohibited in some countries, including Germany. In some countries, such as the United States (in the 2003 case "Virginia v. Black"), the highest courts have ruled that the local governments can prohibit the use of swastika along with other symbols such as cross burning, if the intent of the use is to intimidate others.


title: Swastika

text: The German and Austrian postwar criminal code makes the public showing of the swastika, the sig rune, the Celtic cross (specifically the variations used by white power activists), the , the odal rune and the skull illegal, except for scholarly reasons. It is also censored from the reprints of 1930s railway timetables published by the . The swastikas on Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples are exempt, as religious symbols cannot be banned in Germany.


title: Swastika

text: A controversy was stirred by the decision of several police departments to begin inquiries against anti-fascists. In late 2005 police raided the offices of the punk rock label and mail order store "Nix Gut Records" and confiscated merchandise depicting crossed-out swastikas and fists smashing swastikas. In 2006 the police department started an inquiry against anti-fascist youths using a placard depicting a person dumping a swastika into a trashcan. The placard was displayed in opposition to the campaign of right-wing nationalist parties for local elections.


title: Swastika

text: On Friday, 17 March 2006, a member of the , Claudia Roth reported herself to the German police for displaying a crossed-out swastika in multiple demonstrations against Neo-Nazis, and subsequently got the Bundestag to suspend her immunity from prosecution. She intended to show the absurdity of charging anti-fascists with using fascist symbols: "We don't need prosecution of non-violent young people engaging against right-wing extremism." On 15 March 2007, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany () held that the crossed-out symbols were "clearly directed against a revival of national-socialist endeavors", thereby settling the dispute for the future.


title: Swastika

text: On 9 August 2018, Germany lifted the ban on the usage of swastikas and other Nazi symbols in video games. "Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating," USK managing director Elisabeth Secker told CTV. "This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and videogames."


title: Swastika

text: The European Union's Executive Commission proposed a European Union-wide anti-racism law in 2001, but European Union states failed to agree on the balance between prohibiting racism and freedom of expression. An attempt to ban the swastika across the EU in early 2005 failed after objections from the British Government and others. In early 2007, while Germany held the European Union presidency, Berlin proposed that the European Union should follow German Criminal Law and criminalise the denial of the Holocaust and the display of Nazi symbols including the swastika, which is based on the Ban on the Symbols of Unconstitutional Organisations Act. This led to an opposition campaign by Hindu groups across Europe against a ban on the swastika. They pointed out that the swastika has been around for 5,000 years as a symbol of peace. The proposal to ban the swastika was dropped by Berlin from the proposed European Union wide anti-racism laws on 29 January 2007.


title: Swastika

text: The public display of Nazi-era German flags (or any other flags) is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech. The Nazi "Reichskriegsflagge" has also been seen on display at white supremacist events within United States borders, side by side with the Confederate battle flag.


title: Swastika

text: In 2010 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) downgraded the swastika from its status as a Jewish hate symbol, saying "We know that the swastika has, for some, lost its meaning as the primary symbol of Nazism and instead become a more generalised symbol of hate." The ADL notes on their website that the symbol is often used as "shock graffiti" by juveniles, rather than by individuals who hold white supremacist beliefs, but it is still a predominant symbol amongst American white supremacists (particularly as a tattoo design) and used with anti-Semitic intention.


title: Swastika

text: In 2022, Victoria was the first Australian state to ban the display of the Nazi's swastika. People who intentionally break this law will face a one-year jail sentence or A$22,000 (£12,300; $15,000) fine.


title: Swastika

text: In 2010, Microsoft officially spoke out against use of the swastika by players of the first-person shooter "". In "Black Ops", players are allowed to customise their name tags to represent, essentially, whatever they want. The swastika can be created and used, but Stephen Toulouse, director of Xbox Live policy and enforcement, said players with the symbol on their name tag will be banned (if someone reports it as inappropriate) from Xbox Live.


title: Swastika

text: In the "Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular" in Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, the swastikas on German trucks, aircraft and actor uniforms in the reenactment of a scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" were removed in 2004. The swastika has been replaced by a stylised Greek cross.