Octoberfest

Their wedding took place on Theresienwiese in 1810. Since then, the Oktoberfest is celebrated every year to commemorate this event. Theresienwiese now serves as the official ground of the Munich Oktoberfest.
(Acknowledgement)

Watching a movie! (Stuart Little)

The painting appeared in scenes of “Stuart Little” involving the stars of the film, yet it wasn’t until 2009 that the painting was identified. The eagle-eyed viewer, who is also an art historian, notified people associated with the Columbia Pictures film and the painting was tracked down.
(Acknowledgement)

Unicorn (The Lady and the Unicorn)

They are often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe. The novelist George Sand brought public attention to the tapestries in her works at the time.
(Acknowledgement)

Pyramid

A Christmas pyramid is a kind of carousel with several levels, some depicting Christian motifs such as angels or manger scenes, and others with more secular motifs such as mountain-folk, forests, and other scenes from the everyday life. The spinning motion of the pyramids is traditionally achieved with the help of candles whose rising heat spins a propeller above.
(Acknowledgement)

General George S. Patton

This is according to The Oxford Book of Military Anecdotes by Max Hastings.

Sabotage, of course!

(Acknowledgement)

Steve Jobs

This claim is made in the trailer of Awake: The Life of Yogananda.
(Acknowledgement)

Camels

It also features several offbeat competitions like the "Longest Moustache" and attracts thousands of tourists.
(Acknowledgement)

Scents

The Osmothèque is internationally responsible for the authentication, registration, preservation, documentation and reproduction of thousands of perfumes gathered from the past two millennia.
(Acknowledgement)

Handle and spout are on the same side

The object is also featured on the cover of The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.
(Acknowledgement)

Fattening!

The tradition stems back centuries ago, where women who were overweight were representative of wealthy men; they were considered property, like cattle and land.
(Acknowledgement)

Foot binding

The general consensus is that the roots of foot binding lie in the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD), although there are numerous folk lore and legends surrounding its actual origin. It was not until 1911 when the Manchu dynasty was toppled by Sun Yat Sen's revolution that foot binding was outlawed. In 1915 the Chinese government declared the practice illegal and sent inspectors to issue monetary fines to those who continued to uphold the tradition.
(Acknowledgement)

Stage a passion play

It has been performed since 1634.
(Acknowledgement)

Erotica

They are about 620 kilometres (385 mi) southeast of New Delhi.
(Acknowledgement)

Grandma Moses (1860-1961)

She is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age.
(Acknowledgement)

Raphael

The four Raphael Rooms form a suite of reception rooms, the public part of the papal apartments in the Palace of the Vatican.
(Acknowledgement)

Baron Münchhausen

His reputation as a storyteller has been exaggerated by writers, giving birth to a fully fictionalized literary character.
(Acknowledgement)

Humans

He used naked female models covered in blue paint and dragged across or laid upon canvases to make the image, using the models as "living brushes."
(Acknowledgement)

Pileus

In Ancient Rome, a slave was freed in a ceremony in which a praetor touched the slave with a rod called a vindicta and pronounced him to be free. The slave's head was shaved and a pileus was placed upon it. Both the vindicta and the cap were considered symbols of Libertas, the goddess representing liberty.
(Acknowledgement)

Venus (Venus of Brassempouy)

About 25,000 years old, it is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face. The name of Venus is used an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric statuettes of women from the Upper Palaeolithic, mostly found in Europe. It is because prehistorians of the early 20th century assumed they represented an ancient ideal of beauty.
(Acknowledgement)

They are the two people in American Gothic by Grant Wood

Nan is the sister of Grant Wood and the doctor was his dentist. The painting can be seen in the Art Institute of Chicago.
(Acknowledgement)

Happy Valley set

From the 1930s the group became infamous for its decadent lifestyles and exploits following reports of drug use and sexual promiscuity.
(Acknowledgement)

"Chicken cup"

It is considered one of the most sought-after items in Chinese art, held in a reverence equivalent to that of the jeweled Fabergé eggs. The last time a similar cup was auctioned was in 1999. With just 16 known Chenghua chicken cups surviving, most in public museums, few come to auction. Four remain in private hands.
(Acknowledgement)

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

He was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

Barabbas

He is a figure in the accounts of the Passion of Christ, in which he is freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem, instead of Jesus.
(Acknowledgement)

Carnivals, particularly in Latin America

Each carnival has its own King Momo, who is often given the key to the city. Probably the most famous of the King Momos are found in Rio de Janeiro where the tradition of a presiding king goes back to 1933.
(Acknowledgement)

Peter Paul Rubens

Marie de' Medici was the wife of Henry IV of France. Twenty-one of the paintings depict Marie's own struggles and triumphs in life.

Icarus

The figure of Icarus forms the centrepiece of the academy's badge.
(Acknowledgement)

Juniper

The hint refers to the fact that juniper berries are commonly used in gin making.

Stonehenge

He called it Carhenge.
(Acknowledgement)

Mongolia

Elgin Marbles

They are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin obtained a controversial permit from the Ottoman authorities to remove pieces from the Parthenon while serving as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803.
(Acknowledgement)

Wind

The story concerns a competition between the North wind and the Sun to decide which is the stronger of the two. The challenge was to make a passing traveler remove his cloak.
(Acknowledgement)

Dido, Queen of Carthage

While fleeing with her followers, she arrived on the coast of North Africa and asked a Berber king for temporary refuge until she could continue her journey, asking for only as much land as could be encompassed by an oxhide. Dido cut the oxhide into fine strips so that she had enough to encircle an entire nearby hill. This event is commemorated in modern mathematics: The "isoperimetric problem" of enclosing the maximum area within a fixed boundary is often called the "Dido Problem" in modern Calculus of variations.
(Acknowledgement)

Tinkerbell

Acupuncture

In susuk, needles made of gold or other precious metals are inserted into the soft tissues of the body to act as talismans.
(Acknowledgement)

Cyclone

It opened in 1927 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Bigfoot

Most scientists have judged the film a hoax with a man in an ape suit, but many Bigfoot believers contend the film depicts a cryptid, a creature unknown to science. Both Patterson and Gimlin have always insisted they encountered and filmed a real Bigfoot, not a man in a costume.
(Acknowledgement)

Plague doctors

The purpose of the mask was to keep away bad smells, which were thought to be the principal cause of the disease in the miasma theory of infection, before it was disproved by germ theory. Doctors believed the herbs would counter the "evil" smells of the plague and prevent them from becoming infected.
(Acknowledgement)

Chicken legs

Surrendered weapons

It was built from the surrender of 600,000 weapons that were notably converted into art following an initiative started by Bishop Dinis Sengulane.
(Acknowledgement)

Topkapi palace

Several mutually exclusive accounts exist regarding its origin including one about a naive fisherman who gave it up without knowing its value.

Banzai skydiving

During World War II, banzai served as a battle cry of sorts for Japanese soldiers. Ideally, kamikaze pilots would shout "banzai!" as they rammed their planes into enemy ships. In various East Asian languages, the phrase "ten thousand years" is used to wish long life, and is typically translated as "long live" in English.

Yoda

Grand Jedi Master Yoda is the most powerful Jedi Master in the Star Wars universe.

Holy water

The name comes from the first word in the 9th verse of Psalm 51.
(Acknowledgement)

Talk like a pirate day

An observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, matey!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.
(Acknowledgement)

Vishnu

(Acknowledgement)

Bread crumbs

The term comes from the trail of breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel in the popular fairytale.
(Acknowledgement)

Haiku poem

Matsuo Bashō, known worldwide as the definitive master of haiku, frequently painted as well.

Eyepatch

The strong sunlight while above deck on an oceangoing vessel could require minutes of adaptation to the dim lighting below deck. With virtually no light sources below deck, sailors would have to rely heavily upon their eyes to adjust. In the critical moments of modifying the rigging, navigating, and especially during battle, those minutes were too precious. A simple switch of the patch from one eye to the other might have saved time when going between decks.
(Acknowledgement)

Spanish Riding School (that of the Lipizzan horses)

It was named for the Spanish horses that formed one of the bases of the Lipizzan breed, which is used exclusively at the school.

Wand

It indicates that with the magician's death, the wand has lost its magic.
(Acknowledgement)

Senicide

The abandonment to death, suicide or killing of the elderly.

Mirror

Coonskin caps

By the end of the 1950s, the fad slowly died out. It is recalled by numerous cultural references, such as the wearing of coonskin caps as part of The Junior Woodchucks uniform in Disney's Donald Duck comics.

Adele

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I sold for US$135 million in 2006. Adele Bloch-Bauer became the only model who was painted twice by Klimt when he completed a second picture of her, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, in 1912.

Wall

Banksy has been long criticized for copying the work of Blek le Rat, creator of the life-sized stencil technique in early 1980s Paris.

Spider

Stories of Anansi became such a prominent and familiar part of Ashanti oral culture that the word Anansesem — 'spider tales' — came to embrace all kinds of fables.

Songlines

A knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena. In some cases, the paths of the creator-beings are said to be evident from their marks such as large depressions in the land which are said to be their footprints.

Blood

It is said to be golden in color, as well as lethally toxic to mortals.

Hel (Norse myth)

Garmr is described as a blood-stained watchdog that guards Hel's gate.

Confucius, Buddha and Laozi respectively

Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state. Another interpretation of the painting is that, since the three men are gathered around one vat of vinegar, the 'three teachings' are one.
(Acknowledgement)

Nemean lion

Killed by Hercules during one of his twelve labors.

Hajj

The Umrah is a pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year. It is sometimes called the 'minor pilgrimage' or 'lesser pilgrimage', the Hajj being the 'major' pilgrimage and which is compulsory for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it. The Umrah is not compulsory but highly recommended. It does not contain as many steps as Hajj.

Kanagawa

As in all the prints in the series, it depicts the area around Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background.

King Midas, who rid himself of the golden touch by bathing here

Paint tube

It allowed the artists to travel outdoors as the drying of paint was no longer an issue. The paint tube superseded pig bladders and glass syringes as the primary tool of paint transport. Paints could now be produced in bulk and sold in tin tubes with a cap. The cap could be screwed back on and the paints preserved for future use, providing flexibility and efficiency to painting outdoors.

Voodoo

Vodouisants believe in a supreme being called Bondyè but because he is unreachable, they aim their prayers to lesser entities, the spirits known as loa.

Carnival (from carnelevare, to remove/raise meat)

It occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. It is traditionally held in areas with a large Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox makeup.

Champagne bottle!

Christening ships using champagne bottles is a tradition that goes back a long way.

Camouflage

His most popular works are from his 'Hiding in the City' series where he stands in front of various places and tries to 'blend in' by painting his own body.

Rhino (Dürer's Rhinoceros)

The image was based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an Indian rhinoceros that had arrived in Lisbon in 1515. Dürer never saw the actual rhinoceros, which was the first living example seen in Europe since Roman times.
(Acknowledgement)

Wear it

The cheongsam is the traditional looking body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women; the male version is the changshan. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, cheongsams were the uniforms for the medal bearers.

Churning of the Ocean of Milk

It was done using a mountain and with a snake by the gods on one side and the demons on the other.

Sweden

Death

Director being Ingmar Bergman and the movie is of course The Seventh Seal.

Vulnerability of a werewolf to a silver bullet

This idea does not appear in stories about werewolves before the 20th century (the claim that the Beast of Gévaudan, an 18th-century wolf or wolf-like creature, was shot by a silver bullet appears to have been introduced by novelists retelling the story from 1935 onward. The Beast of Gévaudan is a name given to man-eating wolf-like animals alleged to have terrorized parts of France from 1764 to 1767.

Ganymede

He is abducted by Zeus in the form of an eagle to serve in Olympus.

Bacchanal

From bacchanalia, the wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus.

Kumbh Mela

The Purna (complete) Kumbh takes place every twelve years, at four places Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik. The Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Allahabad. According to the Mela Administration's estimates, around 70 million people participated in the 45-day Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, in 2007.

Milky Way was formed

It is also described as the road to mount Olympus, and the path of ruin made by the chariot of the Sun god Helios.

Talk to animals

Tiki

In the Māori language, the word 'tiki' was the name given to large wooden carvings in roughly human shape, and the carvings often serve to mark the boundaries of sacred or significant sites.

Cyclops

A cyclops, in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead.

Jolly Roger

Jackson Pollock

Krasner and Pollock gave each other reassurance and support during a period when neither's work was well-appreciated.

Golem

Depending on the version of the legend, the Jews in Prague were to be either expelled or killed under the rule of Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor. To protect the Jewish community, the rabbi constructed the Golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava river, and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations. As this golem grew, it became increasingly violent, killing gentiles and spreading fear. The Emperor begged Rabbi Loew to destroy the Golem, promising to stop the persecution of the Jews. To deactivate the Golem, the rabbi rubbed out the first letter of the word 'emet' (truth or reality) from the creature's forehead leaving the Hebrew word 'met', meaning dead. The Golem's body was stored in the attic genizah of the Old New Synagogue, where it would be restored to life again if needed.

Puppetry or shadow puppets

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí

The main objects are of course melting clocks.

Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis were mythical sea monsters that were regarded as hazards located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding one meant passing too close to the other. The caricature illustrated how the PM tried to maintain a strict impartiality towards both combatants in the American Civil War.
(Acknowledgement)

Cassandra

She was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy but when she did not reciprocate his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that her predictions would not be believed.

Oktoberfest

It is a 16-day festival held annually in Munich from late September to the first weekend in October. "O'zapft is" meaning "it is tapped" is usually the first statement at the inauguration.

Shintoism

Kojiki is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century (711-2) and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei. It is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four home islands of Japan, and the Kami. The Nihon Shoki, sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan.

Antimacassar

Macassar oil was commonly applied to the hair in the early 19th century. The fashion for oiled hair became so widespread that housewives began to cover the arms and backs of their chairs with washable cloths to preserve the fabric coverings from being soiled. Around 1850, these started to be known as antimacassars. Macassar oil was so named because it was reputed to have been manufactured from ingredients purchased in the port of Makassar in Indonesia.

Ecdysiast

Minotaur

He dwelt at the center of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was designed by the Daedalus and his son Icarus. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.

Mormonism

Seven Cities of Cíbola

(Acknowledgement)

Guernica by Picasso

It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.

M. C. Escher (1898-1972)

The staircase resembles the picture Relativity.

Language

The idea was first clearly expressed by 19th century thinkers who saw language as the expression of the spirit of a nation.

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

The painting depicts the view outside his sanitarium room window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (located in southern France) at night, although it was painted from memory during the day.

Miniskirt

It was introduced in 1964 and was named after the Mini.

Postage stamps

Treskilling Yellow holds the world's record auction sales price for a single postage stamp.
(Acknowledgement)

"To deep six"

A burial at sea (where the body is weighted to force it to the bottom) requires a minimum of six fathoms of water.

Rosetta Stone

The most-visited object in the British Museum, it is inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BCE on behalf of King Ptolemy V. Because it presents essentially the same text in the three scripts of Ancient Egyptian, Demotic, and Ancient Greek, it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The term has been used idiomatically to represent a crucial key to the process of decryption of encoded information, especially when a small but representative sample is recognized as the clue to understanding a larger whole.

Jinns

The Qur'an mentions that Jinn are made of smokeless flame. They can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent.

Fisher King (or) Wounded King

Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin, and incapable of moving on his own. When he is injured, his kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren Wasteland. Little is left for him to do but fish in the river near his castle Corbenic. Knights travel from many lands to heal the Fisher King, but only the chosen can accomplish the feat.
(Acknowledgement)

Yoga

The opinion of most scholars is that Patañjali was not the creator of Yoga but an expounder.

Bone china

It is noted for its high levels of whiteness and translucency, and very high mechanical strength and chip resistance. From its initial development and up to the later part of the twentieth century, bone china was almost exclusively an English product, with production being effectively localised to Stoke-on-Trent. The raw materials for bone china are comparatively expensive, and the production is labour-intensive, which is why bone china maintains a luxury status.

Frida Kahlo's

Origami

Although Akira Yoshizawa pioneered many different origami techniques, wet-folding is one of his most significant contributions.

Karma

It literally means 'deed' or 'act', and is the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, which Hindus believe governs all consciousness. It is not fate, for we act with what can be described as a conditioned free will creating our own destinies.

Popes

It was mainly used to carry popes to and from ceremonies and was used for nearly one millennium. Pope John Paul I at first declined to use the sedia gestatoria but was eventually convinced by the Vatican staff that its use was necessary in order to allow crowds to see him. Pope John Paul II refused to use the sedia gestatoria completely.

Adam and Eve grieving over Abel

According to the biblical account, this was the first human death.

Venus de Milo

According to Wilde, the man apparently won the case! Although the statue is widely renowned for the missing arms, evidence suggests that it did have arms at the time of its creation.

Panama hat

Like many other 19th and early 20th century South American goods, straw hats woven in Ecuador were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing for their destinations. For some products, the name of their point of international sale rather than their place of domestic origin stuck, hence 'Panama hats.'

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

It is sometimes referred to as 'the Mona Lisa of the North' or 'the Dutch Mona Lisa.'

Last Supper

Since at least the fourth century CE a structure identified as the Cenacle, the site of the Last Supper, has been a popular Christian pilgrimage site on Mount Sion in Jerusalem.

Fabergé eggs

The most famous eggs produced by the House of Fabergé were the larger ones made for Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia; these are often referred to as the Imperial Fabergé eggs. Of the 50 made, 42 have survived.
(Acknowledgement)

Mayday (venez m'aider)

The call-sign was originated in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897-1962). A senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, Mockford was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the word 'Mayday' from the French m'aider.

L. L. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto

Noah

All are associated with the flood myth.

I and the Village by Marc Chagall

The significance of the painting lies in its seamless integration of various elements of Eastern European folktales and culture, both Russian and Yiddish.

Australian Aborigines

Blue pencil doctrine

Blue was used specifically because it will not show in some lithographic or photographic reproduction processes. With the introduction of electronic editing, blue pencils are seen more rarely, but still exist in metaphor. The term is also used to mean censorship.

Bad art!

The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) was founded in 1994, after antique dealer Scott Wilson showed a painting he had recovered from the trash to some friends, who suggested starting a collection. To be included in MOBA's collection, works must be original and have serious intent, but they must also have significant flaws without being boring; curators are not interested in displaying deliberate kitsch.

Icon painting

He is considered to be the greatest medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescoes and was also the subject of an acclaimed 1966 film by Andrei Tarkovsky.

Proteus

He could foretell the future but would change his shape to avoid having to; he will answer only to someone who is capable of capturing him. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the general meaning of 'versatile', 'mutable', or 'capable of assuming many forms.'

Wether

This is the story behind the word bellwether.

Comrade

The political usage of the term was inspired by the French Revolution. Upon abolishing the titles of nobility, and the terms monsieur and madame, the revolutionaries employed the term citoyen for men and citoyenne for women (both meaning 'citizen') to refer to each other. The deposed King Louis XVI, for instance, was referred to as Citoyen Louis Capet to emphasize his loss of privilege. When the socialist movement gained momentum in the mid-19th century, socialists chose 'comrade' as their preferred term of address.

Troy

Papua New Guinea

Mount Hagen is also the third largest city in Papua New Guinea.

Kaaba in Mecca

It is draped annually on the 9th day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, the day pilgrims leave for the plains of Mount Arafat during the Hajj. Every year the old Kiswa is removed, cut into small pieces and gifted to certain individuals. The Kiswa is wrapped around the Kaaba and fixed to the ground with copper rings.

Mad as a hatter

Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926)

His masterpiece, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona is one of the most visited monuments in Spain. Between 1984 and 2005 seven of his works were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

The Seven Sleepers (or) The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

Hector

Homer places Hector as the very noblest of all the heroes in the Iliad: he is both peace-loving and brave, thoughtful as well as bold, a good son, husband and father, and without darker motives.

Whirling Dervishes

Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; the whirling is part of the formal Sema ceremony which is meant to remember God.

Echelon formation

The name comes from the French for 'ladder.' Use of the formation dates back to ancient infantry and cavalry warfare when attempting to flank an enemy or to break one wing with overwhelming numbers.

Shamus from Séamus

"Lounge suit"

Day and night

Lobbying

"K Street" is a common often-derogatory metonym for Washington's lobbying industry.

Xanadu (Shàngdū)

The city was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 275 kilometers (171 mi) north of Beijing and was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China. At its zenith, over 100,000 people lived within its walls. In 1369 Shàngdū was occupied by the Ming army and put to the torch.

Kabbalah

The Sefirot are the ten emanations and attributes of God with which He continually sustains the universe in existence. The word "sefirah" literally means "counting", but early Kabbalists presented a number of other etymological possibilities.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Artist + Tahiti = Gauguin.

Round table

The idea stems from the Arthurian legend about the Knights of the Round Table in Camelot.

"Women and children first"

The practice arose from the chivalrous actions of soldiers during sinking of HMS Birkenhead in 1852, though the phrase was not coined until 1860.

Avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu

The concept of avatar within Hinduism is most often associated with Vishnu, the preserver or sustainer aspect of God. Vishnu's avatars typically descend for a very specific purpose.

Ned Ludd (from whom the Luddites took their name)

Although no actual proof of his existence has been found, it is believed that he came from the village of Anstey, just outside Leicester in England. The Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested - often by destroying mechanized looms - against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life. In modern usage, "Luddite" is a term describing those opposed to industrialization, automation, computerization or new technologies in general.

Hunter's moon

It is the first full moon after the harvest moon (which is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox). The name is also said to have been used by Native Americans as they tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead.

Bread and circuses (panem et circenses)

Juvenal makes reference to the Roman practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power through populism.

Vaudeville

The term vaudeville, referring specifically to North American variety entertainment, came into common usage after 1871 with the formation of Sargent's Great Vaudeville Company of Louisville, Kentucky.

Burquini or Burkini

The suit covers the entire body except the face, the hands and the feet. It was described as the perfect solution for Muslim women who want to swim but are uncomfortable about 'revealing' bathing suits. 'Burqini' is a portmanteau of burqa (body) and bikini, and is a registered trademark.

Moksha

In Hinduism, self-realization is the key to obtaining moksha. The Hindu is one who practices one or more forms of Yoga - Bhakti, Karma, Jnana, Raja - knowing that God is unlimited and exists in many different forms, both personal and impersonal.

Pamplona

Chase refers to the running of the bulls. It is held 6 July to midnight 14 July. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people. It has become probably the most internationally renowned fiesta in Spain. Over 1,000,000 people come to watch this festival.

Tamagotchi

It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. Over 70,000,000 Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide as of 2008. Most Tamagotchis are housed in a small egg-shaped computer with an interface usually consisting of three buttons, although the number of buttons may vary for different variations.

Heath Robinson

In the UK, the term 'Heath Robinson' has entered the language as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contraption, similar to 'Rube Goldberg' in the US.

Achilles

Trickster

Examples of the type are Bugs Bunny and The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and Pippi Longstocking.

Tawdry

Lethe

From which we get the word lethargic.

Apparatchik

Members of the "apparat" were frequently transferred between different areas of responsibility, usually with little or no actual training for their new areas of responsibility. Thus, the term apparatchik, or "agent of the apparatus" was usually the best possible description of the person's profession and occupation.

Swan Lake

It was composed by Tchaikovsky.

As 'The three wise monkeys' of "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

he three monkeys are Mizaru, covering his eyes, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, covering his ears, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, covering his mouth, who speaks no evil. Sometimes there is a fourth monkey depicted with the three others; the last one, Shizaru, symbolizes the principle of "do no evil." He may be shown covering his abdomen or genital area, or crossing his arms.

Rembrandt

It is widely believed, because of the fourteen people in the boat, that Rembrandt painted himself in the boat. (twelve disciples, Rembrandt and Jesus).

Pac-Man

Printer's devil

The origin of printer's devil is not definitively known and there are several origin stories.

Cleaning of the Augean stables, Hercules' fifth labor

The fifth of the Twelve Labours set to Hercules was to clean the Augean stables in a single day. This assignment was intended to be both humiliating and impossible, since the livestock were divinely healthy and therefore produced an enormous quantity of dung. These stables had not been cleaned in over 30 years. However, Hercules succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth.

Legion of Honor (the highest decoration in France)

It is a French order established by Napoleon in 1802.

Pope's

The blessing takes place at each Easter and Christmas celebration in Rome from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.

Groundhog Day

According to folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks. The repetition is meant to evoke the movie Groundhog Day.

Freeing of slaves

Limey

The term is believed to derive from lime juice, referring to the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy practice of supplying lime juice to British sailors to prevent scurvy. The benefits of citrus juice were well known at the time thanks to the acute observations of surgeon James Lind who studied the effects of citrus on scurvy in 1747.

Funeral procession

It follows the caisson carrying the casket in a funeral procession. The custom is believed to date back to the time of Genghis Khan, when a horse was sacrificed to serve the fallen warrior in the next world. The caparisoned horse later came to symbolize a warrior who would ride no more. In the United States, the caparisoned horse is part of the military honors given to an Army or Marine Corps officer who was a colonel or above; this includes the President, by virtue of having been the nation's military commander in chief and the Secretary of Defense, having overseen the armed forces.

Premature burial

Toby mugs

Hands down

Diego Rivera

Rockefeller asked Rivera to change the face of Lenin to that of an unknown laborer's face as was originally intended but the painter refused. The Rockefeller-Rivera dispute is covered in the films Cradle Will Rock and Frida.

Felt

It predates weaving and knitting.

White Nights Festival

Tuareg

They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa.

Prester John (also Presbyter John)

Written accounts of this kingdom are variegated collections of medieval popular fantasy. Reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Magi, Prester John was said to be a generous ruler and a virtuous man, presiding over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, in which the Patriarch of the Saint Thomas Christians resided. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Earthly Paradise. He was a symbol to European Christians of the Church's universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity, in a time when ethnic and interreligious tension made such a vision seem distant.

She forgot about eternal youth

In later tellings of the myth he eventually turned into a cicada, eternally living, but begging for death to overcome him.

They are clogs

Roma (gypsy) people

Legend identifies her as the servant of one of the Three Marys, with whom she is supposed to have arrived in the Camargue. The day of the pilgrimage honouring Sarah is May 24; her statue is carried down to the sea on this day to re-enact her arrival in France. Roma participation in pilgrimage and their veneration of Saint Sarah has been recorded since the middle of the 19th century by travellers and parish priests.

As Rodin's The Burghers of Calais

One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first and five other burghers soon followed suit and they stripped down to their breeches. Saint Pierre led this envoy of emaciated volunteers to the city gates and it is this moment and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice and the facing of imminent death that Rodin captures in these figures, which are scaled somewhat larger than life. In history, though the burghers expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the intervention of England's Queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband by saying it would be a bad omen for her unborn child.

Indian giver

Finland

There are five million inhabitants and over two million saunas in Finland - an average of one per household. Saunas are an integral part of the way of life in Finland. They are found everywhere: on the shores of Finland's numerous lakes, in private apartments, corporate headquarters, and even from the depths of 1400m at Pyhäsalmi Mine or the Parliament.

Grand Guignol

From its opening in 1897 to its closing in 1962, specialized in naturalistic horror shows. The name is often used as a general term for graphic, amoral horror entertainment. The theater owed its name to Guignol, a traditional Lyonnaise puppet character, joining political commentary with the style of Punch and Judy.

Forget-me-not

Other stories exist, but are even less plausible. Nowadays the common Forget Me Not symbolizes true love, and is prized as a garden flower as well as a wildflower. Forget Me Not is the State Flower of Alaska.

Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)

Toulouse-Lautrec is known, along with Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gaugin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period.

Cubism

Analytic cubists "analyzed" natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane. Colour was almost non-existent except for the use of a monochromatic scheme that often included grey, blue and ochre. Synthetic Cubism was the second main branch of Cubism developed by Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris and others between 1912 and 1919. It was seen as the first time that collage had been made as a fine art work.

Hell or underworld

Westermarck effect

It was first formally described by anthropologist Edvard Westermarck. The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Chinese Shim-pua marriage customs, as well as in biological-related families. Freud argued that as children, members of the same family naturally lust for one another, making it necessary for societies to create incest taboos, but Westermarck argued the reverse, that the taboos themselves arise naturally as products of innate attitudes.
(Acknowledgement)

Happy hour

"Happy hour" entered civilian use around 1960, especially after a Saturday Evening Post article in 1959. Happy hour has become a tradition for many workers, white and blue collar alike.
(Acknowledgement)

Hafiz is one who has memorized the Quran

It literally means 'guardian.'

Traditional method of ritual suicide

Jigai is the female equivalent of seppuku, the ritual stomach-cutting suicide practiced by Japanese men. Although the term literally means "self damage" and in principle can refer to suicide in general, in practice it normally refers to the ritual suicide of women by the cutting of the jugular vein with a tantō (15-30 cm (6-12 inch) knife) or kaiken (15 cm (6 inch) knife). Often, they would be hidden prior within the sash of their kimono.

Craquelure

The precise pattern of craquelure depends upon where the picture was painted. There appear to be distinct French, Italian and Dutch "styles" of craquelure. Craquelure can furnish a record of the environmental conditions the painting has experienced during its lifetime, and also can reveal details about the painting's history of handling, transportation, and restoration.

Cockaigne

Specifically, in poems like 'The Land of Cockaigne', Cockaigne is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open, and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheeses). It represented both wish fulfillment and resentment at the strictures of asceticism and dearth.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

It is a 16th century Roman Catholic icon depicting an apparition of the Virgin Mary. It is Mexico's most beloved religious and cultural image. Our Lady of Guadalupe is known in Mexico as "La Virgen Morena", which means "The brown-skinned Virgin." Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day is celebrated on December 12, commemorating the account of her appearances to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531.

Cormorant

In Japan, traditional forms of it can be seen on the Nagara River in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, where cormorant fishing has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years, or in the city of Inuyama, Aichi. In Guilin, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River. The method is not as common today, since more efficient methods of catching fish have been developed.

Pierian spring

Pieria, where the sacred spring was situated, was a region of ancient Macedonia, also the location of Mount Olympus, and believed to be the home and the seat of worship of Orpheus and the Muses, the deities of the arts and sciences. The spring is believed to be a fountain of knowledge that inspires whoever drinks from it.

The Book of Kells

It contains the four gospels of the Bible in Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. Today it is on permanent display at the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland.

Nepotism

The practise of creating cardinal-nephews originated in the Middle Ages, and reached its apex during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Bonsai

"Bonsai" is a Japanese pronunciation of the earlier Chinese term penzai.
(Acknowledgement)

The form of a seal

The legend apparently originated on the Orkney Islands, where selch or selk(ie) is the Scots word for seal. Selkies are able to transform to human form by shedding their seal skins and can revert to seal form by putting their selkie skin back on. Stories concerning selkies are generally romantic tragedies. Sometimes the human will not know that their lover is a selkie, and wakes to find them gone. Other times the human will hide the selkie's skin, thus preventing them from returning to seal form.

It is the second most visited religious center in the world, following the Vatican.

The town owes its existence to the sacred temple situated on the Tirumala Hills. Tirumala is the abode of Lord Venkateshwara, one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, located atop Seshachala hills often called as "Yaelu Malai" or "Yaedu Kondalu" (seven hills).

Gold and silver

Taj Mahal

Pablo Picasso

The Last Supper by Da Vinci

Unlike many other valuable paintings, it has never been privately owned because it cannot be moved easily.

Bishaa

If the person undergoing the ritual is found to have a scarred or burnt tongue, it is concluded that he was lying. It is the best-known of various trials by ordeal which are practiced by the Bedouin, which are now dying out.

Totem poles

Qanat

The technology is known to have developed in ancient Persia, and then spread to other cultures, especially along the Silk Road as far east as China as well as by Arabic cultures as far west as Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally qanats are built by a group of skilled laborers, muqannîs, with hand labor. The profession historically paid well and was typically handed down from father to son.

White elephant

The metaphor was popularized in the United States after New York Giants manager John McGraw told the press that Philadelphia businessman Benjamin Shibe had "bought himself a white elephant" by acquiring the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team in 1901. The Athletics manager Connie Mack subsequently selected the elephant as the team symbol and mascot. The team is occasionally referred to as the White Elephants.

Diarrhea suffered when travelling to foreign parts

Montezuma was Emperor of Mexico, 1502-20. The sickness, more formally called "traveller's diarrhea", is usually caused by drinking unsterilised water or eating spicy food that visitors aren't accustomed to. It is a bacteriological illness, always uncomfortable, and occasionally serious. Most cases are caused by E. coli. The revenge element of the phrase alludes to countries that were previously colonized by stronger countries and are now, in this small way, getting their own back.

Deerstalker

In Arthur Conan Doyle's stories Holmes is never actually described as wearing a deerstalker. The public perception of Holmes as a "deerstalker man" was derived from the original illustrations for the stories by Sidney Paget, Frederic Dorr Steele and others. The deerstalker is not the appropriate headgear for the properly-dressed urban gentleman and Paget and the other illustrators who portrayed Holmes in a deerstalker always placed him in the proper setting for such attire (i.e., operating in a rural outdoor setting).

Bikini from Bikini Atoll

The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946.

E ticket ride

Caryatid

The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese.

Serpent swallowing its own tail

Direction that should be faced when praying

The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.

Pekingese

These dogs are also called Dogs of Foo (or Fu) by the Chinese and they were considered a guardian spirit as they resembled Chinese lions. Interestingly, the lion is not indigenous to China. When Buddhist travelers, probably out to trade, brought stories about lions to China, Chinese sculptors modeled statues of lions after the travelers' descriptions--and after native dogs, since no one in China had seen a lion with his or her own eyes. The mythic version of the animal was originally introduced to Han China as the Buddhist protector of dharma.

Dante in front of the gates of hell, pondering his great poem

More than any other Rodin sculpture, The Thinker moved into the popular imagination, as an immediately recognizable icon of intellectual activity; consequently it has been subject to endless satirical use.

Cenotaph

The word derives from the Greek words kenos, one meaning being "empty" and taphos, "tomb." Although the vast majority of cenotaphs are erected in honour of specific individuals, many of the best-known cenotaphs are instead dedicated to the memories of groups of individuals, such as the war dead of one specific country or empire. Probably the best-known cenotaph in the modern world is the one that stands in Whitehall, London.

Southpaw

The first use of the term is credited to Finley Peter Dunne. However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists a non-baseball citation for "south paw", meaning a punch with the left hand, as early as 1848, just three years after the first organized baseball game. In boxing, someone who boxes left-handed is frequently referred to as southpaw.

Sri Lanka

The relic has played an important role in the local politics since ancient times, it's believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country, which caused the ancient kings to protect it with great effort. Kandy was the capital of the Sinhalese Kings from 1592 to 1815, fortified by the terrain of the mountains and the difficult approach. The city is a world heritage site declared by UNESCO, in part due to the temple.

Devil's advocate

The Devil's advocate was opposed by God's advocate, whose job was to make the argument in favor of canonization. The office was established in 1587 during the reign of Pope Sixtus V and was abolished by Pope John Paul II in 1983. This abolition streamlined the canonization process considerably, helping John Paul II to usher in an unprecedented number of elevations: nearly 500 individuals were canonized and over 1,300 were beatified during his tenure as Pope as compared to only 98 canonizations by all his 20th-century predecessors.

Soles of the feet

This torture is effective due to the clustering of nerve endings in the feet and the structure of the foot, with its numerous small bones and tendons.

Styx

Legends state that Achilles was killed in battle by an arrow to the heel, and so an Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's only weakness.

Titian (the color titian)

Recognized by his contemporaries as "the sun amidst small stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian (1485-1576) was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits and landscapes (two genres that first brought him fame), mythological and religious subjects.

Sybaris

Geronimo

The trend was shouting "Geronimo!" during jumps.