Desecration

Desecration (also called desacralization or desanctification) is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual.

Detail

Many consider acts of desecration to be sacrilegious acts. This can include desecration of sacred books, sacred places or sacred objects. Desecration generally may be considered from the perspective of a particular religion or spiritual activity. Desecration may be applied to natural systems or components, particularly if those systems are part of naturalistic spiritual religion.

To respectfully remove the sacred character of a place or an object is deconsecration, and is distinct from desecration.

Some religions, such as the Roman Catholic Church have specific rules as to what constitutes desecration and what should be done in these circumstances.

Examples

Christianization of the Roman Empire

Examples of the destruction of pagan temples in the late fourth century, as recorded in surviving texts, describe Martin of Tours' attacks on holy sites in Gaul, the destruction of temples in Syria by Marcellus the destruction of temples and images in, and surrounding, Carthage, the Patriarch Theophilus who seized and destroyed pagan temples in Alexandria, the levelling of all the temples in Gaza and the wider destruction of holy sites that spread rapidly throughout Egypt. This is supplemented in abundance by archaeological evidence in the northern provinces exposing broken and burnt out buildings and hastily buried objects of piety. The leader of the Egyptian monks who participated in the sack of temples replied to the victims who demanded back their sacred icons:

Desecration (band)

Desecration is a British death metal band formed in Newport, south Wales in 1992.

Background

Formed in 1992, and releasing their first demo in 1993, the band caused controversy in 1995 when their debut album Gore and Perversion (original version on Anoxic Records) was infamously seized and incinerated by the local police due to the album's offensive content, for what they deemed to be its obscene nature, and banned upon release. The printers of the original artwork and lyrics, after taking the money for the pressing and without sending any copies to the band, sent the albums to the police authorities and were subsequently incinerated. Band members were arrested. The ensuing court case and media furore firmly established the name Desecration in the South Wales scene and beyond. The album was later released with a black cover featuring the statement "SORRY! Censored by the authorities. Original artwork can be obtained from Arctic Serenades. Send an IRC.", now out of print, by Arctic Serenades.

Desecration (film)

Desecration is a 1999 American horror film written and directed by Dante Tomaselli. The film stars Irma St. Paule and Christie Sanford, who would both return in several of Tomaselli's later films. The film originally started off as a short film that Tomaselli created in 1994 and is his feature film directorial debut.

Tomaselli drew inspiration for the film from his childhood and also heavily utilized dream sequences to impart the film's story.

Plot Synopsis

A 16-year-old teen named Bobby is emotionally damaged by the early death of his mother. After accidentally causing a nun's death, he unleashes a chain of supernatural events that lead him into the pits of Hell.

Cast

Reception

Merle Bertrant of Film Threat panned the film and gave it one and a half stars, stating, "All moody funky art-crap visuals and no cohesive narrative to speak of, the only thing desecrated in Desecration is the rapidly fading art of storytelling." In contrast, Sean McGinnis of DVD Verdict called it a cult film that it would "engender strong feelings one way or the other". McGinnis said that he "found the film entertaining and creepy in a palpable way."

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo [ˈtɛmpo] ("time" in Italian; plural: tempi [ˈtɛmpi]) is the speed or pace of a given piece or subsection thereof.

Measuring tempo

A piece of music's tempo is typically written at the start of the score, and in modern Western music is usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note, or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and that the amount of time between successive beats is a specified fraction of a minute. The greater the number of beats per minute, the smaller the amount of time between successive beats, and thus faster a piece must be played. For example, a tempo of 60 beats per minute signifies one beat per second, while a tempo of 120 beats per minute is twice as rapid, signifying one beat every 0.5 seconds. Mathematical tempo markings of this kind became increasingly popular during the first half of the 19th century, after the metronome had been invented by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, although early metronomes were somewhat inconsistent. Beethoven was one of the first composers to use the metronome; in the 1810s he published metronomic indications for the eight symphonies he had composed up to that time. for example a minum has a 2 seconds

Grave accent

The grave accent ( ` ) (/ˈɡreɪv/ or UK /ˈɡrɑːv/) is a diacritical mark used in many written languages, including Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek (until 1982; see polytonic orthography), Haitian Creole, Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Ligurian, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh and Yoruba.

Uses

Greek

The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek to mark a lower pitch than the high pitch of the acute accent. In modern practice, it is used to replace an acute accent in the last syllable of a word when the word is followed immediately by another word in the sentence. The grave and circumflex have been replaced with an acute accent in the modern monotonic orthography.

Stress

The grave accent marks the stressed vowels of words in Maltese, Catalan and Italian.

Grave (unit)

The grave was the original name of the kilogram, in an early version of the metric system between 1793 and 1795.

The modern kilogram has its origins in the pre-French Revolution days of France. Louis XVI created a Consultative Commission for Units to devise a new decimal-based system of measurement. This royal commission, which included such aristocrats as Antoine Lavoisier, founded the very beginnings of the “metric system”, which later evolved into the contemporary International System of Units (SI).

In 1793 a new, decimal series of weights was introduced by the French Revolutionary government. The series of weights (milligravet, centigravet, decigravet, gravet, centigrave, decigrave, grave, centibar, decibar, bar ) contained three root unit names without a prefix: gravet, grave, and bar. Of these, the grave was the central unit with a definition. It was the weight of one cubic decimeter of pure water at the melting temperature of ice.

In 1795, the three root unit names were replaced by a single new name: the gram. The new gram was equal to the old gravet. Four new prefixes were added to cover the same range of weights as in 1793 (milligram, centigram, decigram, gram, decagram, hectogram, kilogram, myriagram). The regulation of trade and commerce required a “practical realisation”: a single-piece, metallic reference standard. The kilogram was more convenient as a standard than the gram. A brass cylinder was made that served as the prototype of the provisional kilogram.

Wax

Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are hydrophobic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low viscosity liquids. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents. Natural waxes of different types are produced by plants and animals and occur in petroleum.

Types

Waxes are organic compounds that characteristically consist of long alkyl chains. Natural waxes may contain esters of carboxylic acids and long chain alcohols or mixtures of unsubstituted and substituted hydrocarbons, such as higher alkanes, long chain fatty acids and primary alcohols. Synthetic waxes are long-chain hydrocarbons lacking functional groups.

Plant and animal waxes

Waxes are synthesized by many plants and animals. Those of animal origin typically consist of wax esters derived from a variety of carboxylic acids and fatty alcohols. In waxes of plant origin characteristic mixtures of unesterified hydrocarbons may predominate over esters. The composition depends not only on species, but also on geographic location of the organism.