title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: The film was released on DVD with its predecessor as a double-feature collection entitled "Star Wars: Ewok Adventures" on November 23, 2004 via 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. One film was on each side of a single double-sided disc, with no bonus material.


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: In January 2019, Disney and Lucasfilm released "The Battle for Endor" on Amazon Prime Video, where it was available to rent or buy in standard definition. As of December 2019, the film was no longer available through that service.


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: Prior to 2021, Disney announced no plans to add the Ewok films to its streaming service, Disney+. This prompted Eric Walker to start a petition for Disney to add them. In March 2021, it was announced that both films would begin streaming on Disney+ on April 2, 2021.


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: At the 38th Primetime Emmy Awards, "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor" and the CBS documentary "Dinosaur!" were both juried-awarded Emmys for Outstanding Special Visual Effects. The film additionally received two nominations for Outstanding Children's Program and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Special.


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: In his review for "The New York Times" John Corry faulted the production's source of inspiration, saying "The problem with "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor" isn't that it's badly done; on the contrary, it's wonderfully well done. But when it's over it's over, and there is no residue. Mr. Lucas and his colleagues find their inspiration in their own technology, and there should be other places to look."


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: Pointing to the main characters and plot elements, one pair of writers concluded that both "Battle of Endor" and its predecessor "" are fairy tales despite occurring in a science fiction setting. They point to magical phenomena in both films, which is a fantasy element. They argue that in a science fiction story, the hero wants to disrupt or challenge the hierarchy of a supposed "utopian" society; whereas in both Ewok films, society is not challenged or disputed. Additionally, they argue, that while the "Star Wars" saga also has fairy tale tropes, it adhered more towards science fiction. Another author agreed that the films are fairy tales, whereas "Science explains all magic."


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: In contrast to his negative review of its predecessor, Aidan Mason of "Pop Culture Beast" stated the film, "manages to improve on the original" and felt much more like a "Star Wars" film, although he was still critical of the acting.


title: Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

text: Several elements from the film have gone on to appear in other works of the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe, which was declared non-canon and rebranded as "Legends" in 2014.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The transformation of water into wine at the wedding at Cana (also called the marriage at Cana, wedding feast at Cana or marriage feast at Cana) is the first miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: In the Gospel account, Jesus Christ, his mother and his disciples are invited to a wedding. When his mother notices that the wine has run out, Jesus delivers a sign of his divinity by turning water into wine at her request. The location of Cana has been subject to debate among biblical scholars and archaeologists; several villages in Galilee are possible candidates.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The account is taken as evidence of Christ’s approval of marriage and earthly celebrations, and has also been used as an argument against teetotalism.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: John 2:1–11 states that Jesus was at a wedding ("seudat nissuin") in Cana with his disciples. Jesus' mother (unnamed in the Gospel of John) told Jesus, "They have no wine," and Jesus replied, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother then said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:3–5). Jesus ordered the servants to fill containers with water and to draw out some and take it to the chief steward (waiter). After tasting it, without knowing where it came from, the steward remarked to the bridegroom that he had departed from the custom of serving the best wine first by serving it last (John 2:6–10). John adds that: "Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and it revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him" (John 2:11).


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The Wedding Feast takes place in Cana shortly after the call of Philip and Nathanael. According to John 21:2, Cana was Nathanael's hometown.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Although none of the synoptic Gospels mentions the wedding at Cana, Christian tradition based on John 2:11 holds that this is the first public miracle of Jesus. It is considered to have symbolic importance as the first of the seven signs in the Gospel of John by which Jesus' divine status is attested, and around which the gospel is structured. Jesus will later return to Cana, where John 4:46–54 describes him healing a Capernaum official's young son; the second sign in the Gospel of John.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The story has had considerable importance in the development of Roman Catholic theology. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen thought that it is very likely that it was one of Mary's relatives who was being married. This would mean Mary and her relatives would be embarrassed if they appeared inhospitable by running out of wine, giving Mary a reason to ask Jesus to intervene. Sheen further suggests that as Jesus arrived with additional guests, they may have contributed to the wines running short. When his mother advises Jesus that their hosts are running out of wine, he says "Woman, what has this to do with me?" Sheen sees an echo of the Protevangelium of Genesis 3:15 "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers", marking the commencement of Jesus' redemptive ministry. Jesus will again address her as "Woman" in John 19:26, when he entrusts his mother to his disciple John, "Woman, behold, your son."


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The gospel account of Jesus being invited to a wedding, attending, and using his divine power to save the celebrations from disaster are taken as evidence of his approval for marriage and earthly celebrations. It has also been used as an argument against the teetotalism practiced among certain Protestant Christian sects.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Interpreted allegorically, the good news and hope implied by the story are in the words of the steward of the Feast when he tasted the good wine, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now" (John 2:10, RSV). This could be interpreted by saying simply that it is always darkest before the dawn, but good things are on the way. The more usual interpretation, however, is that this is a reference to the appearance of Jesus, whom the author of the Fourth Gospel regards as being himself "the good wine". According to Bill Day, the miracle may also be interpreted as the antitype of Moses' first public miracle of . This would establish a symbolic link between Moses as the first saviour of the Jews through their escape from Egypt and Jesus as the spiritual saviour of all people.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Some commentators have speculated about the identity of the unnamed bridegroom. One tradition, represented by Thomas Aquinas among others, holds that the bridegroom was St John the Evangelist himself. Bishop John Spong suggests in his book "Born of a Woman" that the event was the wedding of Jesus himself to Mary Magdalene. In 1854, at a time when polygamy was an element of mainstream practice of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Latter-day Saint elder Orson Hyde made a similar suggestion, arguing that Jesus was a polygamist and that the event at Cana was his wedding to Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary of Bethany. However, the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene is usually dismissed by scholars as pseudohistorical.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Studying Jesus in comparative mythology, the story of the transformation of water into wine bears some resemblance to a number of stories that were told about the ancient Greek god Dionysus, who among others was said to fill empty barrels that had been left locked inside a temple overnight with wine. However, scholars generally agree that the Gospel of John was written by a community of Jewish Christians who had recently been excommunicated by the local synagogue for recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, leading some to conclude that it would be making it unlikely the possibility that the Gospel was influenced by ancient Greek mythology. Bart Ehrman argues that the idea that the image of Jesus was influenced by ancient pagan mythology is usually dismissed by scholars as a fringe theory.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The view of the valley view looking out towards Nazareth, from Khirbet Qana, would have predominantly been of grape vines, as archeologists have found evidence of first century wine production. The early 6th century writer Antoninus Placentinus observed about Nazareth in his day: "it excels in wine and oil, fruits and honey." So, if a miracle of turning water into wine had actually occurred at the site it would have likely have had allegorical significance for observers familiar with Greek mythology.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The German theologian Friedrich Justus Knecht (d. 1921) points out three lessons that are to be drawn from this account at Cana: 1) "The power of Mary's intercession. " "This first miracle, which confirmed the faith of our Lord’s disciples, was wrought at Mary’s intercession, for it was by her persuasion that He first manifested His glory by a striking miracle at Cana instead of at Jerusalem. Let us contemplate Mary’s compassion on the distress of the poor bride and bridegroom, her living faith in the omnipotence of Jesus, and her confidence in His goodness." 2) "Matrimony." "By His presence at the marriage-feast of Cana Jesus honoured and sanctified marriage, which had already been instituted in Paradise." 3) "Lawful pleasures." "The fact of our Lord taking part in the marriage-feast teaches us that it is lawful and pleasing to God that we should take part in innocent recreations and harmless pleasures, rejoicing with those who rejoice."


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The exact location of "Cana in Galilee" (, ) has been subject to debate among scholars. Modern scholars maintain that since the Gospel of John was addressed to Jewish Christians of the time, it is unlikely that the evangelist would mention a place that did not exist. However, Dominican scholar Jerome Murphy-O'Connor cautions that Cana is a very common name, with no known text offering any clue as to which of the dozen towns going by the name would be the correct one, and calls the common choice of Kafr Qanna near Nazareth "probably just a pious guess".


title: Wedding at Cana

text: According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1914, a tradition dating back to the 8th century identifies Cana with the modern Arab town of Kafr Kanna, in Galilee, about northeast of Nazareth, in today's Israel.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The ruined village of Khirbet Qana (Kanet el-Jelil), about 6 miles () further north, is an option presented as certain by William F. Albright in 1923, whose name "Qana" is also etymologically closer to Cana than "Kanna".


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Some Lebanese Christians, especially the Lebanese Melkites (Greek Catholics), supported by their Church, believe the southern Lebanese village of Qana to have been the actual location of this event.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: The spring of 'Ain Kanah ("Kanah Spring") near the village of Reineh, immediately northeast of Nazareth, has been proposed as an equally likely site by Conder in 1878, but has little going for it and has been rejected in more recent scholarship as a candidate.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Many throughout history have sought to recover the lost jars. On December 21, 2004, archaeologists reported finding in Kafr Kanna "pieces of large stone jars of the type the Gospel says Jesus used when he turned water into wine". But American scientists excavating the rival site of Khirbet Qana north of it, also claimed to have found pieces of stone jars from the time of Jesus. Fellow archaeologist Shimon Gibson cast doubt on the value of such finds for identifying the town meant by John, since such vessels are not rare and it would be impossible to link a particular set of vessels to the miracle. "Just the existence of stone vessels is not enough to prove that this is a biblical site." Several stone jars of the type described by the Gospel of John were found for instance in Jerusalem: "At least six of them stood in the basement kitchen of the [first-century CE] 'Burnt house'. They were shaped and finished on a very big lathe, given a pedestal foot and simple decoration. Such stone jars would hold large quantities of water for washing and kitchen needs. Flat discs of stone served as lids. The jars at Cana may have been similar to these", wrote Alan Millard.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: In the journal "Biblical Archaeology Review", Michael Homan argued that biblical scholars had misinterpreted early texts, translating to 'wine' when the more sensible translation would have been 'beer'. However, this has been dismissed by other writers, who pointed out that the Greek always means wine, and that the word was available if the gospel author wanted to refer to barley beer.


title: Wedding at Cana

text: Sixth-century Irish missionary Saint Columba of Iona supposedly performed an identical miracle when he served as a deacon in Ireland under Finnian of Movilla, replenishing the supply of sacramental wine for a mass.


title: Muscle memory

text: Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, the brain creates a long-term muscle memory for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Muscle memory is found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding bikes, driving motor vehicles, playing ball sports, typing on keyboards, entering PINs, playing musical instruments, poker, martial arts, and dancing.


title: Muscle memory

text: The origins of research for the acquisition of motor skills stem from philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Galen. After the break from tradition of the pre-1900s view of introspection, psychologists emphasized research and more scientific methods in observing behaviours. Thereafter, numerous studies exploring the role of motor learning were conducted. Such studies included the research of handwriting, and various practice methods to maximize motor learning.


title: Muscle memory

text: The retention of motor skills, now referred to as muscle memory, also began to be of great interest in the early 1900s. Most motor skills are thought to be acquired through practice; however, more observation of the skill has led to learning as well. Research suggests we do not start off with a blank slate with regard to motor memory although we do learn most of our motor memory repertoire during our lifetime. Movements such as facial expressions, which are thought to be learned, can actually be observed in children who are blind; thus there is some evidence for motor memory being genetically pre-wired.


title: Muscle memory

text: In the early stages of empirical research of motor memory Edward Thorndike, a leading pioneer in the study of motor memory, was among the first to acknowledge learning can occur without conscious awareness. One of the earliest and most notable studies regarding the retention of motor skills was by Hill, Rejall, and Thorndike, who showed savings in relearning typing skills after a 25-year period with no practice. Findings related to the retention of learned motor skills have been continuously replicated in studies, suggesting that through subsequent practice, motor learning is stored in the brain as memory. This is why performing skills such as riding a bike or driving a car are effortlessly and 'subconsciously' executed, even if someone had not performed these skills in a long period of time.


title: Muscle memory

text: When first learning a motor task, movement is often slow, stiff and easily disrupted without attention. With practice, execution of motor task becomes smoother, there is a decrease in limb stiffness, and muscle activity, necessary to the task, is performed without conscious effort.


title: Muscle memory

text: The neuroanatomy of memory is widespread throughout the brain; however, the pathways important to motor memory are separate from the medial temporal lobe pathways associated with declarative memory. As with declarative memory, motor memory is theorized to have two stages: a short-term memory encoding stage, which is fragile and susceptible to damage, and a long-term memory consolidation stage, which is more stable.


title: Muscle memory

text: The memory encoding stage is often referred to as motor learning, and requires an increase in brain activity in motor areas as well as an increase in attention. Brain areas active during motor learning include the motor and somatosensory cortices; however, these areas of activation decrease once the motor skill is learned. The prefrontal and frontal cortices are also active during this stage due to the need for increased attention on the task being learned.


title: Muscle memory

text: The main area involved in motor learning is the cerebellum. Some models of cerebellar-dependent motor learning, in particular the Marr-Albus model, propose a single plasticity mechanism involving the cerebellar long-term depression (LTD) of the parallel fiber synapses onto Purkinje cells. These modifications in synapse activity would mediate motor input with motor outputs critical to inducing motor learning. However, conflicting evidence suggests that a single plasticity mechanism is not sufficient and a multiple plasticity mechanism is needed to account for the storage of motor memories over time. Regardless of the mechanism, studies of cerebellar-dependent motor tasks show that cerebral cortical plasticity is crucial for motor learning, even if not necessarily for storage.


title: Muscle memory

text: The basal ganglia also play an important role in memory and learning, in particular in reference to stimulus-response associations and the formation of habits. The basal ganglia-cerebellar connections are thought to increase with time when learning a motor task.


title: Muscle memory

text: Muscle memory consolidation involves the continuous evolution of neural processes after practicing a task has stopped. The exact mechanism of motor memory consolidation within the brain is controversial. However, most theories assume that there is a general redistribution of information across the brain from encoding to consolidation. Hebb's rule states that "synaptic connectivity changes as a function of repetitive firing." In this case, that would mean that the high amount of stimulation coming from practicing a movement would cause the repetition of firing in certain motor networks, presumably leading to an increase in the efficiency of exciting these motor networks over time.


title: Muscle memory

text: While the exact location of muscle memory storage is not known, studies have suggested that it is the inter-regional connections that play the most important role in advancing motor memory encoding to consolidation, rather than decreases in overall regional activity. These studies have shown a weakened connection from the cerebellum to the primary motor area with practice, it is presumed, because of a decreased need for error correction from the cerebellum. However, the connection between the basal ganglia and the primary motor area is strengthened, suggesting the basal ganglia play an important role in the motor memory consolidation process.


title: Muscle memory

text: When participating in any sport, new motor skills and movement combinations are frequently being used and repeated. All sports require some degree of strength, endurance training, and skilled reaching in order to be successful in the required tasks. Muscle memory related to strength training involves elements of both motor learning, described below, and long-lasting changes in the muscle tissue.


title: Muscle memory

text: Evidence has shown that increases in strength occur well before muscle hypertrophy, and decreases in strength due to detraining or ceasing to repeat the exercise over an extended period of time precede muscle atrophy. To be specific, strength training enhances motor neuron excitability and induces synaptogenesis, both of which would help in enhancing communication between the nervous system and the muscles themselves. However, neuromuscular efficacy is not altered within a two-week time period following cessation of the muscle usage; instead, it is merely the neuron's ability to excite the muscle that declines in correlation with the muscle's decrease in strength. This confirms that muscle strength is first influenced by the inner neural circuitry, rather than by external physiological changes in the muscle size.


title: Muscle memory

text: Previously untrained muscles acquire newly formed nuclei by fusion of satellite cells preceding the hypertrophy. Subsequent detraining leads to atrophy but no loss of myo-nuclei. The elevated number of nuclei in muscle fibers that had experienced a hypertrophic episode would provide a mechanism for muscle memory, explaining the long-lasting effects of training and the ease with which previously trained individuals are more easily retrained.


title: Muscle memory

text: On subsequent detraining, the fibers maintain an elevated number of nuclei that might provide resistance to atrophy; on retraining, a gain in size can be


title: Muscle memory

text: obtained by a moderate increase in the protein synthesis rate of each of these many nuclei, skipping the step of adding newly formed nuclei. This shortcut may contribute to the relative ease of retraining compared with the first training of individuals with no


title: Muscle memory

text: Reorganization of motor maps within the cortex are not altered in either strength or endurance training. However, within the motor cortex, endurance induces angiogenesis within as little as three weeks to increase blood flow to the involved regions. In addition, neurotropic factors within the motor cortex are upregulated in response to endurance training to promote neural survival.


title: Muscle memory

text: Skilled motor tasks have been divided into two distinct phases: a fast-learning phase, in which an optimal plan for performance is established, and a slow-learning phase, in which longer-term structural modifications are made on specific motor modules. Even a small amount of training may be enough to induce neural processes that continue to evolve even after the training has stopped, which provides a potential basis for consolidation of the task. In addition, studying mice while they are learning a new complex reaching task, has found that "motor learning leads to rapid formation of dendritic spines (spinogenesis) in the motor cortex contralateral to the reaching forelimb". However, motor cortex reorganization itself does not occur at a uniform rate across training periods. It has been suggested that the synaptogenesis and motor map reorganization merely represent the consolidation, and not the acquisition itself, of a specific motor task. Furthermore, the degree of plasticity in various locations (namely motor cortex versus spinal cord) is dependent on the behavioural demands and nature of the task (i.e., skilled reaching versus strength training).


title: Muscle memory

text: Whether strength or endurance related, it is plausible that the majority of motor movements would require a skilled moving task of some form, whether it be maintaining proper form when paddling a canoe, sitting with a neutral posture, or bench pressing a heavier weight. Endurance training assists the formation of these new neural representations within the motor cortex by up regulating neurotropic factors that could enhance the survival of the newer neural maps formed due to the skilled movement training. Strength training results are seen in the spinal cord well before any physiological muscular adaptation is established through muscle hypertrophy or atrophy. The results of endurance and strength training, and skilled reaching, therefore, combine to help each other maximize performance output.


title: Muscle memory

text: More recently, research has suggested that epigenetics may play a distinct role in orchestrating a muscle memory phenomenon Indeed, previously untrained human participants experienced a chronic period of resistance exercise training (7 weeks) that evoked significant increases in skeletal muscle mass of the vastus lateralis muscle, in the quadriceps muscle group. Following a similar period of physical in-activity (7 weeks), where strength and muscle mass returned to baseline, participants performed a secondary period of resistance exercise. Importantly, these participants adapted in an enhanced manner, whereby the amount of skeletal muscle mass gained was greater in the second period of muscle growth than the first, suggesting a muscle memory concept. The researchers went on to examine the human epigenome in order to understand how DNA methylation may aid in creating this effect. During the first period of resistance exercise, the authors identify significant adaptations in the human methylome, whereby over 9,000 CpG sites were reported as being significantly hypomethylated, with these adaptations being sustained during the subsequent period of physical in-activity. However, upon secondary exposure to resistance exercise, a greater frequency of hypomethylated CpG sites was observed, where over 18,000 sites reported as being significantly hypomethylated. The authors went on to identify how these changes altered the expression of relevant transcripts, and subsequently correlated these changes with adaptations in skeletal muscle mass. Collectively, the authors conclude that skeletal muscle mass and muscle memory phenomenon is, at least in part, modulated due to changes in DNA methylation. Further work is now needed to confirm and explore these findings.


title: Muscle memory

text: Fine motor skills are often discussed in terms of transitive movements, which are those done when using tools (which could be as simple as a tooth brush or pencil). Transitive movements have representations that become programmed to the premotor cortex, creating motor programs that result in the activation of the motor cortex and therefore the motor movements. In a study testing the motor memory of patterned finger movements (a fine motor skill) it was found that retention of certain skills is susceptible to disruption if another task interferes with one's motor memory. However, such susceptibility can be reduced with time. For example, if a finger pattern is learned and another finger pattern is learned six hours later, the first pattern will still be remembered. But attempting to learn two such patterns one immediately after the other could cause the first one to be forgotten. Furthermore, the heavy use of computers by recent generations has had both positive and negative effects. One of the main positive effects is an enhancement of children's fine motor skills. Repetitive behaviors, such as typing on a computer from a young age, can enhance such abilities. Therefore, children who learn to use computer keyboards at an early age could benefit from the early muscle memories.


title: Muscle memory

text: Fine motor skills are very important in playing musical instruments. It was found that muscle memory is relied on when playing the clarinet, specifically to help create special effects through certain tongue movements when blowing air into the instrument.


title: Muscle memory

text: Certain human behaviours, especially actions like the finger movements in musical performances, are very complex and require many interconnected neural networks where information can be transmitted across multiple brain regions. It has been found that there are often functional differences in the brains of professional musicians, when compared to other individuals. This is thought to reflect the musician's innate ability, which may be fostered by an early exposure to musical training. An example of this is bimanual synchronized finger movements, which play an essential role in piano playing. It is suggested that bimanual coordination can come only from years of bimanual training, where such actions become adaptations of the motor areas. When comparing professional musicians to a control group in complex bimanual movements, professionals are found to use an extensive motor network much less than those non-professionals. This is because professionals rely on a motor system that has increased efficiency, and, therefore, those less trained have a network that is more strongly activated. It is implied that the untrained pianists have to invest more neuronal activity to have the same level of performance that is achieved by professionals. This, yet again, is said to be a consequence of many years of motor training and experience that helps form a fine motor memory skill of musical performance.


title: Muscle memory

text: It is often reported that, when a pianist hears a well-trained piece of music, synonymous fingering can be involuntarily triggered. This implies that there is a coupling between the perception of music and the motor activity of those musically trained individuals. Therefore, one's muscle memory in the context of music can easily be triggered when one hears certain familiar pieces. Overall, long-term musical fine motor training allows for complex actions to be performed at a lower level of movement control, monitoring, selection, attention, and timing. This leaves room for musicians to focus attention synchronously elsewhere, such as on the artistic aspect of the performance, without having to consciously control one's fine motor actions.


title: Muscle memory

text: Speed cubers use muscle memory when attempting to solve puzzle cubes, such as the Rubik's Cube, in the fastest possible time. Solving these puzzles in an optimally efficient manner requires the cube to be manipulated according to a set of complex algorithms. By building their muscle memory of each algorithm's movements, speed cubers can implement them at very fast speeds without conscious effort. This plays a role in major speedcubing methods such as Fridrich for the 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube and EG for the 2×2×2 Pocket cube.


title: Muscle memory

text: Gross motor skills are concerned with the movement of large muscles, or major body movements, such as those involved in walking or kicking, and are associated with normal development. The extent to which one exhibits gross motor skills depends largely on their muscle tone and the strength. In a study looking at people with Down Syndrome, it was found that the pre-existing deficits, with regard to verbal-motor performance, limits the individual's transfer of gross motor skills following visual and verbal instruction to verbal instruction only. The fact that the individuals could still exhibit two of the three original motor skills may have been a result of positive transfer in which previous exposure allows the individual to remember the motion, under the visual and verbal trial, and then later perform it under the verbal trial.


title: Muscle memory

text: The way in which a child learns a gross motor skill can affect how long it takes to consolidate it and be able to reproduce the movement. In a study with preschoolers, looking at the role of self-instruction on acquiring complex gross motor chains using ballet positions, it was found that the motor skills were better learned and remembered with the self-instruction procedure over the no-self-instruction procedure. This suggests that the use of self-instruction will increase the speed with which a preschooler will learn and remember a gross motor skill. It was also found that once the preschoolers learned and mastered the motor chain movements, they ceased the use of self-instruction. This suggests that the memory for the movements became strong enough that there was no longer a need for self-instruction and the movements could be reproduced without it.


title: Muscle memory

text: It has been suggested that consistent practice of a gross motor skill can help a patient with Alzheimer's disease learn and remember that skill. It was thought that the damage to the hippocampus may result in the need for a specific type of learning requirement. A study was created to test this assumption in which the patients were trained to throw a bean bag at a target. It was found that the Alzheimer's patients performed better on the task when learning occurred under constant training as opposed to variable. Also, it was found that gross motor memory in Alzheimer's patients was the same as that of healthy adults when learning occurs under constant practice. This suggests that damage to the hippocampal system does not impair an Alzheimer's patient from retaining new gross motor skills, implying that motor memory for gross motor skills is stored elsewhere in the brain. However there isn't much evidence provided on this.


title: Muscle memory

text: It is difficult to display cases of "pure" motor memory impairment because the memory system is so widespread throughout the brain that damage is not often isolated to one specific type of memory. Likewise, diseases commonly associated with motor deficits, such as Huntington's and Parkinson's disease, have a wide variety of symptoms and associated brain damage that make it impossible to pinpoint whether or not motor memory is in fact impaired. Case studies have provided some examples of how motor memory has been implemented in patients with brain damage.


title: Muscle memory

text: As Edward S. Casey notes in Remembering, Second Edition: A Phenomenological Study, declarative memory, a process that involves an initial fragile learning period. "The activity of the past, in short, resides in its habitual enactment in the present."


title: Muscle memory

text: A recent issue in motor memory is whether or not it consolidates in a manner similar to declarative memory, a process that involves an initial fragile learning period that eventually becomes stable and less susceptible to damage over time. An example of stable motor memory consolidation in a patient with brain damage is the case of Clive Wearing. Clive has severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia owing to damage in his temporal lobes, frontal lobes, and hippocampi, which prevents him from storing any new memories and making him aware of only the present moment. However, Clive still retains access to his procedural memories, to be specific, the motor memories involved in playing the piano. This could be because motor memory is demonstrated through savings over several trials of learning, whereas declarative memory is demonstrated through recall of a single item. This suggests that lesions in certain brain areas normally associated with declarative memory would not affect motor memory for a well-learned skill.


title: Muscle memory

text: This patient was diagnosed with a pure form of dysgraphia of letters, meaning he had no other speech or reading impairments. His impairment was specific to letters in the alphabet. He was able to copy letters from the alphabet, but he was not able to write these letters. He had previously been rated average on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale's vocabulary subtest for writing ability comparative to his age before his diagnosis. His writing impairment consisted of difficulty remembering motor movements associated with the letters he was supposed to write. He was able to copy the letters, and also form images that were similar to the letters. This suggests that dysgraphia for letters is a deficit related to motor memory. Somehow there is a distinct process within the brain related to writing letters, which is dissociated from copying and drawing letter-like items.


title: Blackswan

text: Blackswan (Korean: 블랙스완; stylized as BLACKSWAN) is a South Korean-based multinational girl group formed by DR Music. As of July 2022, the group consists of Fatou, Leia, Gabi and Sriya.


title: Blackswan

text: They originally debuted under the name Rania (라니아) in 2011 with EP "Teddy Riley, the First Expansion In Asia". In December 2016, the group reformed as BP Rania (BP 라니아, acronym of Black Pearl Rania) and released two EPs "Start a Fire" and "Refresh 7th". The group later returned to the name Rania in 2018 before eventually rebranding as Blackswan in October 2020 with their debut album "Goodbye Rania".


title: Blackswan

text: The group was originally set to debut in mid-2010 as the third generation of Baby V.O.X. However, their record company DR Music decided to rebrand them as a new group named Rania (short for “Regeneration Idol of Asia”) with eight members: Saem (later known as Yina), Lucy (later known as Jooyi), Sarah, Riko, Joy, Di, T-ae, and Xia. T-ae, Riko, and Yina were chosen to star alongside former 2PM member Jay Park in his movie "Hype Nation", which caused DR Music to delay the group's debut. At the beginning of 2011, Sarah decided to leave the group and was replaced by Chinese trainee Yijo.


title: Blackswan

text: Rania made their debut in April 2011 as an eight-member group consisting of Saem, Jooyi, Riko, Joy, Yijo, Di, T-ae and Xia. After the album's release, Yijo revealed that she had left the group. She did not attend the debut performances due to issues with a work visa. On April 6, Rania performed on KBS' "Music Bank", with the EP "Teddy Riley, the First Expansion In Asia" and its title track "Dr Feel Good", composed by Teddy Riley. The song was originally given to Lady Gaga. The music video and live performances were controversial in South Korea as some viewers felt that the group's image was too provocative. As a result, Rania was forced to change its choreography and make minor changes to the outfits. After the promotion of "Dr Feel Good", the group returned in June with its first digital single "Masquerade", also composed by Riley. Despite having planned an American debut, the group made no advancements. Shortly afterwards Riley announced that he would have nothing more to do with the group after falling out with their record label, releasing a statement saying:


title: Blackswan

text: The group released their second EP, "Time to Rock da Show", on November 16, 2011. The music video for its title track, "Pop Pop Pop", written by Brave Brothers, was revealed four days later. On 30 May 2012, Rania performed a new song named "Killer" at the Dream Concert.


title: Blackswan

text: In June 2012, Joy announced that she left the group, but DR Music claimed she was on hiatus because her parents' house in Thailand had been affected in the flood that occurred around the time of the release. Joy deleted her official Rania Twitter account soon after, but not before writing a post saying:


title: Blackswan

text: Rania then made a comeback on September 16 with the second digital single "Style", whose music video was revealed on September 20. Jooyi did not appear in the comeback, though DR Music claimed she was still a member of the group.


title: Blackswan

text: Rania released the lead single "Just Go" on March 8, 2013, along with their first studio album, also titled "Just Go (Goodbye's the New Hello)". Riko did not participate in this release. They also announced they would debut in America in summer 2013. Empire Records was to handle the girls' distribution while Fireworks was to handle their American management. Larry Rudolph and Adam Leber, two of Britney Spears' managers, were expected to be Rania's managers throughout their U.S. promotions. Starting May 21, Rania began filming for their MTV reality show "Road to Fame" in Los Angeles and other cities across the U.S. The show would feature the group's preparations for their U.S. debut and would air for three months. It was also revealed that the album would feature collaborations with both Snoop Dogg and 2 Chainz. However, Rania's American debut was delayed again in June. In the meantime, the group filmed a commercial film for Woongjin Waterpark Play°C and released a special digital single titled "Up" for fans on July 5; Riko was absent again.


title: Blackswan

text: In May 2014, the group signed with Spanish label INGENIOmedia and confirmed they would have a comeback in July with "Acceleration", with a second round of promotions in September, but the material was never finalized, The label also confirmed that they were looking for a new and sixth member to replace Riko, who had been not participating from the group since "Just Go". Following an incident where a staffer at INGENIOmedia leaked Rania's comeback track to a sasaeng fan, the company severed ties with the group, stating they were "taking too long". INGENIOMedia later released a statement saying that they were not looking for a member to replace Riko, apologizing for any confusion, and said that any news on member changes would have to come from Rania's company.


title: Blackswan

text: In late 2014, the agency released a statement on Saem's possible departure; fans noticed that she had not participated in all the activities and touring, and deactivated all of her social media accounts as well, which sparked the rumors that she left the group. The agency denied the statement, then on the same day it announced Riko's departure to focus on her university studies:


title: Blackswan

text: In January 2015, fans noticed that Jooyi had not made any public appearances with the group, to which DR Music replied that she was on hiatus. Soon afterwards Sharon announced that she had left the group to focus on her modeling career.


title: Blackswan

text: In July of that year, the group made an appearance with two new members, Seulji and Hyeme. In October, they were announced to be making a comeback as a six-member group on November 6 with their third EP "Demonstrate". On November 3, Seulji and Hyeme were officially revealed as new members and it was announced that "Demonstrate" would feature African-American rapper Alexandra Reid, who is the first black woman to be an official member of a South Korean girl group. On November 4, DR Music confirmed that Reid would be joining the group, and confirmed Saem and Jooyi's departures.


title: Blackswan

text: DR Music sent out a letter to fans announcing their Makestar project, informing them that Rania's comeback had been pushed back to August 2016 and that they were working on a Hyeme and Alex sub-unit instead. However, on July 13, 2016, Makestar announced that due to repeated failed attempts to contact DR Music about the project's progress and "the continued irresponsible behavior and stance taken by the Rania project creator, and [their] unwillingness to ignore the inconvenience this [was] causing to the project participants", the project was terminated and all money returned to the fans.


title: Blackswan

text: On May 26, it was revealed that the last three original members of the group (Di, T-ae and Xia) chose not to renew their contracts and left the group for a new label, Enter Hama. They announced their plans to redebut as "Ela8te", though these plans fell through.


title: Blackswan

text: On June 26, Rania performed at a Chinese event with three DR Music trainees: Jian, Jieun (a former member of LPG), and Crystal. On August 15, 2016, Alex announced that she was the group's new leader. On October 25, they performed with two DR Music trainees (Ttabo and Hyeonji) at the 2016 Seoul ICARUS Drone International Film Festival. Two days later, DR Music stated that they would choose new Rania members out of the seven DR Music trainees. On December 23, 2016, DR Music revealed a teaser image for "BP Rania" ("Black Pearl" Rania, in reference to Alex's darker skin tone) and hinted a comeback as a seven-member group. On December 24, an image teaser for Hyeme and new member Jieun were revealed. On 25 December, Zi.U (formerly known as Seulji) and new member Yumin's teaser images were revealed. On December 26, DR Music revealed teaser images for Alex and new Chinese member Ttabo. It was reported that former member Saem rejoined the group two years after her departure in late 2014, and changed her stage name to Yina. On December 27, DR Music revealed the last teaser image for Saem, confirming that she had re-joined the group. The single "Start a Fire" was released on December 30, 2016, along with their fourth EP of the same name. DR Music said "Through Spanish company INGENIOmedia, the song will be available in more than 60 countries around the world."


title: Blackswan

text: On February 10, 2017, DR Music announced that BP Rania would start promotions for their second song "Make Me Ah" from the "Start a Fire" EP, on February 14. It was also announced that this would be the first time that Alex would take part in the entire choreography.


title: Blackswan

text: On February 21, DR Music revealed that they were approached by a "well established production company" with an acting opportunity for Alex, to which they responded by releasing a statement saying that they hoped that fans could understand the benefits of this opportunity, and that the opportunity would "allow the group to gain exposure and help BP Rania's success by expanding their fan base." DR Music assured the fans that Alex would remain a fully active member of BP Rania, and would return to her regular schedules after she returned to Korea. Around the same time INGENIOMedia announced that on February 28, they were opening preorders for BP Rania's first compilation album "Rania Legends", comprising songs from "Dr Feel Good" to "Start a Fire", with the requirement that 100 preorders be made before they began manufacturing the albums. As well, they stated that all money raised would be dedicated to the production of a mini documentary titled "20 Days With BP RaNia", with any leftover money invested in the production of BP RaNia's next release. The release was eventually cancelled and pre-orders refunded, but INGENIOmedia said that all songs would be re-recorded by BP RaNia and included as a bonus CD and DVD in their next release instead.


title: Blackswan

text: On May 12, DR Music announced that they were looking for three to four new members to start BP Rania W, a worldwide group that would promote alongside the current members of BP Rania. At the end of March, Yina revealed that she had left the group again, and the agency later confirmed her departure from the group to focus on acting.


title: Blackswan

text: BP Rania continued as a six-member group, releasing their fifth EP "Refresh 7th" on August 12, with title track "Beep Beep Beep". Promotions became controversial when fans and viewers noticed that Alex had few lines and spent the majority of the performance standing to the side while the remaining five members continued to dance and sing. When fans asked the company to clarify, the choreographer responded "[Alex] said she won't do it because she's a rapper", to which Alex replied via Twitter "If these lies keep magically surfacing, I'll go ahead and come out with the truth. Let it really hit the fan." DR Music then issued a statement saying "The rumors that Alexandra was not willing, able, or present at practice to participate in the full choreography are false. Her level of talent is surpassed only by her work ethic and dedication to the team. It is for those reasons that we gave her the position of leader."


title: Blackswan

text: On September 13, it was announced that the group would be making a comeback with "Breathe Heavy" from their "Refresh 7th" EP.


title: Blackswan

text: In January 2018, DR Music issued a statement stating Ttabo was filming a movie in China, after fans noticed that she had missed several appearances with the group. On May 31, DR Music announced Yumin's departure from the group due to her having "recently been faced with circumstances that make it increasingly hard for her to follow the extremely demanding team schedule". It was also announced that the group would make a comeback in June and release a "Best Of" album in August, but neither event occurred. Soon afterwards it was announced that Yumin and former Topp Dogg member P-Goon had married and were expecting a child; the pair has since divorced.


title: Blackswan

text: On June 28, it was announced that a new member named Namfon had joined the group, making her the group's second Thai member. She made her first appearance on Rania's Malaysia tour.


title: Blackswan

text: On November 7, when asked via SNS by fans if she was still a member, Ttabo stated that she was an “ex-celebrity”. Shortly afterwards, fans noticed that every remaining member of the group had removed "Rania" from their social media accounts and that the company had unfollowed some of the members, leading to rumors that DR Music as a company had gone bankrupt and defunct and the group had unofficially disbanded.


title: Blackswan

text: On August 18, 2019, Rania announced via their official Instagram account that they would be performing in Romania from September 4–5 with three new members, although the names and faces of the three were not announced yet. Fans began speculating that this meant Zi.U and Jieun had left the group. On August 28, the group's official YouTube account uploaded a video promoting its Romanian performance as well as revealing the three new members as Seunghyun, Larissa, and ex-Stellar member Youngheun, as well as confirming the departures of Jieun, Zi.U and Ttabo.


title: Blackswan

text: On June 26, 2020, Hyeme announced through DR Music's social media pages that the Rania members at that time (except Seunghyun) would rebrand as B.S, which was later changed to Blackswan.


title: Blackswan

text: On July 7, 2020, the group was appointed as ambassadors of Pyeongchang-gun, alongside K-TIGERS ZERO, to promote the county. The news also revealed two new members: Judy and Fatou.


title: Blackswan

text: During a Channel A news broadcast, Blackswan participated in a news story on how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting the K-pop industry, and revealed that their debut had been postponed indefinitely. On October 9, 2020, Blackswan's social media pages announced that they'd be making their debut with the full album "Goodbye Rania" on October 16, 2020. The lead single was titled "Tonight".


title: Blackswan

text: On November 9, 2020, Hyeme was involved in a scandal in which it was revealed that she'd allegedly scammed a friend out of 50 million KRW (approximately US$44,800). On November 10, DR Music announced Hyeme would leave Blackswan due to the expiration of her five-year contract. They also announced that, due to the aforementioned controversy, Blackswan would be going on a brief hiatus.


title: Blackswan

text: On March 6, 2021, Blackswan was revealed to have started a Korean Travel Series in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center of Belgium.


title: Blackswan

text: On January 28, 2022, DR Music unveiled two trainees, Sriya Lenka from India, and Gabi Dalcin from Brazil, stating that only one of them would be joining Blackswan as the group's official fifth member. However, on May 26, 2022, both trainees were introduced as new members of Blackswan, as part of the label's Cygnus initiative.


title: Blackswan

text: On July 31, 2022, DR Music announced the departures of Youngheun and Judy from Blackswan. On August 19, Fatou mentioned that the group was preparing to release new material during an interview with Teen Vogue.


title: Blackswan

text: On November 9, it was announced that Leia would be going on hiatus for health related reasons while the group would move forward with their next comeback.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: Tang Sanzang () is a central character in the 16th century novel "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng'en. Tang Sanzang is based on the historical Buddhist monk Xuanzang. He is also widely known by his courtesy name, Tang Seng, () or Sanzang ().


title: Tang Sanzang

text: The title "Sanzang" refers to his mission to seek the "Sanzangjing", or the "Three Collections of (Buddhist) Scriptures". In some English translations of "Journey to the West", the title is rendered as Tripitaka which is the original Sanskrit term for the "Sanzangjing". His name Tang Sanzang reflects his status as an oath brother of Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: In the novel, Tang Sanzang is a Chinese Buddhist monk who is actually a reincarnation of Golden Cicada (), a disciple of the Buddha.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: Tang Sanzang is originally the posthumous son of Tang Palace Graduate Chen Guangrui and the Prime Minister's daughter, Yin Wenjiao. After being awarded the first place in a national examination, Chen Guangrui is appointed Prefect of Jiangzhou. While on his way to take office, he is murdered by a ferryman named Liu Hong, who also abducts his wife and takes his place as Prefect. When Chen's son is born, Yin Wenjiao puts the baby on a wooden board and sets him floating adrift down the Yangzi River, out of fear of him being killed by Liu Hong. The baby reaches a monastery and is found by the Abbot, who names him Xuanzang and raises him as a Buddhist novice. When Xuanzang turns 18, he is reunited with his father, whose body was saved by the Dragon King of River Hong; together they look for Yin Wenjiao and bring Liu Hong to justice.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: He is sent by the Emperor Taizong on a mission to Tianzhu (an ancient Chinese name for India) to fetch a set of Buddhist scriptures back to China for the purpose of spreading Buddhism in his native land. He becomes sworn brothers with the Emperor of the Tang dynasty, and the emperor sees him off from the capital Chang'an with two escorts to accompany him.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: Tang Sanzang is helpless at defending himself and his two escorts are killed during his first encounter with demons after his departure from Chang'an. The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) helps Tang Sanzang find three powerful supernatural beings – Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing (a monkey, pig and fish spirit respectively) – to aid and protect him on his journey. The three become Tang Sanzang's disciples and receive enlightenment and redemption for their past sins once the pilgrimage is complete.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: Along the journey, Tang Sanzang is constantly terrorised by monsters and demons due to a legend which says that one can attain immortality by consuming his flesh because he is a reincarnation of a holy being. One of his disciples is caught by a monster, and the other falls into the Tongtian River, also known as the River of Communion with Heaven.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: Tang Sanzang is modeled after the historical Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang, whose life was the book's inspiration; the real Xuanzang made a perilous journey on foot from China to India (and back) to obtain Buddhist sutras.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: In contrast to the historical Xuanzang, a wise and learned scholar (he was in his late 20s when he left for India), the fictional Tang Sanzang is presented as a young monk who is extremely naive, showing idealistic compassion without wisdom. Tang Sanzang is usually quick to fall for the facades of demons who have disguised themselves as innocent humans, as he cannot recognize them, whereas Sun Wukong can. This frequently leads to tension when Sun Wukong tries to protect him from such threats. One such popular instance was when the White Bone Demon (白骨夫人, Chinese: "Bai Gu Fu Ren") disguised three times as family members — first, a young woman. After Wukong "killed" the woman, the demon escaped, but Wukong was punished by Tang Sanzang for it. The second was the young woman's elderly mother, looking for her daughter. The third was the young woman's elderly father, searching for his wife and child. Upon the "death" of the father by Wukong's hands, Wukong finally killed the demon before she got away. Tang Sanzang, convinced that Wukong had actually killed three innocent people, sent him away, despite protests. Tang Sanzang usually punishes him by chanting the words of the "headache spell" (緊箍咒) given to Tang Sanzang by the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) to control Wukong, which causes the latter's headband to contract and give him acute headaches.


title: Tang Sanzang

text: Like Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang is often described as a god of protection. Ksitigarbha, a highly revered bodhisattva in East Asian Buddhism, is occasionally mistaken for Tang Sanzang because the former is often portrayed like Tang Sanzang - dressed in a similarly patterned kasaya robe, wearing a Buddhist crown (an Ushnisha or a Black Crown), and wielding a khakkhara staff. In some depictions or media sometimes Sanzang is depicted as a female monk or nun but this is mostly in Japan.


title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

text: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS (; ; 24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736) was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker. Born in Poland to a family of German extraction, he later moved to the Dutch Republic at age 15, where he spent the rest of his life (1701–1736). A pioneer of exact thermometry, he helped lay the foundations for the era of precision thermometry by inventing the mercury-in-glass thermometer and Fahrenheit scale.


title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

text: Fahrenheit was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but lived most of his life in the Dutch Republic. The Fahrenheits were a German Hanse merchant family who had lived in several Hanseatic cities. Fahrenheit's great-grandfather had lived in Rostock, and research suggests that the Fahrenheit family originated in Hildesheim. Daniel's grandfather moved from Kneiphof in Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad) to Danzig and settled there as a merchant in 1650. His son, Daniel Fahrenheit (the father of Daniel Gabriel), married Concordia Schumann, the daughter of a well-known Danzig business family. Daniel was the eldest of the five Fahrenheit children (two sons, three daughters) who survived childhood. His sister, Virginia Elisabeth Fahrenheit, married Benjamin Krüger and was the mother of Benjamin Ephraim Krüger, a clergyman and playwright.


title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

text: Daniel Gabriel began training as a merchant in Amsterdam after both of his parents died on 14 August 1701 from eating poisonous mushrooms. However, Fahrenheit's interest in natural science led him to begin studies and experimentation in that field. From 1717, he traveled to Berlin, Halle, Leipzig, Dresden, Copenhagen, and also to his hometown, where his brother still lived. During that time, Fahrenheit met or was in contact with Ole Rømer, Christian Wolff, and Gottfried Leibniz. In 1717, Fahrenheit settled in The Hague as a glassblower, making barometers, altimeters, and thermometers. From 1718 onwards, he lectured in chemistry in Amsterdam. He visited England in 1724 and was the same year elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. From August 1736 Fahrenheit stayed in the house of Johannes Frisleven at Plein square in The Hague, in connection with an application for a patent at the States of Holland and West Friesland. At the beginning of September, he became ill and on the 7th his health had deteriorated to such an extent that he had notary Willem Ruijsbroek come to draw up his will. On the 11th the notary came by again to make some changes. Five days after that Fahrenheit died at the age of fifty. Four days later he received the fourth-class funeral of one who is classified as destitute, in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague (the Cloister or Monastery Church).


title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

text: According to Fahrenheit's 1724 article, he determined his scale by reference to three fixed points of temperature. The lowest temperature was achieved by preparing a frigorific mixture of ice, water, and a salt ("ammonium chloride or even sea salt"), and waiting for the eutectic system to reach equilibrium temperature. The thermometer then was placed into the mixture and the liquid in the thermometer allowed to descend to its lowest point. The thermometer's reading there was taken as 0 °F. The second reference point was selected as the reading of the thermometer when it was placed in still water when ice was just forming on the surface. This was assigned as 30 °F. The third calibration point, taken as 90 °F, was selected as the thermometer's reading when the instrument was placed under the arm or in the mouth.


title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

text: Fahrenheit came up with the idea that mercury boils around 300 degrees on this temperature scale. Work by others showed that water boils about 180 degrees above its freezing point. The Fahrenheit scale later was redefined to make the freezing-to-boiling interval exactly 180 degrees, a convenient value as 180 is a highly composite number, meaning that it is evenly divisible into many fractions. It is because of the scale's redefinition that normal mean body temperature today is taken as 98.6 degrees, whereas it was 96 degrees on Fahrenheit's original scale.


title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

text: The Fahrenheit scale was the primary temperature standard for climatic, industrial and medical purposes in English-speaking countries until the 1970s, nowadays mostly replaced by the Celsius scale long used in the rest of the world, apart from the United States, where temperatures and weather reports are still broadcast in Fahrenheit.


title: Form follows function

text: Form follows function is a principle of design associated with late 19th and early 20th century architecture and industrial design in general, which states that the shape of a building or object should primarily relate to its intended function or purpose.


title: Form follows function

text: The architect Louis Sullivan coined the maxim, which resumes Viollet-le-Duc's théories : "a rationally designed structure may not necessarily be beautiful but no building can be beautiful that does not have a rationally designed structure". The maxim is often incorrectly attributed to the sculptor Horatio Greenough (18051852), whose thinking mostly predates the later functionalist approach to architecture. Greenough's writings were for a long time largely forgotten, and were rediscovered only in the 1930s. In 1947, a selection of his essays was published as "Form and Function: Remarks on Art by Horatio Greenough".


title: Form follows function

text: Sullivan was Greenough's much younger compatriot and admired rationalist thinkers such as Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, and Melville, as well as Greenough himself. In 1896, Sullivan coined the phrase in an article titled "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered", though he later attributed the core idea to the Roman architect, engineer, and author Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who first asserted in his book "De architectura" that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, that is, it must be solid, useful, and beautiful. Sullivan actually wrote "form ever follows function", but the simpler and less emphatic phrase is more widely remembered. For Sullivan this was distilled wisdom, an aesthetic credo, the single "rule that shall permit of no exception". The full quote is:


title: Form follows function

text: Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, "form ever follows function", and this is the law. Where function does not change, form does not change. The granite rocks, the ever-brooding hills, remain for ages; the lightning lives, comes into shape, and dies, in a twinkling.


title: Form follows function

text: It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. "This is the law."


title: Form follows function

text: Sullivan developed the shape of the tall steel skyscraper in late 19th-century Chicago at a moment in which technology, taste and economic forces converged and made it necessary to break with established styles. If the shape of the building was not going to be chosen out of the old pattern book, something had to determine form, and according to Sullivan it was going to be the purpose of the building. Thus, "form follows function", as opposed to "form follows precedent". Sullivan's assistant Frank Lloyd Wright adopted and professed the same principle in a slightly different form—perhaps because shaking off the old styles gave them more freedom and latitude.


title: Form follows function

text: In 1908, the Austrian architect Adolf Loos wrote an allegorical essay titled "Ornament and Crime" in reaction to the elaborate ornament used by the Vienna Secession architects. Modernists adopted Loos's moralistic argument as well as Sullivan's maxim. Loos had worked as a carpenter in the USA. He celebrated efficient plumbing and industrial artifacts like corn silos and steel water towers as examples of functional design.


title: Form follows function

text: The phrase "form (ever) follows function" became a battle cry of Modernist architects after the 1930s. The credo was taken to imply that decorative elements, which architects call "ornament", were superfluous in modern buildings. However, Sullivan himself neither thought nor designed along such lines at the peak of his career. Indeed, while his buildings could be spare and crisp in their principal masses, he often punctuated their plain surfaces with eruptions of lush Art Nouveau and Celtic Revival decorations, usually cast in iron or terracotta, and ranging from organic forms like vines and ivy, to more geometric designs, and interlace, inspired by his Irish design heritage. Probably the most famous example is the writhing green ironwork that covers the entrance canopies of the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building on South State Street in Chicago. These ornaments, often executed by the talented younger draftsman in Sullivan's employ, would eventually become Sullivan's trademark; to students of architecture, they are his instantly recognizable signature.


title: Form follows function

text: One episode in the history of the inherent conflict between functional design and the demands of the marketplace took place in 1935, after the introduction of the streamlined Chrysler Airflow, when the American auto industry temporarily halted attempts to introduce optimal aerodynamic forms into mass manufacture. Some car-makers thought aerodynamic efficiency would result in a single optimal auto-body shape, a "teardrop" shape, which would not be good for unit sales. General Motors adopted two different positions on streamlining, one meant for its internal engineering community, the other meant for its customers. Like the annual model year change, so-called aerodynamic styling is often meaningless in terms of technical performance. Subsequently, drag coefficient has become both a marketing tool and a means of improving the sale-ability of a car by reducing its fuel consumption, slightly, and increasing its top speed, markedly.


title: Form follows function

text: The American industrial designers of the 1930s and '40s like Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes and Henry Dreyfuss grappled with the inherent contradictions of "form follows function" as they redesigned blenders and locomotives and duplicating machines for mass-market consumption. Loewy formulated his "MAYA" (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) principle to express that product designs are bound by functional constraints of math and materials and logic, but their acceptance is constrained by social expectations. His advice was that for very new technologies, they should be made as familiar as possible, but for familiar technologies, they should be made surprising.


title: Form follows function

text: By honestly applying "form follows function", industrial designers had the potential to put their clients out of business. Some simple single-purpose objects like screwdrivers and pencils and teapots might be reducible to a single optimal form, precluding product differentiation. Some objects made too durable would prevent sales of replacements. ("cf." planned obsolescence) From the standpoint of functionality, some products are simply unnecessary.


title: Form follows function

text: Victor Papanek (1923–1998) was one influential twentieth century designer and design philosopher who taught and wrote as a proponent of "form follows function."


title: Form follows function

text: It has been argued that the structure and internal quality attributes of a working, non-trivial software artifact will represent first and foremost the engineering requirements of its construction, with the influence of process being marginal, if any. This does not mean that process is irrelevant, but that processes compatible with an artifact's requirements lead to roughly similar results.


title: Form follows function

text: The principle can also be applied to enterprise application architectures of modern business, where "function" encompasses the business processes which should be assisted by the enterprise architecture, or "form". If the architecture were to dictate how the business operates, then the business is likely to suffer from inflexibility and the inability to adapt to change. Service-oriented architecture enables an enterprise architect to rearrange the "form" of the architecture to meet the functional requirements of a business by adopting standards based communication protocols which enable interoperability. This stands in conflict with Conway's law, which states from a social point of view that "form follows organization".


title: Form follows function

text: Furthermore, domain-driven design postulates that structure (software architecture, design pattern, implementation) should emerge from constraints of the modeled domain (functional requirement).


title: Form follows function

text: While "form" and "function" may be more or less explicit and invariant concepts to the many engineering doctrines, metaprogramming and the functional programming paradigm lend themselves very well to explore, blur and invert the essence of those two concepts.


title: Form follows function

text: The agile software development movement espouses techniques such as 'test driven development' in which the engineer begins with a minimum unit of user oriented functionality, creates an automated test for such and then implements the functionality and iterates, repeating this process. The result and argument for this discipline are that the structure or 'form' emerges from actual function and in fact because done organically, makes the project more adaptable long term as well of as higher quality because of the functional base of automated tests.


title: Form follows function

text: If the design of an automobile conforms to its function—for instance the Fiat Multipla's shape, which is partly due to the desire to sit six people in two rows—then its form is said to follow its function.


title: Christmas music

text: Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject matter ranges from the nativity of Jesus Christ, to gift-giving and merrymaking, to cultural figures such as Santa Claus, among other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or have been adopted into the canon for other reasons.


title: Christmas music

text: While most Christmas songs prior to 1930 were of a traditional religious character, the Great Depression era of the 1930s brought a stream of songs of American origin, most of which did not explicitly reference the Christian nature of the holiday, but rather the more secular traditional Western themes and customs associated with Christmas. These included songs aimed at children such as "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", as well as sentimental ballad-type songs performed by famous crooners of the era, such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "White Christmas", the latter of which remains the best-selling single of all time as of 2018. "Elvis' Christmas Album" (1957) by Elvis Presley is the best-selling Christmas album of all time, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide.


title: Christmas music

text: Performances of Christmas music at public concerts, in churches, at shopping malls, on city streets, and in private gatherings is an integral staple of the Christmas holiday in many cultures across the world. Radio stations often convert to a 24-7 Christmas music format leading up to the holiday, starting sometimes as early as the day after Halloween – as part of a phenomenon known as "Christmas creep".


title: Christmas music

text: Music associated with Christmas is thought to have its origins in 4th-century Rome, in Latin-language hymns such as "Veni redemptor gentium". By the 13th century, under the influence of Francis of Assisi, the tradition of popular Christmas songs in regional native languages developed. Christmas carols in the English language first appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay, an English chaplain, who lists twenty five ""caroles of Cristemas"", probably sung by groups of wassailers who would travel from house to house. In the 16th century, various Christmas carols still sung to this day, including "The 12 Days of Christmas", "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", and "O Christmas Tree", first emerged.


title: Christmas music

text: Music was an early feature of the Christmas season and its celebrations. The earliest examples are hymnographic works (chants and litanies) intended for liturgical use in observance of both the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany, many of which are still in use by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The 13th century saw the rise of the carol written in the vernacular, under the influence of Francis of Assisi.


title: Christmas music

text: In the Middle Ages, the English combined circle dances with singing and called them carols. Later, the word carol came to mean a song in which a religious topic is treated in a style that is familiar or festive. From Italy, it passed to France and Germany, and later to England. Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work of John Audelay, a Shropshire priest and poet, who lists 25 "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of wassailers, who went from house to house. Music in itself soon became one of the greatest tributes to Christmas, and Christmas music includes some of the noblest compositions of the great musicians.


title: Christmas music

text: During the Commonwealth of England government under Cromwell, the Rump Parliament prohibited the practice of singing Christmas carols as Pagan and sinful. Like other customs associated with popular Catholic Christianity, it earned the disapproval of Protestant Puritans. Famously, Cromwell's interregnum prohibited all celebrations of the Christmas holiday. This attempt to ban the public celebration of Christmas can also be seen in the early history of Father Christmas.


title: Christmas music

text: The Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the only holy day in the calendar in 1644. The new liturgy produced for the English church recognized this in 1645, and so legally abolished Christmas. Its celebration was declared an offense by Parliament in 1647. There is some debate as to the effectiveness of this ban, and whether or not it was enforced in the country.


title: Christmas music

text: Puritans generally disapproved of the celebration of Christmas—a trend which continually resurfaced in Europe and the USA through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


title: Christmas music

text: When in May 1660 Charles II restored the Stuarts to the throne, the people of England once again practiced the public singing of Christmas carols as part of the revival of Christmas customs, sanctioned by the king's own celebrations.


title: Christmas music

text: The Victorian Era saw a surge of Christmas carols associated with a renewed admiration of the holiday, including "Silent Night", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", and "O Holy Night". The first Christmas songs associated with Saint Nicholas or other gift-bringers also came during 19th century, including "Up on the Housetop" and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". Many older Christmas hymns were also translated or had lyrics added to them during this period, particularly in 1871 when John Stainer published a widely influential collection entitled ""Christmas Carols New & Old"". William Sandys's "Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern" (1833), contained the first appearance in print of many now-classic English carols, and contributed to the mid-Victorian revival of the holiday. Singing carols in church was instituted on Christmas Eve 1880 (Nine Lessons and Carols) in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, England, which is now seen in churches all over the world.


title: Christmas music

text: According to one of the only observational research studies of Christmas caroling, Christmas observance and caroling traditions vary considerably between nations in the 21st century, while the actual sources and meanings of even high-profile songs are commonly misattributed, and the motivations for carol singing can in some settings be as much associated with family tradition and national cultural heritage as with religious beliefs. Christmas festivities, including music, are also celebrated in a more secular fashion by such institutions as the Santa Claus Village, in Rovaniemi, Finland.


title: Christmas music

text: The tradition of singing Christmas carols in return for alms or charity began in England in the seventeenth century after the Restoration. Town musicians or 'waits' were licensed to collect money in the streets in the weeks preceding Christmas, the custom spread throughout the population by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries up to the present day. Also from the seventeenth century, there was the English custom, predominantly involving women, of taking a wassail bowl to their neighbors to solicit gifts, accompanied by carols. Despite this long history, many Christmas carols date only from the nineteenth century onwards, with the exception of songs such as the "Wexford Carol", "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen", "As I Sat on a Sunny Bank", "The Holly and the Ivy", the "Coventry Carol" and "I Saw Three Ships".


title: Christmas music

text: The importance of Advent and the feast of Christmastide within the church year means there is a large repertoire of music specially composed for performance in church services celebrating the Christmas story. Various composers from the Baroque era to the 21st century have written Christmas cantatas and motets. Some notable compositions include:


title: Christmas music

text: Many large-scale religious compositions are performed in a concert setting at Christmas. Performances of George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" are a fixture of Christmas celebrations in some countries, and although it was originally written for performance at Easter, it covers aspects of the Biblical Christmas narrative. Informal Scratch Messiah performances involving public participation are very popular in the Christmas season. Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" (, ), written for Christmas 1734, describes the birth of Jesus, the annunciation to the shepherds, the adoration of the shepherds, the circumcision and naming of Jesus, the journey of the Magi, and the adoration of the Magi. Antonio Vivaldi composed the Violin Concerto RV270 ""Il Riposo per il Santissimo Natale"" ("For the Most Holy Christmas"). Arcangelo Corelli composed the "Christmas Concerto" in 1690. Peter Cornelius composed a cycle of six songs related to Christmas themes he called "Weihnachtslieder". Setting his own poems for solo voice and piano, he alluded to older Christmas carols in the accompaniment of two of the songs.


title: Christmas music

text: Songs which are traditional, even some without a specific religious context, are often called Christmas carols. Each of these has a rich history, some dating back many centuries.


title: Christmas music

text: These songs hearken from centuries ago, the oldest ("Wexford Carol") originating in the 12th century. The newest came together in the mid- to late-19th century. Many began in non-English speaking countries, often with non-Christmas themes, and were later converted into English carols with English lyrics added—not always translated from the original, but newly created—sometimes as late as the early 20th century.


title: Christmas music

text: Among the earliest secular Christmas songs was "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which first appeared in 1780 in England (its melody would not come until 1909); the English West Country carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" has antecedents dating to the 1830s but was not published in its modern form until Arthur Warrell introduced it to a wider audience in 1935. As the secular mythos of the holiday (such as Santa Claus in his modern form) emerged in the 19th century, so too did secular Christmas songs. Benjamin Hanby's "Up on the House Top" and Emily Huntington Miller's "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" were among the first explicitly secular Christmas songs in the United States, both dating to the 1860s; they were preceded by "Jingle Bells", written in 1857 but not explicitly about Christmas, and "O Christmas Tree," written in 1824 but only made about a Christmas tree after being translated from its original German.


title: Christmas music

text: Christmas music has been published as sheet music for centuries. One of the earliest collections of printed Christmas music was "Piae Cantiones", a Finnish songbook first published in 1582 which contained a number of songs that have survived today as well-known Christmas carols. The publication of Christmas music books in the 19th century, such as "Christmas Carols, New and Old" (Bramley and Stainer, 1871), played an important role in widening the popular appeal of carols. In the 20th century, Oxford University Press (OUP) published some highly successful Christmas music collections such as "The Oxford Book of Carols" (Martin Shaw, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Dearmer, 1928), which revived a number of early folk songs and established them as modern standard carols. This was followed by the bestselling "Carols for Choirs" series (David Willcocks, Reginald Jacques and John Rutter), first published in 1961 and now available in a five volumes. The popular books have proved to be a popular resource for choirs and church congregations in the English-speaking world, and remain in print today.


title: Christmas music

text: In 2008, "BBC Music Magazine" published a poll of the "50 Greatest Carols", compiled from the views of choral experts and choirmasters in the UK and the US. The resulting list of the top ten favored Christmas carols and motets was:


title: Christmas music

text: According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2016, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", written by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934, is the most played holiday song of the last 50 years. It was first performed live by Eddie Cantor on his radio show in November 1934. Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded their version in 1935, followed later by a range of artists including Frank Sinatra in 1948, the Supremes, the Jackson 5, the Beach Boys, and Glenn Campbell. Bruce Springsteen recorded a rock rendition in December 1975.


title: Christmas music

text: Long-time Christmas classics from prior to the "rock era" still dominate the holiday charts – such as "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Winter Wonderland", "Sleigh Ride" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Songs from the rock era to enter the top tier of the season's canon include "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, and "Last Christmas" by George Michael.


title: Christmas music

text: The most popular set of these titles—heard over airwaves, on the internet, in shopping malls, in elevators and lobbies, even on the street during the Christmas season—have been composed and performed from the 1930s onward. (Songs published before 1925 are all out of copyright, are no longer subject to ASCAP royalties and thus do not appear on their list.) In addition to Bing Crosby, major acts that have popularized and successfully covered a number of the titles in the top 30 most performed Christmas songs in 2015 include Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Andy Williams, and the Jackson 5.


title: Christmas music

text: Since the mid-1950s, much of the Christmas music produced for popular audiences has explicitly romantic overtones, only using Christmas as a setting. The 1950s also featured the introduction of novelty songs that used the holiday as a target for satire and source for comedy. Exceptions such as "The Christmas Shoes" (2000) have re-introduced Christian themes as complementary to the secular Western themes, and myriad traditional carol cover versions by various artists have explored virtually all music genres.


title: Christmas music

text: The top thirty most-played holiday songs for the 2015 holiday season are ranked here, all titles written or co-written by ASCAP songwriters and composers.


title: Christmas music

text: Most of these songs in some way describe or are reminiscent of Christmas traditions, how Western Christian countries tend to celebrate the holiday, i.e., with caroling, mistletoe, exchanging of presents, a Christmas tree, feasting, jingle bells, etc. Celebratory or sentimental, and nostalgic in tone, they hearken back to simpler times with memorable holiday practices—expressing the desire either to be with someone or at home for Christmas. The winter-related songs celebrate the climatic season, with all its snow, dressing up for the cold, sleighing, etc.


title: Christmas music

text: Many titles help define the mythical aspects of modern Christmas celebration: Santa Claus bringing presents, coming down the chimney, being pulled by reindeer, etc. New mythical characters are created, defined, and popularized by these songs; "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", adapted from a major retailer's promotional poem, was introduced to radio audiences by Gene Autry in 1949. His follow-up a year later introduced "Frosty the Snowman", the central character of his song. Though overtly religious, and authored (at least partly) by a writer of many church hymns, no drumming child appears in any biblical account of the Christian nativity scene. This character was introduced to the tradition by Katherine K. Davis in her "The Little Drummer Boy" (written in 1941, with a popular version being released in 1958). Loretta Lynn introduced "Shadrack, the Black Reindeer" in 1974.


title: Christmas music

text: "The above-ranking results from an aggregation of performances of all different artist versions of each cited holiday song, across all forms of media, from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015."


title: Christmas music

text: In 2007 surveys of United States radio listeners by two different research groups, the most liked songs were standards such as Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (1942), Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" (1946), and Burl Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (1965). Other favorites like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (Brenda Lee, 1958), "Jingle Bell Rock" (Bobby Helms, 1957) and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas" (1971), scored well in one study. Also "loved" were Johnny Mathis' "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and Harry Simeone Chorale's "Little Drummer Boy" (1958).


title: Christmas music

text: Among the most-hated Christmas songs, according to Edison Media Research's 2007 survey, are Barbra Streisand's "Jingle Bells?", the Jackson 5's "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", Elmo & Patsy's "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", and "O Holy Night" as performed by cartoon characters from Comedy Central's "South Park". The "most-hated Christmastime recording" is a rendition of "Jingle Bells" by Carl Weissmann's Singing Dogs, a revolutionary novelty song originally released in 1955, and re-released as an edited version in 1970.


title: Christmas music

text: "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked Darlene Love's version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (1963) first on its list of The Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs in December 2010. Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, was No. 1 on "Billboard"'s Holiday Digital Songs chart in December 2013. "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues is cited as the best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in the United Kingdom and Ireland.


title: Christmas music

text: A 2021 YouGov survey of 1,000 adults ranked the most hated Christmas songs, counting only those songs that a majority of those polls recognized and listing the songs independent of any artist who may have recorded them. "Santa Baby" ranked atop the list; a side note from a news article covering the list noted that much of that hatred came from the Madonna cover version from "A Very Special Christmas", which gets more airplay than Eartha Kitt's original. Other songs that ranked high in terms of listener revulsion included "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and "Wonderful Christmastime."


title: Christmas music

text: A collection of chart hits recorded in a bid to be crowned the UK Christmas No. 1 single during the 1970s and 1980s have become some of the most popular holiday tunes in the United Kingdom. Band Aid's 1984 song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is the second-best selling single in UK Chart history. "Fairytale of New York", released by The Pogues in 1987, is regularly voted the British public's favourite-ever Christmas song. It is also the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK. British glam rock bands had major hit singles with Christmas songs in the 1970s. "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" by Wizzard, and "Lonely This Christmas" by Mud all remain hugely popular.


title: Christmas music

text: In 2012, PRS for Music (who collect and pay royalties to its 75,000 song-writing and composing members) conducted a survey of the top ten most played Christmas songs in the UK over the past year. The list was as follows:


title: Christmas music

text: Included in the 2009 and 2008 lists are such other titles as Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry", Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", Elton John's "Step into Christmas", Mud's "Lonely This Christmas", "Walking in the Air" by Aled Jones, Shakin' Stevens' "Merry Christmas Everyone", Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" and "Mistletoe and Wine" and "Saviour's Day" by Cliff Richard.


title: Christmas music

text: The best Christmas song "to get adults and children in the festive spirit for the party season in 2016" was judged by the "Daily Mirror" to be "Fairytale of New York". Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You" was declared "the UK's favourite Christmas song", narrowly beating out "Fairytale of New York" according to a "points system" created by "The Independent" in 2017. Both score well ahead of all others on the list of top twenty Christmas songs in the UK.


title: Christmas music

text: The "Christmas Number One" – songs reaching the top spot on either the UK Singles Chart, the Irish Singles Chart, or occasionally both, on the edition preceding Christmas – is considered a major achievement in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Christmas number one benefits from broad publicity, so much so that the songs that attempt but fail to achieve the honor and finish second also get widespread attention. Social media campaigns have been used to try to encourage sales of specific songs so that they could reach number one.


title: Christmas music

text: These songs develop an association with Christmas or the holiday season from their chart performance, but the association tends to be shorter-lived than for the more traditionally-themed Christmas songs. Notable longer-lasting examples include Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (No. 1, 1984, the second-biggest selling single in UK Chart history; two re-recordings also hit No. 1 in 1989 and 2004), Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" (No. 1, 1973), and Wham!'s "Last Christmas" (No. 2, 1984). "Last Christmas" would go on to hold the UK record for highest-selling single not to reach No. 1, until it finally topped the chart on January 1, 2021, helped by extensive streaming in the final week of December 2020.


title: Christmas music

text: The Beatles, Spice Girls, and LadBaby are the only artists to have achieved consecutive Christmas number-one hits on the UK Singles Chart, with LadBaby the only artist to have four consecutive Christmas number-ones. The Beatles annually between 1963 and 1965 (with a fourth in 1967), the Spice Girls between 1996 and 1998, and LadBaby between 2018 and 2021 (all four of LadBaby's Christmas number-ones were parodies of other popular songs that included a running gag mentioning sausage rolls). "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the only recording to have ever been Christmas number one twice, in both 1975 and 1991. Three of the four different Band Aid recordings of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" have been number one in Christmas week.


title: Christmas music

text: At the turn of the 21st century, songs associated with reality shows became a frequent source of Christmas number ones in the UK. In 2002, "" produced the top three singles on the British Christmas charts. The "rival" groups produced by the series—the girl group Girls Aloud and the boy band One True Voice—finished first and second respectively on the charts. Failed contestants The Cheeky Girls charted with a novelty hit, "Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)", at third. Briton Will Young, winner of the first "Pop Idol", charted at the top of the Irish charts in 2003.


title: Christmas music

text: "The X Factor" also typically concluded in December during its run; the winner's debut single earned the Christmas number one in at least one of the two countries every year from 2005 to 2014, and in both countries in five of those ten years. Each year since 2008 has seen protest campaigns to outsell the "X Factor" single (which benefits from precisely-timed release and corresponding media buzz) and prevent it from reaching number one. In 2009, as the result of a campaign intended to counter the phenomenon, Rage Against the Machine's 1992 single "Killing in the Name" reached number one in the UK instead of that year's "X Factor" winner, Joe McElderry. In 2011, "Wherever You Are", the single from a choir of military wives assembled by the TV series "The Choir", earned the Christmas number-one single in Britain—upsetting "X Factor" winners Little Mix. With the Military Wives Choir single not being released in Ireland, Little Mix won Christmas number-one in Ireland that year.


title: Christmas music

text: Situated in the southern hemisphere, where seasons are reversed from the northern, the heat of early summer in Australia affects the way Christmas is celebrated and how northern hemisphere Christmas traditions are followed. Australians generally spend Christmas outdoors, going to the beach for the day, or heading to campgrounds for a vacation. International visitors to Sydney at Christmastime often go to Bondi Beach where tens of thousands gather on Christmas Day.


title: Christmas music

text: The tradition of an Australian Christmas Eve carol service lit by candles, started in 1937 by Victorian radio announcer Norman Banks, has taken place in Melbourne annually since then. Carols by Candlelight events can be "huge gatherings . . televised live throughout the country" or smaller "local community and church events." Carols in the Domain in Sydney is now a "popular platform for the stars of stage and music."


title: Christmas music

text: Some homegrown Christmas songs have become popular. William G. James' six sets of "Australian Christmas Carols", with words by John Wheeler, include "The Three Drovers", "The Silver Stars are in the Sky", "Christmas Day", "Carol of the Birds" and others. "Light-hearted Australian Christmas songs" have become "an essential part of the Australian Christmas experience." Rolf Harris' "Six White Boomers", Colin Buchanan's "Aussie Jingle Bells", and the "Australian Twelve Days of Christmas", proudly proclaim the differing traditions Down Under. A verse from "Aussie Jingle Bells" makes the point:


title: Christmas music

text: "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has been revised to fit the Australian context, as an example: "On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: 12 parrots prattling, 11 numbats nagging, 10 lizards leaping, 9 wombats working, 8 dingoes digging, 7 possums playing, 6 brolgas dancing, 5 kangaroos, 4 koalas cuddling, 3 kookaburras laughing, 2 pink galahs, and an emu up a gum tree."


title: Christmas music

text: Other popular Australian Christmas songs include: 'White Wine in the Sun" by Tim Minchin, "Aussie Jingle Bells" by Bucko & Champs, "Christmas Photo" by John Williamson, "Go Santa, Go" by The Wiggles, and "Six White Boomers" by Russel Coight.


title: Christmas music

text: "My Little Christmas Belle" (1909) composed by Joe Slater (1872-1926) to words by Ward McAlister (1872–1928) celebrates eastern Australian flora coming into bloom during the heat of Christmas. "Blandfordia nobilis", also known as Christmas Bells, are the specific subject of the song—with the original sheet music bearing a depiction of the blossom. Whereas "The Holly and The Ivy" (1937) by Australian Louis Lavater (1867–1953) mentions northern hemisphere foliage.