Nurse Peters in Amsterdam:Poor Coenraad's life was shattered by the Nazi Occupation of 1940 until the 'Bevrijding'. Thank heavens for Google and their Translate feature. It means 'Liberation' in Dutch. It is celebrated on Cinco de Mayo. The Irrefutable Wiki says that The Netherlands was neutral during WWI, hoped to be neutral during WWII and refused several times to enter the war on behalf of the Allies. Their military (ramping up in case of attack) was late to refit due to the simple fact that many of their suppliers were...German.
The children on Addy's ward play Snakes and Ladders to pass the time. You might know it as Chutes and Ladders:
Snakes and Ladders originated in India (left) as a game based on morality called Vaikuntapaali or Paramapada Sopanam (the ladder to salvation)...The game was played widely in ancient India by the name of Moksha Patamu, the earliest known Jain version Gyanbazi dating back to 16th century. The game was called Leela and reflected the Hinduism consciousness around everyday life. Impressed by the ideals behind the game, a newer version was introduced in Victorian England in 1892, possibly by John Jacques of Jacques of London.
Moksha Patamu was perhaps invented by Hindu spiritual teachers to teach children about the effects of good deeds as opposed to bad deeds. The ladders represented virtues such as generosity, faith, humility, etc., and the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder, theft, etc. The moral of the game was that a person can attain salvation (Moksha) through performing good deeds whereas by doing evil one takes rebirth in lower forms of life (Patamu). The number of ladders was less than the number of snakes as a reminder that treading the path of good is very difficult compared to committing sins. Presumably the number "100" represented Moksha (Salvation). In Andhra Pradesh, snakes and ladders is played in the name of Vaikuntapali
The squares of virtue on the original game are Faith (12), Reliability (51), Generosity (57), Knowledge (76), Asceticism (78); the squares of evil are Disobedience (41), Vanity (44), Vulgarity (49), Theft (52), Lying (58), Drunkenness (62), Debt (69), Rage (84), Greed (92), Pride (95), Murder (73) and Lust (99)I know. That was long. But seriously interesting, right? I will never play this game the same way again...
Cruise to a Wedding:
opera. Their names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde. If you had to choose just one...Our heroine's father tinkers on his beloved Humber motor car. Since he is tinkering, it can't possibly be a newer model. To our right is a 1965 version. Cute as a button. Order me up one that I can wear with my pedal pushers.
"This school is not for pirates!" Love. It.
ReplyDeleteoohh....yes that's our version of Snake and ladder. In fact we celebrate god vishnu's birthday on a day called Vaikunda ekadashi and it is believed that if you stay up all night that day you will end up in heaven. Since kiddos could'nt do that we were told that if we play snake and ladders and reach till moksha (Square 100) that day, we will end up in heaven. The board for this was also very visual interesting..something like this http://laxmivishnu.blogspot.in/2011/03/vaikuntapaali-or-paramapada-sopanam.html
ReplyDeleteplease note how the board has animals and different type of people - all meant to be an indicator of the different birth's one needs to have before reaching salvation :-)
ReplyDeleteand this is wayyy off betty - but I think all of us who love our betty also love the small bits of culture and values strewn through out there - After all those value systems are eternal - notice how the veronica's are never nice to domestic help ...!!
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