Word Finder - observances

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The practice of complying with a law, custom, command or rule.

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The custom of celebrating a holiday or similar occasion.

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Observation or the act of watching.

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A rule governing a religious order, especially in the Roman Catholic church.

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That which is to be observed.

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Reverence; homage.

Spangenberg's participation in private observances of the Lord's Supper and his intimate connexion with Count Zinzendorf brought matters to a crisis.

The periodical public festivals are exceedingly interesting, but many of the remarkable observances connected with them are passing away.

Each nome had its metropolis, normally the seat of a governor or nomarch and the centre of its religious observances.

But the chief significance of the man is his "combination of zeal for legal observances with bold criticism of the Law itself as a whole and of its origin," which reminds us of the Clementine Recognitions.

As savages they were strict in their religious observances and religion came into almost every action of life, and they have been, in most instances, easily led to accept Christianity.

In concentrating the religious observances of the people upon Jerusalem, its Temple and its priesthood, it became less spontaneous, and its services more remote from ordinary life.

By this time (103 B.C.) it was clear that the Hasmonaeans were - from the point of view of a purist - practically indistinguishable from the Hellenizers whom Judas had opposed so keenly, except that they did not abandon the formal observances of Judaism, and even enforced them upon foreigners.

The sharp contrasts between its compulsory religious observances and those of the rest of the world prevented such an absorption of the Jewish people into the Roman Empire as had caused the disappearance of the ten tribes of Israel by their merging with the Assyrians.

Ceremonial and sacrificial observances of all kinds are held to be useless in themselves, but operative for good or ill indirectly by their effect upon the mental attitude of those who practise them.

Theosophists insist, however, that all religious observances had their origin in some mystical process, the true meaning of which has in most instances been lost.

Whilst numerous observances are recommended as more or less meritorious, the ordinary form of worship is a very simple one, consisting as it does mainly of the constant repetition of names of Krishna, or Krishna and Radha, which of itself is considered sufficient to ensure future bliss.

He was also expected to prove himself an adept in physical exercises and in the courteous observances which survived from chivalry.

Though he was almost deified by many of his brethren, who at his word agreed to modify their religious observances, yet he was unable to turn the enthusiasm of thousands to any account.

He found English ways dull and precise and the religious observances exacting; and his mother had - not for the last time - to talk seriously with him on his unsocial and wilful character.

The external side of religion - its rites and observances - must of necessity be subject to a certain control on the part of the state, whose business it is to see to the preservation of decency and order.

On his accession (1694) he displayed his attachment to religious observances by prohibiting the use of winecausing all winevessels to be brought out of the royal cellars and destroyed, and forbidding the Armenians to sell any more of their stock in Isfahan.

Uthman al-Jullabi al-HujwirI in the Kaslif-ulmalijub, or, Revelation of Hidden Things, which treats of the various schools of Sufis, their teachings and observances.

The religious observances and the common feasts were characteristic features of those institutions.

While the fables of mythology are often treated contemptuously or humorously by him, other passages in the satires clearly imply a conformity to, and even a respect for, the observances of the national religion.

The Jews were ordered under pain of death to substitute for their own observances the Pagan rites prescribed for the empire generally.

The dominating ambition of his life was to achieve fame, but though that sometimes betrayed him into petty jealousy, it did not leave him insensible to the claims on his knowledge of the "cause of humanity," to use a phrase often employed by him in connexion with his invention of the miners' lamp. Of the smaller observances of etiquette he was careless, and his frankness of disposition sometimes exposed him to annoyances which he might have avoided by the exercise of ordinary tact.

In many countries Advent was long marked by diverse popular observances, some of which even still survive.

At all events, long before Mahomet we find Mecca established in the twofold quality of a commercial centre and a privileged holy place, surrounded by an inviolable territory (the Haram), which was not the sanctuary of a single tribe but a place of pilgrimage, where religious observances were associated with a series of annual fairs at different points in the vicinity.

All previous religions are mere types of the true, and their sacred books and observances are to be interpreted allegorically.

Within it were found a temple of Amphiaraus, a large altar, and a long colonnade, which may have been the dormitory where the patients slept in hope of obtaining counsel in dreams. There were also baths and a small theatre, and numerous inscriptions relating to the arrangement and observances of the sanctuary and oracle.

This aspect, however, must necessarily be prominent in discussing Christianity, which cannot be adequately treated merely as a system of theological beliefs divinely revealed, and special observances divinely sanctioned; for it claims to regulate the whole man, in all departments of his existence.

The chief points were (I) the lawfulness and expediency of certain terms employed by the Jesuits in naming God Almighty, such as Tien, " Heaven," and Shang-ti, " Supreme Ruler" or "Emperor," instead of Tien-Chu, " Lord of Heaven," and in particular the erection of inscribed tablets in the churches, on which these terms were made use of; 2 (2) in respect to the ceremonial offerings made in honour of Confucius, and of personal ancestors, which Ricci had recognized as merely "civil" observances; (3) the erection of tablets in honour of ancestors in private houses; and (4), more generally,- sanction and favour accorded to ancient Chinese sacred books and philosophical doctrine, as not really trespassing;on Christian faith.

In 1835 Pusey joined the movement, which, so far as concerned ritual observances, was later called "Puseyite"; and in 1836 its supporters secured further coherence by their united opposition to the appointment of Hampden as regius professor of divinity.

The center of the stones seemed to be permanently occupied by a rowdy group, preventing spiritual observances from taking place.

But the consumption of all manner of odoriferous resins, gum resins, roots, woods, dried leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds in India, in social as well as religious observances, is enormous.

The five K's and the other esoteric observances of the Sikhs mostly had a utilitarian purpose.

The Protestant princes declared that they had no intention of depriving the bishops of their jurisdiction, but this one thing only is requested of them, " that they would suffer the gospel to be purely taught, and would relax a few observances in which we cannot adhere without sin."

The acts of religion partake of the general simplicity of desert life; apart from the private worship of household gods and the oblations and salutations offered at the graves of departed kinsmen, the ritual observances of the ancient Arabs were visits to the tribal sanctuary to salute the god with a gift of milk, first-fruits or the like, the sacrifice of firstlings and vows (see Nazarite and Passover), and an occasional pilgrimage to discharge a vow at the annual feast and fair of one of the more distant holy places (see MEccA).

Relying upon the known custom of performing certain observances in a practically, or even entirely, nude condition, it seems plausible to infer that the ephod was a scanty wrapping, perhaps a loincloth, and this view has found weighty support.

According to Father Greenway he was "a man of great piety, of exemplary temperance, of mild and cheerful demeanour, an enemy of broils and disputes, a faithful friend and remarkable for his punctual attendance upon religious observances," while his society was "sought by all the most distinguished in the archduke's camp for nobility and virtue."

There was a celebratory dance for weddings and religious observances, and also more somber dances for funerals and war time.

As Christianity spread during the Middle Ages, many of our modern Christmas holiday customs developed from earlier pagan observances.

Observances by Chinese society who may celebrate Christmas but not identify themselves with Christian religions are similar to the secular celebrations of the United States.

Each Christian denomination has different celebrations and observances.

For more holidays and observances you might not have heard of, check out Brownielocks or type "weird holidays" into your favorite search engine.

But what if the Ship of the Aether is operated by scholar-priests via incantation and appropriate religious observances?

These officials, at the command of the senate, consulted the Sibylline books in order to discover, not exact predictions of definite future events, but the religious observances necessary to avert extraordinary calamities (pestilence, earthquake) and to expiate prodigies in cases where the national deities were unable, or unwilling, to help. Only the interpretation of the oracle which was considered suitable to the emergency was made known to the public, not the oracle itself.

Clearly, then, it was a day of suspended activity, but it will be noted that no religious observances are prescribed in place of the forbidden secular matters.

This church contained some well-executed native paintings of St George and the Dragon, The Last Supper, &c. Among the religious observances of the Christians of Gondar is that of bathing in large crowds in the Gaha on the Feast of the Baptist, and again, though in more orderly fashion, on Christmas day.

Episcopis, &c., subjected clerics for small offences pertaining to the observances of religion to bishops and synods.

But among their countrymen generally strict attendance to religious observances, a wide bounty to religious foundations, may be set down as national characteristics.

He conciliated his subjects by his deference to the observances of Judaism, and - the case is probably typical of his policy - he joined in protesting, when Pilate set up a votive shield in the palace of Herod within the sacred city.

It is not the purpose of this article to enter on the wide subject of the popular observances, such as the giving and sending of Pasch or Easter eggs as presents.

When a religion begins to ossify into a system of formulas and observances, those who protest in the name of heart-religion are not unfrequently known by the name of mystics.

They attach, however, supreme value to the realities of which the observances are reminders or types - on the Baptism which is more than putting away the filth of the flesh, and on the vital union with Christ which is behind any outward ceremony.