Etymology.

The islands were named "Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes" by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after the legend of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. The name was later shortened to "the Virgin Islands".  The official name of the territory is still simply the "Virgin Islands", but the prefix "British" is often used. This is commonly believed to distinguish it from the neighbouring American territory which changed its name from the "Danish West Indies" to "Virgin Islands of the United States" in 1917. However, local historians have disputed this, pointing to a variety of publications and public records dating from between 21 February 1857 and 12 September 1919 where the Territory is referred to as the "British" Virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands government publications continue to begin with the name "The territory of the Virgin Islands", and the territory's passports simply refer to the "Virgin Islands", and all laws begin with the words "Virgin Islands". Moreover, the territory's Constitutional Commission has expressed the view that "every effort should be made" to encourage the use of the name "Virgin Islands". But various public and quasi-public bodies continue to use the name "British Virgin Islands" or "BVI", including BVI Finance, BVI Electricity Corporation, BVI Tourist Board, BVI Athletic Association, BVI Bar Association and others.  In 1968 the British Government issued a memorandum requiring that the postage stamps in the territory should say "British Virgin Islands" (whereas previously they had simply stated "Virgin Islands"), a practice which is still followed today. This was likely to prevent confusion following on from the adoption of US currency in the Territory in 1959, and the references to US currency on the stamps of the Territory.

History.

It is generally thought that the Virgin Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC-200 AD, though there is some evidence of Amerindian presence on the islands as far back as 1500 BC. The Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, a tribe from the Lesser Antilles islands.  The first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by the Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas, who gave the islands their modern name.  The Spanish Empire claimed the islands by discovery in the early 16th century, but never settled them, and subsequent years saw the English, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Danish all jostling for control of the region, which became a notorious haunt for pirates. There is no record of any native Amerindian population in the British Virgin Islands during this period; it is thought that they either fled to safer islands or were killed.  The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island of Tortola by 1648, frequently clashing with the Spanish who were based on nearby Puerto Rico. In 1672, the English captured Tortola from the Dutch, and the English annexation of Anegada and Virgin Gorda followed in 1680. Meanwhile, over the period 1672–1733, the Danish gained control of the nearby islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix (i.e. the modern US Virgin Islands). The British islands were considered principally a strategic possession. The British introduced sugar cane which was to become the main crop and source of foreign trade, and large numbers of slaves were forcibly brought from Africa to work on the sugar cane plantations. The islands prospered economically until the middle of the nineteenth century, when a combination of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, a series of disastrous hurricanes, and the growth in the sugar beet crop in Europe and the United States significantly reduced sugar cane production and led to a period of economic decline.  In 1917, the United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for US$25 million, renaming them the United States Virgin Islands. Economic linkages with the US islands prompted the British Virgin Islands to adopt the US dollar as its currency in 1959.  The British Virgin Islands were administered variously as part of the British Leeward Islands or with St. Kitts and Nevis, with an administrator representing the British Government on the islands. The islands gained separate colony status in 1960 and became autonomous in 1967 under the new post of Chief Minister. Since the 1960s, the islands have diversified away from their traditionally agriculture-based economy towards tourism and financial services, becoming one of the wealthiest areas in the Caribbean. The constitution of the islands was amended in 1977, 2004 and 2007, giving them greater local autonomy.  In 2017 Hurricane Irma struck the islands, causing four deaths and immense damage.

Geography.

The British Virgin Islands comprise around 60 tropical Caribbean islands, ranging in size from the largest, Tortola, being long and wide, to tiny uninhabited islets, altogether about in extent. They are located in the Virgin Islands archipelago, a few miles east of the US Virgin Islands, and about from the Puerto Rican mainland. About east south-east lies Anguilla. The North Atlantic Ocean lies to the east of the islands, and the Caribbean Sea lies to the west. Most of the islands are volcanic in origin and have a hilly, rugged terrain. The highest point is Mount Sage on Tortola at 521m. Anegada is geologically distinct from the rest of the group, being a flat island composed of limestone and coral.  A full list of the territory's islands can be found below:

Climate.

The British Virgin Islands have a tropical rainforest climate, moderated by trade winds. Temperatures vary little throughout the year. In the capital, Road Town, typical daily maxima are around in the summer and in the winter. Typical daily minima are around in the summer and in the winter. Rainfall averages about per year, higher in the hills and lower on the coast. Rainfall can be quite variable, but the wettest months on average are September to November and the driest months on average are February and March.

Hurricanes.

Hurricanes occasionally hit the islands, with the hurricane season running from June to November. Hurricane Danny struck in 2015.

Hurricane Irma.

The islands were struck by Hurricane Irma on 6 September 2017, causing extensive damage, as well as four deaths. A state of emergency was declared by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. The most significant damage was on Tortola. The UK's then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Tortola on 13 September 2017 and said that he was reminded of photos of Hiroshima after it had been hit by the atom bomb.  By 8 September, the UK government sent troops with medical supplies and other aid. More troops were expected to arrive a day or two later, but the ship HMS Ocean, carrying more extensive assistance, was not expected to reach the islands for another two weeks, however.  Entrepreneur Richard Branson, a resident of Necker Island, called on the UK government to develop a massive disaster recovery plan for British islands that were damaged, to include "both through short-term aid and long-term infrastructure spending". Premier Orlando Smith also called for a comprehensive aid package to rebuild the BVI. On 10 September UK Prime Minister Theresa May pledged £32 million to the Caribbean for a Hurricane relief fund; the UK government would also match donations made by the public via the British Red Cross appeal. Specifics were not provided to the news media as to the amount that would be allocated to the Virgin Islands. Boris Johnson's visit to Tortola on 13 September 2017 during his Caribbean tour was intended to confirm the UK's commitment to helping restore British islands but he provided no additional comments on the aid package. He did confirm that HMS Ocean (L12) was on the way to the BVI items like timber, buckets, bottled water, food, baby milk, bedding and clothing, as well as ten pickup trucks, building materials and hardware.

Politics.

The territory operates as a parliamentary democracy. Ultimate executive authority in the British Virgin Islands is vested in the Queen, and is exercised on her behalf by the Governor of the British Virgin Islands. The governor is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British government. Defence and most foreign affairs remain the responsibility of the United Kingdom.  The most recent constitution was adopted in 2007 (the Virgin Islands Constitution Order, 2007) and came into force when the Legislative Council was dissolved for the 2007 general election. The head of government under the constitution is the Premier (before the new constitution the office was referred to as Chief Minister), who is elected in a general election along with the other members of the ruling government as well as the members of the opposition. Elections are held roughly every four years. A cabinet is nominated by the Premier and appointed and chaired by the Governor. The Legislature consists of the Queen (represented by the Governor) and a unicameral House of Assembly made up of 13 elected members plus the Speaker and the Attorney General.  The current Governor is Augustus Jaspert (since 22 August 2017). The current Premier is Andrew Fahie (since 26 February 2019), who is leader of the ruling Virgin Islands Party.

Subdivisions.

The British Virgin Islands is a unitary territory. The territory is divided into nine electoral districts, and each voter is registered in one of those districts. Eight of the nine districts are partly or wholly on Tortola, and encompass nearby neighbouring islands. Only the ninth district (Virgin Gorda and Anegada) does not include any part of Tortola. At elections, in addition to voting their local representative, voters also cast votes for four "at-large" candidates who are elected upon a territory-wide basis.  The territory is also technically divided into five administrative districts (one for each of the four largest islands, with the fifth covering all other islands), and into six civil registry districts (three for Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Anegada) although these have little practical relevance.

Law and criminal justice.

Crime in the British Virgin Islands is comparatively low by Caribbean standards (and indeed compared to the neighbouring US Virgin Islands). Whilst statistics and hard data are relatively rare, and are not regularly published by governmental sources in the British Virgin Islands, the Premier did announce that in 2013 there has been a 14% decline in recorded crime as against 2012. Homicides are rare, with just one incident recorded in 2013.  The Virgin Islands Prison Service operates a single facility, Her Majesty's Prison in East End, Tortola.  The British and US Virgin Islands sit at the axis of a major drugs transshipment point between Latin America and the continental United States. The American Drug Enforcement Administration regards the adjacent US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area". A co-operation agreement exists between the British Virgin Islands and the US Coast Guard allowing American forces to pursue suspected drug traffickers through the territorial waters of the British Virgin Islands. In August 2011 a joint raid between the American DEA and the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force arrested a number of British Virgin Islands residents who are accused of being involved in major drugs transshipments, although their extradition to the United States has since become stalled in protracted legal wrangling.

Military.

As a British Overseas territory, defence of the islands is the responsibility of the United Kingdom.

Economy.

The twin pillars of the economy are financial services (60%) and tourism (roughly 40-45% of GDP). Politically, tourism is the more important of the two, as it employs a greater number of people within the territory, and a larger proportion of the businesses in the tourist industry are locally owned, as are a number of the highly tourism-dependent sole traders (for example, taxi drivers and street vendors).  Economically however, financial services associated with the territory's status as an offshore financial center are by far the more important. 51.8% of the Government's revenue comes directly from licence fees for offshore companies, and considerable further sums are raised directly or indirectly from payroll taxes relating to salaries paid within the trust industry sector (which tend to be higher on average than those paid in the tourism sector).  The official currency of the British Virgin Islands has been the United States dollar (US$) since 1959, the currency also used by the United States Virgin Islands.  Deemed by some to be a tax haven due to its opaque banking system, the British Virgin Islands enjoys one of the more prosperous economies of the Caribbean region, with a per capita average income of around $42,300 (2010 est.) The average monthly income earned by a worker in the territory was US$2,452 as at the time of the 2010 Census. 29% of the population fell into the "low income" category.  Although it is common to hear criticism in the British Virgin Islands' press about income inequality, no serious attempt has been made by economists to calculate a Gini coefficient or similar measure of income equality for the territory. A report from 2000 suggested that, despite the popular perception, income inequality was actually lower in the British Virgin Islands than in any other OECS state, although in global terms income equality is higher in the Caribbean than in many other regions.

Tourism.

Tourism accounts for approximately 45% of national income. The islands are a popular destination for US citizens. Tourists frequent the numerous white sand beaches, visit The Baths on Virgin Gorda, snorkel the coral reefs near Anegada, or experience the well-known bars of Jost Van Dyke. The BVI are known as one of the world's greatest sailing destinations, and charter sailboats are a very popular way to visit less accessible islands. Established in 1972, the BVI hosts the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival. A substantial number of the tourists who visit the BVI are cruise ship passengers, and although they produce far lower revenue per head than charter boat tourists and hotel based tourists, they are nonetheless important to the substantial - and politically important - taxi driving community. Only Virgin Islanders are permitted to work as taxi drivers.

Financial services.

Financial services account for over half of the income of the territory. The majority of this revenue is generated by the licensing of offshore companies and related services. The British Virgin Islands is a significant global player in the offshore financial services industry. In 2000 KPMG reported in its survey of offshore jurisdictions for the United Kingdom government that over 45% of the world's offshore companies were formed in the British Virgin Islands. Since 2001, financial services in the British Virgin Islands have been regulated by the independent Financial Services Commission.  Citco, also known as the Citgo Group of Companies and the Curaçao International Trust Co., is a privately owned global hedge fund administrator headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, founded in 1948. It is the world's largest hedge fund administrator, managing over $1 trillion in assets under administration.  At the end of 2012 the banking sector of the British Virgin Islands comprised six commercial banks and one restricted bank, 12 authorised custodians, two licensed money services businesses and one licensed financing service provider.  As such the British Virgin Islands is frequently labelled as a "tax haven" by campaigners and NGOs, and has been expressly named in anti-tax haven legislation in other countries on various occasions. Successive governments in the British Virgin Islands have fought against the tax haven label, and made various commitments to tax exchange and recording beneficial ownership information of companies following the 2013 G8 summit. On 10 September 2013 British Prime Minister David Cameron said "I do not think it is fair any longer to refer to any of the Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies as tax havens. They have taken action to make sure that they have fair and open tax systems. It is very important that our focus should now shift to those territories and countries that really are tax havens."  In the April 2016 Panama Papers leak, the British Virgin Islands was the most commonly used tax haven by clients of Mossack Fonseca.

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

On June 30, 2014, The British Virgin Islands was deemed to have an Inter- Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States of America with respect to the "Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act" of the United States of America.  The Model 1 Agreement (14 Pages) recognizes that: "The Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland provided a copy of the Letter of Entrustment which was sent to the Government of the British Virgin Islands, to the Government of the United States of America "via diplomatic note of May 28, 2014"."  The Letter of Entrustment dated July 14, 2010 was originally provided to the Government of the British Virgin Islands and authorised the Government of the BVI "to negotiate and conclude Agreements relating to taxation that provide for exchange of information on tax matters to the OECD standard" (Paragraph 2 of the FATCA Agreement). Via an "Entrustment Letter" dated March 24, 2014, The Govt of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, authorized the Govt of the BVI to sign an agreement on information exchange to facilitate the Implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. On March 27, 2017, the US Treasury site disclosed that the Model 1 agreement and related agreement were "In Force" on July 13, 2015.

Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Under the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2018, beneficial ownership of companies in British overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands must be publicly registered for disclosure by 31 December 2020. The Government of the British Virgin Islands plans to challenge this law, arguing that it violates the Constitutional sovereignty granted to the islands.

Agriculture and industry.

Agriculture and industry account for only a small proportion of the islands' GDP. Agricultural produce includes fruit, vegetables, sugar cane, livestock and poultry, and industries include rum distillation, construction and boat building. Commercial fishing is also practised in the islands' waters.

Workforce.

The British Virgin Islands is heavily dependent on migrant workers, and over 50% of all workers on the islands are of a foreign descent. Only 37% of the entire population were born in the territory. The national labour-force is estimated at 12,770, of whom approximately 59.4% work in the service sector but less than 0.6% are estimated to work in agriculture (the balance working in industry).

CARICOM status & The CARICOM Single Market Economy.

According to the membership section of the CARICOM Community site, as of July 2, 1991, The British Virgin Islands holds Associate Member status in CARICOM.  In recognition of the CARICOM (Free Movement) Skilled Persons Act which came into effect in July 1997 in some of the CARICOM countries such as Jamaica and which has been adopted in other CARICOM countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago, it is possible that CARICOM nationals who hold the "A Certificate of Recognition of Caribbean Community Skilled Person" may be allowed to work in the BVI under normal working conditions.

Transport.

There are of roads. The main airport, Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, also known as Beef Island Airport, is located on Beef Island, which lies off the eastern tip of Tortola and is accessible by the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. Cape Air, LIAT and Air Sunshine are among the airlines offering scheduled service. Virgin Gorda and Anegada have their own smaller airports. Private air charter services operated by Island Birds Air Charter fly directly to all three islands from any major airport in the Caribbean. Helicopters are used to get to islands with no runway facilities; Antilles Helicopter Services is the only helicopter service based in the country.  The main harbour is in Road Town. There are also ferries that operate within the British Virgin Islands and to the neighbouring United States Virgin Islands. As in the UK and in the United States Virgin Islands, cars in the British Virgin Islands drive on the left; however, nearly all cars are left hand drive, being imported from the United States. The roads are often quite steep, narrow and winding, and ruts can be a problem when it rains.

Demographics.

As of the 2010 Census, the population of the territory was 28,054. Current estimates put the population at 35,800 (July 2018). The majority of the population (76.9%) are Afro-Caribbean, descended from slaves brought to the islands by the British. Other large ethnic groups include Latinos (5.6%), those of European ancestry (5.4%), Mixed ancestry (5.4%) and Indian (2.1%).  The 2010 Census reports: The 2010 Census reports the main places of origin of residents as follows:  The islands are heavily dependent upon migrant labour. In 2004, migrant workers accounted for 50% of the total population. 32% of workers employed in the British Virgin Islands work for the government.  Unusually, the territory has one of the highest drowning mortality rates in the world, being higher than other high risk countries such as China and India. 20% of deaths in the British Virgin Islands during 2012 were recorded as drownings, all of them being tourists. Despite this, the territory's most popular beach still has no lifeguard presence.

Religion.

Over 90% of the population who indicated a religious affiliation at the 2010 Census were Christian with the largest individual Christian denominations being Methodist (18.1%), Anglican (9.8%), Church of God (10.6%) and Roman Catholic (9.1%). The Constitution of the British Virgin Islands commences with a professed national belief in God. Hindus and Muslims constitute each approximately 1.2% of the population according to Word Religion Database 2005.

Education.

The British Virgin Islands operates several government schools as well as private schools. There is also a community college, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, that is located on the eastern end of Tortola. This college was named after Lavity Stoutt, the first Chief Minister of the British Virgin Islands. It is extremely common for students from the British Virgin Islands to travel overseas for tertiary education, either to the University of the West Indies, or to colleges and universities in either the United Kingdom, United States or Canada.  The literacy rate in the British Virgin Islands is high at 98%.  There is a University of the West Indies Open campus in the territory.

Culture.

Language.

The primary language is British English, although there is a local dialect. Spanish is spoken by Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Hispanic immigrants.

Music.

The traditional music of the British Virgin Islands is called "fungi" after the local cornmeal dish with the same name, often made with okra. The special sound of fungi is due to a unique local fusion between African and European music. It functions as a medium of local history and folklore and is therefore a cherished cultural form of expression that is part of the curriculum in BVI schools. The fungi bands, also called "scratch bands", use instruments ranging from calabash, washboard, bongos and ukulele, to more traditional western instruments like keyboard, banjo, guitar, bass, triangle and saxophone. Apart from being a form of festive dance music, fungi often contains humorous social commentaries, as well as BVI oral history.

Sport.

Because of its location and climate the British Virgin Islands has long been a haven for sailing enthusiasts. Sailing is regarded as one of the foremost sports in all of the BVI. Calm waters and steady breezes provide some of the best sailing conditions in the Caribbean.  Many sailing events are held in the waters of this country, the largest of which is a week-long series of races called the Spring Regatta, the premier sailing event of the Caribbean, with several races hosted each day. Boats include everything from full-size mono-hull yachts to dinghies. Captains and their crews come from all around the world to attend these races. The Spring Regatta is part race, part party, part festival. The Spring Regatta is normally held during the first week of April.  Since 2009, the BVI have made a name for themselves as a host of international basketball events. The BVI hosted three of the last four events of the Caribbean Basketball Championship ("FIBA CBC Championship").

The British Virgin Islands (abbreviated BVI), officially simply the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and north-west of Anguilla. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles and part of the West Indies.

Die Britischen Jungferninseln (, offiziell nur "Virgin Islands") sind ein britisches Überseegebiet in der Karibik. Sie umfassen über 60 Inseln und Riffs im nordöstlichen Teil der Inselgruppe der Jungferninseln am nördlichen Ende des Inselbogens der Kleinen Antillen. Die insbesondere durch Zuwanderung schnell wachsende Bevölkerung (Wanderungssaldoziffer 2012: 18,56 pro 1000 Einwohner, weltweit dritthöchster Wert) bewohnt 16 der etwa 100 km östlich von Puerto Rico gelegenen Inseln.


History.

Kites were invented in Asia, though their exact origin can only be speculated. The oldest depiction of a kite is from a mesolithic period cave painting in Muna island, southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, which has been dated from 9500–9000 years B.C. It depicts a type of kite called "kaghati", which are still used by modern Muna people. The kite is made from "kolope" (forest tuber) leaf for the mainsail, bamboo skin as the frame, and twisted forest pineapple fiber as rope, though modern kites use string.  In China, the kite has been claimed as the invention of the 5th-century BC Chinese philosophers Mozi (also Mo Di, or Mo Ti) and Lu Ban (also Gongshu Ban, or Kungshu Phan). Materials ideal for kite building were readily available including silk fabric for sail material; fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line; and resilient bamboo for a strong, lightweight framework. By 549 AD paper kites were certainly being flown, as it was recorded that in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources describe kites being used for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations. The earliest known Chinese kites were flat (not bowed) and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline. Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures; some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying.  After its introduction into India, the kite further evolved into the fighter kite, known as the patang in India, where thousands are flown every year on festivals such as Makar Sankranti.  Kites were known throughout Polynesia, as far as New Zealand, with the assumption being that the knowledge diffused from China along with the people. Anthropomorphic kites made from cloth and wood were used in religious ceremonies to send prayers to the gods. Polynesian kite traditions are used by anthropologists to get an idea of early "primitive" Asian traditions that are believed to have at one time existed in Asia.  Kites were late to arrive in Europe, although windsock-like banners were known and used by the Romans. Stories of kites were first brought to Europe by Marco Polo towards the end of the 13th century, and kites were brought back by sailors from Japan and Malaysia in the 16th and 17th centuries. Konrad Kyeser described dragon kites in "Bellifortis" about 1400 AD. Although kites were initially regarded as mere curiosities, by the 18th and 19th centuries they were being used as vehicles for scientific research.  In 1752, Benjamin Franklin published an account of a kite experiment to prove that lightning was caused by electricity.  Kites were also instrumental in the research of the Wright brothers, and others, as they developed the first airplane in the late 1800s. Several different designs of man-lifting kites were developed. The period from 1860 to about 1910 became the European "golden age of kiting".  In the 20th century, many new kite designs were developed. These included Eddy's tailless diamond, the tetrahedral kite, the Rogallo wing, the sled kite, the parafoil, and power kites. Kites were used for scientific purposes, especially in meteorology, aeronautics, wireless communications and photography. The Rogallo wing was adapted for stunt kites and hang gliding and the parafoil was adapted for parachuting and paragliding.  The rapid development of mechanically powered aircraft diminished interest in kites. World War II saw a limited use of kites for military purposes (survival radio, Focke Achgelis Fa 330, military radio antenna kites).  Kites are now mostly used for recreation. Lightweight synthetic materials (ripstop nylon, plastic film, carbon fiber tube and rod) are used for kite making. Synthetic rope and cord (nylon, polyethylene, kevlar and dyneema) are used as bridle and kite line.

Materials.

Designs often emulate flying insects, birds, and other beasts, both real and mythical. The finest Chinese kites are made from split bamboo (usually golden bamboo), covered with silk, and hand painted. On larger kites, clever hinges and latches allow the kite to be disassembled and compactly folded for storage or transport. Cheaper mass-produced kites are often made from printed polyester rather than silk.  Tails are used for some single-line kite designs to keep the kite's nose pointing into the wind. Spinners and spinsocks can be attached to the flying line for visual effect. There are rotating wind socks which spin like a turbine. On large display kites these tails, spinners and spinsocks can be long or more.  Modern aerobatic kites use two or four lines to allow fine control of the kite's angle to the wind. Traction kites may have an additional line to de-power the kite and quick-release mechanisms to disengage flyer and kite in an emergency.

Practical uses.

Kites have been used for human flight, military applications, science and meteorology, photography, lifting radio antennas, generating power, aerodynamics experiments, and much more.

Military applications.

Kites have been used for military purposes in the past, such as signaling, delivery of ammunition, and for observation, both by lifting an observer above the field of battle and by using kite aerial photography.  Kites were first used in warfare by the Chinese. During the Song dynasty the "Fire Crow", a kite carrying incendiary powder, a fuse, and a burning stick of incense was developed as a weapon.  According to "Samguk Sagi", in 647 Kim Yu-sin, a Korean general of Silla rallied his troops to defeat rebels by using flaming kites which also scared the enemy.  Russian chronicles mention Prince Oleg of Novgorod use of kites during the siege of Constantinople in 906: "and he crafted horses and men of paper, armed and gilded, and lifted them into the air over the city; the Greeks saw them and feared them".  Walter de Milemete's 1326 "De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum" treatise depicts a group of knights flying kite laden with a black-powder filled firebomb over the wall of city.  Kites were also used by Admiral Yi of the Joseon Dynasty (13921910) of Korea. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), Admiral Yi commanded his navy using kites. His kites had specific markings directing his fleet to perform various orders.  In the modern era the British Army used kites to haul human lookouts into the air for observation purposes, using the kites developed by Samuel Franklin Cody. Barrage kites were used to protect shipping during the Second World War. Kites were also used for anti-aircraft target practice. Kites and kytoons were used for lofting communications antenna. Submarines lofted observers in rotary kites.  Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have flown firebomb kites over the Israel–Gaza barrier, setting fires on the Israeli side of the border, hundreds of dunams of Israeli crop fields were burned by firebomb kites launched from Gaza, with an estimated economic loss of several millions of shekels.

Science and meteorology.

Kites have been used for scientific purposes, such as Benjamin Franklin's famous experiment proving that lightning is electricity. Kites were the precursors to the traditional aircraft, and were instrumental in the development of early flying craft. Alexander Graham Bell experimented with very large man-lifting kites, as did the Wright brothers and Lawrence Hargrave. Kites had a historical role in lifting scientific instruments to measure atmospheric conditions for weather forecasting. Francis Ronalds and William Radcliffe Birt described a very stable kite at Kew Observatory as early as 1847 that was trialled for the purpose of supporting self-registering meteorological instruments at height.

Radio aerials and light beacons.

Kites can be used for radio purposes, by kites carrying antennas for MF, LF or VLF-transmitters. This method was used for the reception station of the first transatlantic transmission by Marconi. Captive balloons may be more convenient for such experiments, because kite-carried antennas require a lot of wind, which may be not always possible with heavy equipment and a ground conductor. It must be taken into account during experiments, that a conductor carried by a kite can lead to high voltage toward ground, which can endanger people and equipment, if suitable precautions (grounding through resistors or a parallel resonant circuit tuned to transmission frequency) are not taken.  Kites can be used to carry light effects such as lightsticks or battery powered lights.

Kite traction.

Kites can be used to pull people and vehicles downwind. Efficient foil-type kites such as power kites can also be used to sail upwind under the same principles as used by other sailing craft, provided that lateral forces on the ground or in the water are redirected as with the keels, center boards, wheels and ice blades of traditional sailing craft. In the last two decades several kite sailing sports have become popular, such as kite buggying, kite landboarding, kite boating and kite surfing. Snow kiting has also become popular in recent years.  Kite sailing opens several possibilities not available in traditional sailing:

Underwater kites.

Underwater kites are being developed to harvest renewable power from the flow of water.

Cultural uses.

Kite festivals are a popular form of entertainment throughout the world. They include large local events, traditional festivals which have been held for hundreds of years and major international festivals which bring in kite flyers from other countries to display their unique art kites and demonstrate the latest technical kites.  Many countries have kite museums. These museums may have a focus on historical kites, preserving the country’s kite traditions.

Asia.

Kite flying is popular in many Asian countries, where it often takes the form of "kite fighting", in which participants try to snag each other's kites or cut other kites down. Fighter kites are usually small, flattened diamond-shaped kites made of paper and bamboo. Tails are not used on fighter kites so that agility and maneuverability are not compromised.  In Afghanistan, kite flying is a popular game, and is known in Dari as "Gudiparan Bazi". Some kite fighters pass their strings through a mixture of ground glass powder and glue, which is legal. The resulting strings are very abrasive and can sever the competitor's strings more easily. The abrasive strings can also injure people. During the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, kite flying was banned, among various other recreations.  In Pakistan, kite flying is often known as Gudi-Bazi or Patang-bazi. Although kite flying is a popular ritual for the celebration of spring festival known as Jashn-e-Baharaan (lit. Spring Festival) or Basant, kites are flown throughout the year. Kite fighting is a very popular pastime all around Pakistan, but mostly in urban centers across the country (especially Lahore). The kite fights are at their highest during the spring celebrations and the fighters enjoy competing with rivals to cut-loose the string of the others kite, this is popularly known as "Paecha". During the spring festival, kite flying competitions are held across the country and the skies are colored with kites. As people cut-loose an opponents kite, shouts of 'wo kata' ring through the air. They reclaim the kites, after they have been cut-loose, by running after them. This is a popular ritual especially among the youth (similar to scenes depicted in the Kite Runner which is based in neighboring Afghanistan). Kites and strings are a big business in the country and many types of strings are used: glass-coated strings, metal strings and tandi. However, kite flying was banned in Punjab due to motorcyclist deaths caused by glass-coated or metal kite-strings. Kup, Patang, Guda, and Nakhlaoo are some of the kites used. They vary in balance, weight and speed.  In Indonesia kites are flown as both sport and recreation. One of the most popular kite variants is from Bali. Balinese kites are unique and they have different designs and forms; birds, butterflies, dragons, ships, etc. In Vietnam, kites are flown without tails. Instead small flutes are attached allowing the wind to "hum" a musical tune. There are other forms of sound-making kites. In Bali, large bows are attached to the front of the kites to make a deep throbbing vibration, and in Malaysia, a row of gourds with sound-slots are used to create a whistle as the kite flies. Malaysia is also home to the Kite Museum in Malacca.  Kites are very popular in India, with the states of Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Punjab notable for their kite fighting festivals. Highly maneuverable single-string paper and bamboo kites are flown from the rooftops while using line friction in an attempt to cut each other's kite lines, either by letting the cutting line loose at high speed or by pulling the line in a fast and repeated manner. During the Indian spring festival of Makar Sankranti, near the middle of January, millions of people fly kites all over northern India. Kite flying in Hyderabad starts a month before this, but kite flying/fighting is an important part of other celebrations, including Republic Day, Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan, Viswakarma Puja day in late September and Janmashtami. An international kite festival is held every year before Uttarayan for three days in Vadodara, Surat and Ahmedabad.  Kites have been flown in China since ancient times. Weifang is home to the largest kite museum in the world. It also hosts an annual international kite festival on the large salt flats south of the city. There are several kite museums in Japan, UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and the USA.  In the olden days, Malays in Singapore, kites were used for fishing.  In Japan, kite flying is traditionally a children's play in New Year holidays and in the Boys' Festival in May. In some areas, there is a tradition to celebrate a new boy baby with a new kite (祝い凧). There are many kite festivals throughout Japan. The most famous one is "Yōkaichi Giant Kite Festival" in Higashiōmi, Shiga, which started in 1841. The largest kite ever built in the festival is wide by high and weighs. In the Hamamatsu Kite Festival in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, more than 100 kites are flown in the sky over the Nakatajima Sand Dunes, one of the three largest sand dunes in Japan, which overlooks the Enshunada Sea. Parents who have a new baby prepare a new kite with their baby's name and fly it in the festival. These kites are traditional ones made from bamboo and paper.

Europe.

In Greece and Cyprus, flying kites is a tradition for Clean Monday, the first day of Lent. In the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, traditional Bermuda kites are made and flown at Easter, to symbolise Christ's ascent. In Fuerteventura a kite festival is usually held on the weekend nearest to 8 November lasting for 3 days.

Polynesia.

Polynesian traditional kites are sometimes used at ceremonies and variants of traditional kites for amusement. Older pieces are kept in museums. These are treasured by the people of Polynesia.

South America.

In Brazil, flying a kite is a very popular leisure activity for children, teenagers and even young adults. Mostly these are boys, and it is overwhelmingly kite fighting a game whose goal is to maneuver their own kites to cut the other persons' kites' strings during flight, and followed by kite running where participants race through the streets to take the free-drifting kites. As in other countries with similar traditions, injuries are common and motorcyclists in particular need to take precautions.  In Chile, kites are very popular, especially during Independence Day festivities (September 18). In Peru, kites are also very popular. There are kite festivals in parks and beaches mostly on August.  In Colombia, kites can be seen flown in parks and recreation areas during August which is calles as windy. It is during this month that most people, especially the young ones would fly kites.  In Guyana, kites are flown at Easter, an activity in which all ethnic and religious groups participate. Kites are generally not flown at any other time of year. Kites start appearing in the sky in the weeks leading up to Easter and school children are taken to parks for the activity. It all culminates in a massive airborne celebration on Easter Monday especially in Georgetown, the capital, and other coastal areas. The history of the practice is not entirely clear but given that Easter is a Christian festival, it is said that kite flying is symbolic of the Risen Lord. Moore describes the phenomenon in the 19th century as follows:  The exact origins of the practice of kite flying (exclusively) at Easter are unclear. Brereton and Yelvington speculate that kite flying was introduced by Chinese indentured immigrants to the then colony of British Guiana in the mid 19th century. The author of an article in the "Guyana Chronicle" newspaper of May 6, 2007 is more certain:

World records.

There are many world records involving kites.  The world's largest kites are inflatable single-line kites. The world record for the largest kite flown for at least 20 minutes is "The Flag of Kuwait".  The single-kite altitude record is held by a triangular-box delta kite. On 23 September 2014 a team led by Robert Moore, flew a kite to above ground level. The record altitude was reached after 8 series of attempts over a ten-year period from a remote location in western NSW, Australia. The tall and wide Dunton-Taylor delta kite's flight was controlled by a winch system using of ultra high strength Dyneema line. The flight took about eight hours from ground and return. The height was measured with on-board GPS telemetry transmitting positional data in real time to a ground-based computer and also back-up GPS data loggers for later analysis.

General safety issues.

There are safety issues involved in kite-flying. Kite lines can strike and tangle on electrical power lines, causing power blackouts and running the risk of electrocuting the kite flier. Wet kite lines or wire can act as a conductor for static electricity and lightning when the weather is stormy. Kites with large surface area or powerful lift can lift kite fliers off the ground or drag them into other objects. In urban areas there is usually a ceiling on how high a kite can be flown, to prevent the kite and line infringing on the airspace of helicopters and light aircraft. It is also possible for fighter kites to kill people, as happened in India when three spectators were killed in separate incidents during Independence Day, August, 2016—precipitating a ban on certain types of enhanced line.

A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air craft or even tethered lighter-than air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have a bridle and tail to guide the face of the kite so the wind can lift it. Some kite designs don’t need a bridle; box kites can have a single attachment point. A kite may have fixed or moving anchors that can balance the kite. One technical definition is that a kite is “a collection of tether-coupled wing sets“. The name derives from its resemblance to a hovering bird.

Ein Drachen (nach chinesischen, als Drachenbilder ausgeführten Drachen), Fesseldrachen oder auch Kite (englisch) ist ein Spiel- und Sportgerät, das mit Wind betrieben wird. Er besteht in der einfachsten Ausführung aus einem Segel, das in der Regel durch ein Gestänge aufgespannt wird und einer am Gestänge befestigten Leine, die die Person hält, die den Drachen steigen lässt (im Drachensport "Pilot"). Der Drachen wird so in den Wind gestellt, dass durch die Anströmung der Luft gegen das Drachensegel dynamischer Auftrieb entsteht und der Drachen nach oben steigt.


History.

Around this same time appeared the dot (period or full-stop) as a filename extension separator, and the limit to three letter extensions might have come from 16-bit RAD50 character encoding limits.  Traditionally, most operating system supported filenames with only uppercase alphanumeric characters, but as time progressed, the number of characters allowed increased. This led to compatibility problems when moving files between different file systems.  In 1985, RFC 959 officially defined a "pathname" to be the character string that must be entered into a file system by a user in order to identify a file.  Around 1995, VFAT, an extension to the MS-DOS FAT filesystem, was introduced in Windows 95 and Windows NT. It allowed mixed-case Unicode long filenames (LFNs), in addition to classic "8.3" names.

Unicode migration.

One issue was migration to Unicode. For this purpose, several software companies provided software for migrating filenames to the new Unicode encoding. Mac OS X 10.3 marked Apple's adoption of Unicode 3.2 character decomposition, superseding the Unicode 2.1 decomposition used previously. This change caused problems for developers writing software for Mac OS X.

References: absolute vs relative.

An absolute reference includes all directory levels. In some systems, a filename reference that does not include the complete directory path defaults to the current working directory. This is a relative reference. One advantage of using a relative reference in program configuration files or scripts is that different instances of the script or program can use different files.  This makes an absolute or relative path composed of a sequence of filenames.

Number of names per file.

Unix-like file systems allow a file to have more than one name; in traditional Unix-style file systems, the names are hard links to the file's inode or equivalent. Windows supports hard links on NTFS file systems, and provides the command codice_1 in Windows XP, and codice_2 in later versions, for creating them. Hard links are different from Windows shortcuts, classic Mac OS/macOS aliases, or symbolic links. The introduction of LFNs with VFAT allowed filename aliases. For example, longfi~1.??? with a maximum of eight plus three characters was a filename alias of "long file name.???" as a way to conform to 8.3 limitations for older programs.  This property was used by the move command algorithm that first creates a second filename and then only removes the first filename.  Other filesystems, by design, provide only one filename per file, which guarantees that alteration of one filename's file does not alter the other filename's file.

Length restrictions.

Some filesystems restrict the length of filenames. In some cases, these lengths apply to the entire file name, as in 44 characters on IBM S/370. In other cases, the length limits may apply to particular portions of the filename, such as the name of a file in a directory, or a directory name. For example, 9 (e.g., 8-bit FAT in Standalone Disk BASIC), 11 (e.g. FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 in DOS), 14 (e.g. early Unix), 21 (Human68K), 31, 30 (e.g. Apple DOS 3.2 and 3.3), 15 (e.g. Apple ProDOS), 44 (e.g. IBM S/370), or 255 (e.g. early Berkeley Unix) characters or bytes. Length limits often result from assigning fixed space in a filesystem to storing components of names, so increasing limits often requires an incompatible change, as well as reserving more space.  A particular issue with filesystems that store information in nested directories is that it may be possible to create a file with a complete pathname that exceeds implementation limits, since length checking may apply only to individual parts of the name rather than the entire name. Many Windows applications are limited to a MAX_PATH value of 260, but Windows file names can easily exceed this limit.

Filename extensions.

Many file systems, including FAT, NTFS, and VMS systems, allow a filename extension that consists of one or more characters following the last period in the filename, dividing the filename into two parts: a "base name" or "stem" and an "extension" or "suffix" used by some applications to indicate the file type. Multiple output files created by an application use the same basename and various extensions. For example, a compiler might use the extension codice_3 for source input file (for Fortran code), codice_4 for the object output and codice_5 for the listing. Although there are some common extensions, they are arbitrary and a different application might use codice_6 and codice_7. On filesystems that do not segregate the extension, files will often have a longer extension such as codice_8.

Encoding interoperability.

There is no general encoding standard for filenames.  Because file names have to be exchanged between software environments (think network file transfer, file system storage, backup and file synchronization software, configuration management, data compression and archiving, etc.), it is very important not to lose file name information between applications. This led to wide adoption of Unicode as a standard for encoding file names, although legacy software might be non-Unicode-aware.

Encoding indication interoperability.

Traditionally, filenames allowed any character in their filenames as long as they were file system safe. Although this permitted the use of any encoding, and thus allowed the representation of any local text on any local system, it caused many interoperability issues.  A filename could be stored using different byte strings in distinct systems within a single country, such as if one used Japanese Shift JIS encoding and another Japanese EUC encoding. Conversion was not possible as most systems did not expose a description of the encoding used for a filename as part of the extended file information. This forced costly filename encoding guessing with each file access.  A solution was to adopt Unicode as the encoding for filenames.  In the classic Mac OS, however, encoding of the filename was stored with the filename attributes.

Unicode interoperability.

The Unicode standard solves the encoding determination issue.  Nonetheless, some limited interoperability issues remain, such as normalization (equivalence), or the Unicode version in use. For instance, UDF is limited to Unicode 2.0; macOS's HFS+ file system applies NFD Unicode normalization and is optionally case-sensitive (case-insensitive by default.) Filename maximum length is not standard and might depend on the code unit size. Although it is a serious issue, in most cases this is a limited one.  On Linux, this means the filename is not enough to open a file: additionally, the exact byte representation of the filename on the storage device is needed. This can be solved at the application level, with some tricky normalization calls.  The issue of Unicode equivalence is known as "normalized-name collision". A solution is the "Non-normalizing Unicode Composition Awareness" used in the Subversion and Apache technical communities. This solution does not normalize paths in the repository. Paths are only normalized for the purpose of comparisons. Nonetheless, some communities have patented this strategy, forbidding its use by other communities.

Perspectives.

To limit interoperability issues, some ideas described by Sun are to:  Those considerations create a limitation not allowing a switch to a future encoding different from UTF-8.

Uniqueness.

Within a single directory, filenames must be unique. Since the filename syntax also applies for directories, it is not possible to create a file and directory entries with the same name in a single directory. Multiple files in different directories may have the same name.  Uniqueness approach may differ both on the case sensitivity and on the Unicode normalization form such as NFC, NFD. This means two separate files might be created with the same text filename and a different byte implementation of the filename, such as L"\x00C0.txt" (UTF-16, NFC) (Latin capital A with grave) and L"\x0041\x0300.txt" (UTF-16, NFD) (Latin capital A, grave combining).

Letter case preservation.

Some filesystems, such as FAT, store filenames as upper-case regardless of the letter case used to create them. For example, a file created with the name "MyName.Txt" or "myname.txt" would be stored with the filename "MYNAME.TXT". Any variation of upper and lower case can be used to refer to the same file. These kinds of file systems are called case-insensitive and are not case-preserving. Some filesystems prohibit the use of lower case letters in filenames altogether.  Some file systems store filenames in the form that they were originally created; these are referred to as case-retentive or case-preserving. Such a file system can be case-sensitive or case-insensitive. If case-sensitive, then "MyName.Txt" and "myname.txt" may refer to two different files in the same directory, and each file must be referenced by the exact capitalization by which it is named. On a case-insensitive, case-preserving file system, on the other hand, only one of "MyName.Txt", "myname.txt" and "Myname.TXT" can be the name of a file in a given directory at a given time, and a file with one of these names can be referenced by any capitalization of the name.  From its original inception, Unix and its derivative systems were case-preserving. However, not all Unix-like file systems are case-sensitive; by default, HFS+ in macOS is case-insensitive, and SMB servers usually provide case-insensitive behavior (even when the underlying file system is case-sensitive, e.g. Samba on most Unix-like systems), and SMB client file systems provide case-insensitive behavior. File system case sensitivity is a considerable challenge for software such as Samba and Wine, which must interoperate efficiently with both systems that treat uppercase and lowercase files as different and with systems that treat them the same.

Reserved characters and words.

File systems have not always provided the same character set for composing a filename. Before Unicode became a de facto standard, file systems mostly used a locale-dependent character set. By contrast, some new systems permit a filename to be composed of almost any character of the Unicode repertoire, and even some non-Unicode byte sequences. Limitations may be imposed by the file system, operating system, application, or requirements for interoperability with other systems.  Many file system utilities prohibit control characters from appearing in filenames. In Unix-like file systems, the null character and the path separator codice_9 are prohibited.

In Windows.

File system utilities and naming conventions on Windows prohibit particular characters from appearing in filenames:  Note 1: While they are allowed in Unix file and folder names, most Unix shells require specific characters such as spaces, <, >, |, \, and sometimes :, (, ), &, ;, #, as well as wildcards such as? and *, to be quoted or escaped: codice_10 (example of escaping)codice_11 or codice_12 (examples of quoting)  The character 0xE5 was not allowed as the first letter in a filename under 86-DOS and MS-DOS/PC DOS 1.x-2.x, but can be used in later versions.  In Windows utilities, the space and the period are not allowed as the final character of a filename. The period is allowed as the first character, but some Windows applications, such as Windows Explorer, forbid creating or renaming such files (despite this convention being used in Unix-like systems to describe hidden files and directories). Workarounds include appending a dot when renaming the file (that is then automatically removed afterwards), using alternative file managers, creating the file using the command line, or saving a file with the desired filename from within an application.  Some file systems on a given operating system (especially file systems originally implemented on other operating systems), and particular applications on that operating system, may apply further restrictions and interpretations. See comparison of file systems for more details on restrictions.  In Unix-like systems, DOS, and Windows, the filenames "." and ".." have special meanings (current and parent directory respectively). Windows 95/98/ME also uses names like "...", "..." and so on to denote grandparent or great-grandparent directories. All Windows versions forbid creation of filenames that consist of only dots, although names consist of three dots ("...") or more are legal in Unix.  In addition, in Windows and DOS utilities, some words are also reserved and cannot be used as filenames. For example, DOS device files:  Systems that have these restrictions cause incompatibilities with some other filesystems. For example, Windows will fail to handle, or raise error reports for, these legal UNIX filenames: aux.c, q"uote"s.txt, or NUL.txt.  NTFS filenames that are used internally include:

A filename or file name is a name used to uniquely identify a computer file stored in a file system. Different file systems impose different restrictions on filename lengths and the allowed characters within filenames.

Ein Dateiname identifiziert eine Datei in einem Dateisystem auf einem Datenträger oder bei einer Datenübertragung. Meist wird eine Datei zusätzlich durch einen Verzeichnisnamen charakterisiert, sodass ein vollständiger Pfadname entsteht. Erst diese Kombination zu einem vollständigen Pfadnamen ist in der Regel eindeutig. Pro Verzeichnis (Ordner) ist eine identische Benennung von zwei Dateien nicht möglich; unter einigen Betriebssystemen, z. B. Unix, qualifiziert auf einem entsprechenden Dateisystem eine veränderte Groß- und Kleinschreibung einen anderen Dateinamen, so dass z. B. codice_1 und codice_2 zwei unterschiedliche – und somit nicht identische – Benennungen sind.


Structure.

There is widespread consensus that, although the book has no plot, it does have what can be called a framework, as indicated by the links between its beginning and end. Beyond this, however, there appears to be little agreement: attempts to find a chiastic structure have not been compelling, and attempts to analyse it into units have used differing methods and arrived at differing results. The following schema, from Kugler & al. must therefore be taken as indicative, rather than determinative:

Summary.

The introduction calls the poem "the song of songs", a construction commonly used in Scriptural Hebrew to show something as the greatest and most beautiful of its class (as in Holy of Holies). The poem proper begins with the woman's expression of desire for her lover and her self-description to the "daughters of Jerusalem": she insists on her sun-born blackness, likening it to the "tents of Kedar" (nomads) and the "curtains of Solomon". A dialogue between the lovers follows: the woman asks the man to meet; he replies with a lightly teasing tone. The two compete in offering flattering compliments ("my beloved is to me as a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En Gedi", "an apple tree among the trees of the wood", "a lily among brambles", while the bed they share is like a forest canopy). The section closes with the woman telling the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up love such as hers until it is ready.  The woman recalls a visit from her lover in the springtime. She uses imagery from a shepherd's life, and she says of her lover that "he pastures his flock among the lilies".  The woman again addresses the daughters of Jerusalem, describing her fervent and ultimately successful search for her lover through the night-time streets of the city. When she finds him she takes him almost by force into the chamber in which her mother conceived her. She reveals that this is a dream, seen on her "bed at night" and ends by again warning the daughters of Jerusalem "not to stir up love until it is ready".  The next section reports a royal wedding procession. Solomon is mentioned by name, and the daughters of Jerusalem are invited to come out and see the spectacle.  The man describes his beloved: Her hair is like a flock of goats, her teeth like shorn ewes, and so on from face to breasts. Place-names feature heavily: her neck is like the Tower of David, her smell like the scent of Lebanon. He hastens to summon his beloved, saying that he is ravished by even a single glance. The section becomes a "garden poem", in which he describes her as a "locked garden" (usually taken to mean that she is chaste). The woman invites the man to enter the garden and taste the fruits. The man accepts the invitation, and a third party tells them to eat, drink, "and be drunk with love".  The woman tells the daughters of Jerusalem of another dream. She was in her chamber when her lover knocked. She was slow to open, and when she did, he was gone. She searched through the streets again, but this time she failed to find him and the watchmen, who had helped her before, now beat her. She asks the daughters of Jerusalem to help her find him, and describes his physical good looks. Eventually, she admits her lover is in his garden, safe from harm, and committed to her as she is to him.  The man describes his beloved; the woman describes a rendezvous they have shared. (The last part is unclear and possibly corrupted.)  The people praise the beauty of the woman. The images are the same as those used elsewhere in the poem, but with an unusually dense use of place-names, e.g., pools of Hebron, gate of Bath-rabbim, tower of Damascus, etc. The man states his intention to enjoy the fruits of the woman's garden. The woman invites him to a tryst in the fields. She once more warns the daughters of Jerusalem against waking love until it is ready.  The woman compares love to death and sheol: love is as relentless and jealous as these two, and cannot be quenched by any force. She summons her lover, using the language used before: he should come "like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountain of spices".

Composition.

The Song offers no clue to its author or to the date, place, or circumstances of its composition. The superscription states that it is "Solomon's", but even if this is meant to identify the author, it cannot be read as strictly as a similar modern statement. The most reliable evidence for its date is its language: Aramaic gradually replaced Hebrew after the end of the Babylonian exile in the late 6th century BCE, and the evidence of vocabulary, morphology, idiom and syntax clearly points to a late date, centuries after King Solomon to whom it is traditionally attributed. It has parallels with Mesopotamian and Egyptian love poetry from the first half of the 1st millennium, and with the pastoral idylls of Theocritus, a Greek poet who wrote in the first half of the 3rd century BCE; as a result of these conflicting signs, speculation ranges from the 10th to the 2nd centuries BCE, with the language supporting a date around the 3rd century.  Debate continues on the unity or disunity of the Song. Those who see it as an anthology or collection point to the abrupt shifts of scene, speaker, subject matter and mood, and the lack of obvious structure or narrative. Those who hold it to be a single poem point out that it has no internal signs of composite origins, and view the repetitions and similarities among its parts as evidence of unity. Some claim to find a conscious artistic design underlying it, but there is no agreement among them on what this might be. The question therefore remains unresolved.  The setting in which the poem arose is also debated. The poem seems to be rooted in some kind of festive performance. A minority of academics posit a ritual origin in the celebration of the sacred marriage of the god Tammuz and the goddess Ishtar. A popular theory of the 19th century suggests that the Song was originally recited as a drama by different singers representing the different characters, however recent scholarship has abandoned this theory.

Canonisation and interpretation.

Judaism.

The Song was accepted into the Jewish canon of scripture in the 2nd century CE, after a period of controversy in the 1st century. It was accepted as canonical because of its supposed authorship by Solomon and based on an allegorical reading where the subject-matter was taken to be not sexual desire but God's love for Israel. For instance, the famed first and second century Rabbi Akiva forbade the use of the Song of Songs in popular celebrations. He reportedly said, "He who sings the Song of Songs in wine taverns, treating it as if it were a vulgar song, forfeits his share in the world to come". However, Rabbi Akiva famously defended the canonicity of the Song of Songs, reportedly saying when the question came up of whether it should be considered a defiling work, "God forbid! [...] For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies."  It is one of the overtly mystical Biblical texts for the Kabbalah, which gave esoteric interpretation on all the Hebrew Bible. Following the dissemination of the Zohar in the 13th century, Jewish mysticism took on a metaphorically anthropomorphic erotic element, and Song of Songs is an example of this. In Zoharic Kabbalah, God is represented by a system of ten sephirot emanations, each symbolizing a different attribute of God, comprising both male and female. The Shechina (indwelling Divine presence) was identified with the feminine sephira Malchut, the vessel of Kingship. This symbolizes the Jewish people, and in the body, the female form, identified with the woman in Song of Songs. Her beloved was identified with the male sephira Tiferet, the "Holy One Blessed be He", central principle in the beneficent Heavenly flow of Divine emotion. In the body, this represents the male torso, uniting through the sephira Yesod of the male sign of the covenant organ of procreation.  Through beneficent deeds and Jewish observance, the Jewish people restore cosmic harmony in the Divine realm, healing the exile of the Shechina with God's transcendence, revealing the essential Unity of God. This elevation of the World is aroused from Above on the Sabbath, a foretaste of the redeemed purpose of Creation. The text thus became a description, depending on the aspect, of the creation of the world, the passage of "Shabbat", the covenant with Israel, and the coming of the Messianic age. "Lecha Dodi", a 16th-century liturgical song with strong Kabbalistic symbolism, contains many passages, including its opening two words, taken directly from Song of Songs.  In modern Judaism, certain verses from the Song are read on "Shabbat" eve or at Passover, which marks the beginning of the grain harvest as well as commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, to symbolize the love between the Jewish People and their God. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel.

Christianity.

The literal subject of the Song of Songs is love and sexual longing between a man and a woman, and it has little (or nothing) to say about the relationship of God and man; in order to find such a meaning it was necessary to resort to allegory, treating the love that the Song celebrates as an analogy for the love between God and Church. The Christian church's interpretation of the Song as evidence of God's love for his people, both collectively and individually, began with Origen. Over the centuries the emphases of interpretation shifted, first reading the Song as a depiction of the love between Christ and Church, the 11th century adding a moral element, and the 12th century understanding of the Bride as the Virgin Mary, with each new reading absorbing rather than simply replacing earlier ones, so that the commentary became ever more complex. These theological themes are not in the poem, but derive from a theological reading; nevertheless, what is notable about this approach is the way it leads to conclusions not found in the overtly theological books of the Bible. Those books reveal an abiding imbalance in the relationship between God and man, ranging from slight to enormous; but reading Songs as a theological metaphor produces quite a different outcome, one in which the two partners are equals, bound in a committed relationship.  In modern times the poem has attracted the attention of feminist biblical critics, with Phyllis Trible's foundational "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation" treating it as an exemplary text and the Feminist Companion to the Bible series edited by Athalya Brenner and Carole Fontaine devoting to it two volumes (1993, 2000).

Musical settings.

Excerpts from the book have inspired composers to vocal and instrumental compositions, including:

The Song of Songs, also Song of Solomon or Canticles (Hebrew: "Šîr Hašîrîm", Greek and ; ), is one of the "megillot" (scrolls) found in the last section of the Tanakh, known as the Ketuvim (or "Writings"), and a book of the Old Testament.

Als Hoheslied (auch: Hohelied Salomos, seltener: Hohes Lied, abgekürzt "Hld") bezeichnet man ein Buch des Tanachs, wo es zu den fünf Megillot zählt, bzw. des Alten Testaments. Es handelt sich um eine Sammlung von zärtlichen, teilweise explizit erotischen Liebesliedern, in denen das Suchen und Finden, das Sehnen und gegenseitige Lobpreisen zweier Liebender geschildert wird.


Background.

Josephus places Nahum during the reign of Jotham, while others place him in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, Judah's next king, or even the latter half of the reign of Hezekiah, Ahaz's son; all three accounts date the book to the 8th century BC. The book would then have been written in Jerusalem, where Nahum would have witnessed the invasion of Sennacherib and the destruction of his host (2 Kings 19:35).  The scholarly consensus is that the "book of vision" was written at the time of the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC. This theory is demonstrated by the fact that the oracles must be dated after the Assyrian destruction of Thebes, Egypt in 663 BC, as this event is mentioned in.

Author.

Little is known about Nahum's personal history. His name means "comforter", and he was from the town of "Elkosh" or "Alqosh" (), which scholars have attempted to identify with several cities, including the modern `Alqush of Assyria and Capharnaum of northern Galilee. He was a very nationalistic Hebrew, and lived amongst the Elkoshites in peace. His writings were likely written in about 615 BC, before the downfall of Assyria.

Historical context.

The subject of Nahum's prophecy is the approaching complete and final destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the great and at that time flourishing Assyrian empire. Ashurbanipal was at the height of his glory. Nineveh was a city of vast extent, and was then the center of the civilization and commerce of the world, according to Nahum a "bloody city all full of lies and robbery" (), a reference to the Neo-Assyrian Empire's military campaigns and demand of tribute and plunder from conquered cities.  Jonah had already uttered his message of warning, and Nahum was followed by Zephaniah, who also predicted (Zephaniah ) the destruction of the city.  Nineveh was destroyed apparently by fire around 625 BC, and the Assyrian empire came to an end, an event which changed the face of Asia. Archaeological digs have uncovered the splendor of Nineveh in its zenith under Sennacherib (705–681 BC), Esarhaddon (681–669 BC), and Ashurbanipal (669–633 BC). Massive walls were eight miles in circumference. It had a water aqueduct, palaces and a library with 20,000 clay tablets, including accounts of a creation in Enuma Elish and a flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh.  The Babylonian chronicle of the fall of Nineveh tells the story of the end of Nineveh. Nabopolassar of Babylon joined forces with Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and laid siege for three months.  Assyria lasted a few more years after the loss of its fortress, but attempts by Egyptian Pharaoh Neco II to rally the Assyrians failed due to opposition from king Josiah of Judah, and it seemed to be all over by 609 BC.

Overview.

The Book of Nahum consists of two parts:  Chapters two and three describe the fall of Nineveh, which later took place in 612 BC. Nineveh is compared to Thebes, the Egyptian city that Assyria itself had destroyed in 663 BC. Nahum describes the siege and frenzied activity of Nineveh's troops as they try in vain to halt the invaders. Poetically, he becomes a participant in the battle, and with subtle irony, barks battle commands to the defenders. Nahum uses numerous similes and metaphors. Nineveh is ironically compared with a lion, in reference to the lion as an Assyrian symbol of power; Nineveh is the lion of strength that has a den full of dead prey but will become weak like the lion hiding in its den. It comes to conclusion with a taunt song and funeral dirge of the impending destruction of Nineveh and the "sleep" or death of the Assyrian people and demise of the once great Assyrian conqueror-rulers.

Themes.

The fall of Nineveh.

Nahum's prophecy carries a particular warning to the Ninevites of coming events, although he is partly in favor of the destruction. One might even say that the book of Nahum is "a celebration of the fall of Assyria." And this is not just a warning or speaking positively of the destruction of Nineveh, it is also a positive encouragement and "message of comfort for Israel, Judah, and others who had experienced the "endless cruelty" () of the Assyrians." The prophet Jonah shows us where God shows concern for the people of Nineveh, while Nahum's writing testifies to his belief in the righteousness/justice of God and how God dealt with those Assyrians in punishment according to "their cruelty" (). The Assyrians had been used as God's "rod of [...] anger, and the staff in their hand [as] indignation." (Isaiah 10:5)

The nature of God.

From its opening, Nahum shows God to be slow to anger, but that God will by no means ignore the guilty; God will bring his vengeance and wrath to pass. God is presented as a God who will punish evil, but will protect those who trust in Him. The opening passage () states: "God is jealous, and the L revengeth; the L revengeth, and is furious; the L will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The L is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked". God is strong and will use means, but a mighty God doesn't need anyone else to carry out vengeance and wrath for him.

Importance.

God's judgement on Nineveh is "all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft" ( NIV). Infidelity, according to the prophets, related to spiritual unfaithfulness. For example: "the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the L" ( NIV). The apostle John used a similar analogy in Revelation chapter 17.  The prophecy of Nahum was referenced in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit. In Tobit 14:4 (NRSV) a dying Tobit says to his son Tobias and Tobias' sons:  [My son] hurry off to Media, for I believe the word of God that Nahum spoke about Nineveh, that all these things will take place and overtake Assyria and Nineveh. Indeed, everything that was spoken by the prophets of Israel, whom God sent, will occur. However, some versions, such as the King James Version, refer to the prophet Jonah instead.

Discourse.

The book was introduced in Calvin's Commentary as a complete and finished poem: Nahum, taking words from Moses himself, have shown in a general way what sort of "Being God is". The Reformation theologian Calvin argued, Nahum painted God by which His nature must be seen, and "it is from that most memorable vision, when God appeared to Moses after the breaking of the tables."  The book could be seen as an allusion to the history as described by Moses; for the minor Prophets, in promising God's assistance to his people, must often remind how God in a miraculous manner brought up the Jews from Egypt.

The Book of Nahum is the seventh book of the 12 minor prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It is attributed to the prophet Nahum, and was probably written in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC.

Nahum ( Naḥūm, vgl. Nachum), heißt ein biblischer Prophet und sein Buch. Es gehört zum Zwölfprophetenbuch des hebräischen Tanach bzw. des christlichen Alten Testaments. Vom Autor ist nur der unbekannte Herkunftsort Elkosch (Nah 1,1) bekannt; sein Name bedeutet „Tröster“, bzw. „JHWH tröstet“.


Background.

The style was widespread from the 1940s until the early 1960s, and is closely associated with abstract expressionism (some critics have used the terms "action painting" and "abstract expressionism" interchangeably). A comparison is often drawn between the American action painting and the French tachisme. The New York School of American Abstract Expressionism (1940s-50s) is also seen as closely linked to the movement.  The term was coined by the American critic Harold Rosenberg in 1952, in his essay "The American Action Painters", and signaled a major shift in the aesthetic perspective of New York School painters and critics. According to Rosenberg the canvas was "an arena in which to act". The actions and means for creating the painting were seen, in action painting, of a higher importance than the end result. While Rosenberg created the term "action painting" in 1952, he began creating his action theory in the 1930s as a critic. While abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning had long been outspoken in their view of a painting as an arena within which to come to terms with the act of creation, earlier critics sympathetic to their cause, like Clement Greenberg, focused on their works' "objectness." Clement Greenberg was also an influential critic in action painting, intrigued by the creative struggle, which he claimed was evidenced by the surface of the painting. To Greenberg, it was the physicality of the paintings' clotted and oil-caked surfaces that was the key to understanding them. "Some of the labels that became attached to Abstract Expressionism, like "informel" and "Action Painting," definitely implied this; one was given to understand that what was involved was an utterly new kind of art that was no longer art in any accepted sense. This was, of course, absurd." – Clement Greenberg, "Post Painterly Abstraction".  Rosenberg's critique shifted the emphasis from the object to the struggle itself, with the finished painting being only the physical manifestation, a kind of residue, of the actual work of art, which was in the act or process of the painting's creation. The newer research tends to put the exile-surrealist Wolfgang Paalen in the position of the artist and theoretician who used the term "action" at first in this sense and fostered the theory of the subjective struggle with it. In his theory of the viewer-dependent possibility space, in which the artist "acts" like in an ecstatic ritual, Paalen considers ideas of quantum mechanics, as well as idiosyncratic interpretations of the totemic vision and the spatial structure of native-Indian painting from British Columbia. His long essay "Totem Art" (1943) had considerable influence on such artists as Martha Graham, Barnett Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko; Paalen describes a highly artistic vision of totemic art as part of a ritual "action" with psychic links to genetic memory and matrilinear ancestor-worship.  Over the next two decades, Rosenberg's redefinition of art as an act rather than an object, as a process rather than a product, was influential, and laid the foundation for a number of major art movements, from Happenings and Fluxus to Conceptual, Performance art, Installation art and Earth Art.

Historical context.

It is essential for the understanding of action painting to place it in historical context. The action painting movement took place in the time after World War II ended. With this came a disordered economy and culture in Europe, and in America the government took advantage of their new state of importance. A product of the post-World War II artistic resurgence of expressionism in America and more specifically New York City, action painting developed in an era where quantum mechanics and psychoanalysis were beginning to flourish and were changing people's perception of the physical and psychological world; and civilization's understanding of the world through heightened self-consciousness and awareness.  American action painters pondered the nature of art as well as the reasons for the existence of art often when questioning what the value of action painting is. The preceding art of Kandinsky and Mondrian had freed itself from the portrayal of objects and instead tried to evoke, address and delineate, through the aesthetic sense, emotions and feelings within the viewer. "Action painting" took this a step further, using both Jung and Freud’s ideas of the subconscious as its underlying foundations. Many of the painters were interested in Carl Jung's studies of archetypal images and types, and used their own internal visions to create their paintings. Along with Jung, Sigmund Freud and Surrealism were also influential to the beginning of action painting. The paintings of the Action painters were not meant to portray objects per se or even specific emotions. Instead they were meant to touch the observer deep in the subconscious mind, evoking a sense of the primeval and tapping the collective sense of an archetypal visual language. This was done by the artist painting "unconsciously," and spontaneously, creating a powerful arena of raw emotion and action, in the moment. Action painting was clearly influenced by the surrealist emphasis on automatism which (also) influenced by psychoanalysis claimed a more direct access to the subconscious mind. Important exponents of this concept of art making were the painters Joan Miró and André Masson. However the action painters took everything the surrealists had done a step further.

Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist.

Action Painting (auch "Actionpainting" „Aktionsmalerei“) bezeichnet eine Kunstrichtung der modernen Malerei innerhalb des abstrakten Expressionismus. Sie trat ab 1950 in den USA auf und ist durch Jackson Pollock international bekannt geworden. Vergleichbar ist der europäische Tachismus oder Informel.