title: Shmita

text: While obligatory to the Orthodox as a matter of religious observance, observance of the rules of Shmita is voluntary so far as the civil government is concerned in the contemporary State of Israel. Civil courts do not enforce the rules. A debt would be transferred to a religious court for a document of prosbul only if both parties voluntarily agreed to do so. Many non-religious Israeli Jews do not observe these rules, although some non-religious farmers participate in the symbolic sale of land to non-Jews to permit their produce to be considered kosher and sellable to Orthodox Jews who permit the leniency. Despite this, during Shmita, crop yields in Israel fall short of requirements so importation is employed from abroad.


title: Shmita

text: Tractate Shevi'it, the fifth tractate of "Seder Zeraim" ("Order of Seeds") of the Mishnah, deals with the laws of leaving the fields of the Land of Israel to lie fallow every seventh year; the laws concerning which produce may, or may not be eaten during the Sabbatical year; and with the cancellation of debts and the rabbinical ordinance established to allow a creditor to reclaim a debt after the Sabbatical year. The tractate comprises ten chapters in the Mishna and eight in the Tosefta and has thirty-one folio pages of Gemara in the Jerusalem Talmud. Like most tractates in the order of "Zeraim", there is no Babylonian Talmud for this tractate.


title: Shmita

text: According to the Talmud, observance of the Sabbatical year is of high accord, and one who does not do so may not be allowed to be a witness in an Orthodox beth din (rabbinical court). Nonetheless, Rabbinic Judaism has developed Halakhic (religious legal) devices to be able to maintain a modern agricultural and commercial system while giving heed to the biblical injunctions. Such devices represent examples of flexibility within the Halakhic system.


title: Shmita

text: Hillel the Elder, in the first century BCE, used the rule that remittance of debts applies only to debts between Jews, to develop a device known as "prozbul" in which the debt is transferred to a beth din. When owed to the court rather than to an individual, the debt survives the Sabbatical year. This device, formulated early in the era of Rabbinic Judaism when the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing, became a prototype of how Judaism was later to adapt to the destruction of the Second Temple and maintain a system based on biblical law under very different conditions.


title: Shmita

text: The rabbis of the Jerusalem Talmud created rules to impose order on the harvesting process including a rule limiting harvesters working on others' land to taking only enough to feed themselves and their families. They also devised a system, called "otzar beit din", under which a rabbinical court supervised a communal harvesting process by hiring workers who harvested the fields, stored it in communal storage facilities, and distributed it to the community.


title: Shmita

text: There exists a major difference of opinion between two Acharonim, Joseph Karo and Moses ben Joseph di Trani, as to whether produce grown on land in Israel which is owned by non-Jews also has sanctity. According to Karo, such produce has no sanctity and may be used and/or discarded in the same way as any produce grown outside of Israel. According to di Trani, the fact that this produce was grown in Israel, even by non-Jews, gives it sanctity, and it must be treated in the special ways detailed above.


title: Shmita

text: Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, a noted Haredi halakhic authority who issued key rulings on Jewish agricultural law in the 1930s and 1940s, ruled like di Trani, holding that produce grown on land in Israel owned by non-Jews has sanctity. Karelitz's ruling was adopted first by the religious families of Bnei Brak and is popularly called "Minhag Chazon Ish" (the custom of the "Chazon Ish").


title: Shmita

text: The rabbis of Jerusalem, on the other hand, embraced the opinion of Karo that produce farmed on land owned by non-Jews has no sanctity. This opinion is now called "Minhag Yerushalayim" "the custom of Jerusalem", and was adopted by many Haredi families, by British Mandate Palestine, and by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.


title: Shmita

text: These respective opinions are reflected in the way the various kashrut-certifying organizations publicize their Shmita and non-Shmita produce. The Edah HaChareidis, which follows "Minhag Yerushalayim," buys produce from non-Jewish farms in Israel and sells it as "non-Shmita produce". The Shearit Yisrael certifying organization, which subscribes to "Minhag Chazon Ish," also buys from non-Jewish farmers in Israel, but labels the produce as such so that customers who keep "Minhag Chazon Ish" will treat these fruits and vegetables with appropriate sanctity.


title: Shmita

text: In halakha (Jewish law), produce of the Seventh Year that is subject to the laws of "Shmita" is called "sheviit". "Shevi'it" produce has sanctity requiring special rules for its use:


title: Shmita

text: By biblical law, Jews who own land are required to make their land available during the "Shmita" to anyone who wishes to come in and harvest. If the land is fenced etc., gates must be left open to enable entrance. These rules apply to all outdoor agriculture, including private gardens and even outdoor potted plants. Plants inside a building are exempt. However, the rabbis of the Mishna and Jerusalem Talmud imposed rabbinic ordinances on harvesters to ensure an orderly and equitable process and to prevent a few individuals from taking everything. Harvesters on others' land are permitted to take only enough to feed themselves and their families.


title: Shmita

text: According to the Mosaic law, grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables are permitted to be eaten in the Seventh Year, yet must they be harvested in an irregular fashion, and only as much as a person might need for their sustenance, without the necessity of hoarding the fruits in granaries and storehouses. It is not permitted to make merchandise of Seventh Year produce. These restrictions are implied by the biblical verse, "You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest, nor gather the grapes of your untended vines" (), and by the supportive verse, "In the Seventh Year you must let it (i.e. the ground) rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove" (). Grain cannot be harvested by using a sickle, nor can a person reap an entire field, or make use of beasts to separate the grain from the husks by treading. Grapes that are on the vine can be taken, sufficient for ones immediate needs, but they cannot be pressed in a winepress, but only in a small tub.


title: Shmita

text: When certain farmers began to secretly sow their fields during the Seventh Year and to harvest what they had planted, and to cover-up their action by saying that such produce was a mere aftergrowth from last year's planting, the Sages of Israel were compelled to enact restrictions on Seventh Year produce and to forbid all aftergrowths () of grain, legumes and those vegetables which are usually planted by mankind, in order to put an end to their deception. Other rabbinic authorities prohibit only the aftergrowths of vegetables, but permit the aftergrowths of legumes and grain. They permitted, however, to pick the fruits of trees that grow of themselves during the Seventh Year, for one's immediate needs, and to gather such vegetables and herbs that are not normally planted by humans, such as wild rue ("Ruta chalepensis"), either wild asparagus ("Asparagus aphyllus") or amaranth ("Amaranthus blitum var. silvestre"), purslane ("Portulaca oleracea"), wild coriander ("Coriandrum sativum"), parsley growing alongside rivers ("Apium graveolens"), garden rocket growing in marshlands ("Eruca sativa"), sweet marjoram ("Majorana syriaca"), white-leaved savory ("Micromeria fruticosa"), and the like of such things. Had any of these been kept watch over in the courtyard of a house, their aftergrowths would be forbidden to eat in the Seventh Year. Rabbi Nathan ben Abraham permits the gathering of aftergrowths of mustard greens ("Sinapsis alba") during the Seventh Year.


title: Shmita

text: An ancient practice in the Land of Israel was to permit the gathering of spring onions which grew of themselves during the Seventh Year, after the first rains had fallen upon them and sprouted.


title: Shmita

text: In the late 19th century, in the early days of Zionism, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor came up with a halakhic means of allowing agriculture to continue during the Shmita year. After ruling in favor of "Minhag Yerushalayim", that the biblical prohibition consists of not cultivating the land owned by Jews (""your" land", Exodus 23:10), Rabbi Spektor devised a mechanism by which the land could be sold to a non-Jew for the duration of that year under a trust agreement. Under this plan, the land would belong to the non-Jew temporarily, and revert to Jewish ownership when the year was over. When the land was sold under such an arrangement, Jews could continue to farm it. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine, allowed this principle, not as an ideal, but rather as a limited permit for individuals and times which are considered by Halacha of great need ("b'shas hadchak"), which became known as the "heter mechira" (lit. "sale permit"). Rabbi Kook explained in a lengthy responsum that the ideal is not to rely on the leniency of heter mechira, but rather to observe shmita according to all opinions. He noted that he himself did not rely on the leniency, it was intended only in a limited time of great need, for those unable to observe the shmita without the leniency.


title: Shmita

text: The "heter mechira" was accepted by Modern Orthodox Judaism and is one of the classic examples of the Modern Orthodox approach toward adapting classical Jewish law to the modern world. However, this approach has not been universally accepted in the Orthodox community and has met with opposition, particularly from Haredi "poskim" (authorities of Jewish law).


title: Shmita

text: In contemporary religious circles these rabbinic leniencies have received wide but not universal acceptance. In Israel, the Chief Rabbinate obtains permission from all farmers who wish to have their land sold. The land is then legally sold to a non-Jew for a large sum of money. The payment is made by a cheque post-dated to after the end of the Sabbatical year. When the cheque is returned or not honoured at the end of the year the land reverts to its original owners. Thus, the fields can be farmed with certain restrictions.


title: Shmita

text: Although the Orthodox Union's Kashrut Division accepts "Minhag Yerushalayim" and hence regards the produce of land owned by non-Jews as ordinary produce, it does not currently rely on the "heter mechira" because of doubts about whether the trust arrangement involved effects a valid transfer of ownership.


title: Shmita

text: Some Haredi farmers do not avail themselves of this leniency and seek other pursuits during the Shmita year.


title: Shmita

text: The ancient idea of an "otzar beit din" (storehouse of the rabbinical court) is mentioned in the Tosefta ("Sheviit" 8, 1). Under an "otzar beit din", a community rabbinical court supervises harvesting by hiring workers to harvest, store, and distribute food to the community. Members of the community pay the "beth din", but this payment represents only a contribution for services, and not a purchase or sale of the food. This Talmudic device was revived in modern times as an alternative to the "heter mechira".


title: Shmita

text: Because under this approach land cannot be sown but existing plants can be tended and harvested, the approach is applied to orchards, vineyards, and other perennial crops. A "beit din," or rabbinical court supervising the process, hires farmers as its agents to tend and harvest the crops, and appoints the usual distributors and shopkeepers as its agents to distribute them. Individual consumers appoint the court and its designees as their agents and pay monies to court-appointed designees as agents of the court. Thus, under this approach, a legal arrangement is created whereby the crops themselves are never bought or sold, but rather people are merely paid for their labor and expenses in providing certain services. In modern Israel, the "badatz" is notable for adapting and supervising such arrangements.


title: Shmita

text: The Orthodox Union notes that "to some, the modern-day "otzar" might seem to be nothing more than a legal sleight of hand. All the regular players are still in place, and distribution rolls along as usual. However, in reality, it is identical only in appearance as prices are controlled, and may correspond only to expenses, with no profit allowed. In addition, the "otzar beit din" does not own the produce. Since it is simply a mechanism for open distribution, any individual is still entitled to collect produce from a field or orchard on his own. Furthermore, all agents of the "beit din" are appointed only if they commit to distributing the produce in accordance with the restrictions that result from its sanctity."


title: Shmita

text: Under the rules of the Shmita, produce with Sabbatical sanctity ("shevi'it") can only be stored as long as plants of the same species (e.g. plants sprouting by themselves) are available to animals in the fields. Once a species is no longer available in the land, halakha requires that it be removed, made ownerless, and made available to anyone who wishes to take it through a procedure called "biur".


title: Shmita

text: Thus, while the obligation of making one's produce available to the public and permitted to all takers can be performed in such a way as to minimize the risk that this availability will actually be utilized, this risk cannot be entirely eliminated. The community at large, including members of the poor, must be afforded some opportunity to take the produce.


title: Shmita

text: "Biur" only applies to produce that has "shevi'it" sanctity. For this reason, it does not apply to produce grown under the "heter mechira" for those who accept it. (Under the reasoning of the "heter mechira" the shmita does not apply to land owned by non-Jews, so its produce does not have "shevi'it" sanctity.)


title: Shmita

text: All good and blessing are the life of Jewish people. "Israel could be in death" without this "spiritual-life", i.e. Holy air of Eretz Israel; Rashi teaches that all Jewish people can say that God has done the Creation and has stated ha'Aretz as gift to Israel: "if Nations want to take this Land we must teach that in past time all World was "Reign of Kushit" in fact "now all Eretz Israel is in the hand of Jewish people.""


title: Shmita

text: According to the Chassidut, eating is not only a way to stay alive but even a necessity so that the soul can continue to be strongly inspired by the study of the Torah and the prayer that the Jew performs every day: this means that something material, the food - food can in fact be from the "mineral, vegetable or animal kingdoms" - becomes "sublimated" to enter the sacred area of devotional service to God.


title: Shmita

text: The main alliance between God and the Jewish people consists in continuous Blessings, transcribed also in the Torah; from Moses to Aaron up to the Levites and to the Jewish people as a whole, in the Torah the pact of revelation is established to bind them forever in the Land which can only be that place where it is possible to realize the Kingdom of God.


title: Shmita

text: The event of the gift of the Torah at Mount Sinai involved the whole world, in fact even the angels and other nations were witnesses or spectators of this miraculous event. With Avodah this event is perfectly consolidated until the messianic vision of the reconstruction of Third Temple of Jerusalem.


title: Shmita

text: The first Shmita year in the modern State of Israel was 1951–1952 (5712 in the Hebrew calendar). Subsequent Shmita years have been 1958–1959 (5719), 1965–1966 (5726), 1972–1973 (5733), 1979–1980 (5740), 1986–1987 (5747), 1993–1994 (5754), 2000–2001 (5761), 2007–2008 (5768), and 2014–2015 (5775). The last Shmita year began on Rosh Hashanah in September 2014, corresponding to the Hebrew calendar year 5775. The 50th year of the land, which is also a Shabbat of the land, is called "Yovel" in Hebrew, which is the origin of the Latin term "Jubilee", also meaning 50th. According to the Torah, observance of Jubilee only applies when the Jewish people live in the land of Israel according to their tribes. Thus, with the exile of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Menashe (about 600 BCE) Jubilee has not been applicable. In 2000, Sefardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron withdrew religious certification of the validity of permits for the sale of land to non-Jews during the Shmita year following protests against his endorsement of the leniency by members of the Haredi community.


title: Shmita

text: Authorities who prohibit farming in Israel generally permit hydroponics farming in greenhouses structured so that the plants are not connected to the soil. As a result, hydroponics use has been increasing in Haredi farming communities.


title: Shmita

text: During the 2007–2008 Shmita, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel attempted to avoid taking a potentially divisive position on the dispute between Haredi and Modern Orthodox views about the correctness of the "heter mechira" leniency by ruling that local rabbis could make their own decisions about whether or not to accept this device as valid. The Israel Supreme Court, however, ordered the Chief Rabbinate to rescind its ruling and to devise a single national ruling. The Israel Supreme Court opined that divergent local rulings would be harmful to farmers and trade and could implicate competition. The issue of secular courts ordering the rabbinate to rule in particular ways on religious matters aroused a debate within the Knesset. Israeli wineries often address this issue by making separate batches of Shmita wine, labeled as such, and giving away bottles of Shmita wine as a free bonus to purchasers of non-Shmita wine.


title: Shmita

text: Another public reading of the Law, suggesting a Sabbatical year, took place in the third year of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). According to the widely accepted biblical chronology of Edwin Thiele, Jehoshaphat began a coregency with his father Asa in 872/871 BCE, and his sole reign began in 870/869. The passage about the reading of the law in Jehoshaphat's third year does not specify whether this is measured from the beginning of the coregency or the beginning of the sole reign, but since the two synchronisms to Jehoshaphat's reign for the kings of Israel (1 Kings 22:51, 2 Kings 3:1) are measured from the start of the sole reign, it would be reasonable to determine Jehoshaphat's third year in the same way. In Thiele's system, this would be 867/866. However, Thiele's years for the first few kings of Judah has come under criticism as being one year too late, because of problems that appear in the reign of Ahaziah and Athaliah that Thiele never solved. Therefore, in 2003, an article by Rodger Young showed that the texts that Thiele could not reconcile were in harmony when it was assumed that Solomon died before Tishri 1 in the (Nisan-based) year in which the kingdom divided, rather than in the half-year after Tishri 1 as assumed, without explanation, by Thiele. In 2009 Leslie McFall, who is recognized in Finegan's "Handbook of Biblical Chronology" as the foremost living interpreter of Thiele's work, agreed with Young's correction that moved dates for Jehoshaphat and the preceding kings of Judah up one year, as have some other recent works by evangelicals and creationists studying this the field. With this resolution to Thiele's problem, the year in which Jehoshaphat had the Law read to the people was 868/867. This is 294 years, or 42 Sabbatical cycles, before Ezekiel's Jubilee. The 42 Sabbatical cycles would make six Jubilee cycles, so it was also a Jubilee year. It is of some passing interest that in 1869, long before the breakthroughs of Valerius Coucke and Thiele that solved the basic problems of how the biblical authors were measuring the years, Ferdinand Hitzig stated that the occasion for Jehoshaphat's proclamation was because it was a Jubilee year.


title: Shmita

text: If 574/573 marked a Jubilee, and if the Sabbatical cycles were in phase with the Jubilees, then 700/699 BCE, the year often mentioned as a possible Sabbatical year because of the land lying fallow during that year (Isaiah 37:30, 2 Kings 19:29), was also a Sabbatical, 126 years or 18 Sabbatical cycles before Ezekiel's Jubilee. Assuming a 49-year cycle, the nearest Jubilee would have been in 721 BC, inconsistent with attempts to place a Jubilee after the Sabbatical year at this time. If a 50-year Jubilee cycle is assumed, the nearest Jubilee would be 724/723, and then assuming that a Sabbatical cycle began in the year following a Jubilee, neither 701/700 nor 700/699 would be a Sabbatical year.


title: Shmita

text: Could the passages in Isaiah 37 and 2 Kings 19 be referring to two voluntary fallow years? This might be possible if the Jubilee year was a 50th year separate from the seventh Sabbatical/Shmita year. Young presents a linguistic argument against this interpretation, as follows:


title: Shmita

text: Others have imagined that Isa 37:30 and its parallel in 2 Kgs 19:29 refer to a Sabbatical year followed by a Jubilee year, since the prophecy speaks of two years in succession in which there would be no harvest. But the first year could not be a Sabbatical year, because in it the people were allowed to eat "what grows of itself", for which the Hebrew word is ספיח . In Lev 25:5 the reaping of the ספיח is forbidden during a Sabbatical year. Whatever the exact meaning is for this word, its use in Isaiah's prophecy and its prohibition in Lev 25:5 means that the first year of the Isaiah and Second Kings passages could not have been a Sabbatical year. This rules out the possibility that the passage is dealing with a Sabbatical year followed by a year of Jubilee. The proper understanding of the passage is that the harvest of the first year had been destroyed by the Assyrians, and the defeat of the Assyrian army came too late in the year to allow sowing that year. The destruction of the Assyrian host came the night after the giving of the prophecy (2 Kgs 19:35), so the reason that sowing and reaping were forbidden for the next year must have been because that year, the second year of the prophecy, was going to be a Sabbatical year.


title: Shmita

text: It has already been mentioned that the Babylonian Talmud ("Megillah" 14b) and the "Seder Olam" (ch. 24) mentioned a Jubilee in Josiah's 18th year, 623/622 BCE. With the proper assumption of a 49-year cycle for the Jubilee, the Jubilee would be identical to the seventh Sabbatical year, so that the Jubilee and Sabbatical cycles would never be out of synchronization. 623/622 BCE would therefore also have been a Sabbatical year. In Sabbatical years, the Mosaic code specified that the Law was to be read to all the people (Deuteronomy 31:10-11). Although this commandment, like so many others, was probably neglected throughout most of Israel's history, it was observed in Josiah's 18th year (2 Kings 23:1,2).


title: Shmita

text: Various scholars have conjectured that Zedekiah's release of slaves, described in Jeremiah 34:8-10, would likely have been done at the start of a Sabbatical year. Although the original Mosaic legislation stated that an indentured servant's term of service was to end six years after the service started (Deuteronomy 15:12), later practice was to associate the Sabbatical year, called a year of release ("shemitah") in Deuteronomy 15:9, with the release of slaves. Based on a chronological study of Ezekiel 30:20-21, Nahum Sarna dated Zedekiah's emancipation proclamation to the year beginning in Tishri of 588 BCE. Although Zedekiah's release of slaves could have occurred at any time, the occurrence of a Sabbatical year at just this time provides some insight into the background that probably influenced Zedekiah's thinking, even though the release was later rescinded.


title: Shmita

text: The year 588/587 BCE was also the year that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, consistent with the Babylonian records for the reign of Amel-Marduk and the Scriptural data regarding Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. This is in keeping with the statement in Seder Olam chapter 30, properly translated as discussed above, that put the burning of the First Temple, as well as the Second, in the "latter part" of a Sabbatical year. The statement of the Seder Olam in this regard is repeated in the Tosefta ("Taanit" 3:9), the Jerusalem Talmud ("Ta'anit" 4:5), and three times in the Babylonian Talmud ("Arakin" 11b, "Arakin 12a", "Ta'anit" 29a). An example of the caution that must be exercised when consulting English translations is shown by the Soncino translation in "Arakin" 11b, that the Temple was destroyed "at the end of the seventh [Sabbatical] year", compared to Jacob Neusner's translation of the corresponding passage in the Jerusalem Talmud, that it was "the year after the Sabbatical year".


title: Shmita

text: A convenient starting place for the study of Sabbatical years in the time of the First Temple is the Jubilee that the Babylonian Talmud (tractate "Arakin" 12a), and also the "Seder Olam" (chapter 11), say was the 17th and which began at the time that Ezekiel saw the vision the occupies the last nine chapters of his book. Although many of the chronological statements of the two Talmuds, as well as in the "Seder Olam" that preceded them, have been shown to be unhistorical, this particular statement has considerable evidence to support its historicity. One of these evidences is the consistency of this reference with the other Jubilee mentioned in the Talmud and the "Seder Olam" (ch. 24), which is placed in the 18th year of Josiah ("Megillah" 14b). Ezekiel's vision occurred in the 25th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 40:1). Babylonian records state that Amel-Marduk (the biblical Evil-Merodach) began to reign in October 562 BCE, and 2 Kings 25:27 says that it was in the twelfth month of this accession year (Adar, 561 BCE) and in Jehoiachin's 37th year of captivity that Jehoiachin was released from prison. By Judean reckoning, Jehoiachin's 37th year would then be 562/561 BCE. His 25th year, the year in which Ezekiel saw his vision, is therefore determined as 574/573 BCE, i.e. the year that began in Tishri of 574. Josiah's 18th year, at which time the Talmud says there was another Jubilee, began in 623 BCE, as can be determined from Babylonian records dating the Battle of Carchemish, which occurred shortly after Josiah was slain in his 31st year (2 Kings 22:3, 23:29). This is 49 years before Ezekiel's Jubilee, providing evidence that the Jubilee cycle was 49 years, not 50 years as is accepted by many interpreters, but which has been challenged by recent work such as the study of Jean-François Lefebvre. Zuckermann also held that the Jubilee cycle was 49 years, as did Robert North in his notable study of the Jubilees. A fuller discussion of the reasons that the Jubilee cycle was 49 years can be found in the Jubilee article, where it is pointed out that the known chronological methods of the Talmuds and the "Seder Olam" were incapable of correctly calculating the time between Josiah's 18th year and the 25th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, indicating that these remembrances of Jubilees were historical, not contrived.


title: Shmita

text: That Ezekiel saw his vision at the beginning of a Jubilee year is also shown by his statement that it was "in the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, on Rosh Hashanah, on the tenth day of the month…;" (Ezekiel 40:1). It was only in a Jubilee year that Rosh Hashanah (New Year's Day) came on the tenth of Tishri (Leviticus 25:9), the Day of Atonement. The "Seder Olam", in relating that Ezekiel's vision was at the beginning of a Jubilee, does not cite the part of Ezekiel 40:1 that says it was Rosh Hashanah and the tenth of the month, indicating that the fact that a Jubilee was commencing was based on historical remembrance, not on just the textual argument regarding Rosh Hashanah being on the tenth of the month. Ezekiel also says it was 14 years after the city fell; 14 years before 574/573 BCE was 588/587 BCE, in agreement with "the 25th year of our captivity".


title: Shmita

text: Sabbatical years have been used to fix the exact time of historical events, as shown in traditional Jewish chronology, but which are rarely understood by modern chroniclers of ancient history.


title: Shmita

text: The first modern treatise devoted to the Sabbatical (and Jubilee) cycles was that of Benedict Zuckermann. Zuckermann insisted that for Sabbatical years after the Babylonian exile "it is necessary to assume the commencement of a new starting-point, since the laws of Sabbatical years and Jubilees fell into disuse during the Babylonian captivity, when a foreign nation held possession of the land of Canaan ... We therefore cannot agree with chronologists who assume an unbroken continuity of septennial Sabbaths and Jubilees." The "Seder Olam" (ch. 30) is explicit that this was the case, i.e. that the returned exiles had a renewed start of tithes, Sabbatical years, and Jubilee years. The first instance of a Sabbatical year treated by Zuckermann was Herod the Great's siege of Jerusalem, as described by Josephus. Zuckermann assigned this to 38/37 BCE, i.e. he considered that a Sabbatical year started in Tishri of 38 BCE. Next, he considered John Hyrcanus's siege of Ptolemy in the fortress of Dagon, which is described both in Josephus ("Antiquities". 13.8.1/235; "The Jewish War" 1.2.4/59-60) and 1 Maccabees (16:14-16), and during which a Sabbatical year started; from the chronological information provided in these texts, Zuckermann concluded that 136/135 BCE was a Sabbatical year. The next event to be treated was Antiochus Eupator's siege of the fortress Beth-zur ("Ant". 12.9.5/378, 1 Maccabees 6:53), dated by Zuckermann to 163/162 BCE. However, he also remarked on the difficulties presented to this figure by the text in 1 Maccabees, which would seem to date the siege one year later, and so he decided to leave it out of consideration. The final text considered by Zuckermann was a passage in the Seder Olam that relates the destruction of the Second Temple to a Sabbatical year, an event that is known from secular history to have happened in the summer of 70 CE. Zuckermann interpreted the "Seder Olam" text as stating that this happened in a year after a Sabbatical year, thus placing a Sabbatical in 68/69 CE.


title: Shmita

text: All these dates as calculated by Zuckermann are separated by an integral multiple of seven years, except for the date associated with the siege of Beth-zur. Furthermore, his chronology is consistent with that accepted by the "geonim" (medieval Jewish scholars) and the calendar of Sabbatical years used in present-day Israel. All of this would seem to be strong evidence in favor of Zuckermann's scheme. Nevertheless, some problems have been recognized, beyond just the question of the siege of Beth-zur, which was one year too late for Zuckermann's calendar. A consistent problem has been the ambiguity alleged in some of the passages, notably of Josephus, where it has been questioned, for example, when Josephus started the regnal years of Herod the Great. In a study the chronology of all Herod's reign, Andrew Steinmann presents arguments in favor of dating Herod's capture of Jerusalem in 10 Tishre of 37 BCE, i.e. just after the Sabbatical year of 38/37, based on references to the activities of Mark Antony and Sosius, Herod's helpers, in Cassius Dio (49.23.1–2) and also on other considerations. This date is in agreement with Ben Zion Wacholder's chronology. Therefore, many modern scholars have adopted a Sabbatical year calendar for the Second Temple period that is one year later, although there are many prominent scholars who still maintain a cycle consistent with Zuckermann's conclusion of a 38/37 BCE Sabbatical year.


title: Shmita

text: Among those who have advocated an adjustment to Zuckermann's chronology, the most extensive studies in its favor have been those of Ben Zion Wacholder. Wacholder had access to legal documents from the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt that were not available to Zuckermann. The arguments of Wacholder and others to support the calendar one year later than that of Zuckermann are rather technical and will not be presented here, except for two items to which Zuckermann, Wacholder, and other scholars have given great weight: 1) the date of Herod's capture of Jerusalem from Antigonus, and 2) the testimony of the "Seder Olam" relating the destruction of the Second Temple to a Sabbatical year. Wacholder gives the dates of post-exilic Sabbatical years in the following table:


title: Shmita

text: Subsequent to Wacholder's study, Yoram Tsafrir and Gideon Foerster published the results of archaeological excavations at Beth Shean in the Levant that verified a record from the Cairo Geniza that gave 749 CE as the year for the "Earthquake of the Sabbatical Year". According to the Geniza record, the earthquake occurred on 23 Shevat, 679 years after the destruction of the Second Temple; this is January 18, 749 CE in the Julian calendar.


title: Shmita

text: The principal author of the "Seder Olam", Rabbi Jose, was a pupil of the famous Rabbi Akiva. Jose was a young man when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple. On such an important issue as the year in which the Temple was destroyed, it would be logical that Jose's ideas were taken from his mentor and his mentor's contemporaries.


title: Shmita

text: Chapter 30 of the "Seder Olam" gives the year that both Temples were destroyed as "be-motsae shevi'it" (במוצאי שבעית). Heinrich Guggenheimer's recent translation renders this phrase as "at the end of a Sabbatical year", thus unambiguously supporting the Wacholder calendar that starts a Sabbatical year in the fall of 69 CE. The problem, however, is that many translations of the "Seder Olam" render the phrase as "in the year after a Sabbatical year" or its equivalent. This was the sense adopted by Zuckermann when citing the "Seder Olam" as supportive of his calendar of Sabbatical years. The same Hebrew phrase is used in the Babylonian Talmud when citing this passage from the "Seder Olam", and some modern translations of the Talmud into English translate the phrase in the sense given by Guggenheimer, while others translate it in the sense of "the year after". The "Seder Olam" uses the same phrase regarding a Sabbatical year for the destruction of both Temples, so that its testimony in this regard is important for dating the "shemitot" in both pre-exilic and post-exilic times. Therefore, it would seem necessary to closely examine the phrase in the original Hebrew when making chronological decisions. Unfortunately, this was not done, either by Zuckermann, Wacholder, or Finegan, when citing the "Seder Olam"'s testimony as decisive for their particular calendars of Sabbatical years. Most interpreters have simply relied on an existing translation, and that translation may have been unduly influenced by an attempt to make the translation consistent with the chronology of the geonim that placed the end of the Second Temple in a post-Sabbatical year.


title: Shmita

text: At least one study has addressed this problem, arguing from both a linguistic standpoint and from a study of related texts in the Seder Olam that the phrase "ve-motsae sheviit" should be translated as something close to "and in the latter part of a Sabbatical year", consistent with Guggenheimer's translation and Wacholder's calendar. This recent study argues that a comparative study of the word "motsae" (literally, "goings-out") does not support any sense of "after" ("after a Sabbatical year"). Further, the reference of the "Seder Olam" to a Sabbatical year associated with Jehoiachin is in keeping with a Sabbatical year when the First Temple was burned a few years later, but the "Seder Olam" would be in conflict with itself if the phrase in chapter 30 was interpreted as saying that the burning was in a post-Sabbatical year.


title: Shmita

text: The Jubilee and Sabbatical year provided a long-term means for dating events, a fact that must have become obvious soon after the legislation was put into effect. It is of some interest, then, that the Babylonian Talmud (tractate "Sanhedrin" 40a,b) records that in the time of the judges, legal events such as contracts or criminal cases were dated according to the Jubilee cycle, the Sabbatical cycle within the Jubilee cycle, and the year within the Sabbatical cycle. The Samaritan community apparently used this method of dating as late as the 14th century CE, when an editor of one of the writings of the Samaritans wrote that he finished his work in the sixty-first Jubilee cycle since the entry into Canaan, in the fourth year of the fifth Sabbatical of that cycle. These cases of usage of the Jubilee/Sabbatical cycles make no provision for the possibility of the Sabbatical cycles being out of phase with the Jubilee cycles, which is additional evidence that the Jubilee was contemporaneous with the seventh Sabbatical year.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: In warfare, a theater or theatre is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress. A theater can include the entirety of the airspace, land and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: In his book "On War", Carl von Clausewitz defines the term "Kriegstheater" (translating the older, 17th-century Latin term "theatrum belli") as one that:


title: Theater (warfare)

text: "Theater of operations" (TO) is a sub-area within a theater of war. The boundary of a TO is defined by the commander who is orchestrating or providing support for specific combat operations within the TO.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: Theater of operations is divided into strategic directions or military regions depending on whether it is a war or peacetime. The United States Armed Forces split into Unified Combatant Commands (regions) that are assigned to a particular theater of military operations. A strategic direction is a group of armies also known as a task (field) forces or battlegroups.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: A strategic command or direction in general essence would combine a number of tactical military formations or operational command. In the modern military, a strategic command is better known as a combat command that may be a combination of groups.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: The Soviet and Russian Armed Forces classify a large geographic subdivision—such as continental geographic territories with their bordering maritime areas, islands, adjacent coasts


title: Theater (warfare)

text: and airspace—as a theater. The Russian-language term for a military "theater" is , "teatr voennykh deistvii" (literally: "theater of military operations"), abbreviated , "TVD".


title: Theater (warfare)

text: This geographical division aids strategic and operational planning, allowing military operations of fronts. Fronts were originally named in accordance with their theater of operations; for example the Southwestern Front (Russian Empire) (1914–1918), the 1st Ukrainian Front (1943–1945, which fought in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and Czechoslovakia), and the Northern Front (Soviet Union) (June to August 1941). In peacetime, lacking the urgencies of a strategic direction, fronts were transformed into military regions (districts) responsible for an assigned section of operations.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: In 1986 the U.S. Department of Defense's "Soviet Military Power" identified ten continental and four oceanic TVDs, however, most being merely geographical areas without forces or headquarters: North American, South American, African, Australian, Antarctic, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Pacific. Four others - the Far Eastern, Western, South-Western, and Southern, had identified headquarters established in 1979 and 1984. Plans appear to have existed to form a Northwestern TVD headquarters on the basis of the Staff of the Leningrad Military District.


title: Theater (warfare)

text: In their most modern form, High Commands for the TVDs were first reestablished in February 1979 for the Far East. Harrison wrote in the 2020s that the new command encompassed the Far East Military District and the Transbaikal Military District. An official military encyclopedia published after the Fall of the Soviet Union stated, said Harrison, that the Soviet Pacific Fleet, an air army, and an air defence corps were also operationally subordinated to the new formation; and that the high command "coordinated" with the armies of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Mongolia. The headquarters was set up at Ulan-Ude, near Lake Baikal. The RAND Corporation said in 1984 that the Soviet air and ground forces in Mongolia [subordinate to the Transbaikal Military District] and elements of the Mongolian Ground Forces and Mongolian Air Force were also at its disposal. In September 1984 three more High Commands were established: the Western (HQ Legnica), South-Western (HQ Kishinev), and Southern (HQ Baku)


title: Theater (warfare)

text: The term "theater of operations" was defined in the American field manuals as the land and sea areas to be invaded or defended, including areas necessary for administrative activities incident to the military operations (chart 12). In accordance with the experience of World War I, it was usually conceived of as a large land mass over which continuous operations would take place and was divided into two chief areas—the combat zone, or the area of active fighting, and the communications zone, or area required for administration of the theater. As the armies advanced, both these zones and the areas into which they were divided would shift forward to new geographic areas of control.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region ("Regierungsbezirk") of Detmold and the 18th largest city in Germany.


title: Bielefeld

text: The historical centre of the city is situated north of the Teutoburg Forest line of hills, but modern Bielefeld also incorporates boroughs on the opposite side and on the hills. The city is situated on the "", a hiking trail which runs for 156 km along the length of the Teutoburg Forest.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld is home to a significant number of internationally operating companies, including Dr. Oetker, Gildemeister and Schüco. It has a university and several technical colleges ("Fachhochschulen"). Bielefeld is also famous for the Bethel Institution, and for the Bielefeld conspiracy, which satirises conspiracy theories by claiming that Bielefeld does not exist. This concept has been used in the town's marketing and alluded to by Chancellor Angela Merkel.


title: Bielefeld

text: Founded in 1214 by Count Hermann IV of Ravensberg to guard a pass crossing the Teutoburg Forest, Bielefeld was the "city of linen" as a minor member of the Hanseatic League, known for bleachfields into the 19th Century. Bielefeld was part of the Kingdom of Westphalia when it was created in 1807. In 1815 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia following the defeat of France and the Congress of Vienna.


title: Bielefeld

text: After the Cologne-Minden railway opened in 1849, the Bozi brothers constructed the first large mechanised spinning mill in 1851. The Ravensberg Spinning Mill was built from 1854 to 1857, and metal works began to open in the 1860s.


title: Bielefeld

text: Founded in 1867 as a Bielefeld sewing machine repair company, Dürkoppwerke AG employed 1,665 people in 1892; it used Waffenamt code "WaA547" from 1938 to 1939 as the Dürkopp-Werke, and merged with other Bielefeld companies to form Dürkopp Adler AG in 1990.


title: Bielefeld

text: Between 1904 and 1930, Bielefeld grew, opening a rebuilt railway station, a municipal theatre, and finally, the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, renowned for its excellent acoustics. The Dürkopp car was produced 1898–1927. After printing emergency money () in 1923 during the inflation in the Weimar Republic, Bielefeld was one of several towns that printed very attractive and highly collectable banknotes with designs on silk, linen and velvet. These pieces were issued by the Bielefeld Stadtsparkasse (town's savings bank) and were sent all around the world in the early 1920s. These pieces are known as "Stoffgeld" – that is, money made from fabric.


title: Bielefeld

text: The town's synagogue was burned in 1938 during the "Kristallnacht" pogrom carried out against Jewish population. In 1944, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the USAAF bombed the gas works at Bielefeld on 20 September and the marshaling yard on 30 September; Bielefeld was bombed again on 7 October and the RAF bombed the town on the night of 4/5 December. On 17 January 1945, B-17s bombed the nearby Paderborn marshalling yard, and the railway viaduct in the suburb of Schildesche. On 14 March the RAF bombed the viaduct again, wrecking it. This was the first use of the RAF's 10 tonne Grand Slam bomb. American troops entered the city in April 1945.


title: Bielefeld

text: Due to the presence of a number of barracks built during the 1930s and its location next to the main East-West Autobahn in northern Germany, after World War II Bielefeld became a headquarters town for the fighting command of the British Army of the Rhine – BAOR (the administrative and strategic headquarters were at Rheindahlen near the Dutch border). Until the 1980s there was a large British presence in the barracks housing the headquarters of the British First Corps and support units, as well as schools, NAAFI shops, officers' and sergeants' messes and several estates of married quarters. The British presence was heavily scaled back after the reunification of Germany and most of the infrastructure has disappeared.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld has an oceanic climate ("Cfb"). The average annual high temperature is , the annual low temperature is , and the annual precipitation is .


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld was a linen-producing town, and in the early 1920s the Town's Savings Bank (Stadtsparkasse) issued money made of linen, silk and velvet. These items were known as 'stoffgeld'.


title: Bielefeld

text: In addition to the manufacture of home appliances and various heavy industries, Bielefeld companies include Dr. Oetker (food manufacturing), Möller Group (leather products and plastics), Seidensticker (clothing and textiles) and Bethel Institution with 17.000 employees.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld University was founded in 1969. Among its first professors was the notable contemporary German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. Other institutions of higher education include the Theological Seminary Bethel ("Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel") and the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (), which offers 21 courses in 8 different departments (agriculture and engineering are in Minden) and has been internationally recognized for its photography school.


title: Bielefeld

text: The current Mayor of Bielefeld is Pit Clausen of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who was elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2014 and 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows:


title: Bielefeld

text: The Bielefeld city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:


title: Bielefeld

text: Two major "autobahns", the A 2 and A 33, intersect in the south east of Bielefeld. The "Ostwestfalendamm" expressway connects the two parts of the city, naturally divided by the Teutoburg Forest. Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station of Bielefeld, is on the Hamm–Minden railway and is part of the German ICE high-speed railroad system. The main station for intercity bus services is Brackwede station.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld has a small airstrip, Flugplatz Bielefeld, in the Senne district but is mainly served by the three larger airports nearby, Paderborn Lippstadt Airport, Münster Osnabrück International Airport and Hannover Airport.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld boasts a well-developed public transport system, served mainly by the companies "moBiel" (formerly "Stadtwerke Bielefeld – Verkehrsbetriebe") and "BVO". The Bielefeld Stadtbahn has four major lines and regional trains connect different parts of the city with nearby counties. Buses also run throughout the area.


title: Bielefeld

text: Sparrenburg Castle is Bielefeld's characteristic landmark. It was built between 1240 and 1250 by Count Ludwig von Ravensberg. The tower and the catacombs of the castle are open to the public.


title: Bielefeld

text: The Old City Hall ("Altes Rathaus") was built in 1904 and still serves the same function. Its façade reflects the so-called Weserrenaissance and features elements of various architectural styles, including Gothic and Renaissance. Though the mayor still holds office in the Old City Hall, most of the city's administration is housed in the adjacent New City Hall ("Neues Rathaus").


title: Bielefeld

text: The City Theatre ("Stadttheater") is part of the same architectural ensemble as the Old City Hall, also built in 1904. It has a notable Jugendstil façade, is Bielefeld's largest theatre and home of the Bielefeld Opera. Another theatre ("Theater am Alten Markt") resides in the former town hall building on the Old Market Square ("Alter Markt"), which also contains a row of restored 16th and 17th-century townhouses with noteworthy late Gothic and Weser Renaissance style façades ("Bürgerhäuser am Alten Markt").


title: Bielefeld

text: The oldest city church is "Altstädter Nicolaikirche". It is a Gothic hall church with a height of . It was founded in 1236 by the Bishop of Paderborn, and enlarged at the beginning of the 14th century. The church was damaged in World War II and later rebuilt. Three times a day, a carillon can be heard. The most valuable treasure of this church is a carved altar from Antwerp, decorated with 250 figures. A small museum housed within illustrates the history of the church up to World War II.


title: Bielefeld

text: The largest church is the "Neustädter Marienkirche", a Gothic hall church dating back to 1293, completed 1512. It stands tall and has a length of . Historically speaking, this building is considered to be the most precious possession of the town. It was the starting point of the Protestant Reformation in Bielefeld in 1553. A valuable wing-altar with 13 pictures, known as the "Marienaltar" is also kept inside. The baroque spires were destroyed in World War II and later replaced by two unusually-shaped "Gothic" clocktowers. The altarpiece of the Bielefeld church "Neustädter Marienkirche" from around 1400 is among the most prominent masterpieces of artwork of the German Middle Ages. Two of the altarpieces, "The Flagellation" and "The Crucifixion" are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld is also the seat of the two largest Protestant social welfare establishments ("Diakonie") in Europe, the Bethel Institution and the "Evangelisches Johanneswerk".


title: Bielefeld

text: Other important cultural sights of the region are the art museum (Kunsthalle), the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle concert hall, and the city's municipal botanical garden (Botanischer Garten Bielefeld). Bielefeld is home to the widely known Bielefelder Kinderchor, founded in 1932 by Friedrich Oberschelp as the first mixed children's choir in Germany. It became famous for its recordings and concerts of traditional German Christmas carols, filling the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle several times each season. Foreign tours have taken the choir to many European countries, and also the U.S. and Japan.


title: Bielefeld

text: Bielefeld is home to the professional football team DSC Arminia Bielefeld. Currently a member of 1. Bundesliga in the 2020–2021 season, the club plays at the SchücoArena stadium in the west of the town centre.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any organized religion, instead participating in one or more practices of folk religions, such as venerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially during Tết and other festivals. Folk religions were founded on endemic cultural beliefs that were historically affected by Confucianism and Taoism from China, as well as by various strands of Buddhism. These three teachings or "tam giáo" were later joined by Christianity which has become a significant presence. Vietnam is also home of two indigenous religions: syncretic Caodaism and quasi-Buddhist Hoahaoism.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: According to estimates by the Pew Research Center in 2010, most of the Vietnamese people practiced (exclusively) folk religions (45.3%). 16.4% of the population were Buddhists, 8.2% were Christians, and about 30% were unaffiliated to any religion. Officially, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an atheist state, as declared by its communist government.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: According to statistics from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, as of 2018, Buddhists account for 14.9% of the total population, Christians 8.5% (Catholics 7.4% & Protestants 1.1%), Hoahao Buddhists 1.5%, and Caodaism followers 1.2%. Other religions include Hinduism, Islam, and Baháʼí Faith, representing less than 0.2% of the population. Folk religions (worship of ancestors, gods and goddesses), not included in government statistics, have experienced revival since the 1980s.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Although according to a 1999 census most Vietnamese list themselves as having no religious affiliation, religion, as defined by shared beliefs and practices, remains an integral part of Vietnamese life, dictating the social behaviours and spiritual practices of Vietnamese individuals in Vietnam and abroad. The triple religion (), referring to the syncretic combination of Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and Vietnamese folk religion (often assimilated), remain a strong influence on the beliefs and practices of the Vietnamese, even if the levels of formal membership in these religious communities may not reflect that influence. One of the most notable and universal spiritual practices common to Vietnamese is ancestor veneration. It is considered an expression of "hiếu thảo" (filial piety), a key virtue to maintain a harmonious society. Regardless of formal religious affiliation, it is very common to have an altar in the home and business where prayers are offered to their ancestors. These offerings and practices are done frequently during important traditional or religious celebrations (e.g., death anniversaries), the starting of a new business, or even when a family member needs guidance or counsel. Belief in ghosts and spirits is very common; many believe that the traditions are important links to culture and history and are enjoyable, while others believe that failing to perform the proper rituals for one's ancestors will literally cause them to become hungry ghosts ().


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: A 2002 Pew Research Center report claimed that 24% of the population of Vietnam view religion as "very important".


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Government statistics of the religion in Vietnam, are counts of members of religious organization recognized by the government. Hence, this does not include people practicing folk religion, which is not recognized by government. Also, many people practice religion such as Buddhism without taking any membership of specific government organization. Official statistics from the 2019 Census, also not categorizing folk religion, indicates that Catholicism is the largest (organized) religion in Vietnam, surpassing Buddhism. While some other surveys reported 45-50 millions Buddhist living in Vietnam, the government statistics counts for 6.8 millions. It is the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam, however, does not reports official statistics on its adherents. The great gaps in statistics on the number of Buddhist adherents is due to disagreement on the very criteria of what constitute a Buddhist.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The earliest forms of Vietnamese religious practice were animistic and totemic in nature. The decorations on Dong Son bronze drums, generally agreed to have ceremonial and possibly religious value, depict the figures of birds, leading historians to believe birds were objects of worship for the early Vietnamese. Dragons were another frequently recurring figure in Vietnamese art, arising from the veneration of Lạc Long Quân, a mythical dragon-king who is said to be the father of the Vietnamese people. The Golden Turtle God Kim Quy was said to appear to kings in times of crisis, notably to Lê Lợi, from whom he took the legendary sword Thuận Thiên after it had been dropped into Hoan Kiem Lake. Contact with Chinese civilization, and the introduction of the triple religion of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, added a further ethical and moral dimension to the indigenous Vietnamese religion. A recent research using folkloristic computations has provided evidence on the existence of "cultural additivity" by examining the interaction of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism throughout the history of Vietnam.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Scholars such as Toan Ánh ("Tín ngưỡng Việt Nam" 1991) have listed a resurgence in traditional belief in many local, village-level, spirits.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Đạo Mẫu is a distinct form of Vietnamese folk religion, it is the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. There are distinct beliefs and practices in this religion including the worship of goddesses such as Thiên Y A Na, The Lady of the Realm (Bà Chúa Xứ), The Lady of the Storehouse (Bà Chúa Kho) and Princess Liễu Hạnh (1), legendary figures like Âu Cơ, the Trung Sisters (Hai Bà Trưng), Lady Trieu (Bà Triệu), and the cult of the Four Palaces. Đạo Mẫu is commonly associated with spirit mediumship rituals—known in Vietnam as lên đồng. It is a ritual in which followers become spirit mediums for various deities. The Communist government used to suspend the practice of lên đồng due to its superstition, but in 1987, the government legalized this practice.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Ông Đạo Dừa (1909-1990) created the Coconut Religion (Vietnamese: "Đạo Dừa" or "Hòa đồng Tôn giáo"), a syncretic Buddhist, Christian and local Vietnamese religion which at its peak had 4,000 followers, before it was banned. Its adherents ate coconut and drank coconut milk. In 1975 the Reunited Vietnam authorities forced this religion to go underground.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Vietnam was conventionally considered to be a Buddhist country. Buddhism came to Vietnam as early as the second century AD through the North from China and via Southern routes from India. Mahayana Buddhism first spread from India via sea to Vietnam around 100 AD. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Theravāda became established as the state religion in Cambodia and also spread to Cambodians living in the Mekong Delta, replaced Mahayana. Buddhism as practiced by the ethnic Vietnamese is mainly of the Mahayana school, although some ethnic minorities (such as the Khmer Krom in the southern Delta region of Vietnam) adhere to the Theravada school.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Today, more than half of the Vietnamese population, consider themselves as adherents of Mahayana Buddhism. Theravada and Hòa Hảo Buddhism are also present in significant numbers. Buddhist practice in Vietnam differs from that of other Asian countries, and does not contain the same institutional structures, hierarchy, or sanghas that exist in other traditional Buddhist settings. It has instead grown from a symbiotic relationship with Taoism, Chinese spirituality, and the indigenous Vietnamese religion, with the majority of Buddhist practitioners focusing on devotional rituals rather than meditation.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Zen Buddhism arrived in Vietnam as early as the 6th century CE, with the works of Vinītaruci. It flourished under the Lý and Trần dynasties. Trúc Lâm Zen is the only native school of Buddhism in Vietnam.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Pure Land Buddhism is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism and is said to be one of the most popular schools of Buddhism in Vietnam, in which practitioners commonly recite sutras, chants and dharanis looking to gain protection from bodhisattvas or Dharma-Protectors. While Pure Land traditions, practices and concepts are found within Mahayana cosmology, and form an important component of Buddhist traditions in Vietnam, Pure Land Buddhism was not independently recognized as a sect of Buddhism (as Pure Land schools have been recognized, for example, in Japan) until 2007, with the official recognition of the Vietnamese Pure Land Buddhism Association as an independent and legal religious organization.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ, a native of the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be a prophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương ("Strange Perfume from Precious Mountains", referring to the Thất Sơn range on the Vietnam-Cambodia border). The founders of these traditions are regarded by Hòa Hảo followers as living Buddhas—destined to save mankind from suffering and to protect the Vietnamese nation. An important characteristic of Hòa Hảo is its emphasis on peasant farmers, exemplified by the old slogan ""Practicing Buddhism While Farming Your Land."" Hòa Hảo also stresses the practice of Buddhism by lay people in the home, rather than focusing primarily on temple worship and ordination. Aid to the poor is favored over pagoda building or expensive rituals.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Today, as an officially recognized religion, it claims approximately two million followers throughout Vietnam; in certain parts of the Mekong Delta, as many as 90 percent of the population of this region practice this tradition. Since many of the teachings of Huỳnh Phú Sổ related in some way to Vietnamese nationalism, adherence to Hòa Hảo outside of Vietnam has been minimal, with a largely quiescent group of followers presumed to exist among the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa "("Four Debts of Gratitude")", a Buddhist sect based in An Giang Province, is one of the most recently registered religions in Vietnam. It is based on the teachings of Ngô Lợi (1831–1890). Official government statistics report that Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa claimed over 70,000 registered followers and 476 religious leaders as of 2005, centred in 76 places of worship spread across 14 provinces, mainly in Southern Vietnam. is a sect that is related to Cao Đài.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: By far the most widespread Christian denomination in Vietnam, Roman Catholicism first entered the country through Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in the 16th century, although these earliest missions did not bring very impressive results. Only after the arrival of Jesuits, who were mainly Italians, Portuguese, and Japanese, in the first decades of the 17th century did Christianity begin to establish its positions within the local populations in both domains of "Đàng Ngoài" (Tonkin) and "Đàng Trong" (Cochinchina). Two priests Francesco Buzomi and Diogo Carvalho established the first Catholic community in Hội An in 1615. Between 1627 and 1630, Avignonese Alexandre de Rhodes and Portuguese Pero Marques converted more than 6,000 people in Tonkin.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: 17th-century Jesuit missionaries including Francisco de Pina, Gaspar do Amaral, Antonio Barbosa, and de Rhodes developed an alphabet for the Vietnamese language, using the Latin script with added diacritic marks. This writing system continues to be used today, and is called "chữ Quốc ngữ" (literally "national language script"). Meanwhile, the traditional "chữ Nôm", in which Girolamo Maiorica was an expert, was the main script conveying Catholic faith to Vietnamese until the late 19th century.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Since the late 17th century, French missionaries of the Foreign Missions Society and Spanish missionaries of the Dominican Order were gradually taking the role of evangelisation in Vietnam. Other missionaries active in pre-modern Vietnam were Franciscans (in Cochinchina), Italian Dominicans & Discalced Augustinians (in Eastern Tonkin), and those sent by the "Propaganda Fide". During the 17th and 18th centuries, Catholicism successfully integrated into Vietnamese society and culture.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The French missionary priest Pigneau de Behaine played a role in Vietnamese history towards the end of the 18th century by befriending Nguyễn Ánh, the most senior of the ruling Nguyễn lords to have escaped the rebellion of the Tây Sơn brothers in 1777. Becoming Nguyễn Ánh's loyal confidant, benefactor and military advisor during his time of need, he was able to gain a great deal of favor for the Church. During Nguyễn Ánh's subsequent rule as Emperor Gia Long, the Catholic faith was permitted unimpeded missionary activities out of his respect to his benefactors. By the time of the Emperor's accession in 1802, Vietnam had 3 Catholic dioceses with 320,000 members and over 120 Vietnamese priests.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The Catholic Church in Vietnam today consists of 27 dioceses organized in 3 ecclesiastical provinces of Hanoi, Hue and Saigon. The government census of 2019 shows that Catholicism, for the first time, is the largest religious denomination in Vietnam, surpassing Buddhism. Ecclesiastical sources report there are about 7 million Catholics, representing 7.0% of the total population.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Protestantism was introduced to Da Nang in 1911 by a Canadian missionary named Robert A. Jaffray; over the years, he was followed by more than 100 missionaries, members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an Evangelical Protestant denomination. The two officially recognized Protestant organizations recognized by the government are the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), recognized in 2001, and the smaller Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN), recognized since 1963.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Present estimates of the number of Protestants range from the official government figure of 500,000 to claims by churches of 1 million. Growth has been most pronounced among members of minority peoples (Montagnards) such as the Hmong, Ede, Jarai, and Bahnar, with internal estimates claiming two-thirds of all Protestants in Vietnam are members of ethnic minorities. By some estimates, the growth of Protestant believers in Vietnam has been as much as 600 percent over the past ten years. Some of the new converts belong to unregistered evangelical house churches, whose followers are said to total about 200,000.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Baptist and Mennonite movements were officially recognized by Hanoi in October, 2007, which was seen as a notable improvement in the level of religious freedom enjoyed by Vietnamese Protestants. Similarly, in October 2009, the Assemblies of God movement received official government permission to operate, which is the first step to becoming a legal organization.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The Assemblies of God were said to consist of around 40,000 followers in 2009, the Baptist Church around 18,400 followers with 500 ministers in 2007, and The Mennonite Church around 10,000 followers.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: For Orthodox Christianity, the Russian Orthodox Church is represented in Vũng Tàu, Vietnam, mainly among the Russian-speaking employees of the Russian-Vietnamese joint venture "Vietsovpetro". The parish is named after Our Lady of Kazan icon was opened in 2002 with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which had been given in Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra. The representatives of the foreign relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church come to Vũng Tàu from time to time to conduct the Orthodox divine service. There are also two recently organized parishes in Hanoi and Hochiminh City.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Vietnam is also mentioned as territory under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople), though there is no information on its organized activities there.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Jehovah's Witnesses established their permanent presence in Saigon in 1957. As of 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses are a target of government oppression in Vietnam.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: On May 31, 2016, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) met with Vietnamese officials. The Government Committee for Religious Affairs officially recognized the church's representative committee. Congregations currently meet in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Cao Đài is a relatively new, syncretist, monotheistic religion, officially established in the city of Tây Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. The term "Cao Đài" literally means "highest tower", or figuratively, the highest place where God reigns. Cao Đài's first disciples, Ngô Văn Chiêu, Cao Quỳnh Cư, Phạm Công Tắc and Cao Hoài Sang, claimed to have received direct communications from God, who gave them explicit instructions for establishing a new religion that would commence the Third Era of Religious Amnesty. Adherents engage in ethical practices such as prayer, veneration of ancestors, nonviolence, and vegetarianism with the minimum goal of rejoining God the Father in Heaven and the ultimate goal of freedom from the cycle of birth and death.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Official government records counted 2.2 million registered members of Tây Ninh Cao Đài in 2005, but also estimated in 2007 that there were 3.2 million Caodaists including roughly a dozen other denominations. According to the official statistics, in 2014, the estimated number of Caodaists is 4.4 million, it was a dramatic increase of 1.2 million followers or an increase of 37.5%. Country Information and Guidance — Vietnam: Religious minority groups. December 2014. Quoting United Nations' "Press Statement on the visit to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief". It is more likely that "unofficial" Caodaists have decided that it is now acceptable to identify themselves as followers of the religion in the last seven years. Many outside sources give 4 to 6 million. Some estimates are as high as 8 million adherents in Vietnam. An additional 30,000 (numbers may vary) (primarily ethnic Vietnamese) live in the United States, Europe, and Australia.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Adherence to Hinduism in Vietnam is associated with the Cham ethnic minority; the first religion of the Champa kingdom was a form of Shaivite Hinduism, brought by sea from India. The Cham people erected Hindu temples ("Bimong") throughout Central Vietnam, many of which are still in use today; the now-abandoned Mỹ Sơn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is perhaps the most well-known of Cham temple complexes.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Approximately 50,000 ethnic Cham in the south-central coastal area practice a devotional form of Hinduism. Most of the Cham Hindus belong to the Nagavamshi Kshatriya caste, but a considerable minority are Brahmins. Another 4,000 Hindus (mostly Tamil, and otherwise of Cham or mixed Indian-Vietnamese descent) live in Ho Chi Minh City, where the Mariamman Temple acts as a focal point for the community. In Ninh Thuận Province, where most of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Balamon (Hindu Cham) numbers 32,000; out of the 22 villages in Ninh Thuận, 15 are Hindu.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: As per the census of 2009, there are a total of 56,427 Cham Hindus in Vietnam. Out of this number, 40,695 are in Ninh Thuận, and another 15,094 are in Bình Thuận.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Much like Hinduism, adherence to Islam in Vietnam is primarily associated with the Cham ethnic minority, although there is also a Muslim population of mixed ethnic origins, also known as Cham, or Cham Muslims, in the southwest (Mekong Delta) of the country. Islam is assumed to have come to Vietnam much after its arrival in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), through contact with Arab traders. The number of followers began to increase as contacts with Sultanate of Malacca broadened in the wake of the 1471 collapse of the Champa Kingdom, but Islam would not become widespread among the Cham until the mid-17th century. In the mid-19th century, many Muslim Chams emigrated from Cambodia, settling in the Mekong Delta and further bolstering the presence of Islam in Vietnam.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Vietnamese Muslims remained relatively isolated from the mainstream of world Islam, and their isolation, combined with the lack of religious schools, caused the practice of Islam in Vietnam to become syncretic. Although the Chams follow a localised adaptation of Islamic theology, they consider themselves Muslims. However, they pray only on Fridays and celebrate Ramadan for only three days. Circumcision is performed not physically but symbolically, with a religious leader making the gestures of circumcision with a wooden toy knife.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Vietnam's largest mosque was opened in January 2006 in Xuân Lộc, Đồng Nai Province. Its construction was partially funded by donations from Saudi Arabia.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: A 2005 census counted over 66,000 Muslims in Vietnam, up from 63,000 in 1999. Over 77% lived in the Southeast, with 34% in Ninh Thuận Province, 24% in Bình Thuận Province, and 9% in Ho Chi Minh City. Another 22% lived in the Mekong Delta region, primarily in An Giang Province. In Ninh Thuận Province, where most of the Cham in Vietnam reside, Cham Bani (Muslim Cham) number close to 22,000. Out of the 22 villages in Ninh Thuận, 7 are Muslim.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The Cham in Vietnam are only recognized as a minority, and not as an indigenous people by the Vietnamese government despite being indigenous to the region. Both Hindu and Muslim Chams have experienced religious and ethnic persecution and restrictions on their faith under the current Vietnamese government, with the Vietnamese state confiscating Cham property and forbidding Cham from observing their religious beliefs. Hindu temples were turned into tourist sites against the wishes of the Cham Hindus. In 2010 and 2013, several incidents occurred in Thành Tín and Phươc Nhơn villages where Cham were murdered by Vietnamese. In 2012, Vietnamese police in Châu Giang village stormed into a Cham mosque, stole the electric generator and raped Cham girls. Cham Muslims in the Mekong Delta have also been economically marginalized and pushed into poverty by Vietnamese policies, with ethnic Vietnamese Kinh settling on majority Cham land with state support, and religious practices of minorities have been targeted for elimination by the Vietnamese government.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The Vietnamese government fears that evidence of Champa's influence over the disputed area in the South China Sea would bring attention to human rights violations and killings of ethnic minorities in Vietnam such as in the 2001 and 2004 uprisings, and lead to the issue of Cham autonomy being brought into the dispute, since the Vietnamese conquered the Hindu and Muslim Chams in an 1832 war and continuing to destroy evidence of Cham culture and artifacts left behind, plundering or building on top of Cham temples, building farms over them, banning Cham religious practices, and omitting references to the destroyed Cham capital of Song Luy in the 1832 invasion in history books and tourist guides. The situation of Chams compared to ethnic Vietnamese is substandard, lacking water and electricity and living in houses made out of mud.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The first Jews to visit Vietnam likely arrived following the French colonization of the country, in the latter half of the 19th century. There are a handful of references to Jewish settlement in Saigon sprinkled through the pages of the "Jewish Chronicle" in the 1860s and 1870s.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: As late as 1939, the estimated combined population of the Jewish communities of Haiphong, Hanoi, Saigon and Tourane in French Indo-China numbered approximately 1,000 individuals. In 1940 the anti-Semitic Vichy-France Law on the status of Jews was implemented in French Indo-China (Vietnam), leading to increased restrictions and widespread discrimination against Jews. The anti-Jewish laws were repealed in January 1945.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Prior to the French evacuation of Indochina in 1954, the Jewish population in Indochina (which encompassed Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) was reportedly 1,500; most of these Jews were said to have left with the French, leaving behind no organized Jewish communal structure. In 1971, about 12 French Jews still remained in South Vietnam, all in Saigon. In 2005, the U.S. State Department's "International Religious Freedom Report" noted "There were no reported anti-Semitic incidents during the period covered by this report. The country's small Jewish population is almost entirely of expatriates."


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Established in the 1950s, the Vietnamese Baháʼí community once claimed upwards of 200,000 followers, mainly concentrated in the South. The number of followers dwindled as a result of the banning of the practice of the Baháʼí Faith after the Vietnam War. After years of negotiation, the Baháʼí Faith was registered nationally in 2007, once again receiving full recognition as a religious community. In 2009 it was reported that the Baháʼí community has about 7,000 followers and 73 assemblies.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam formally allows religious freedom, however, government restrictions remain on organized activities of many religious groups. The government maintains a prominent role overseeing officially recognized religions. Religious groups encounter the greatest restrictions when they are perceived by the government as a challenge to its rule or to the authority of the Communist party. In 2007, Viet Nam News reported that Viet Nam has six religions recognised by the State (Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Cao Đài, and Hòa Hảo), but that the Baháʼí Community of Viet Nam had been awarded a "certificate of operation" from the Government's Committee for Religious Affairs. In 2007, the Committee for Religious Affairs was reported to have granted operation registration certificates to three new religions and a religious sect in addition to six existing religions. Every citizen is declared free to follow no, one, or more religions, practice religion without violating the law, be treated equally regardless of religious belief, and to be protected from being violated in their religious freedom, but is prohibited from using religion to violate the law.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: In fact, there are some limitations in religious practice in Vietnam. Foreign missionaries are not legally allowed to proselytize or perform religious activities. No other religions than the aforementioned eight are allowed. Preachers and religious associations are prohibited to use religion to propagate ideologies that are opposed to the government. Many Vietnamese preachers who fled for America and other countries say that they were suppressed by the Communist government for no, unreasonable or ethnic reasons; however, preachers and religious associations who abide by the law working in Vietnam today are aided and honored by the government.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: The Vietnamese government has been criticized for its religious violations by the United States, the Vatican, and expatriate Vietnamese who oppose the Communist government. However, due to recent improvements in religious liberty, the United States no longer considers Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern. The Vatican has also considered negotiations with Vietnam about freedom for Vietnamese Catholics, and was able to reach a permanent agreement which would allow a permanent representative in the future to the country.


title: Religion in Vietnam

text: Despite some substantial attempts by the Vietnamese government to improve its international image and ease restrictions on religious freedom, the cases of dissident religious leaders' persecution has not stopped in the recent years. The general secretary of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam and religious freedom advocate Nguyen Hong Quang was arrested in 2004, and his house razed to the ground. Christian Montagnards and their house churches continue to suffer from state control and restrictions. In March, 2007, a member of the main Hanoi congregation of the legally recognized Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) Nguyen Van Dai was arrested for accusations relating to his defense of religious freedom, including disseminating alleged "infractions" of religious liberty. However, during this period of time, it is unknown whether the causes of their protests were more due to personal circumstances, like poverty, or if the government was really suppressing religious freedom, which is unlikely due to the diversity and number of religious institutes allowed to operate in Vietnam.


title: Christogram

text: A Christogram (Latin: "") is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a religious symbol within the Christian Church.


title: Christogram

text: One of the oldest Christograms is the Chi-Rho (☧). It consists of the superimposed Greek letters chi and rho , which are the first two letters of Greek "Christ". It was displayed on the "labarum" military standard used by Constantine I in AD 312. The IX monogram () is a similar form, using the initials of the name "Jesus (the) Christ", as is the ΙΗ monogram (), using the first two letters of the name "JESUS" in uppercase.


title: Christogram

text: There were a very considerable number of variants of "Christograms" or monograms of Christ in use during the medieval period, with the boundary between specific monograms and mere scribal abbreviations somewhat fluid.


title: Christogram

text: The name "Jesus", spelt "ΙΗΣΟΥΣ" in Greek capitals, has the abbreviations "IHS" (also written "JHS, IHC", or "ΙΗΣ"), the name "Christus" , spelt "ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ", has "XP" (and inflectional variants such as "IX, XPO, XPS, XPI, XPM"). In Eastern Christian tradition, the monogram ΙϹΧϹ (with Overline indicating scribal abbreviation) is used for in both Greek and Cyrillic tradition.


title: Christogram

text: A Middle Latin term for abbreviations of the name of Christ is "chrisimus". Similarly, Middle Latin "crismon", "chrismon" refers to the Chi-Rho monogram specifically.


title: Christogram

text: In antiquity, the cross, i.e. the instrument of Christ's crucifixion ("crux", "stauros"), was taken to be T-shaped, while the X-shape ("chiasmus") had different connotations. There has been scholarly speculation on the development of the Christian cross, the letter Chi used to abbreviate the name of Christ, and the various pre-Christian symbolism associated with the chiasmus interpreted in terms of "the mystery of the pre-existent Christ".


title: Christogram

text: In Plato's "Timaeus", it is explained that the two bands which form the "world soul" ("anima mundi") cross each other like the letter Chi, possibly referring to the ecliptic crossing the celestial equator.


title: Christogram

text: Justin Martyr in the 2nd century makes explicit reference to Plato's image in "Timaeus" in terms of a prefiguration of the Holy Cross. An early statement may be the phrase in "Didache", "sign of extension in heaven" ("sēmeion epektaseōs en ouranōi").


title: Christogram

text: An alternative explanation of the intersecting celestial symbol has been advanced by George Latura, claiming that Plato's "visible god" in "Timaeus" is the intersection of the Milky Way and the Zodiacal Light, a rare apparition important to pagan beliefs. He said that Christian bishops reframed this as a Christian symbol.


title: Christogram

text: The most commonly encountered Christogram in English-speaking countries in modern times is the Χ (or more accurately, Chi), representing the first letter of the word "Christ", in such abbreviations as "Xmas" (for "Christmas") and "Xian" or "Xtian" (for "Christian").


title: Christogram

text: The Alpha and Omega symbols may at times accompany the Chi-Rho monogram. Since the 17th century, "Chrismon" ("chrismum"; also "chrismos, chrismus") has been used as a New Latin term for the Chi Rho monogram.


title: Christogram

text: Because the "chrismon" was used as a kind of "invocation" at the beginning of documents of the Merovingian period, the term also came to be used of the "cross-signatures" in early medieval charters. "Chrismon" in this context may refer to the Merovingian period abbreviation "I. C. N." for "in Christi nomine", later (in the Carolingian period) also "I. C." for "in Christo", and still later (in the high medieval period) just "C." for "Christus".


title: Christogram

text: St Cuthbert's coffin (late 7th century) has an exceptional realisation of the Christogram written in Anglo-Saxon runes, as ᛁᚻᛋ ᛉᛈᛋ, as it were "IHS XPS", with the "chi" rendered as the "eolh" rune (the old "z" or "algiz" rune) and the "rho" rendered as the p-rune.


title: Christogram

text: In the Latin-speaking Christianity of medieval Western Europe (and so among Catholics and many Protestants today), the most common Christogram became "IHS" or "IHC", denoting the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, "iota-eta-sigma", or .


title: Christogram

text: The Greek letter "iota" is represented by I, and the "eta" by H, while the Greek letter "sigma" is either in its lunate form, represented by C, or its final form, represented by S. Because the Latin-alphabet letters "I" and "J" were not systematically distinguished until the 17th century, "JHS" and "JHC" are equivalent to "IHS" and "IHC".


title: Christogram

text: "IHS" is sometimes interpreted as meaning "ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΗΜΕΤΕΡΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ" ("Iēsous Hēmeteros Sōtēr," "Jesus our Saviour") or in Latin "Jesus Hominum (or Hierosolymae) Salvator", ("Jesus, Saviour of men [or: of Jerusalem]" in Latin) or connected with "In Hoc Signo". English-language interpretations of "IHS" have included "In His Service". Such interpretations are known as backformed acronyms.


title: Christogram

text: Used in Latin since the seventh century, the first use of "IHS" in an English document dates from the fourteenth century, in "Piers Plowman". In the 15th century, Saint Bernardino of Siena popularized the use of the three letters on the background of a blazing sun to displace both popular pagan symbols and seals of political factions like the Guelphs and Ghibellines in public spaces (see Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus).


title: Christogram

text: The IHS monogram with the H surmounted by a cross above three nails and surrounded by a Sun is the emblem of the Jesuits, according to tradition introduced by Ignatius of Loyola in 1541.


title: Christogram

text: In Eastern Christianity, the most widely used Christogram is a four-letter abbreviation, ΙϹ ΧϹ—a traditional abbreviation of the Greek words for "Jesus Christ" (i.e., the first and last letters of each of the words , with the lunate sigma "Ϲ" common in medieval Greek), and written with titlo (diacritic) denoting scribal abbreviation ().


title: Christogram

text: On icons, this Christogram may be split: "ΙϹ" on the left of the image and "ΧϹ" on the right. It is sometimes rendered as "ΙϹ ΧϹ ΝΙΚΑ" (Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς νικᾷ), meaning "Jesus Christ Conquers". "ΙϹΧϹ" may also be seen inscribed on the Ichthys.


title: Christogram

text: After Francis Xavier landed in Kagoshima, Japan, in 1549, his missionary work grew and became widely distributed throughout Japan under Daimyō's patronage. However, during the Edo period (1603–1868), Christians were persecuted and forced to hide. Because they were forbidden to openly worship the images of Christ or Mary, it is believed that they transferred their worship to other carved images and marked them with secret symbols understood only by the initiates. Certain Japanese lanterns, notably the 'Kirishitan dōrō' (キリシタン灯籠, Christian lanterns), did bear the "Lhq" monogram, which, a quarter turned, was engraved on the shaft (sao), which was buried directly into the soil without basal platform (kiso). The "Lhq" monogram corresponds to the distorted letters "IHS".


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: San Miguel Corporation, abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. The company is one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines. Originally founded in 1890 as brewery in the Philippines, San Miguel has ventured beyond its core business, with investments in various sectors such as food and drink, finance, infrastructure, oil and energy, transportation, and real estate.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Its flagship product, San Miguel Beer, is one of the largest selling beers in the world. San Miguel's manufacturing operations have extended beyond its home market to Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia, and its products are exported to 60 markets around the world.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: In 1889, a well-known Manila businessman, Enrique María Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban, applied for a royal grant from Spain to establish a brewery in the Philippines. He was awarded the grant for a period of twenty years. On September 29, 1890 (Michaelmas, or the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel), "La Fábrica de Cerveza San Miguel" was declared open for business. Located at 6 Calzada de Malacañan (later renamed Calle conde de Avilés and presently Jose Laurel Street), the brewery took its name from the "arrabal" (suburb or district) where it was located, San Miguel, Manila. The facility had two sections: one devoted to the production of ice with a daily capacity of 5 tons, and the other to beer production. The brewery was the first in Southeast Asia using the most modern equipment and facilities of the day. With 70 employees, the plant produced 3,600 hectolitres (about 47,000 cases) of lager beer during the first year and subsequently produced other types of beer, notably Cerveza Negra, Eagle Extra Stout and Doble Bock.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Early success led to the expansion of the business and Barretto decided to incorporate his brewery. On June 6, 1893, the company was incorporated and registered with a capital of P180,000. Those forming the corporation were Barretto, Pedro Pablo Róxas y Castro, Gonzalo Tuasón y Patiño, Vicente D. Fernández y Castro, Albino Goyenechea, Benito Legarda y Tuáson and the heirs of Don Mariano Buenaventura y Chuidan.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Pedro Pablo Róxas was soon appointed manager, playing a prominent role in the development of the firm. He was the active member of the firm until 1896, when he left for Europe. Prior to his departure, he acquired Barretto's shares in the company worth P42,000. After Barretto retired in May 1896, Róxas acquired the rest of Barretto's stake in the business. In 1895, San Miguel Beer won the first of its many awards as a product of the highest quality at the Exposición Regional de Filipinas. By 1896, San Miguel Beer was outselling by more than five-to-one all imported beers in the country.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: The 1900s ushered in a period of prosperity after the Philippine Revolution and the beginning of the American Occupation. Demand for beer increased, and for San Miguel, still under Róxas' leadership, modernization of their operations included installation of electric conveyors and automatic machines, with the brewery's equipment modernised by 1910.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: By 1913, imported beer represented only 12% of the total consumption in the Philippines; San Miguel held an 88% share of the industry. Róxas died in Paris, France in 1913. Soon after, Benito Legarda and Gonzalo Tuasón made it advisable to change the form of the company from a firm of co-participants to a corporation (San Miguel Brewery, Inc.). Róxas's son, Antonio Róxas de Ayala, was appointed president, with Enrique Brías de Coya and Don Ramón J. Fernández as managers.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: By 1914, San Miguel began to export, with its products finding ready markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guam. When the First World War broke out, exports came to a temporary halt due to difficulties such as shortage of raw materials and the consequent rise in manufacturing costs. It was not until Prohibition was repealed in the United States that San Miguel was able to resume exports to Guam and later to Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. By the end of 1914, Enrique Brías, after seeing that his efforts and industry had resulted in a progressive and prosperous business, retired from active business life in favour of his son, Antonio Brías y Róxas. In 1918, Antonio Róxas resigned from his position as president.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Andrés Soriano (a grandson of Don Pedro Pablo Róxas and a nephew of Don Antonio Róxas) joined San Miguel as a clerk in the accounting department. In 1918, after the resignation of Antonio Róxas, Ramón J. Fernández assumed the presidency and Soriano was made acting manager. In 1923, Soriano was appointed manager and managed San Miguel together with Antonio Brías y Roxas with constantly increasing success.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Diversification into new lines of business began in the 1920s. The company opened in 1922 the Royal Soft Drinks Plant in Manila producing Royal Tru-Orange, other Royal products and aerated water. (In 1919, the company acquired the Oriental Brewery and Ice Company and transformed the building into an ice plant and cold storage; later the Royal Soft Drinks Plant.) Five years later, the company secured the rights to bottle and distribute Coca-Cola in the Philippines. In 1925, San Miguel went into the ice cream business with the purchase of the Magnolia Plant on Calle Avilés which was transferred a year later to a new site on Calle Echague (now, C. Palanca Sr. Street) in Quiapo District, Manila. The new site used to house the Fábrica de Hielo de Manila which was bought by San Miguel in 1924. To achieve greater self-sufficiency in its operations, the firm opened a new plant in 1930 to produce carbon dioxide for its soft drinks products and dry ice for the refrigeration needs of its ice cream products. In 1932, a plant was set up to produce compressed yeast for bakeries and medical use. The following year, the company leased from the government the site for Insular Ice Plant for a period of ten years.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: During the 1930s, San Miguel began investing in businesses overseas. The company set up a short lived dairy business in Calcutta, India and Singapore (Cold Storage Creameries, Singapore), and invested in breweries in the United States (a stake in the George Muehlebach Brewing Company and majority holdings in the Lone Star Brewing Company located in San Antonio, Texas).


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: In 1939, the management of the company was reorganized along the lines of American corporations. San Miguel's management team was made up of the board of directors (president, vice-president, treasurer and nine directors and the executive officers of the corporation). Ramón J. Fernández was elected president of the board of directors and Antonio Róxas y Gargollo (a son of Antonio Róxas) was elected vice-president. Soriano was elected president of the corporation, with Antonio Brias y Róxas as vice president. Eduardo Róxas y Gargollo (another son of Don Antonio Róxas) and Jacobo Zóbel y Róxas were appointed directors. Expanding and modernizing the company, however, meant diluting family control. San Miguel became the first Filipino company to be owned by thousands of shareholders. To retain control, Soriano relied on alliances with his Róxas relatives and associates.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Before World War II broke out, San Miguel built a glass factory in Paco and the Cebu Royal plant, its first installation outside Luzon. When the war reached the Philippines, Soriano was commissioned as a colonel and served as an aide to General Douglas MacArthur. One of the first Filipino brewmasters was Dominador San Diego Santos, a chemist from Obando, Bulacan.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: After the war, San Miguel rebuilt and mounted a large scale expansion program. The company acquired and modernized a second brewery in Polo, Bulacán (now part of Valenzuela City) in 1947. Two years later, five other plants were opened: the Manila glass plant in Farola, a carbon dioxide plant in Otis, a carton plant, the Iloílo Coca-Cola plant and the Farola power plant. Exports of San Miguel Pale Pilsen resumed. New soft drink plants followed in Davao and Naga.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: In 1953, Soriano signed the "Manila Agreement" which allowed the Spanish company La Segarra S.A. to brew and sell San Miguel Beer in Spain. This company, renamed "San Miguel, Fábricas de Cerveza y Malta" (now Mahou-San Miguel Group) in 1957, was a separate, independent company that had exclusive rights to use the San Miguel brand in Europe.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: In 1964, the company's name was changed to San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and moved to a new head office along Ayala Avenue in Makati.


title: San Miguel Corporation

text: Andrés Soriano died on December 30, 1964. At the time of his death, Soriano had parlayed his family's vast San Miguel fortune into mining, dairies, factories, a newspaper and a radio station. He had investments in Philippine Airlines, held the largest Coca-Cola franchise, and owned five insurance agency distributorships, a Kansas City brewery that made Lone Star and Colt 45, gold mines in British East Africa and a development company in Spain.