title: Orange (colour)

text: Due to William III, orange became an important political colour in Britain and Europe. William was a Protestant, and as such, he defended the Protestant minority of Ireland against the majority Roman Catholic population. As a result, the Protestants of Ireland were known as Orangemen. Orange eventually became one of the colours of the Irish flag, symbolising the Protestant heritage. His rebel flag became the forerunner of The Netherlands' modern flag.


title: Orange (colour)

text: When the Dutch settlers living in the Cape Colony (now part of South Africa) migrated into the Southern African heartlands in the 19th century, they founded what they called the Orange Free State. In the United States, the flag of the City of New York has an orange stripe, to remember the Dutch colonists who founded the city. William of Orange is also remembered as the founder of the College of William & Mary, and Nassau County in New York is named after the House of Orange-Nassau.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the 18th century, orange was sometimes used to depict the robes of Pomona, the goddess of fruitful abundance; her name came from the , the Latin word for fruit. Oranges themselves became more common in northern Europe, thanks to the 17th-century invention of the heated greenhouse, a building type which became known as an orangerie. The French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard depicted an allegorical figure of "inspiration" dressed in orange.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In 1797 a French scientist Louis Vauquelin discovered the mineral crocoite, or lead chromate, which led in 1809 to the invention of the synthetic pigment chrome orange. Other synthetic pigments, cobalt red, cobalt yellow, and cobalt orange, the last made from cadmium sulfide plus cadmium selenide, soon followed. These new pigments, plus the invention of the metal paint tube in 1841, made it possible for artists to paint outdoors and to capture the colours of natural light.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In Britain orange became highly popular with the Pre-Raphaelites and with history painters. The flowing red-orange hair of Elizabeth Siddal, a prolific model and the wife of painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, became a symbol of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Lord Leighton, the president of the Royal Academy, produced "Flaming June", a painting of a sleeping young woman in a bright orange dress, which won wide acclaim. Albert Joseph Moore painted festive scenes of Romans wearing orange cloaks brighter than any the Romans ever likely wore. In the United States, Winslow Homer brightened his palette with vivid oranges.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In France, painters took orange in an entirely different direction. In 1872 Claude Monet painted "Impression, Sunrise", a tiny orange sun and some orange light reflected on the clouds and water in the centre of a hazy blue landscape. This painting gave its name to the impressionist movement.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Orange became an important colour for all the impressionist painters. They all had studied the recent books on colour theory, and they know that orange placed next to azure blue made both colours much brighter. Auguste Renoir painted boats with stripes of chrome orange paint straight from the tube. Paul Cézanne did not use orange pigment, but produced his own oranges with touches of yellow, red and ochre against a blue background. Toulouse-Lautrec often used oranges in the skirts of dancers and gowns of Parisiennes in the cafes and clubs he portrayed. For him, it was the colour of festivity and amusement.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The post-impressionists went even further with orange. Paul Gauguin used oranges as backgrounds, for clothing and skin colour, to fill his pictures with light and exoticism. But no other painter used orange so often and dramatically as Vincent van Gogh. who had shared a house with Gauguin in Arles for a time. For Van Gogh orange and yellow were the pure sunlight of Provence. He produced his own oranges with mixtures of yellow, ochre and red, and placed them next to slashes of sienna red and bottle green, and below a sky of turbulent blue and violet. He put an orange moon and stars in a cobalt blue sky. He wrote to his brother Theo of "searching for oppositions of blue with orange, of red with green, of yellow with violet, searching for broken colours and neutral colours to harmonize the brutality of extremes, trying to make the colours intense, and not a harmony of greys."


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the 20th and 21st centuries, the colour orange had highly varied associations, both positive and negative.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The high visibility of orange made it a popular colour for certain kinds of clothing and equipment. During the Second World War, US Navy pilots in the Pacific began to wear orange inflatable life jackets, which could be spotted by search and rescue planes. After the war, these jackets became common on both civilian and naval vessels of all sizes, and on aircraft flown over water. Orange is also widely worn (to avoid being hit) by workers on highways and by cyclists.


title: Orange (colour)

text: A herbicide called Agent Orange was widely sprayed from aircraft by the Royal Air Force during the Malayan Emergency and the US Air Force during the Vietnam War to remove the forest and jungle cover beneath which enemy combatants were believed to be hiding, and to expose their supply routes. The chemical was not actually orange, but took its name from the colour of the steel drums in which it was stored. Agent Orange was toxic, and was later linked to birth defects and other health problems.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Orange also had and continues to have a political dimension. Orange serves as the colour of Christian democratic political ideology, which is based on Catholic social teaching and Neo-Calvinist theology; Christian democratic political parties came to prominence in Europe and the Americas after World War II.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In Ukraine in November–December 2004, it became the colour of the Orange Revolution, a popular movement which carried activist and reformer Viktor Yushchenko into the presidency. In parts of the world, especially Northern Ireland, the colour is associated with the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal organisation and relatedly, Orangemen, marches and other social and political activities, with the colour orange being associated with Protestantism similar to the Netherlands.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In optics, orange is the colour seen by the eye when looking at light with a wavelength between approximately 585–620nm. It has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the traditional colour wheel used by painters, orange is the range of colours between red and yellow, and painters can obtain orange simply by mixing red and yellow in various proportions; however these colours are never as vivid as a pure orange pigment. In the RGB colour model (the system used to display colours on a television or computer screen), orange is generated by combining high intensity red light with a lower intensity green light, with the blue light turned off entirely. Orange is a tertiary colour which is numerically halfway between gamma-compressed red and yellow, as can be seen in the .


title: Orange (colour)

text: Regarding painting, blue is the complementary colour to orange. As many painters of the 19th century discovered, blue and orange reinforce each other. The painter Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that in his paintings, he was trying to reveal "the oppositions of blue with orange, of red with green, of yellow with violet... trying to make the colours intense and not a harmony of grey". In another letter he wrote simply, "there is no orange without blue." Van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and many other impressionist and post-impressionist painters frequently placed orange against azure or cobalt blue, to make both colours appear brighter.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The actual complement of orange is azure – a colour that is one quarter of the way between blue and green on the colour spectrum. The actual complementary colour of true blue is yellow. Orange pigments are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, and absorb mostly greenish-blue light.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The orange colour of carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, oranges, and many other fruits and vegetables comes from carotenes, a type of photosynthetic pigment. These pigments convert the light energy that the plants absorb from the sun into chemical energy for the plants' growth. The carotenes themselves take their name from the carrot. Autumn leaves also get their orange colour from carotenes. When the weather turns cold and production of green chlorophyll stops, the orange colour remains.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Before the 18th century, carrots from Asia were usually purple, while those in Europe were either white or red. Dutch farmers bred a variety that was orange; according to some sources, as a tribute to the stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, William of Orange. The long orange Dutch carrot, first described in 1721, is the ancestor of the orange horn carrot, one of the most common types found in supermarkets today. It takes its name from the town of Hoorn, in the Netherlands.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Orange is traditionally associated with the autumn season, with the harvest and autumn leaves. The flowers, like orange fruits and vegetables and autumn leaves, get their colour from the photosynthetic pigments called carotenes.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Orange is a very common colour of fruits, vegetables, spices, and other foods in many different cultures. As a result, orange is the colour most often associated in western culture with taste and aroma. Orange foods include peaches, apricots, mangoes, carrots, shrimp, salmon roe, and many other foods. Orange colour is provided by spices such as paprika, saffron and curry powder. In the United States, with Halloween on 31 October, and in North America with Thanksgiving in October (Canada) and November (US) orange is associated with the harvest colour, and also is the colour of the carved pumpkins, or jack-o-lanterns, used to celebrate the holiday.


title: Orange (colour)

text: People associate certain colours with certain flavours, and the colour of food can influence the perceived flavour in anything from candy to wine. Since orange is popularly associated with good flavour, many companies add orange food colouring to improve the appearance of their packaged foods. Orange pigments and dyes, synthetic or natural, are added to many orange sodas and juices, cheeses (particularly cheddar cheese, Gloucester cheese, and American cheese); snack foods, butter and margarine; breakfast cereals, ice cream, yoghurt, jam and candy. It is also often added to children's medicine, and to chicken feed to make the egg yolks more orange.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The United States Government and the European Union certify a small number of synthetic chemical colourings to be used in food. These are usually aromatic hydrocarbons, or azo dyes, made from petroleum. The most common ones are:


title: Orange (colour)

text: Because many consumers are worried about possible health consequences of synthetic dyes, some companies are beginning to use natural food colours. Since these food colours are natural, they do not require any certification from the Food and Drug Administration. The most popular natural food colours are:


title: Orange (colour)

text: In Confucianism, the religion and philosophy of ancient China, orange was the colour of transformation. In China and India, the colour took its name not from the orange fruit, but from saffron, the finest and most expensive dye in Asia. According to Confucianism, existence was governed by the interaction of the male active principle, the "yang", and the female passive principle, the "yin". Yellow was the colour of perfection and nobility; red was the colour of happiness and power. Yellow and red were compared to light and fire, spirituality and sensuality, seemingly opposite but really complementary. Out of the interaction between the two came orange, the colour of transformation.


title: Orange (colour)

text: A wide variety of colours, ranging from a slightly orange yellow to a deep orange red, all simply called saffron, are closely associated with Hinduism and Buddhism, and are commonly worn by monks and holy men across Asia.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In Hinduism, the divinity Krishna is commonly portrayed dressed in yellow or yellow orange. Yellow and saffron are also the colours worn by sadhu, or wandering holy men in India.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In Buddhism orange (or more precisely saffron) was the colour of illumination, the highest state of perfection. The saffron colours of robes to be worn by monks were defined by the Buddhist texts. The robe and its colour is a sign of renunciation of the outside world and commitment to the order. The candidate monk, with his master, first appears before the monks of the monastery in his own clothes, with his new robe under his arm and asks to enter the order. He then takes his vows, puts on the robes, and with his begging bowl, goes out to the world. Thereafter, he spends his mornings begging and his afternoons in contemplation and study, either in a forest, garden, or in the monastery.


title: Orange (colour)

text: According to Buddhist scriptures and commentaries, the robe dye is allowed to be obtained from six kinds of substances: roots and tubers, plants, bark, leaves, flowers and fruits. The robes should also be boiled in water a long time to get the correctly sober colour. Saffron and ochre, usually made with dye from the curcuma longa plant or the heartwood of the jackfruit tree, are the most common colours. The so-called forest monks usually wear ochre robes and city monks saffron, though this is not an official rule.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The colour of robes also varies somewhat among the different "vehicles", or schools of Buddhism, and by country, depending on their doctrines and the dyes available. The monks of the strict Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, practised in Tibet, wear the most colourful robes of saffron and red. The monks of Mahayana Buddhism, practised mainly in Japan, China and Korea, wear lighter yellow or saffron, often with white or black. Monks of Theravada Buddhism, practised in Southeast Asia, usually wear ochre or saffron colour. Monks of the forest tradition in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia wear robes of a brownish ochre, dyed from the wood of the jackfruit tree.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In Europe and America orange and yellow are the colours most associated with amusement, frivolity and entertainment. In this regard, orange is the exact opposite of its complementary colour, blue, the colour of calm and reflection. Mythological paintings traditionally showed Bacchus (known in Greek mythology as Dionysus), the god of wine, ritual madness and ecstasy, dressed in orange. Clowns have long worn orange wigs. Toulouse-Lautrec used a palette of yellow, black and orange in his posters of Paris cafes and theatres, and Henri Matisse used an orange, yellow and red palette in his painting, the "Joy of Living".


title: Orange (colour)

text: Orange is the colour most easily seen in dim light or against the water, making it, particularly the shade known as safety orange, the colour of choice for life rafts, life jackets or buoys. Highway temporary signs about construction or detours in the United States are orange, because of its visibility and its association with danger.


title: Orange (colour)

text: It is worn by people wanting to be seen, including highway workers and lifeguards. Prisoners are also sometimes dressed in orange clothing to make them easier to see during an escape. Lifeguards on the beaches of Los Angeles County, both real and in television series, wear orange swimsuits to make them stand out. Orange astronaut suits have the highest visibility in space, or against blue sea. An aircraft's two types of "black box", or flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, are actually bright orange, so they can be found more easily. In some cars, connectors related to safety systems, such as the airbag, may be coloured orange.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The Golden Gate Bridge at the entrance of San Francisco Bay is painted international orange to make it more visible in the fog. Next to red, it is the colour most popular for extroverts, and as a symbol of activity.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Orange is sometimes used, like red and yellow, as a colour warning of possible danger or calling for caution. A skull against an orange background means a toxic substance or poison.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the colour system devised by the US Department of Homeland Security to measure the threat of terrorist attack, an orange level is second only to a red level. The US Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices specifies orange for use in temporary and construction signage.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Because of its symbolic meaning as the orange colour of activity, orange is often used as the colour of political and social movements.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the United States Army, orange has traditionally been associated with the dragoons, the mounted infantry units which eventually became the US Cavalry. The 1st Cavalry Regiment was founded in 1833 as the United States Dragoons. The modern coat of arms of the 1st Cavalry features the colour orange and orange-yellow shade called dragoon yellow, the colours of the early US dragoon regiments.


title: Orange (colour)

text: The US Signal Corps, founded at the beginning of the American Civil War, adopted orange and white as its official colours in 1872. Orange was adopted because it was the colour of a signal fire, historically used at night while smoke was used during the day, to communicate with distant army units.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the Royal Netherlands Air Force, aircraft may have a roundel with an orange dot in the middle, surrounded by three circular sectors in red, white, and blue.


title: Orange (colour)

text: In the Indonesian Air Force, the Air force infantry and special forces corps known as Paskhas uses Orange as their beret colour.


title: Orange (colour)

text: Several corporate brands use orange, such as Blogger, Fanta, FedEx, GlaxoSmithKline, Gulf, Hankook, Harley-Davidson, ING, Jägermeister, Nickelodeon, Orange, the Women's National Basketball Association, The Home Depot, PornHub and TNT.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 kilometres from Mannar Island, Sri Lanka. It is in the Gulf of Mannar, at the tip of the Indian peninsula. Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, is connected to mainland India by the Pamban Bridge. Rameswaram is the terminus of the railway line from Chennai and Madurai. Together with Varanasi, it is considered to be one of the holiest places in India to Hindus and is part of the Char Dham pilgrimage.


title: Rameswaram

text: According to Hindu ancient texts, Lord Ram had built a bridge from here across the sea to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from her abductor Ravana. The Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, is at the centre of the town and is closely associated with Rama and Shiva. The temple and the town are considered a holy pilgrimage site for Shaivas and Vaishnavas.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram is the second closest point from which to reach Sri Lanka from India and geological evidence suggests that the Rama Sethu was a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka. The town has been in the news over the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, Kachchatheevu, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and capturing local fishermen for alleged cross-border activities by Sri Lankan Forces. Rameswaram is administered by a municipality established in 1994. The town covers an area of and had a population of 44,856 as of 2011. Tourism and fishery employ the majority of workforce in Rameswaram.The municipality is very poor to collect Rs 150 from all vehicles as entry fees.Roads are in bad condition without roadside lamps and even radium lines in the road.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram means "Lord of Rama" ("Rāma-īśvaram") in Sanskrit, an epithet of Shiva, the presiding deity of the Ramanathaswamy Temple. According to Hindu epic "Ramayana", Rama, the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, prayed to Shiva here to absolve any sins that he might have committed during his war against the demon-king Ravana in Sri Lanka. According to the "Puranas" (Hindu scriptures), upon the advice of sages, Rama along with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana, installed and worshipped the lingam (an iconic symbol of Shiva) here to expiate the sin of "Brahmahatya" incurred while killing of the Brahmin Ravana. To worship Shiva, Rama wanted to have a lingam and directed his trusted lieutenant Hanuman (avatar of Shiva himself) to bring it from Himalayas. Since it took longer to bring the lingam, Sita built a lingam made of sand from the nearby seashore, which is also believed to be the one in the sanctum of the temple. This account is well supported by the original "Ramayana" authored by Valmiki were it is written in yudha kanda. Sethu Karai is a place 22 km before the island of Rameswaram from where Rama is believed to have built a floating stone bridge, the Ramsetu bridge, that further continued to Dhanushkodi in Rameswaram till Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. According to another version, as quoted in "Adhyatma Ramayana", Rama installed the lingam before the construction of the bridge to Lanka.


title: Rameswaram

text: The history of Rameswaram is centred around the island being a transit point to reach Sri Lanka (Ceylon historically) and the presence of Ramanathaswamy Temple. "Tevaram", the 7th–8th century Tamil compositions on Shiva by the three prominent Nayanars ("Saivites") namely Appar, Sundarar and Thirugnanasambandar. The Chola king Rajendra Chola I (1012–1040 CE) had a control of the town for a short period. The Jaffna kingdom (1215–1624 CE) had close connections with the island and claimed the title "Setukavalan" meaning custodians of the Rameswaram. Hinduism was their state religion and they made generous contribution to the temple. "Setu" was used in their coins as well as in inscriptions as marker of the dynasty.


title: Rameswaram

text: According to Firishta, Malik Kafur, the head general of Alauddin Khalji, the ruler of Delhi Sultanate, reached Rameswaram during his political campaign in spite of stiff resistance from the Pandyan princes in the early 14th century. He erected a mosque by name Alia al-Din Khaldji in honour of victory of Islam. During the early 15th century, the present day Ramanathapuram, Kamuthi and Rameswaram were included in the Pandya dynasty. In 1520 CE, the town came under the rule of Vijayanagara Empire. The Sethupathis, the breakaway from Madurai Nayaks, ruled Ramanathapuram and contributed to the Ramanathaswamy temple. The most notable of them are the contributions of Muthu Kumara Ragunatha and Muthu Ramalinga Sethupathi, who transformed the temple to an architectural ensemble. The region then fell under the rule of different leaders Chanda Sahib (1740–1754 CE), Arcot Nawab and Muhammed Yusuf Khan (1725–1764 CE) in the middle of the 18th century. In 1795 CE, Rameswaram came under the direct control of the British East India Company and was annexed to the Madras Presidency. After 1947, the town became a part of Independent India.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram has an average elevation of . The island is spread across an area of and is in the shape of a conch. 74% of the area has sandy soil due to the presence of sea and it has many islands surrounding it, the Palk Strait in the north west and Gulf of Mannar in the south East. The Ramanathaswamy Temple occupies major area of Rameswaram. The beach of Rameswaram is featured with no waves at all – the sea waves rise to a maximum height of and the view looks like a very big river. Rameswaram has dry tropical climate with low humidity, with average monthly rainfall of , mostly from North-East monsoon from October to January. The highest ever temperature recorded at Pamban station was 37 °C and the lowest was 17 °C.Ramsetu Bridge is a chain of limestone shoals, between Rameswaram and Mannar Island, off the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Geological evidence suggests that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka. The bridge is long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (North-East) from the Palk Strait (South-West). It was reportedly passable on foot up to the 15th century until storms deepened the channel. The temple records record that Rama's Bridge was completely above sea level until it broke in a cyclone in 1480 CE. The bridge was first mentioned in the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic "Ramayana" of Valmiki. The name "Rama's Bridge" or "Rama Setu" (Sanskrit; "setu": bridge) refers to the bridge built by the Vanara (ape men) army of Rama in Hindu mythology, which he used to reach Lanka and rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. The "Ramayana" attributes the building of this bridge to Rama in verse 2-22-76, naming it as Setubandhanam. The sea separating India and Sri Lanka is called Sethusamudram meaning "Sea of the Bridge". Maps prepared by a Dutch cartographer in 1747 CE, available at the Tanjore Saraswathi Mahal Library show this area as "Ramancoil", a colloquial form of the Tamil "Raman Kovil" (or Rama's Temple). Many other maps in Schwartzberg's historical atlas and other sources such as travel texts by Marco Polo call this area by various names such as "Adam's Bridge", "Sethubandha" and "Sethubandha Rameswaram".


title: Rameswaram

text: According to 2011 census, Rameswaram had a population of 44,856 with a sex-ratio of 969 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. A total of 5,022 were under the age of six, constituting 2,544 males and 2,478 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 6.8% and .03% of the population respectively. The average literacy of the town was 73.36%, compared to the national average of 72.99%. The town had a total of 10579 households. There were a total of 16,645 workers, comprising 69 cultivators, 20 main agricultural labourers, 148 in house hold industries, 15,130 other workers, 1,278 marginal workers, 11 marginal cultivators, 26 marginal agricultural labourers, 44 marginal workers in household industries and 1,197 other marginal workers. The total number of households below poverty lane (BPL) in 2003 were 976, which is 10.45% of the total households in the town and these were raised to 3003 (29.12%) in 2007.


title: Rameswaram

text: As per the religious census of 2011, Rameswaram had 87.4% Hindus, 4.36% Muslims, 8.13% Christians, 0.03% Sikhs, 0.01% Buddhists, and 0.07% following other religions.


title: Rameswaram

text: According to the Madras Presidency Panchayat Act of 1885, Rameswaram was declared a panchyat union during British times. It became a township during 1958 and was declared a municipality in 2004. Rameswaram is a 3rd grade municipality having 21 wards, out of which 6 are general wards for women and one is reserved for Scheduled Caste women. The major sources of budgeted income for Rameswaram municipality comes from the Devolution Fund of and property tax of . The major expense heads are for salaries of , operating expenses of , and repair & maintenance expenditure of . The functions of the municipality are devolved into six departments: General, Engineering, Revenue, Public Health, Town planning and the Computer Wing. All these departments are under the control of a Municipal Commissioner who is the supreme executive head. The legislative powers are vested in a body of 21 members, one each from the 21 wards. The legislative body is headed by an elected Chairperson assisted by a Deputy Chairperson.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram comes under the Ramanathapuram assembly constituency and it elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years. The current MLA of the constituency is Dr. Manikandan from the AIADMK .


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram is a part of the Ramanathapuram (Lok Sabha constituency) – it has been realigned in 2008 to have the following assembly constituencies – Paramakudi (SC), Ramanathapuram, Mudukulathur, Aranthangi, Tiruchuli (newly created). The constituency was traditionally a stronghold of the Indian National Congress that won 6 times till the 1991 elections, after which it was won twice each by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The current Member of Parliament from the constituency is A. Anwhar Raajhaa from the AIADMK party.


title: Rameswaram

text: India's renowned scientist and former President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was born in Rameswaram.


title: Rameswaram

text: Being a pilgrimage town, the majority of the population is involved in tourism related industry consisting of trade and services. Service sector increased from 70% in 1971 to 98.78% in 2001, while the agricultural sector reduced from 23% in 1971 to 0.13% in 2001. Rameswaram is an industrially backward town – there has been no demarcation for industrial land due to the pilgrim sanctity and ecological fragile geography. Being an island town, the traditional occupation was fishing, but due to poor returns, the people in fishing community have gradually shifted to other professions. Banks such as State Bank of India, Indian Bank and RDCC Bank have their branches in Rameswaram.


title: Rameswaram

text: Pamban Bridge is a cantilever bridge on the Palk Strait that connects Rameswaram to mainland India. The railway bridge is and was opened to traffic in 1914. The railroad bridge is a double-leaf bascule bridge section that can be raised to let ships pass under it . The railway bridge historically carried metre-gauge trains on it, but Indian Railways upgraded the bridge to carry broad-gauge trains in a project that finished on 12 August 2007. Historically, the two leaves of the bridge were opened manually using levers by workers. About 10 ships – cargo carriers, coast guard ships, fishing vessels and oil tankers pass through the bridge every month. After completion of bridge, metre-gauge lines were laid from Mandapam up to Pamban Station, from where the railway lines bifurcated into two directions, one towards Rameswaram about up and another branch line of terminating at Dhanushkodi. The noted Boat Mail ran on this track between 1915 and 1964 from Chennai Egmore up to Dhanushkodi, from where the passengers were ferried to Talaimannar in Ceylon. The metre-gauge branch line from Pamban Junction to Dhanushkodi was abandoned after it was destroyed in a cyclone in 1964.


title: Rameswaram

text: There are daily express trains connecting major cities in Tamil Nadu like Chennai, Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore. There are express and passenger trains connecting to major destinations. The Ramanathapuram – Rameswaram National Highway is the main connecting link from Rameswaram to the mainland. Before the 1914 train service linked the mainland with Rameswaram, boats were the only mode of transport to Rameswaram island.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram is the important port among all the ports in the district, having a ferry service to Talaimannar of Sri Lanka, though not operational throughout the year. Limited foreign trade is conducted with Jaffna, Kaits, Talaimannar and Colombo.


title: Rameswaram

text: The Rameswaram TV Tower is the tallest tower in India. The tower is a 323m tall circular concrete tower with a square steel mast of 45m height, diameter of 24m at the bottom tapering to 6.5m at top. The tower has been designed for a wind velocity of 160 km/h. There are two lighthouses in Rameswaram, the Pamban lighthouse and Rameswaram lighthouse.


title: Rameswaram

text: Ramanathapuram district has one of the lowest literacy rates in the state of Tamil Nadu and Rameswaram, following the district statistics has a lower literacy rate. There are a couple of Government high schools, one each for boys and girls. There are seven other schools namely, Swami. Vivekananda vidyalaya Matriculation School( which provide excellent education in the island and secure district and state level ranks in board exams frequently), St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Mandapam Panchayat Union 9 – School, Micro Matriculation School, Sri Sankara Vidhyalaya, Holy Island Little Flower School and Kendriya Vidhyalaya School. Alagappa University Evening College is the only college present in the town and all the nearest colleges are located in Ramanathapuram and Paramakudi.


title: Rameswaram

text: Electricity supply to the town is regulated and distributed by the Ramanathapuram circle of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). Water supply is provided by the Rameswaram Municipality – the head works is located at Nambunayaki Amman Kovil, Meyyambuli, Semmamadam & Natarajapuram and distributed through four over head tanks having a total capacity of 1430,000 litres. About 6 metric tonnes of solid waste are collected from the town every day in the four zones covering the whole of the town. Rameswaram does not have a sewerage system for disposal of sullage and the disposal system consists of septic tanks and public conveniences. Roadside drains carry untreated sewage out of the town to let out raw into the sea or accumulates in low-lying area.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram comes under the Karaikudi Telecom circle of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India's state-owned telecom and internet services provider. Apart from telecom, BSNL also provides broadband internet service along with other major internet service provider like Reliance.


title: Rameswaram

text: Being a Hindu pilgrimage center, Hindus form the visitor base of the city. There is a minority of Christians belonging to the fishing community. C. S. I. Mission Church and St Antony's Church at Oriyur on the eastern shore of the island are prominent churches in the island.


title: Rameswaram

text: The Ramanathaswamy Temple is the most notable historic landmark of the town. Located in the centre of town, Ramanathaswamy Temple is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva. The temple is one of the 12 "Jyotirlinga" shrines, where Shiva is worshipped in the form of a "Jyotirlinga" meaning "pillar of light". It is also one of the 275 "Paadal Petra Sthalam" temples and is glorified in hymns by the three of the most revered Nayanar saints (7th century Saivite saints), Appar, Sundarar and Tirugnana Sambandar. The temple in its current structure was built during the 12th century by Pandya Dynasty. The temple has the longest corridor among all Hindu temples in India. The breadth of these columned corridors varies from 17 to 21 feet with a height of 25 feet. Each pillar is sculpted in Nayak style as in Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple. The contribution of the kings of the Sethupathy dynasty (17th century) to the temple was considerable. Large amount of money was spent during the tenure of Pradani Muthirulappa Pillai towards the restoration of the pagodas which were falling into ruins – the Chockattan Mantapam or the cloistered precincts of the temple was reconstructed by him. The rulers of Sri Lanka contributed to the temple – Parakrama Bahu (1153–1186 CE) was involved in the construction of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The eastern tower and shrine of Nataraja were built by Dalavai Sethupathy in 1649 CE. The second enclosure is ascribed to Chinna Udayar Sethupathy and his son Ragunatha Thirumalai (1500–1540 CE). The third enclosure was constructed by Muthu Ramalinga Sethupathy (1725–1771 CE) – his statue is located in the entrance of the corridor.


title: Rameswaram

text: There are sixty-four "Tīrthas" or "Theertham"s (holy water bodies) in and around Rameswaram. According to the "Skanda Purana", twenty-four of them are important. Of the 24, 14 are in the form of tanks and wells within the precincts of the temple. Bathing in these tanks is a major aspect of the pilgrimage to Rameswaram and is considered equivalent to penance. Twenty-two of the tanks are within the Ramanathaswamy Temple. The foremost one is called Agni Theertham, the sea (Bay of Bengal). Jatayu, King of the Birds, who fought in vain with the demon-king Ravana to save Sita, is said to have fallen down at Jadayu Theertham as his wings were severed. Villoondi Theertham literally translates to 'buried bow', is located around 7 kilometres from the main temple on the way to Pamban. It is believed to be the place where Rama quenched the thirst of Sita by dipping the bow into the sea water. Other major holy bodies are Hanuman Theertham, Sugreeva Theertham and Lakshmana Theertham.


title: Rameswaram

text: Gandhamathan Parvatham, a hillock situated 3 km to the north of the temple is the highest point in the island. There is a two storeyed hall, where Rama's feet is found as an imprint on a "chakra" (wheel). The Ramarpatham Temple is located on the hillock.


title: Rameswaram

text: Dhanushkodi is the southernmost tip of the island and houses the Kothandaramaswamy Temple dedicated to Rama. Though Dhanushkodi was washed away during the 1964 cyclone, the temple alone remained intact. It is 18 km way from the centre of the town and can be reached by road. A popular belief is that, Dhanushkodi is where Vibishana, a brother of Ravana surrendered before Rama in the epic "Ramayana".


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram is significant for many Hindus as a pilgrimage to Varanasi is considered to be incomplete without a pilgrimage to Rameswaram. The town along with the Ramanathaswamy temple is one of the holiest Hindu "Char Dham" (four divine sites) sites comprising Badrinath, Puri and Dwarka. Though the origins are not clearly known, the Advaita school of Hinduism established by Sankaracharya, attributes the origin of Char Dham to the seer. The four monasteries are located across the four corners of India and their attendant temples are Badrinath Temple at Badrinath in the North, Jagannath Temple at Puri in the East, Dwarakadheesh Temple at Dwarka in the West and Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram in the South. Though ideologically the temples are divided between the sects of Hinduism, namely Saivism and Vaishnavism, the Char Dham pilgrimage is an all Hindu affair. The journey across the four cardinal points in India is considered sacred by Hindus who aspire to visit these temples once in their lifetime. Traditionally the trip starts at the eastern end from Puri, proceeding in clockwise direction in a manner typically followed for circuambulation in Hindu temples. The temple is one of the famous pilgrimage sites historically – the Maratha kings who ruled Thanjavur established "chatrams" or rest houses all through Mayiladuthurai and Rameswaram between 1745 and 1837 CE and donated them to the temple.


title: Rameswaram

text: Rameswaram is frequently in headlines over fishermen issues like attack, arrest and alleged harassment by Sri Lankan navy for alleged cross border activities, Sethusamudram canal project, Kachchatheevu, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and also on intercountry smuggling between India and Sri Lanka. As an initial step to curb enhanced smuggling, the Tamil Nadu government has set up 30 more marine police stations to bring the state's entire coastal belt under close vigil.


title: Rameswaram

text: During the intense civil war of Sri Lanka, post 1980, Rameswaram acted as one of the focal points of smuggling and intense patrolling was carried out during the period. There are a total of 65,940 registered destitute Sri Lankan refugees dwelling in 129 Refugee camps situated in different parts of Tamil Nadu as of Apr 2000 and a majority of them enter via Rameswaram. There are an additional 20,667 non-camp refugees who entered via Rameswaram, registered in Mandapam transit camp and opted to reside outside the camps in various parts of Tamil Nadu. On 11 March 1990, a record number of 2,337 refugees in 38 boats arrived from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka to Rameswaram – this was the largest number of refugees arriving in a single day since the ethnic violence from July 1983. As of October 2006, an estimated 200,000 refugees have been reported in Mandapam Camp. Sivarasan, one of the mastermind behind the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the ex-prime minister of India registered as refugee in Rameswaram camp on 12 September 1990.


title: Rameswaram

text: Being an island, a significant population is involved in fishery traditionally. There have been incremental cases of Rameswaram fishermen allegedly killed or arrested by Sri Lankan navy along the maritime borders of India and Sri Lanka from the time of Sri Lankan civil war during 1983. In the face of simmering tension after the 1985 January Colombo bound Yaldevi train attack in which 22 Sri Lankan soldiers and 16 civilians were killed, Rameswaram fishermen dared to venture to seas spelling acute hardship for the 10,000 fishermen family. An estimated 381 fishermen have been killed in the sea due to shoot outs from 1983 to 2009. The Sri Lankan army attributed the killings to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but the casualty continues even after the end of LTTE in the region. The Tamil Nadu state government has increased the compensation of casualty from the original 100,000 to 500,000 (US$1,800 to $9,000). There has not been a single prosecution in any of the 381 killings committed so far from the Indian judiciary. The cases not being filed is attributed to the fact that people killed beyond the maritime boundary of India are not eligible for compensation and not many file complaints against the Sri Lankan navy. Though the Indian judiciary has provisions to prosecute foreigners, there is little progress due to the diplomatic overheads involved. Indian government has also ventured into the use of technology like use of Global positioning system (GPS) by the fishermen and enabling cellphone blips to alert their mobile phones whenever they are crossing into Sri Lankan waters. The Sri Lankan navy has confirmed reports on Indian fishermen risking the international boundary due to depleted catch in Indian waters.


title: Rameswaram

text: There is a yearly 45-day ban on fishery with motorboats in the region. The fishing ban for the year 2012 was effective during the months of April–May. The jetty at Rameswaram is the largest landing centre for fishing boats in the region and it usually comes alive after the ban, with the arrival of fishermen, boat captains, shore workers and others from their native places.


title: Rameswaram

text: Sea World Aquarium is a natural habitat lying opposite to the Rameswaram Bus Stand, having an assortment of underwater creatures – it is the only one of its kind in the state, filled with such varied marine life forms including exotic species.


title: Rameswaram

text: Another focal point on the simmering tension between Indian and Sri Lankan governments is over the use of Kachchatheevu, an uninhabited island 15 km north of Rameswaram, belonging to Sri Lanka. The accord of 1974 allows fishermen of both the countries for resting and soaking the nets in the island. Repeated allegations on attacks by the Lankan navy, which on many occasions killed Indian fishermen, prevented them from making it to the island. The annual two-day Saint Anthony fest at the island draws huge number of people from the fishermen community of both the countries. The number of pilgrims for the 2012 function crossed 4,000, the largest attendance in the past two decades. The feast also provides an opportunity for the Indian fishermen to meet their Sri Lankan counterparts and exchange views on their mutual problems. The event served as a meeting point to find brides and grooms from both countries, but this practice has now been stopped from the 90s due to political constraint of fishermen family living in different countries.


title: Rameswaram

text: Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project proposes linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping canal through the shallow sea sometimes called Setu Samudram, and through the chain of islands variously known as Ram Sethu or the Rama's Bridge. A few organisations are opposing the dredging of Ramasethu on religious, environmental and economical grounds. Many of these parties and organisations support implementation of this project using one of the five alternative alignments considered earlier without damaging the structure considered sacred by Hindus. With of dredging remaining, the project is held from March 2010 by a Supreme Court order seeking the Central Government to clarify the status of the bridge as a national monument.


title: Guyanese people

text: The people of Guyana, or Guyanese, come from a wide array of backgrounds and cultures including aboriginal natives, also known as Amerindians, and those who are descended from the slaves and contract workers who worked in the sugar industry of the Caribbean for various European interests, mostly of Indian origins. Demographics as of 2012 are East Indian 39.8%, Afro-Guyanese 30.1%, mixed race (mostly Dougla) 19.9%, Amerindian 10.5%, other 1.5% (including Chinese and Europeans, such as the Portuguese).


title: Guyanese people

text: Located on the northern coast of South America, Guyana is part of the main land Caribbean which is part of the historical British West Indies. It is culturally similar to Suriname and nearby island nations of the Caribbean such as Trinidad and Tobago, and is a culturally Caribbean country even though it is not an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea.


title: Guyanese people

text: The national anthem of Guyana, Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains, refers to Guyana as the "Land of six peoples" which was historically considered to be made up of African, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, European, and Amerindian people.


title: Guyanese people

text: Even though referred to collectively as Amerindians, the indigenous peoples in Guyana are made up of several distinct tribes or nations. Warao, Arawak, Caribs, and Wapishana are all represented in Guyana.


title: Guyanese people

text: Europeans arrived in the Guianas in the search for gold in the New World, eventually settling in and colonizing Guyana and the Americas. Starting with the Dutch, then English, the cultural presence of Europe has been a significant force in the country even though the population was always in the minority. French and Spanish also have a presence in the region.


title: Guyanese people

text: The climate of Guyana was deemed suitable for growing sugar cane, sparking a demand for labor unmet by the Europeans themselves or the local Amerindians, so slaves from Africa were brought into the country. The high mortality and low birthrate of plantation slavery was supplemented by bringing in more enslaved people until the slave trade was abolished in 1838. Indentured labor contracts were made for Portuguese and Chinese people, but the largest numbers came from India.


title: Guyanese people

text: The diversity of the country is a point of pride as well as a challenge; conflicts along racial lines have been a source of significant social tension. Racism in Guyana has roots in the control of labor, so that plantation owners could maintain a stratified society of subservient workers and limit competition for the highest social class. Many segments of society are divided by race, such as religion, politics, even industries.


title: Guyanese people

text: Guyana's culture reflects its European history as it was colonized by both the Dutch and French before becoming a British colony. Guyana (known as British Guiana under British colonial rule), gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 and subsequently became a republic in 1970. As a result of Guyana's 170-year history as a British colony, it is a part of the Anglophone world and part of the Anglophone Caribbean - a subregion of the Caribbean consisting of independent, English-speaking nations that were once British colonies (also known as the Commonwealth Caribbean). Even as the only English-speaking country in South America, the majority of people in Guyana speak Guyanese Creole informally. Standard English, i.e. British English spelling and pronunciation, is used for all business and education and is typically consistently spoken by members of the upper and upper-middle class.


title: Adhan

text: Adhan ( ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer (salah) in a mosque recited by a muezzin at prescribed times of the day.


title: Adhan

text: Adhan is recited very loudly from the mosque five times a day on most days and all day long during the religious holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, traditionally from the minaret. It is the first call summoning Muslims to enter the mosque for obligatory ("fard") prayer ("salah"). A second call, known as the "iqamah", summons those within the mosque to line up for the beginning of the prayers. Only in Turkey, Ezan is voiced in five different styles at different times; saba, uşşak, hicaz, rast, segah.


title: Adhan

text: Adhān, Arabic for "announcement", from root "ʾadhina" meaning "to listen, to hear, be informed about", is variously transliterated in different cultures.


title: Adhan

text: It is commonly written as athan, or adhane (in French), azan in Iran and south Asia (in Persian, Dari, Pashto, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Punjabi), adzan in Southeast Asia (Indonesian and Malaysian), and ezan (in Turkish). Muslims on the Malabar Coast in India use the Persian term بانگ, Banku, for the call to public prayer.


title: Adhan

text: The muezzin ( muʾaḏḏin) is the person who recites the Adhan from the mosque. Typically in modern times, this is done using a microphone: a recitation that is consequently broadcast to the speakers usually mounted on the higher part of the mosque's minarets, thus calling those nearby to prayer. However, in many mosques, the message can also be recorded. This is due to the fact that the "call to prayer" has to be done loudly and at least five times a day. This is usually done by replaying previously recorded "call to prayer" without the presence of a muezzin. This way, the mosque operator has the ability to edit or mix the message and adjust the volume of the message while also not having to hire a full-time muezzin or in case of the absence of a muezzin. This is why in many Muslim countries, the sound of the prayer call can be exactly identical between one mosque and another, as well as between one "Salah" hour and another, as is the case for the London Central Mosque. In the event of a religious holidays like "Eid al-Fitr", for example in Indonesia, where the "Kalimah" (speech) has to be recited out loud all day long, mosque operators uses this recording method to create a looping recital of the "Kalimah".


title: Adhan

text: The muezzin is chosen for his ability in reciting the "Adhan" clearly, melodically, and loudly enough for all people to hear. This is one of the important duties in the mosque, as his companions and community rely on him in his call for Muslims to come to pray in congregation. The Imam leads the prayer five times a day. The first muezzin in Islam was Bilal ibn Rabah, a freed slave of Abyssinian heritage.


title: Adhan

text: On rare occasions, the muezzin may say 'Sallu fi buyutikum (Pray in your homes) or Sallu fi rihaalikum (Pray in your dwellings) if it is raining heavily, if it is windy or if it is cold. Another case where this was said was during the COVID-19 lockdown. The phrase is usually said at the end of the adhan or he may skip Hayya ala salah and Hayya alal falah; other ways have also been narrated.


title: Adhan

text: Sunnis state that the adhan was not written or said by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, but by one of his "Sahabah" (his companions). Abdullah ibn Zayd, a sahabi of Muhammad, had a vision in his dream, in which the call for prayers was revealed to him by God. He later related this to his companions. Meanwhile, this news reached Muhammad, who confirmed it. Because of his stunning voice Muhammad chose a freed Habeshan slave by the name of Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi to make the call for prayers. Muhammad preferred the call better than the use of bells (as used by the Christians) and horns (as by the Jews).


title: Adhan

text: During the Friday prayer "(Salat al-Jumu'ah)", there is one adhan but some Sunni Muslims increase it to two adhans; the first is to call the people to the mosque, the second is said before the Imam begins the "khutbah" (sermon). Just before the prayers start, someone amongst the praying people recites the "iqama" as in all prayers. The basis for this is that at the time of the Caliph Uthman he ordered two adhans to be made, the first of which was to be made in the marketplace to inform the people that the Friday prayer was soon to begin, and the second adhan would be the regular one held in the mosque. Not all Sunnis prefer two adhans as the need for warning the people of the impending time for prayer is no longer essential now that the times for prayers are well known.


title: Adhan

text: Shia sources state Muhammad, according to God's command, ordered the adhan as a means of calling Muslims to prayer. Shia Islam teaches that no one else contributed, or had any authority to contribute, towards the composition of the adhan.


title: Adhan

text: Shia sources also narrate that Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi was, in fact, the first person to recite the Adhan publicly out loud in front of the Muslim congregation.


title: Adhan

text: The fundamental phrase "lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh" is the foundation stone of Islam along with the belief in it. It declares that "there is no god but the God". This is the confession of "Tawhid" or the "doctrine of Oneness [of God]".


title: Adhan

text: The phrase "Muḥammadun rasūlu -llāh" fulfills the requirement that there should be someone to guide in the name of God, which states Muhammad is God's Messenger. This is the acceptance of prophethood or "Nabuwat" of Muhammad.


title: Adhan

text: Muhammad declared Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor, at Ghadir Khumm, which was required for the continuation of his guidance. According to the hadith of the pond of Khumm, Muhammad stated that "Of whomsoever I am the authority, Ali is his authority". Hence, it is recommended to recite the phrase "ʿalīyun walī -llāh" ("Ali is His [God's] Authority").


title: Adhan

text: In one of the Qiblah of Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah (1035–1094) of Fatemi era masjid of Qahira (Mosque of Ibn Tulun) engraved his name and "kalimat ash-shahādah" as "lā ʾilāha ʾillā -llāh, muḥammadun rasūlu -llāh, ʿalīyun walīyu -llāh" ().


title: Adhan

text: Adhan reminds Muslims of these three Islamic teaching "Tawhid", "Nabuwat" and "Imamate" before each prayer. These three emphasise devotion to God, Muhammad and Imam, which are considered to be so linked together that they can not be viewed separately; one leads to other and finally to God.


title: Adhan

text: The phrase is optional to some Shia as justified above. They feel that Ali's "Walayah" ("Divine Authority") is self-evident, a testification and need not be declared. However, the greatness of God is also taken to be self-evident, but Muslims still declare "Allāhu ʾakbar" to publicize their faith. This is the reason that the most Shia give for the recitation of the phrase regarding Ali.


title: Adhan

text: While listening to the Adhan, Sunni Muslims repeat the same words silently, except when the Adhan reciter (muezzin) says: "" or "" ("ḥayya ʿalā ṣ-ṣalāh or ḥayya ʿala l-falāḥ") they silently say: "" ("lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata ʾillā bi-llāh") (there is no strength or power except from God).


title: Adhan

text: According to Abu Dawud, Muhammad said: "Repeat the words of the mu'azzin and when you finish, ask God what you want and you will get it".


title: Adhan

text: While listening to the Adhan, Shia Muslims repeat the same words silently, except when the Adhan reciter (muezzin) says: "" and "" ("ʾašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾillā -llāh and ʾašhadu ʾanna Muḥammadan rasūlu -llāh") they silently say:


title: Adhan

text: Whenever Muhammad's name is mentioned in the Adhan or Iqama, Shia Muslims recite salawat, a form of the peace be upon him blessing specifically for Muhammad. This salawat is usually recited as either ' (), ' (), or "" ().


title: Adhan

text: The call to prayer is said after entering the time of prayer. The muezzin usually stands during the call to prayer. It is common for the muezzin to put his hands to his ears when reciting the Adhan. Each phrase is followed by a longer pause and is repeated one or more times according to fixed rules. During the first statement each phrase is limited in tonal range, less melismatic, and shorter. Upon repetition the phrase is longer, ornamented with melismas, and may possess a tonal range of over an octave. The adhan's form is characterised by contrast and contains twelve melodic passages which move from one to another tonal center of one maqam a fourth or fifth apart. Various geographic regions in the Middle East traditionally perform the Adhan in particular maqamat: Medina, Saudi Arabia uses Maqam Bayati while Mecca uses Maqam Hijaz. The tempo is mostly slow; it may be faster and with fewer melismas for the sunset prayer. During festivals, it may be performed antiphonally as a duet.


title: Adhan

text: In 2016, opposition leader Khaleda Zia alleged the government was preventing the broadcasting of adhans through loudspeakers, with government officials citing security concerns for the prime minister Sheikh Hasina".


title: Adhan

text: In 2016, Israel's ministerial committee approved a draft bill that limits the volume of the use of public address systems for calls to prayer, particularly outdoor loudspeakers for adhaan, citing it as a factor of noise pollution. The bill was submitted by Knesset member Motti Yogev of the far right Zionist party Jewish Home and Robert Ilatov of the right wing Yisrael Beiteinu. The ban is meant to affect three mosques in Abu Dis village of East Jerusalem, disbarring them from broadcasting the morning call (fajr) prayers. The bill was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said: "I cannot count the times — they are simply too numerous — that citizens have turned to me from all parts of Israeli society, from all religions, with complaints about the noise and suffering caused to them by the excessive noise coming to them from the public address systems of houses of prayer." The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, expressed concerns that it specifically stifles the rights of Muslims, and restricts their freedom of religion.


title: Adhan

text: As an extension of the reforms brought about by the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Turkish government at the time, encouraged by Atatürk, introduced secularism to Turkey. The program involved implementing a Turkish adhan program as part of its goals, as opposed to the conventional Arabic call to prayer. Following the conclusion of said debates, on the 1 February 1932, the Adhan was chanted in Turkish and the practice was continued for a period of 18 years. There was some resistance against the Adhan in Turkish language and protests surged. In order to suppress these protests, in 1941, a new law was issued, under which people who chanted the Adhan in Arabic could be imprisoned for up to 3 months and be fined up to 300 Turkish Lira.


title: Adhan

text: The Fittja Mosque in Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, was in 2013 the first mosque to be granted permission for a weekly public call to Friday prayer, on condition that the sound volume does not exceed 60 dB. In Karlskrona (province of Blekinge, southern Sweden) the Islamic association built a minaret in 2017 and has had weekly prayer calls since then. The temporary mosque in Växjö filed for a similar permission in February 2018, which sparked a nationwide debate about the practice. A yearlong permission was granted by the Swedish Police Authority in May the same year.


title: Adhan

text: During the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2019-2020 and the resulting viral pandemic, some cities in Kuwait changed their adhan from the usual "hayya 'ala as-salah", meaning "come to prayer", to "as-salatu fi buyutikum" meaning "pray in your homes" or "ala sallu fi rihalikum" meaning "pray where you are".


title: Adhan

text: Other Muslim countries (notably Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia) also made this change because Muslims are prohibited to pray in mosques during the pandemic as preventive measures to stop the chain of the outbreak. The basis for the authority to change a phrase in the adhan was justified by the Prophet Muhammad's instructions while calling for adhan during adverse conditions.


title: Adhan

text: The usage of loudspeakers to broadcast the adhan was banned in 2009 with "Law No. 489 of 26 March 2009 on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions".


title: Adhan

text: In 2005, former Uzbek president Islam Karimov banned the Muslim call to prayer from being broadcast in the country; the ban was lifted in November 2017 by his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.


title: Adhan

text: In other countries, there is no written law forbidding the distribution of the call to prayer in mosques and prayer halls.


title: Adhan

text: In some Muslim-majority countries, television stations usually broadcasts the adhan at prayer times, in a similar fashion to radio stations. In Indonesia and Malaysia, it is mandatory for all television stations to broadcast the adhan at Fajr and Magrib prayers, with the exception of non-Muslim religious stations. Islamic religious stations often broadcast the adhan at all five prayer times.


title: Adhan

text: The adhan are commonly broadcast with a visual cinematic sequence depicting mosques and worshippers attending to the prayer. Some television stations in both Malaysia and Indonesia often utilize a more artistic or cultural approach to the cinematic involving multiple actors and religious-related plotlines.


title: Adhan

text: The 1991-1994 recording of Masjid al-Haram muezzin, "Sheikh" Ali Ahmed Mulla is best known for its use in various television and radio stations.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: Jesse James Rutherford (born August 21, 1991), also known mononymously as Jesse, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He is the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band the Neighbourhood. Alongside his band colleagues, Rutherford wrote the number-one "Billboard" Alternative Songs hit "Sweater Weather", which was certified nine-times platinum in the US in 2022.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: Rutherford was born in Newbury Park, California, on August 21, 1991. Since he was young, he has been involved in the entertainment industry; as a child, he used to perform in talent shows where he impersonated N'Sync members and Elvis Presley. This passion to perform would lead Rutherford to work in television commercials (such as Hallmark) and in films and television projects such as his role in the 2002 film "Life or Something Like It", followed by another role in the 2002 film "Bundy." In 2002, Rutherford had also a small television role in the "" episode "." Throughout his teen years, he was the lead vocalist of multiple local bands.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: His first solo project was released in 2011 with a mixtape named "Truth Hurts, Truth Heals". Rutherford combines hip-hop and R&B influences to create the 17 song album. In the same year, Rutherford was connecting with other local musicians when the idea of forming a new band came up. The genre-blending pop group the Neighbourhood was created soon after, presenting a mix of atmospheric indie rock, electronica, and hip-hop beats with melodic, R&B-influenced vocals. In 2012, the band released its first song "Female Robbery" which was followed by "Sweater Weather" off of their debut studio album "I Love You.". "Sweater Weather" was a radio hit which reached number one on the "Billboard" Alternative Songs chart in June 2013. With The Neighbourhood, Rutherford played in several festivals like Lollapalooza (2013) and Coachella (2013 and 2018).


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: In early 2016, Rutherford released his 144-page book, ""&"". It features pictures of himself, shot by Jessie English, that explores gender fluidity. Rutherford stated that he used clothes from his own closet, and he shot until he ran out of clothes.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: In the same year, Rutherford branched out and began releasing songs on Soundcloud under the name "the Factoury." On November 10, 2017, Rutherford released his debut solo studio album, ""&"", containing 11 tracks with no features. It was previously announced on November 3, through an article from Pigeons & Planes. On December 17, 2018, Jesse announced that he was going on his first solo tour in 2019.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: On April 2, 2019, Jesse announced a second solo album called ""GARAGEB&"", along with its album cover and the tracklist. The album was officially released on April 12, 2019. The album's name is inspired by Jesse's rediscovery of his love for writing music as he was trying to fight his dependency on his phone and social media. Instead of using his phone to check his social media, he started using the GarageBand app to make music. Ten out of the album's 12 tracks were made on the app.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: Rutherford grew up with a strong interest in wearing different clothes and mixed-styles. He used to work at several clothing stores and used to change clothes five times a day during his younger days. His capability of combining multi-gender styles with designer gear pulls out his creativity in this matter.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: Beginning in 2015, Rutherford was in a relationship with Devon Lee Carlson, model and co-founder of Wildflower Cases. Together, they were elected "2019's most 2019 couple" by GQ. In 2020, they collaborated with Marc Jacobs to create a Valentine's Day limited-edition T-shirt. It sold out within minutes. In November 2021, multiple sources claimed the couple had split after 6 years of dating. The breakup was confirmed by Carlson in September 2022 on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast.


title: Jesse Rutherford (singer)

text: In late October 2022, it was reported that Rutherford is in a relationship with fellow singer Billie Eilish.


title: Cinematography

text: Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, "kìnema" "movement" and γράφειν, "gràphein" "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.


title: Cinematography

text: Cinematographers use a lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sensor or light-sensitive material inside a movie camera. These exposures are created sequentially and preserved for later processing and viewing as a motion picture. Capturing images with an electronic image sensor produces an electrical charge for each pixel in the image, which is electronically processed and stored in a video file for subsequent processing or display. Images captured with photographic emulsion result in a series of invisible latent images on the film stock, which are chemically "developed" into a visible image. The images on the film stock are projected for viewing the same motion picture.


title: Cinematography

text: Cinematography finds uses in many fields of science and business, as well as for entertainment purposes and mass communication.


title: Cinematography

text: In the 1830s, three different solutions for moving images were invented on the concept of revolving drums and disks, the stroboscope by Simon von Stampfer in Austria, the phenakistoscope by Joseph Plateau in Belgium, and the zoetrope by William Horner in Britain.


title: Cinematography

text: In 1845, Francis Ronalds invented the first successful camera able to make continuous recordings of the varying indications of meteorological and geomagnetic instruments over time. The cameras were supplied to numerous observatories around the world and some remained in use until well into the 20th century.


title: Cinematography

text: William Lincoln patented a device, in 1867, that showed animated pictures called the "wheel of life" or "zoopraxiscope". In it, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit.


title: Cinematography

text: On 19 June 1878, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named "Sallie Gardner" in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. The cameras were arranged along a track parallel to the horse's, and each camera shutter was controlled by a trip wire triggered by the horse's hooves. They were 21 inches apart to cover the 20 feet taken by the horse stride, taking pictures at one-thousandth of a second. At the end of the decade, Muybridge had adapted sequences of his photographs to a zoopraxiscope for short, primitive projected "movies," which were sensations on his lecture tours by 1879 or 1880.


title: Cinematography

text: Four years later, in 1882, French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey invented a chronophotographic gun, which was capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, recording all the frames of the same picture.


title: Cinematography

text: The late nineteenth to the early twentieth century brought rise to the use of film not only for entertainment purposes but for scientific exploration as well. French biologist and filmmaker Jean Painleve lobbied heavily for the use of film in the scientific field, as the new medium was more efficient in capturing and documenting the behavior, movement, and environment of microorganisms, cells, and bacteria, than the naked eye. The introduction of film into scientific fields allowed for not only the viewing "new images and objects, such as cells and natural objects, but also the viewing of them in real time", whereas prior to the invention of moving pictures, scientists and doctors alike had to rely on hand-drawn sketches of human anatomy and its microorganisms. This posed a great inconvenience in the science and medical worlds. The development of film and increased usage of cameras allowed doctors and scientists to grasp a better understanding and knowledge of their projects.


title: Cinematography

text: The experimental film "Roundhay Garden Scene", filmed by Louis Le Prince on October 14, 1888 in Roundhay, Leeds, England, is the earliest surviving motion picture. This movie was shot on paper film.


title: Cinematography

text: An experimental film camera was developed by British inventor William Friese Greene and patented in 1889. W. K. L. Dickson, working under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, was the first to design a successful apparatus, the Kinetograph, patented in 1891. This camera took a series of instantaneous photographs on standard Eastman Kodak photographic emulsion coated onto a transparent celluloid strip 35 mm wide. The results of this work were first shown in public in 1893, using the viewing apparatus also designed by Dickson, the Kinetoscope. Contained within a large box, only one person at a time looking into it through a peephole could view the movie.


title: Cinematography

text: In the following year, Charles Francis Jenkins and his projector, the Phantoscope, made a successful audience viewing while Louis and Auguste Lumière perfected the Cinématographe, an apparatus that took, printed, and projected film, in Paris in December 1895. The Lumière brothers were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, pictures to a paying audience of more than one person.


title: Cinematography

text: In 1896, movie theaters were open in France (Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Marseille); Italy (Rome, Milan, Naples, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Forlì); Brussels; and London. The chronological improvements in the medium may be listed concisely. In 1896, Edison showed his improved Vitascope projector, the first commercially successful projector in the U.S. Cooper Hewitt invented mercury lamps which made it practical to shoot films indoors without sunlight in 1905. The first animated cartoon was produced in 1906. Credits began to appear at the beginning of motion pictures in 1911. The Bell and Howell 2709 movie camera invented in 1915 allowed directors to make close-ups without physically moving the camera. By the late 1920s, most of the movies produced were sound films. Wide screen formats were first experimented within the 1950s. By the 1970s, most movies were color films. IMAX and other 70mm formats gained popularity. Wide distribution of films became commonplace, setting the ground for "blockbusters." Film cinematography dominated the motion picture industry from its inception until the 2010s when digital cinematography became dominant. Film cinematography is still used by some directors, especially in specific applications or out of fondness for the format.


title: Cinematography

text: From its birth in the 1880s, movies were predominantly monochrome. Contrary to popular belief, monochrome does not always mean black and white; it means a movie shot in a single tone or color. Since the cost of tinted film bases was substantially higher, most movies were produced in black and white monochrome. Even with the advent of early color experiments, the greater expense of color meant films were mostly made in black and white until the 1950s, when cheaper color processes were introduced, and in some years the percentage of films shot on color film surpassed 51%. By the 1960s, color became by far the dominant film stock. In the coming decades, the usage of color film greatly increased while monochrome films became scarce.


title: Cinematography

text: After the advent of motion pictures, a tremendous amount of energy was invested in the production of photography in natural color. The invention of the talking picture further increased the demand for the use of color photography. However, in comparison to other technological advances of the time, the arrival of color photography was a relatively slow process.


title: Cinematography

text: Early movies were not actually color movies since they were shot monochrome and hand-colored or machine-colored afterward (such movies are referred to as "colored" and not "color"). The earliest such example is the hand-tinted Annabelle Serpentine Dance in 1895 by Edison Manufacturing Company. Machine-based tinting later became popular. Tinting continued until the advent of natural color cinematography in the 1910s. Many black and white movies have been colorized recently using digital tinting. This includes footage shot from both world wars, sporting events and political propaganda.


title: Cinematography

text: In 1902, Edward Raymond Turner produced the first films with a natural color process rather than using colorization techniques. In 1908, kinemacolor was introduced. In the same year, the short film "A Visit to the Seaside" became the first natural color movie to be publicly presented.


title: Cinematography

text: In 1917, the earliest version of Technicolor was introduced. Kodachrome was introduced in 1935. Eastmancolor was introduced in 1950 and became the color standard for the rest of the century.


title: Cinematography

text: In digital cinematography, the movie is shot on digital media such as flash storage, as well as distributed through a digital medium such as a hard drive.


title: Cinematography

text: The basis for digital cameras are metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) image sensors. The first practical semiconductor image sensor was the charge-coupled device (CCD), based on MOS capacitor technology. Following the commercialization of CCD sensors during the late 1970s to early 1980s, the entertainment industry slowly began transitioning to digital imaging and digital video over the next two decades. The CCD was followed by the CMOS active-pixel sensor (CMOS sensor), developed in the 1990s.


title: Cinematography

text: Beginning in the late 1980s, Sony began marketing the concept of "electronic cinematography," utilizing its analog Sony HDVS professional video cameras. The effort met with very little success. However, this led to one of the earliest digitally shot feature movies, "Julia and Julia" (1987). In 1998, with the introduction of HDCAM recorders and 1920×1080 pixel digital professional video cameras based on CCD technology, the idea, now re-branded as "digital cinematography," began to gain traction.


title: Cinematography

text: Shot and released in 1998, "The Last Broadcast" is believed by some to be the first feature-length video shot and edited entirely on consumer-level digital equipment. In May 1999, George Lucas challenged the supremacy of the movie-making medium of film for the first time by including footage filmed with high-definition digital cameras in "". In late 2013, Paramount became the first major studio to distribute movies to theaters in digital format, eliminating 35mm film entirely. Since then the demand of movies to be developed onto digital format rather than 35mm has increased significantly.


title: Cinematography

text: As digital technology improved, movie studios began increasingly shifting toward digital cinematography. Since the 2010s, digital cinematography has become the dominant form of cinematography after largely superseding film cinematography.


title: Cinematography

text: The first film cameras were fastened directly to the head of a tripod or other support, with only the crudest kind of leveling devices provided, in the manner of the still-camera tripod heads of the period. The earliest film cameras were thus effectively fixed during the shot, and hence the first camera movements were the result of mounting a camera on a moving vehicle. The first known of these was a film shot by a Lumière cameraman from the back platform of a train leaving Jerusalem in 1896, and by 1898, there were a number of films shot from moving trains. Although listed under the general heading of "panoramas" in the sales catalogues of the time, those films shot straight forward from in front of a railway engine were usually specifically referred to as "phantom rides."


title: Cinematography

text: In 1897, Robert W. Paul had the first real rotating camera head made to put on a tripod, so that he could follow the passing processions of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in one uninterrupted shot. This device had the camera mounted on a vertical axis that could be rotated by a worm gear driven by turning a crank handle, and Paul put it on general sale the next year. Shots taken using such a "panning" head were also referred to as "panoramas" in the film catalogues of the first decade of the cinema. This eventually led to the creation of a panoramic photo as well.


title: Cinematography

text: The standard pattern for early film studios was provided by the studio which Georges Méliès had built in 1897. This had a glass roof and three glass walls constructed after the model of large studios for still photography, and it was fitted with thin cotton cloths that could be stretched below the roof to diffuse the direct ray of the sun on sunny days. The soft overall light without real shadows that this arrangement produced, and which also exists naturally on lightly overcast days, was to become the basis for film lighting in film studios for the next decade.


title: Cinematography

text: Cinematography can begin with digital image sensor or rolls of film. Advancements in film emulsion and grain structure provided a wide range of available film stocks. The selection of a film stock is one of the first decisions made in preparing a typical film production.


title: Cinematography

text: Aside from the film gauge selection – 8 mm (amateur), 16 mm (semi-professional), 35 mm (professional) and 65 mm (epic photography, rarely used except in special event venues) – the cinematographer has a selection of stocks in reversal (which, when developed, create a positive image) and negative formats along with a wide range of film speeds (varying sensitivity to light) from ISO 50 (slow, least sensitive to light) to 800 (very fast, extremely sensitive to light) and differing response to color (low saturation, high saturation) and contrast (varying levels between pure black (no exposure) and pure white (complete overexposure).


title: Cinematography

text: Advancements and adjustments to nearly all gauges of film create the "super" formats wherein the area of the film used to capture a single frame of an image is expanded, although the physical gauge of the film remains the same. Super 8 mm, Super 16 mm, and Super 35 mm all utilize more of the overall film area for the image than their "regular" non-super counterparts. The larger the film gauge, the higher the overall image resolution clarity and technical quality. The techniques used by the film laboratory to process the film stock can also offer a considerable variance in the image produced. By controlling the temperature and varying the duration in which the film is soaked in the development chemicals, and by skipping certain chemical processes (or partially skipping all of them), cinematographers can achieve very different looks from a single film stock in the laboratory. Some techniques that can be used are push processing, bleach bypass, and cross processing.


title: Cinematography

text: Most of modern cinema uses digital cinematography and has no film stocks , but the cameras themselves can be adjusted in ways that go far beyond the abilities of one particular film stock. They can provide varying degrees of color sensitivity, image contrast, light sensitivity and so on. One camera can achieve all the various looks of different emulsions. Digital image adjustments such as ISO and contrast are executed by estimating the same adjustments that would take place if actual film were in use, and are thus vulnerable to the camera's sensor designers perceptions of various film stocks and image adjustment parameters.


title: Cinematography

text: Filters, such as diffusion filters or color effect filters, are also widely used to enhance mood or dramatic effects. Most photographic filters are made up of two pieces of optical glass glued together with some form of image or light manipulation material between the glass. In the case of color filters, there is often a translucent color medium pressed between two planes of optical glass. Color filters work by blocking out certain color wavelengths of light from reaching the film. With color film, this works very intuitively wherein a blue filter will cut down on the passage of red, orange, and yellow light and create a blue tint on the film. In black-and-white photography, color filters are used somewhat counter-intuitively; for instance, a yellow filter, which cuts down on blue wavelengths of light, can be used to darken a daylight sky (by eliminating blue light from hitting the film, thus greatly underexposing the mostly blue sky) while not biasing most human flesh tone. Filters can be used in front of the lens or, in some cases, behind the lens for different effects.


title: Cinematography

text: Certain cinematographers, such as Christopher Doyle, are well known for their innovative use of filters; Doyle was a pioneer for increased usage of filters in movies and is highly respected throughout the cinema world.


title: Cinematography

text: Lenses can be attached to the camera to give a certain look, feel, or effect by focus, color, etc. As does the human eye, the camera creates perspective and spatial relations with the rest of the world. However, unlike one's eye, a cinematographer can select different lenses for different purposes. Variation in focal length is one of the chief benefits. The focal length of the lens determines the angle of view and, therefore, the field of view. Cinematographers can choose from a range of wide-angle lenses, "normal" lenses and long focus lenses, as well as macro lenses and other special effect lens systems such as borescope lenses. Wide-angle lenses have short focal lengths and make spatial distances more obvious. A person in the distance is shown as much smaller while someone in the front will loom large. On the other hand, long focus lenses reduce such exaggerations, depicting far-off objects as seemingly close together and flattening perspective. The differences between the perspective rendering is actually not due to the focal length by itself, but by the distance between the subjects and the camera. Therefore, the use of different focal lengths in combination with different camera to subject distances creates these different rendering. Changing the focal length only while keeping the same camera position doesn't affect perspective but the camera angle of view only.


title: Cinematography

text: A zoom lens allows a camera operator to change his focal length within a shot or quickly between setups for shots. As prime lenses offer greater optical quality and are "faster" (larger aperture openings, usable in less light) than zoom lenses, they are often employed in professional cinematography over zoom lenses. Certain scenes or even types of filmmaking, however, may require the use of zooms for speed or ease of use, as well as shots involving a zoom move.


title: Cinematography

text: As in other photography, the control of the exposed image is done in the lens with the control of the diaphragm aperture. For proper selection, the cinematographer needs that all lenses be engraved with T-stop, not f-stop so that the eventual light loss due to the glass doesn't affect the exposure control when setting it using the usual meters. The choice of the aperture also affects image quality (aberrations) and depth of field.


title: Cinematography

text: Focal length and diaphragm aperture affect the depth of field of a scene – that is, how much the background, mid-ground and foreground will be rendered in "acceptable focus" (only one exact plane of the image is in precise focus) on the film or video target. Depth of field (not to be confused with depth of focus) is determined by the aperture size and the focal distance. A large or deep depth of field is generated with a very small iris aperture and focusing on a point in the distance, whereas a shallow depth of field will be achieved with a large (open) iris aperture and focusing closer to the lens. Depth of field is also governed by the format size. If one considers the field of view and angle of view, the smaller the image is, the shorter the focal length should be, as to keep the same field of view. Then, the smaller the image is, the more depth of field is obtained, for the same field of view. Therefore, 70mm has less depth of field than 35mm for a given field of view, 16mm more than 35mm, and early video cameras, as well as most modern consumer level video cameras, even more depth of field than 16mm.


title: Cinematography

text: In "Citizen Kane" (1941), cinematographer Gregg Toland and director Orson Welles used tighter apertures to create every detail of the foreground and background of the sets in sharp focus. This practice is known as deep focus. Deep focus became a popular cinematographic device from the 1940s onward in Hollywood. Today, the trend is for more shallow focus. To change the plane of focus from one object or character to another within a shot is commonly known as a "rack focus".


title: Cinematography

text: Early in the transition to digital cinematography, the inability of digital video cameras to easily achieve shallow depth of field, due to their small image sensors, was initially an issue of frustration for film makers trying to emulate the look of 35mm film. Optical adapters were devised which accomplished this by mounting a larger format lens which projected its image, at the size of the larger format, on a ground glass screen preserving the depth of field. The adapter and lens then mounted on the small format video camera which in turn focused on the ground glass screen.


title: Cinematography

text: Digital SLR still cameras have sensor sizes similar to that of the 35mm film frame, and thus are able to produce images with similar depth of field. The advent of video functions in these cameras sparked a revolution in digital cinematography, with more and more film makers adopting still cameras for the purpose because of the film-like qualities of their images. More recently, more and more dedicated video cameras are being equipped with larger sensors capable of 35mm film-like depth of field.


title: Cinematography

text: The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height. This can be expressed either as a ratio of 2 integers, such as 4:3, or in a decimal format, such as 1.33:1 or simply 1.33. Different ratios provide different aesthetic effects. Standards for aspect ratio have varied significantly over time.


title: Cinematography

text: During the silent era, aspect ratios varied widely, from square 1:1, all the way up to the extreme widescreen 4:1 Polyvision. However, from the 1910s, silent motion pictures generally settled on the ratio of 4:3 (1.33). The introduction of sound-on-film briefly narrowed the aspect ratio, to allow room for a sound stripe. In 1932, a new standard was introduced, the Academy ratio of 1.37, by means of thickening the frame line.


title: Cinematography

text: For years, mainstream cinematographers were limited to using the Academy ratio, but in the 1950s, thanks to the popularity of Cinerama, widescreen ratios were introduced in an effort to pull audiences back into the theater and away from their home television sets. These new widescreen formats provided cinematographers a wider frame within which to compose their images.


title: Cinematography

text: Many different proprietary photographic systems were invented and used in the 1950s to create widescreen movies, but one dominated film: the anamorphic process, which optically squeezes the image to photograph twice the horizontal area to the same size vertical as standard "spherical" lenses. The first commonly used anamorphic format was CinemaScope, which used a 2.35 aspect ratio, although it was originally 2.55. CinemaScope was used from 1953 to 1967, but due to technical flaws in the design and its ownership by Fox, several third-party companies, led by Panavision's technical improvements in the 1950s, dominated the anamorphic cine lens market. Changes to SMPTE projection standards altered the projected ratio from 2.35 to 2.39 in 1970, although this did not change anything regarding the photographic anamorphic standards; all changes in respect to the aspect ratio of anamorphic 35 mm photography are specific to camera or projector gate sizes, not the optical system. After the "widescreen wars" of the 1950s, the motion-picture industry settled into 1.85 as a standard for theatrical projection in the United States and the United Kingdom. This is a cropped version of 1.37. Europe and Asia opted for 1.66 at first, although 1.85 has largely permeated these markets in recent decades. Certain "epic" or adventure movies utilized the anamorphic 2.39 (often incorrectly denoted '2.40')


title: Cinematography

text: In the 1990s, with the advent of high-definition video, television engineers created the 1.78 (16:9) ratio as a mathematical compromise between the theatrical standard of 1.85 and television's 1.33, as it was not practical to produce a traditional CRT television tube with a width of 1.85. Until that change, nothing had ever been originated in 1.78. Today, this is a standard for high-definition video and for widescreen television.


title: Cinematography

text: Light is necessary to create an image exposure on a frame of film or on a digital target (CCD, etc.). The art of lighting for cinematography goes far beyond basic exposure, however, into the essence of visual storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion picture. The increased usage of filters can greatly impact the final image and affect the lighting.


title: Cinematography

text: Cinematography can not only depict a moving subject but can use a camera, which represents the audience's viewpoint or perspective, that moves during the course of filming. This movement plays a considerable role in the emotional language of film images and the audience's emotional reaction to the action. Techniques range from the most basic movements of panning (horizontal shift in viewpoint from a fixed position; like turning your head side-to-side) and tilting (vertical shift in viewpoint from a fixed position; like tipping your head back to look at the sky or down to look at the ground) to dollying (placing the camera on a moving platform to move it closer or farther from the subject), tracking (placing the camera on a moving platform to move it to the left or right), craning (moving the camera in a vertical position; being able to lift it off the ground as well as swing it side-to-side from a fixed base position), and combinations of the above. Early cinematographers often faced problems that were not common to other graphic artists because of the element of motion.


title: Cinematography

text: Cameras have been mounted to nearly every imaginable form of transportation. Most cameras can also be handheld, that is held in the hands of the camera operator who moves from one position to another while filming the action. Personal stabilizing platforms came into being in the late 1970s through the invention of Garrett Brown, which became known as the Steadicam. The Steadicam is a body harness and stabilization arm that connects to the camera, supporting the camera while isolating it from the operator's body movements. After the Steadicam patent expired in the early 1990s, many other companies began manufacturing their concept of the personal camera stabilizer. This invention is much more common throughout the cinematic world today. From feature-length films to the evening news, more and more networks have begun to use a personal camera stabilizer.


title: Cinematography

text: The first special effects in the cinema were created while the film was being shot. These came to be known as "in-camera" effects. Later, optical and digital effects were developed so that editors and visual effects artists could more tightly control the process by manipulating the film in post-production.


title: Cinematography

text: The 1896 movie The Execution of Mary Stuart shows an actor dressed as the queen placing her head on the execution block in front of a small group of bystanders in Elizabethan dress. The executioner brings his axe down, and the queen's severed head drops onto the ground. This trick was worked by stopping the camera and replacing the actor with a dummy, then restarting the camera before the axe falls. The two pieces of film were then trimmed and cemented together so that the action appeared continuous when the film was shown, thus creating an overall illusion and successfully laying the foundation for special effects.


title: Cinematography

text: This film was among those exported to Europe with the first Kinetoscope machines in 1895 and was seen by Georges Méliès, who was putting on magic shows in his Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris at the time. He took up filmmaking in 1896, and after making imitations of other films from Edison, Lumière, and Robert Paul, he made "Escamotage d'un dame chez Robert-Houdin (The Vanishing Lady)". This film shows a woman being made to vanish by using the same stop motion technique as the earlier Edison film. After this, Georges Méliès made many single shot films using this trick over the next couple of years.


title: Cinematography

text: The other basic technique for trick cinematography involves double exposure of the film in the camera, which was first done by George Albert Smith in July 1898 in the UK. Smith's "The Corsican Brothers" (1898) was described in the catalogue of the Warwick Trading Company, which took up the distribution of Smith's films in 1900, thus:


title: Cinematography

text: "One of the twin brothers returns home from shooting in the Corsican mountains, and is visited by the ghost of the other twin. By extremely careful photography the ghost appears *quite transparent*. After indicating that he has been killed by a sword-thrust, and appealing for vengeance, he disappears. A 'vision' then appears showing the fatal duel in the snow. To the Corsican's amazement, the duel and death of his brother are vividly depicted in the vision, and overcome by his feelings, he falls to the floor just as his mother enters the room."


title: Cinematography

text: The ghost effect was done by draping the set in black velvet after the main action had been shot, and then re-exposing the negative with the actor playing the ghost going through the actions at the appropriate part. Likewise, the vision, which appeared within a circular vignette or matte, was similarly superimposed over a black area in the backdrop to the scene, rather than over a part of the set with detail in it, so that nothing appeared through the image, which seemed quite solid. Smith used this technique again in "Santa Claus" (1898).


title: Cinematography

text: Georges Méliès first used superimposition on a dark background in "La Caverne maudite (The Cave of the Demons)" made a couple of months later in 1898, and elaborated it with many superimpositions in the one shot in "Un Homme de têtes (The Four Troublesome Heads)". He created further variations in subsequent films.


title: Cinematography

text: Motion picture images are presented to an audience at a constant speed. In the theater it is 24 frames per second, in NTSC (US) Television it is 30 frames per second (29.97 to be exact), in PAL (Europe) television it is 25 frames per second. This speed of presentation does not vary.


title: Cinematography

text: However, by varying the speed at which the image is captured, various effects can be created knowing that the faster or slower recorded image will be played at a constant speed. Giving the cinematographer even more freedom for creativity and expression to be made.


title: Cinematography

text: For instance, time-lapse photography is created by exposing an image at an extremely slow rate. If a cinematographer sets a camera to expose one frame every minute for four hours, and then that footage is projected at 24 frames per second, a four-hour event will take 10 seconds to present, and one can present the events of a whole day (24 hours) in just one minute.