There are a number of ways to go about putting a unique spin on your wedding. If you want to break with tradition, one of the best choices to consider is to look at the newest and most popular wedding trends. Canadian couples have been playing with a number of fascinating fads for their nuptials. To make the most out of your big day, take a moment to explore the latest and more interesting Canadian wedding trends and see if any are a good fit for how you envision your celebration.
Hosting Trends- An Eco-Friendly Event
According to recent statistics, younger couples across Canada are more concerned with sustainability than previous generations. If you’re worried about how much of an impact your wedding will have on the environment, you may find it helpful to consider an eco-friendly event. One way to achieve this is by exploring alternatives to traditional plates and flatware. Opting for biodegradable items can greatly reduce the amount of waste your wedding generates. Another worthwhile idea to consider is to skip physical invitations and utilize digital options instead, as most paper invites end up directly in the trash.
Keeping Things Small
Planning a large wedding can often prove to be a huge headache. Since bigger events can be both expensive and exhausting, more and more Canadian couples are hosting smaller gatherings. Not only can a wedding with a shorter guest list help you save money, but it also creates a more intimate experience for you and your loved ones. Instead of renting a giant venue to accommodate all of your guests, deciding to have a small wedding allows you the flexibility to host your nuptials in a more personal location such as a friend’s backyard or your favorite local restaurant.
Incorporating Retro Wedding Elements
Trends come and go rather quickly in the wedding industry. While some fads are viewed as products of their time, others boast timeless qualities that make them a perfect fit for modern affairs. One way to personalize your big day is by looking at retro wedding ideas and seeing if anything appeals to you. For example, many couples are incorporating classic elements like champagne towers into their receptions. Another simple idea to consider is placing disposable cameras around the venue and encouraging your guests to take photographs throughout the course of the night.
Ditching the Cake
A cake can seem like an essential part of a wedding. However, many couples are ditching the idea of the classic cake altogether these days. Instead, younger Canadians are exploring a wealth of more enticing options. If you prefer ice cream to cake, consider having a sundae bar at the reception. Giving guests the option of making their own creamy creations with a plethora of toppings can be far more memorable than serving a basic wedding cake. Other dessert options worth offering can include cookies, cupcakes, doughnuts, and a chocolate fountain.
Picking Bold Flowers
Flowers are one of the most important decorations involved in weddings. Though it was common for couples to select neutral colors for their floral arrangements in recent years, this trend is shifting dramatically. Now, it is more popular for couples to pick flowers that boast bold colors. Whether you’re looking for the perfect centerpieces or want to put together a bouquet that guests will remember for years to come, going big with the color choices of your flowers can be a great way to give your event a personal spin.
Selecting the Best Trends
There are many different ways to go about planning a wedding that feels like it is truly your own. If you want to break with tradition and find some fresh elements for your event, be sure to look at the latest Canadian wedding trends to see what appeals to you.
Outdoor weddings are quite popular amongst couples who are looking to tie the knot during the warmer months of the year. Naturally, there are a number of different ways you can go about throwing this type of event. If you want to immerse yourself in the beauty of the outdoors while simultaneously giving your reception a posh feel, then a classic Canadian garden wedding can be a beautiful choice. Take a moment to review these tips and see how easy it is to put together a reception that you will adore.
Select a Garden Location
The most important step when planning a garden wedding is selecting the right venue. There are some phenomenal options across Canada that work wonderfully for outdoor events. The VanDusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver, British Columbia, is ideal for couples who want to wed amidst rare and beautiful flowers. Casa Loma in Toronto is another wonderful choice for garden weddings because the castle-like appearance of the venue lends itself perfectly to the aesthetic of a classy event. Another great spot to consider in Toronto is Graydon Hall Manor, which boasts a breathtaking garden.
Think About the Exact Date
After you have decided on the venue, it is a good idea to think about the exact date you plan on getting married. The time of year your event will be will greatly impact the aesthetic of your wedding. For example, throwing a garden wedding in the earlier part of spring means you will be surrounded by the first colorful blossoms that have burst from the ground and the branches. Do your research and see what flowers are most common during the time you plan on getting married. This can help you incorporate the right colors into your event’s decor.
Get Creative With Attire
While there are many reasons to consider throwing a classic Canadian garden wedding, one of the most fun is that it offers the chance to get creative with what guests will wear. At a traditional garden wedding, you are likely to see people wear more colors and patterns than at an indoor event. At more polished affairs, it is common for women and men to don large hats that block the sun and enhance their outfits. Take a look at example images on sites like Pinterest to get a better feel for how creative you can get with clothing.
Plan Ahead for Garden Problems
Though there are plenty of perks that come with an outdoor wedding, there are also a number of downsides to take into consideration. For one, gardens tend to attract a variety of pests. Guests will have to deal with mosquitoes, bees, and all manner of flying nuisances. Make their lives a bit easier by offering eco-friendly bug spray as a “welcome to the wedding” gift. Another point to keep in mind is the weather. If the temperature will be high, be sure to offer water and hand fans. You must also have a contingency plan in the event of rain.
Incorporate Unique Traditions
Another way to make the most of a garden wedding is by incorporating traditions that you would not have considered at other venues. If the venue permits, see if it is possible for you and your partner to plant something together. Whether you plant seeds for a specific flower or a sapling tree, the idea is that you can return to the location in the future and see how what you planted has grown alongside your relationship. This tradition also allows you and your partner to become a part of the history of the venue.
Enjoy the Outdoors
Throwing a classic Canadian garden wedding is a wonderful way to enjoy the beauty of nature on your big day. As long as you take your time to plan out the details, you will have no trouble throwing a colorful and enjoyable outdoor experience.
With the technology and electronics available today, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could be illiterate. Sadly, many individuals around the world do not have basic access to educational and reading materials to help them improve their lives. The International Literacy Association estimates that about 12 percent of the global population, or about 781 million people, are functionally illiterate. The United Nations considers literacy a fundamental human right that is essential to social development. Education is one of the key factors in eliminating poverty, and literacy is a big step to education.
Isn’t the Problem Overseas?
Although the literacy problem is more pronounced in third world countries, Canada has a literacy problem of its own. The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network reports that about 42 percent of adults in the country between the ages of 18 and 65 do not have high literacy skills. One study shows that many Canadians aren’t keeping pace with the literacy skills needed for today’s technology. Just a 1 percent increase in the literacy rate would increase economic growth by about $18 billion annually. Investing in literacy has a high rate of return on investment, at 241 percent.
Here in Canada, the people most affected by illiteracy are:
People who experienced abuse or neglect when they were young
People who had their schooling interrupted by poverty or discrimination
Children with undiagnosed learning disabilities
Seniors who only received an elementary education
Aboriginal individuals
Immigrants who do not speak English or French as their main language
Learning To Read Is An Essential Life Skill
Literacy reaches beyond just reading. There are aspects of literacy in practically everything we do. From finding a doctor and making healthy lifestyle choices to taking the right bus to get to work, the need for reading skills are all around us. We have to make reading a priority from childhood into old age.
There are many reasons people do not get literacy help when they get behind in their skills. It might be fear, or low self-esteem or a lack of confidence. Sometimes, it’s simply poverty and not having the time to better oneself. It might even be a lack of resources and not having books to read.
The United Nations has designated September 8 as International Literacy Day. This year marks its 50th anniversary, and the theme for 2016 is “Reading the Past, Writing the Future.” Over the past 50 years, the number of young adults who don’t have literacy skills has decreased by 25 percent. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated in her message for ILD, “The world has changed since 1966 – but our determination to provide every woman and man with the skills, capacities and opportunities to become everything they wish, in dignity and respect, remains as firm as ever. Literacy is a foundation to build a more sustainable future for all – this is UNESCO’s message.”
You Can Make a Difference
Multiple organizations throughout the world are working hard to bring books and other reading materials to people in areas that lack these things. Here in Canada, you can learn to be a reading tutor and help individuals learn to read or to improve their skills. As a tutor, you have to be part coach and cheerleader, teacher and friend to keep someone on the track to literacy.
Read to your children. Encourage others to read and maintain their skills. Get news through reading and not watching and listening. Partner with an organization that is bringing books to communities where there are no books. World Literacy Foundation has many ways to volunteer for literacy and education. Don’t let this year’s International Literacy Day pass by without taking some time to make a difference in the life of someone who needs to learn to read.
For hundreds of years, Christians have banded together to create organizations to help people on the margins of society, including people living in poverty and dealing with hardship. These causes often take Christians around the world as they look to uplift people who live in vastly different geographical settings. As people all over the globe face more and more severe weather events, Christians in Canada can’t help but look to the root cause, which is the climate crisis. Keep reading to learn about how Christians in Canada are rallying against climate change.
Why Is Climate Change a Christian Cause?
Most people wouldn’t immediately think of environmentalism as a Christian cause, so why is climate change suddenly on the radar of Christians in Canada? The simple answer is that Christian organizations are beginning to recognize that to make a real difference in the lives of the people they help, they need to address the root cause of suffering and hardship.
Giving money to charitable causes that raise funds for people experiencing record-shattering levels of drought and famine in Africa can only ease the symptoms of the issue, but it won’t alleviate the problem. When weather and climate conditions continue to grow more and more extreme year after year, people living in difficult situations will experience the consequences more acutely than those living in developed countries without agriculture and the natural world to survive. Christian organizations in Canada are starting to realize they need to work on these issues from a different angle and address climate change head-on.
What Are Canadian Christians Doing About Climate Change?
Canadian Christians are getting fired up about addressing climate change, and they are taking action to make their voices heard. Organizations such as Tearfund Canada and A Rocha Canada want to make sure that they stay relevant when it comes to making a difference. These organizations understand that young people in Canada feel strongly about climate change and that it is a significant issue for youth all over the world. Taking inspiration from youth movements, these organizations want to help raise awareness about the dangers of climate change among the Canadian public.
Making climate change a central issue within these organizations’ frameworks is a significant shift. It signals that climate change is on people’s minds and that they want to see policy change and action from their governments. The fact that Christians are looking at the underlying cause and pushing for greener policies in government is a sign that public pressure on this issue will only continue to build and build.
What Do Canadian Christians Hope Will Change in the Future?
Canadian Christians are rallying against climate change in the hopes that they can catalyze their communities and push for policy change in government. There is still a long way to go to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale, and Canadian Christians aren’t satisfied staying on the sidelines and waiting for the government to move forward at its own pace.
The issue of climate change isn’t hopeless either. If governments could agree on global standards and make a pact to reduce emissions worldwide, then it would be possible to slow down the temperature changes that are gripping the Earth. However, any changes made need to be implemented permanently, which means that governments and the public have to get on board with a new vision for how to exist safely with Mother Nature.
Canadian Christian organizations such as Tearfund Canada and A Rocha Canada understand that they can’t just throw money at poor families in Oceania and hope those families can make it through the climate crisis. Making a difference is going to take a much more focused effort, and it looks like Canadian Christians are gearing up for the task.
Tying the knot is a very exciting chapter in the love story you are creating with your partner. Still, it can prove helpful to take a closer look at whether or not your event reflects current wedding trends. From the median age of a couple when they decide to get married to the traditions surrounding surnames, Canadian wedding trends fluctuate from one year to the next. Take a look at these statistics surrounding modern weddings and learn a bit more about the evolution of marriage in Canada over recent decades.
Waiting To Wed
In the 1980s, the average age for a person to get married in Canada was 23. Over the last few decades, however, people have been waiting long periods before making the decision to walk down the aisle. Some experts believe this is due to younger individuals putting a heavier focus on their careers. Others attribute the delay to the rising costs of living and how expensive it has become to start a family. Regardless of the exact reason, the median age for a person to wed in Canada has shifted to 31 as of 2022.
Breaking With Tradition
Modern couples often like to break with traditions that no longer suit them. A great example of this can be found in brides who decide to keep their own last names after getting married. In the 1970s, almost all Canadian women who tied the knot changed their surnames. According to polls taken in 2019, this number has shifted a considerable amount. Roughly 40% of women who get married nowadays opt not to fully change their names. Of this percentage, about half decide to hyphenate their last names in order to incorporate their married names.
Setting Statistics Aside
As of 2023, about 36 countries across the world have legalized same-sex marriage. While this trend highlights how accepting people around the planet have become of LGBT relationships, it is important to note that Canada was one of the first countries to make this decision. Same-sex marriage was officially legalized in Canada on July 20, 2005, after the Civil Marriage Act was passed. While this act made same-sex marriages legal nationwide, certain provinces had legalized these unions earlier. Provinces that passed marriage equality laws in 2004 include Quebec, Yukon, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland.
Opting for Winter Engagements
There is no “right” time of year to get engaged. As long as you and your partner are on the same page, the decision to get married can be a great choice. Still, some studies have shown that a majority of Canadian couples prefer to pop the question during the same period. According to a number of reports, a large chunk of couples make the decision to get engaged between December and February. While they may prefer winter engagements, most couples wind up hosting their weddings during the spring and summer.
Sharing Space First
Several decades ago, it was commonplace for couples to live separately until they officially tied the knot. This is a trend that has shifted dramatically in recent years. According to national stats, roughly 75% of couples decide to live together before making the decision to get married. Many couples opt to move in together before marriage in order to see how well their relationships fare when they’re sharing a space. If you wait until you’re married to live with your partner, you might discover that the two of you have very different ideas on cohabitation.
Ignoring Statistics & Following Your Own Path
While it can be helpful to take a look at statistics now and again, it is important to remember that your wedding does not need to follow any specific rules or trends. As long as you and your partner are happy with the decisions you have made, everything else will fall into place.
The fabric of daily life for most people in Canada has long included some spiritual elements. However, recent Pew Studies have highlighted a few key details suggesting that traditional religious beliefs are not as important as they were to previous generations. To gain some perspective on this, it can be useful to look at some of the biggest shifts that have taken place in the last few years. Review these statistics and learn the how and why of Canada’s current religious landscape.
Immigration and Population Changes
Canada has long been a nation that has welcomed immigrants from all over the world. From refugees looking for a more stable place to raise families to those simply seeking to reap the many advantages Canadian citizenship can offer, roughly 300,000 people from every corner of the globe immigrate to the country each year. As these numbers continue to grow, Canada has seen significant population increases in various religious groups. In the last decade, about 50% of immigrants to Canada come from the Middle East and Asia. For this reason, groups like Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims have grown.
However, people are also leaving Canada in consistent numbers. Reports state that about 25,000 Canadians emigrate to other countries annually. As this occurs, existing populations of those who follow different Christian beliefs have gone down. While Christianity is still the dominant religion of the country, these changes have seen the number lower significantly in a short amount of time.
Religion Has Less of an Impact
While the religious scene in Canada is becoming more diverse, the role of religion has become less important in many ways to citizens. Another study released by the Pew Research Center revealed that younger generations are not connecting to organized religion as much. Though many individuals may still identify as belonging to a particular religious group, a majority do not believe that religion has much of an influence on their routines. Younger generations are also adamant about keeping religion out of government affairs, whereas previous generations were more divided on the matter.
Personal Prayer Is More Important Than Religious Gatherings
There are a number of metrics that can be used when determining whether a person is actively involved with a religious group. However, younger Canadians are less inclined to take part in community activities. Daily or weekly worship, for example, has much less of an impact on this demographic than prayer. According to recent research, about 60% of all Canadians admit to praying on some type of regular basis. Conversely, only about 50% of the population attends worship services throughout the year.
Where You Live Dictates Your Religious Beliefs
Location has always impacted a person’s religious beliefs. However, reports from the last few years show that people of similar mindsets tend to move to certain regions of Canada. Census data has highlighted that Western Canada is populated by a large number of individuals who consider themselves non-religious. About 45% of citizens in this region consider themselves atheists, agnostics, or disinterested in the topic of religion altogether. On the other hand, cities like Quebec tend to have the strongest and most consistent population of people who identify as Roman Catholic.
People Are Fine With Other People’s Beliefs
International news is filled with plenty of stories about religious intolerance of all degrees. Though Canada is not without its fair share of incidents, studies have pointed out that the country is largely welcoming of other people’s beliefs. Though this will always vary from person to person, the country is routinely ranked as one of the best places to live for those who wish to practice their religion freely and without stigma.
Religion has always had some type of influence on life in Canada. To gain an understanding of how people will feel in the future, it can be helpful to review recent statistics and learn more about the “why” of it all.
Water is critical to life on Earth. It covers over 70% of our planet’s surface and makes up about 60% of the human body. So it’s no surprise that it played important roles in human cultures. Most connected it with its cleansing and life-giving properties, but the ancient Chinese took things a step further. Water is a key part of feng shui, the art of arranging interior spaces to harmonize with the natural world. This quick guide explains water’s place in feng shui and how it’s used to promote positive energy flow.
Feng Shui and the Five Phases
Feng shui incorporates the idea of wuxing. You’ll see it in a lot of traditional Chinese thought, including Taoist principles. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says that wuxing translates as “five processes” or “five phases.” Wuxing encompasses cycles of motion or change, instead of static material substances as in ancient Greek thought.
Wuxing’s five elemental phases occur in both creative and destructive cycles. In classical Chinese philosophy, the creative cycle begins with wood fueling fire. Fire produces earth by generating ash. Earth produces metal through geological processes, and metal allows water to condense in vapor form. The cycle begins again when water hydrates wood. The destructive cycle starts with fire melting metal. Metal cuts wood, which in turn breaks up earth by growing through it. Earth can soak up water, which restarts the cycle by quenching fire.
Feng shui uses a map called a bagua to guide the arrangement of interior spaces. The Spruce explains that the bagua divides a space into nine distinct areas, each aligned with one of the five elemental phases. Every area represents an aspect of a person’s life. Creating good energy in those areas requires balance – and that means bringing the right elements into each one.
Water, Wisdom, and Work
Classical Chinese philosophy associates water with the color black and the winter season. You’ll also see it represented with wavy or curvy shapes. Water occupies the Kan area of the bagua – typically the northernmost segment of the map. In most feng shui traditions, this area represents one’s career or life path.
Architect Anjie Cho describes the water phase as flowing and shifting, with connections to wisdom and intuition. Given that it’s in the career area of the bagua, these connotations aren’t surprising. Cho adds that adding more of this element may be helpful if we want to improve social connections and wealth. This also makes sense – social connections may lead to better career prospects, which can help generate more wealth.
Boosting the Water Element in Your Home
Feng shui schools use different approaches to find north. Some use the literal compass direction, while others set the front door as the northern point. Either way, practitioners suggest incorporating the water element in the northern area. Doing so can encourage positive energy flow.
Fortunately, there are tons of ways you can do this. Fountains and aquariums are the most obvious solutions – you’re placing literal water in those spaces. But if these aren’t workable, you can use other things to symbolize the water element. Black, charcoal gray, and navy blue décor objects can work – think vases, art, throw pillows, rugs, or other accessories. Mirrors are another great option thanks to their reflective properties. You could also try artwork with watery imagery. Don’t forget that you can use shapes to bring water into your space. Try objects with wavy, curved, or irregular-shaped patterns and edges.
Water, Water Everywhere
Several cultures believe that there’s a cosmic energy that flows through everything. Feng shui aims to encourage energy flow for better harmony and positive outcomes. As one of five elemental phases, water possesses both creative and destructive energies. With a few simple additions, you can easily introduce and balance this element inside your home.
You may or may not know but feng shui has creation and destructive cycles. Human spirituality often takes its cues from the natural world. Water, for instance, symbolizes purification in many faiths. But even how elements interact with each other can take on metaphysical meanings. Traditional Chinese philosophy speaks of five elemental phases – wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. How these phases interact with each other is a core concept in feng shui.
Five Elemental Phases
Derived from Taoist principles, feng shui seeks to achieve balance with nature. It does this by working with qi, a vital life energy that flows through everything in our universe. The goal of feng shui is to get that energy to move in positive ways, creating harmony within one’s interior spaces.
Chinese cosmology recognizes five elemental phases, collectively called “Wuxing.” Every phase has unique energy based on how its element behaves in the natural world. Fire burns, water reflects light, and so forth. And just like water extinguishes fire, these energies can support or oppose each other. Understanding these interactions is an important key in feng shui design.
The Cycles of Creation
The Spruce explains that the five phases exist in a creative cycle known as “shēng.” Written in Hanzi as “生,” it’s a Chinese verb that means “to give birth.” And that’s exactly what this cycle does. Each element helps generate or nourish another.
How does this cycle work? Well, water nourishes wood by carrying nutrients to each of its cells. Wood feeds fire, providing fuel for heat-generating chemical reactions. Fire creates earth with the ash it leaves behind, full of carbon and minerals like calcium and potassium. Earth gives rise to metal through natural phenomena such as pressure, heat, and weathering. Metal collects water by letting air moisture condense into droplets.
You can use this principle in feng shui to strengthen an element’s influence. Adding more of the element itself is helpful, but you could also include more of the phase that nourishes it. If you’re trying to boost earth, for instance, you can also include more of the earth-generating fire element.
The Destructive Cycles
Chinese cosmology’s elemental phases can also form a destructive cycle. Wandering Dao calls this “kè,” written as “克” in Hanzi and translated as “to restrain” or “to overcome.” In this cycle, each element naturally opposes and weakens another one.
Natural principles also govern this cycle. Water extinguishes fire, decreasing heat and depriving it of oxygen. Fire melts metal, breaking down its solid structure as its particles vibrate faster. Metal can cut wood: The blade concentrates force on a small surface area, generating pressure to break wood’s molecular bonds. Wood emerges from earth, breaking through the soil’s surface. Earth can absorb water or contain it, as shores and riverbanks do.
Since this cycle overcomes and restrains, you can use it to balance out other elemental energies within a space. If you have a fireplace in a “metal” area of your home, for example, you could place more water elements to dampen the fire’s energy impact.
Science Meets the Metaphysical
The art of feng shui is a few thousand years old. Inspired by natural phenomena, its objective is to align physical spaces with unseen energies. Older practices emphasized achieving positive outcomes through auspicious building sites and interior design. Today, practitioners often work with interior spaces after they’re already constructed.
Feng shui uses many concepts from traditional Chinese philosophy. Taoism recognizes five elemental phases: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Just as these elements interact with each other in the natural world, these phases can work in both creative and destructive cycles. Both offer insight into strengthening or minimizing an element’s energy impacts. Understanding these principles is key to accomplishing balance within a physical space.
Got a furry feline in your family? According to the Canadian Animal Health Institute, your kitty is one of 8.1 million living in Canadian households. With cats outnumbering dogs, their popularity shows no signs of stopping. Yet in medieval Europe, anti-feline superstitions reigned supreme. What prompted these strange beliefs? Did cats contribute to the plague’s high death tolls across the continent? A quick trip through history provides answers to these intriguing questions.
Medieval Catholicism and Anti-Feline Bias
“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” We laugh at this humorous quip from English author Sir Terry Pratchett. Yet it reflects the status our feline friends held in the ancient world. Even in 17th-century Japan, cats were bringers of good fortune. The legend of Maneki Neko, or “Beckoning Cat,” credits the titular feline with saving a samurai from lightning strikes.
Yet the story was much different in 13th-century Europe. The World History Encyclopedia reveals that medieval Europeans tolerated cats. They provided pest control but were not companions or pets. But distaste for felines later grew into hatred, thanks to the Catholic Church. Museum Hack’s Alex Johnson mentions a papal bull from Pope Gregory IX describing a cat-worshipping cult. Medievalists.net lists more examples, including a quote from Pope Innocent VIII. “The cat was the devil’s favorite animal and idol of all witches,” he wrote in 1484 C.E.
Why did this happen? Historian Desmond Morris says it best. “Religious bigots have often employed the cunning device of converting other people’s heroes into villains to suit their own purpose,” he writes in his 1993 book “Catlore.” Ancient Egypt’s household protectors became medieval Europe’s villains. Peasants and nobles alike tortured and killed cats, sometimes by the thousands.
Mapping the Plague’s Spread
If you know anything about the Middle Ages, then you’ve probably heard about the plague. Multiple outbreaks occurred between the 14th and 17th centuries. The Black Death ravaged most of Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. While it’s difficult to figure out exactly how many people died, estimates run as high as 25 million.
The World Health Organization explains that the disease comes from Yersinia pestis bacteria. Rat fleas are a prime carrier, transmitting the bacteria to humans through their bites. Given the domestic feline’s proclivity for killing rats, it’s easy to blame medieval Europeans’ cat massacres for the Black Death. But does this assumption hold up against historical fact?
Alex Johnson takes this myth apart in his Museum Hack piece. The first plague outbreaks occurred in Asia during the 1330s. The disease had spread to Constantinople, now modern-day Istanbul, by 1347 C.E. Yet history reveals no instances of mass cat killing in Asia or Turkey.
Cats were also popular in the Islamic world. But their rat-killing habits couldn’t stop the Black Death. The plague barreled through Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, and the Arabian Peninsula. And even where cat populations declined, they could quickly rebound. The average intact female births 12 kittens per year. A couple of mother cats can have enough litters to save a local colony from dying out.
Myths, Correlation, Causation, and Bias
We now understand that killing felines didn’t lead to the plague’s spread. Yet anti-feline sentiments in medieval Europe show some key things about human nature. When crises arise and knowledge is scarce, it’s easy to scapegoat someone or something. In these unfortunate situations, marginalized groups often become targets.
We aren’t associating cats with evil anymore. But othering – the “us vs. them” dichotomy – can lead to discrimination and scapegoating. The current wave of anti-Asian violence in Canada is just one example. Critical thinking is always vital. And checking our own biases is an important step in combating prejudice and avoiding unjust blame.
Religion has long been a part of the journey of the human race. According to many anthropologists, one of the earliest signs of advanced intelligence in the ancestors of modern humans was the practice of burying the dead. Academics believe the initial burial processes were religious in nature, indicating connections to spiritual beliefs are some of the oldest aspects of the human condition. Still, this doesn’t mean that modern people have the same perceptions when it comes to religious ideologies. In Canada, there have been some very interesting shifts on religious fronts over recent years.
Immigrants Comprise the New Religious Majority
For a long while throughout Canada’s history, a good chunk of the population identified as religious. These individuals typically were influenced in their religious beliefs by their families, meaning that each generation in a group or community tended to reflect the one before. At some point over the last two decades, this began to change. According to statistics compiled from 2001 until 2015, younger individuals coming from families who have Canadian roots dating back centuries are much less religious than those prior.
The same research revealed that immigrants to Canada tend to be much more religious as a whole. With Canada consistently welcoming new residents from across the world, there has been a big uptick in both the number of religious individuals from foreign nations and a shift in what spiritual beliefs are practiced on average. Once, Christianity and its various denominations were most common. Now, populations of Muslims, Buddhists, and other groups have become larger in communities throughout the nation.
Older Canadians Are In Favor of Religion as a Whole
Another bit of data released around 2011 showed a transition in the median age for the average religious citizen. This information, which has remained largely the same over the last decade, revealed that those who identified as religious tended to be on the older end of the spectrum. Those who stated that they were members of a Christian-based faith like Protestantism or Catholicism tended to be around 52 years of age. This is a shift upward when compared to data from previous census reports across the last five decades, which revealed that the median age was closer to 35.
This is another area where differing religious beliefs reveal different sets of data. Though Christians as a whole tend to lean older, this is not true of those who belong to other faiths. In the case of immigrants entering Canada, those who identify as Mulsim tend to be around 27 years of age on average. This is primarily due to the fact that people in the countries where these individuals originated lean younger when it comes to religious beliefs across generations.
Most Canadians View Religion in a Positive Way
Even though fewer people are identifying as religious in the traditional sense, Canadians by and large accept and are interested in the religions of others. While there are favorable views to popular Canadian belief systems like Protestantism, citizens also respond in a positive way when it comes to religions that weren’t as present in the population over previous years, like Buddhism. Still, this isn’t to say all members of Canada are as open. Small populations still show signs of xenophobia and ignorance when it comes to the religions of others.
While a subject that has fascinated the human race since the dawn of recorded time, religion definitely looks far different today than it did back then. As the world continues to shrink due to the presence of the internet, it is likely true that even more changes will take place at an even faster pace. For now, looking back at the past can be a great way of gaining some perspective on the current zeitgeist and any changes that might be poised on the horizon.
There are a number of ways to go about putting a unique spin on your wedding. If you want to break with tradition, one of the best choices to consider is to look at the newest and most popular wedding trends. Canadian couples have been playing with a number of fascinating fads for their nuptials. To make the most out of your big day, take a moment to explore the latest and more interesting Canadian wedding trends and see if any are a good fit for how you envision your celebration.
Hosting Trends- An Eco-Friendly Event
According to recent statistics, younger couples across Canada are more concerned with sustainability than previous generations. If you’re worried about how much of an impact your wedding will have on the environment, you may find it helpful to consider an eco-friendly event. One way to achieve this is by exploring alternatives to traditional plates and flatware. Opting for biodegradable items can greatly reduce the amount of waste your wedding generates. Another worthwhile idea to consider is to skip physical invitations and utilize digital options instead, as most paper invites end up directly in the trash.
Keeping Things Small
Planning a large wedding can often prove to be a huge headache. Since bigger events can be both expensive and exhausting, more and more Canadian couples are hosting smaller gatherings. Not only can a wedding with a shorter guest list help you save money, but it also creates a more intimate experience for you and your loved ones. Instead of renting a giant venue to accommodate all of your guests, deciding to have a small wedding allows you the flexibility to host your nuptials in a more personal location such as a friend’s backyard or your favorite local restaurant.
Incorporating Retro Wedding Elements
Trends come and go rather quickly in the wedding industry. While some fads are viewed as products of their time, others boast timeless qualities that make them a perfect fit for modern affairs. One way to personalize your big day is by looking at retro wedding ideas and seeing if anything appeals to you. For example, many couples are incorporating classic elements like champagne towers into their receptions. Another simple idea to consider is placing disposable cameras around the venue and encouraging your guests to take photographs throughout the course of the night.
Ditching the Cake
A cake can seem like an essential part of a wedding. However, many couples are ditching the idea of the classic cake altogether these days. Instead, younger Canadians are exploring a wealth of more enticing options. If you prefer ice cream to cake, consider having a sundae bar at the reception. Giving guests the option of making their own creamy creations with a plethora of toppings can be far more memorable than serving a basic wedding cake. Other dessert options worth offering can include cookies, cupcakes, doughnuts, and a chocolate fountain.
Picking Bold Flowers
Flowers are one of the most important decorations involved in weddings. Though it was common for couples to select neutral colors for their floral arrangements in recent years, this trend is shifting dramatically. Now, it is more popular for couples to pick flowers that boast bold colors. Whether you’re looking for the perfect centerpieces or want to put together a bouquet that guests will remember for years to come, going big with the color choices of your flowers can be a great way to give your event a personal spin.
Selecting the Best Trends
There are many different ways to go about planning a wedding that feels like it is truly your own. If you want to break with tradition and find some fresh elements for your event, be sure to look at the latest Canadian wedding trends to see what appeals to you.
Outdoor weddings are quite popular amongst couples who are looking to tie the knot during the warmer months of the year. Naturally, there are a number of different ways you can go about throwing this type of event. If you want to immerse yourself in the beauty of the outdoors while simultaneously giving your reception a posh feel, then a classic Canadian garden wedding can be a beautiful choice. Take a moment to review these tips and see how easy it is to put together a reception that you will adore.
Select a Garden Location
The most important step when planning a garden wedding is selecting the right venue. There are some phenomenal options across Canada that work wonderfully for outdoor events. The VanDusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver, British Columbia, is ideal for couples who want to wed amidst rare and beautiful flowers. Casa Loma in Toronto is another wonderful choice for garden weddings because the castle-like appearance of the venue lends itself perfectly to the aesthetic of a classy event. Another great spot to consider in Toronto is Graydon Hall Manor, which boasts a breathtaking garden.
Think About the Exact Date
After you have decided on the venue, it is a good idea to think about the exact date you plan on getting married. The time of year your event will be will greatly impact the aesthetic of your wedding. For example, throwing a garden wedding in the earlier part of spring means you will be surrounded by the first colorful blossoms that have burst from the ground and the branches. Do your research and see what flowers are most common during the time you plan on getting married. This can help you incorporate the right colors into your event’s decor.
Get Creative With Attire
While there are many reasons to consider throwing a classic Canadian garden wedding, one of the most fun is that it offers the chance to get creative with what guests will wear. At a traditional garden wedding, you are likely to see people wear more colors and patterns than at an indoor event. At more polished affairs, it is common for women and men to don large hats that block the sun and enhance their outfits. Take a look at example images on sites like Pinterest to get a better feel for how creative you can get with clothing.
Plan Ahead for Garden Problems
Though there are plenty of perks that come with an outdoor wedding, there are also a number of downsides to take into consideration. For one, gardens tend to attract a variety of pests. Guests will have to deal with mosquitoes, bees, and all manner of flying nuisances. Make their lives a bit easier by offering eco-friendly bug spray as a “welcome to the wedding” gift. Another point to keep in mind is the weather. If the temperature will be high, be sure to offer water and hand fans. You must also have a contingency plan in the event of rain.
Incorporate Unique Traditions
Another way to make the most of a garden wedding is by incorporating traditions that you would not have considered at other venues. If the venue permits, see if it is possible for you and your partner to plant something together. Whether you plant seeds for a specific flower or a sapling tree, the idea is that you can return to the location in the future and see how what you planted has grown alongside your relationship. This tradition also allows you and your partner to become a part of the history of the venue.
Enjoy the Outdoors
Throwing a classic Canadian garden wedding is a wonderful way to enjoy the beauty of nature on your big day. As long as you take your time to plan out the details, you will have no trouble throwing a colorful and enjoyable outdoor experience.
With the technology and electronics available today, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could be illiterate. Sadly, many individuals around the world do not have basic access to educational and reading materials to help them improve their lives. The International Literacy Association estimates that about 12 percent of the global population, or about 781 million people, are functionally illiterate. The United Nations considers literacy a fundamental human right that is essential to social development. Education is one of the key factors in eliminating poverty, and literacy is a big step to education.
Isn’t the Problem Overseas?
Although the literacy problem is more pronounced in third world countries, Canada has a literacy problem of its own. The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network reports that about 42 percent of adults in the country between the ages of 18 and 65 do not have high literacy skills. One study shows that many Canadians aren’t keeping pace with the literacy skills needed for today’s technology. Just a 1 percent increase in the literacy rate would increase economic growth by about $18 billion annually. Investing in literacy has a high rate of return on investment, at 241 percent.
Here in Canada, the people most affected by illiteracy are:
People who experienced abuse or neglect when they were young
People who had their schooling interrupted by poverty or discrimination
Children with undiagnosed learning disabilities
Seniors who only received an elementary education
Aboriginal individuals
Immigrants who do not speak English or French as their main language
Learning To Read Is An Essential Life Skill
Literacy reaches beyond just reading. There are aspects of literacy in practically everything we do. From finding a doctor and making healthy lifestyle choices to taking the right bus to get to work, the need for reading skills are all around us. We have to make reading a priority from childhood into old age.
There are many reasons people do not get literacy help when they get behind in their skills. It might be fear, or low self-esteem or a lack of confidence. Sometimes, it’s simply poverty and not having the time to better oneself. It might even be a lack of resources and not having books to read.
The United Nations has designated September 8 as International Literacy Day. This year marks its 50th anniversary, and the theme for 2016 is “Reading the Past, Writing the Future.” Over the past 50 years, the number of young adults who don’t have literacy skills has decreased by 25 percent. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated in her message for ILD, “The world has changed since 1966 – but our determination to provide every woman and man with the skills, capacities and opportunities to become everything they wish, in dignity and respect, remains as firm as ever. Literacy is a foundation to build a more sustainable future for all – this is UNESCO’s message.”
You Can Make a Difference
Multiple organizations throughout the world are working hard to bring books and other reading materials to people in areas that lack these things. Here in Canada, you can learn to be a reading tutor and help individuals learn to read or to improve their skills. As a tutor, you have to be part coach and cheerleader, teacher and friend to keep someone on the track to literacy.
Read to your children. Encourage others to read and maintain their skills. Get news through reading and not watching and listening. Partner with an organization that is bringing books to communities where there are no books. World Literacy Foundation has many ways to volunteer for literacy and education. Don’t let this year’s International Literacy Day pass by without taking some time to make a difference in the life of someone who needs to learn to read.
For hundreds of years, Christians have banded together to create organizations to help people on the margins of society, including people living in poverty and dealing with hardship. These causes often take Christians around the world as they look to uplift people who live in vastly different geographical settings. As people all over the globe face more and more severe weather events, Christians in Canada can’t help but look to the root cause, which is the climate crisis. Keep reading to learn about how Christians in Canada are rallying against climate change.
Why Is Climate Change a Christian Cause?
Most people wouldn’t immediately think of environmentalism as a Christian cause, so why is climate change suddenly on the radar of Christians in Canada? The simple answer is that Christian organizations are beginning to recognize that to make a real difference in the lives of the people they help, they need to address the root cause of suffering and hardship.
Giving money to charitable causes that raise funds for people experiencing record-shattering levels of drought and famine in Africa can only ease the symptoms of the issue, but it won’t alleviate the problem. When weather and climate conditions continue to grow more and more extreme year after year, people living in difficult situations will experience the consequences more acutely than those living in developed countries without agriculture and the natural world to survive. Christian organizations in Canada are starting to realize they need to work on these issues from a different angle and address climate change head-on.
What Are Canadian Christians Doing About Climate Change?
Canadian Christians are getting fired up about addressing climate change, and they are taking action to make their voices heard. Organizations such as Tearfund Canada and A Rocha Canada want to make sure that they stay relevant when it comes to making a difference. These organizations understand that young people in Canada feel strongly about climate change and that it is a significant issue for youth all over the world. Taking inspiration from youth movements, these organizations want to help raise awareness about the dangers of climate change among the Canadian public.
Making climate change a central issue within these organizations’ frameworks is a significant shift. It signals that climate change is on people’s minds and that they want to see policy change and action from their governments. The fact that Christians are looking at the underlying cause and pushing for greener policies in government is a sign that public pressure on this issue will only continue to build and build.
What Do Canadian Christians Hope Will Change in the Future?
Canadian Christians are rallying against climate change in the hopes that they can catalyze their communities and push for policy change in government. There is still a long way to go to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale, and Canadian Christians aren’t satisfied staying on the sidelines and waiting for the government to move forward at its own pace.
The issue of climate change isn’t hopeless either. If governments could agree on global standards and make a pact to reduce emissions worldwide, then it would be possible to slow down the temperature changes that are gripping the Earth. However, any changes made need to be implemented permanently, which means that governments and the public have to get on board with a new vision for how to exist safely with Mother Nature.
Canadian Christian organizations such as Tearfund Canada and A Rocha Canada understand that they can’t just throw money at poor families in Oceania and hope those families can make it through the climate crisis. Making a difference is going to take a much more focused effort, and it looks like Canadian Christians are gearing up for the task.
Tying the knot is a very exciting chapter in the love story you are creating with your partner. Still, it can prove helpful to take a closer look at whether or not your event reflects current wedding trends. From the median age of a couple when they decide to get married to the traditions surrounding surnames, Canadian wedding trends fluctuate from one year to the next. Take a look at these statistics surrounding modern weddings and learn a bit more about the evolution of marriage in Canada over recent decades.
Waiting To Wed
In the 1980s, the average age for a person to get married in Canada was 23. Over the last few decades, however, people have been waiting long periods before making the decision to walk down the aisle. Some experts believe this is due to younger individuals putting a heavier focus on their careers. Others attribute the delay to the rising costs of living and how expensive it has become to start a family. Regardless of the exact reason, the median age for a person to wed in Canada has shifted to 31 as of 2022.
Breaking With Tradition
Modern couples often like to break with traditions that no longer suit them. A great example of this can be found in brides who decide to keep their own last names after getting married. In the 1970s, almost all Canadian women who tied the knot changed their surnames. According to polls taken in 2019, this number has shifted a considerable amount. Roughly 40% of women who get married nowadays opt not to fully change their names. Of this percentage, about half decide to hyphenate their last names in order to incorporate their married names.
Setting Statistics Aside
As of 2023, about 36 countries across the world have legalized same-sex marriage. While this trend highlights how accepting people around the planet have become of LGBT relationships, it is important to note that Canada was one of the first countries to make this decision. Same-sex marriage was officially legalized in Canada on July 20, 2005, after the Civil Marriage Act was passed. While this act made same-sex marriages legal nationwide, certain provinces had legalized these unions earlier. Provinces that passed marriage equality laws in 2004 include Quebec, Yukon, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland.
Opting for Winter Engagements
There is no “right” time of year to get engaged. As long as you and your partner are on the same page, the decision to get married can be a great choice. Still, some studies have shown that a majority of Canadian couples prefer to pop the question during the same period. According to a number of reports, a large chunk of couples make the decision to get engaged between December and February. While they may prefer winter engagements, most couples wind up hosting their weddings during the spring and summer.
Sharing Space First
Several decades ago, it was commonplace for couples to live separately until they officially tied the knot. This is a trend that has shifted dramatically in recent years. According to national stats, roughly 75% of couples decide to live together before making the decision to get married. Many couples opt to move in together before marriage in order to see how well their relationships fare when they’re sharing a space. If you wait until you’re married to live with your partner, you might discover that the two of you have very different ideas on cohabitation.
Ignoring Statistics & Following Your Own Path
While it can be helpful to take a look at statistics now and again, it is important to remember that your wedding does not need to follow any specific rules or trends. As long as you and your partner are happy with the decisions you have made, everything else will fall into place.
The fabric of daily life for most people in Canada has long included some spiritual elements. However, recent Pew Studies have highlighted a few key details suggesting that traditional religious beliefs are not as important as they were to previous generations. To gain some perspective on this, it can be useful to look at some of the biggest shifts that have taken place in the last few years. Review these statistics and learn the how and why of Canada’s current religious landscape.
Immigration and Population Changes
Canada has long been a nation that has welcomed immigrants from all over the world. From refugees looking for a more stable place to raise families to those simply seeking to reap the many advantages Canadian citizenship can offer, roughly 300,000 people from every corner of the globe immigrate to the country each year. As these numbers continue to grow, Canada has seen significant population increases in various religious groups. In the last decade, about 50% of immigrants to Canada come from the Middle East and Asia. For this reason, groups like Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims have grown.
However, people are also leaving Canada in consistent numbers. Reports state that about 25,000 Canadians emigrate to other countries annually. As this occurs, existing populations of those who follow different Christian beliefs have gone down. While Christianity is still the dominant religion of the country, these changes have seen the number lower significantly in a short amount of time.
Religion Has Less of an Impact
While the religious scene in Canada is becoming more diverse, the role of religion has become less important in many ways to citizens. Another study released by the Pew Research Center revealed that younger generations are not connecting to organized religion as much. Though many individuals may still identify as belonging to a particular religious group, a majority do not believe that religion has much of an influence on their routines. Younger generations are also adamant about keeping religion out of government affairs, whereas previous generations were more divided on the matter.
Personal Prayer Is More Important Than Religious Gatherings
There are a number of metrics that can be used when determining whether a person is actively involved with a religious group. However, younger Canadians are less inclined to take part in community activities. Daily or weekly worship, for example, has much less of an impact on this demographic than prayer. According to recent research, about 60% of all Canadians admit to praying on some type of regular basis. Conversely, only about 50% of the population attends worship services throughout the year.
Where You Live Dictates Your Religious Beliefs
Location has always impacted a person’s religious beliefs. However, reports from the last few years show that people of similar mindsets tend to move to certain regions of Canada. Census data has highlighted that Western Canada is populated by a large number of individuals who consider themselves non-religious. About 45% of citizens in this region consider themselves atheists, agnostics, or disinterested in the topic of religion altogether. On the other hand, cities like Quebec tend to have the strongest and most consistent population of people who identify as Roman Catholic.
People Are Fine With Other People’s Beliefs
International news is filled with plenty of stories about religious intolerance of all degrees. Though Canada is not without its fair share of incidents, studies have pointed out that the country is largely welcoming of other people’s beliefs. Though this will always vary from person to person, the country is routinely ranked as one of the best places to live for those who wish to practice their religion freely and without stigma.
Religion has always had some type of influence on life in Canada. To gain an understanding of how people will feel in the future, it can be helpful to review recent statistics and learn more about the “why” of it all.
Water is critical to life on Earth. It covers over 70% of our planet’s surface and makes up about 60% of the human body. So it’s no surprise that it played important roles in human cultures. Most connected it with its cleansing and life-giving properties, but the ancient Chinese took things a step further. Water is a key part of feng shui, the art of arranging interior spaces to harmonize with the natural world. This quick guide explains water’s place in feng shui and how it’s used to promote positive energy flow.
Feng Shui and the Five Phases
Feng shui incorporates the idea of wuxing. You’ll see it in a lot of traditional Chinese thought, including Taoist principles. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says that wuxing translates as “five processes” or “five phases.” Wuxing encompasses cycles of motion or change, instead of static material substances as in ancient Greek thought.
Wuxing’s five elemental phases occur in both creative and destructive cycles. In classical Chinese philosophy, the creative cycle begins with wood fueling fire. Fire produces earth by generating ash. Earth produces metal through geological processes, and metal allows water to condense in vapor form. The cycle begins again when water hydrates wood. The destructive cycle starts with fire melting metal. Metal cuts wood, which in turn breaks up earth by growing through it. Earth can soak up water, which restarts the cycle by quenching fire.
Feng shui uses a map called a bagua to guide the arrangement of interior spaces. The Spruce explains that the bagua divides a space into nine distinct areas, each aligned with one of the five elemental phases. Every area represents an aspect of a person’s life. Creating good energy in those areas requires balance – and that means bringing the right elements into each one.
Water, Wisdom, and Work
Classical Chinese philosophy associates water with the color black and the winter season. You’ll also see it represented with wavy or curvy shapes. Water occupies the Kan area of the bagua – typically the northernmost segment of the map. In most feng shui traditions, this area represents one’s career or life path.
Architect Anjie Cho describes the water phase as flowing and shifting, with connections to wisdom and intuition. Given that it’s in the career area of the bagua, these connotations aren’t surprising. Cho adds that adding more of this element may be helpful if we want to improve social connections and wealth. This also makes sense – social connections may lead to better career prospects, which can help generate more wealth.
Boosting the Water Element in Your Home
Feng shui schools use different approaches to find north. Some use the literal compass direction, while others set the front door as the northern point. Either way, practitioners suggest incorporating the water element in the northern area. Doing so can encourage positive energy flow.
Fortunately, there are tons of ways you can do this. Fountains and aquariums are the most obvious solutions – you’re placing literal water in those spaces. But if these aren’t workable, you can use other things to symbolize the water element. Black, charcoal gray, and navy blue décor objects can work – think vases, art, throw pillows, rugs, or other accessories. Mirrors are another great option thanks to their reflective properties. You could also try artwork with watery imagery. Don’t forget that you can use shapes to bring water into your space. Try objects with wavy, curved, or irregular-shaped patterns and edges.
Water, Water Everywhere
Several cultures believe that there’s a cosmic energy that flows through everything. Feng shui aims to encourage energy flow for better harmony and positive outcomes. As one of five elemental phases, water possesses both creative and destructive energies. With a few simple additions, you can easily introduce and balance this element inside your home.
You may or may not know but feng shui has creation and destructive cycles. Human spirituality often takes its cues from the natural world. Water, for instance, symbolizes purification in many faiths. But even how elements interact with each other can take on metaphysical meanings. Traditional Chinese philosophy speaks of five elemental phases – wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. How these phases interact with each other is a core concept in feng shui.
Five Elemental Phases
Derived from Taoist principles, feng shui seeks to achieve balance with nature. It does this by working with qi, a vital life energy that flows through everything in our universe. The goal of feng shui is to get that energy to move in positive ways, creating harmony within one’s interior spaces.
Chinese cosmology recognizes five elemental phases, collectively called “Wuxing.” Every phase has unique energy based on how its element behaves in the natural world. Fire burns, water reflects light, and so forth. And just like water extinguishes fire, these energies can support or oppose each other. Understanding these interactions is an important key in feng shui design.
The Cycles of Creation
The Spruce explains that the five phases exist in a creative cycle known as “shēng.” Written in Hanzi as “生,” it’s a Chinese verb that means “to give birth.” And that’s exactly what this cycle does. Each element helps generate or nourish another.
How does this cycle work? Well, water nourishes wood by carrying nutrients to each of its cells. Wood feeds fire, providing fuel for heat-generating chemical reactions. Fire creates earth with the ash it leaves behind, full of carbon and minerals like calcium and potassium. Earth gives rise to metal through natural phenomena such as pressure, heat, and weathering. Metal collects water by letting air moisture condense into droplets.
You can use this principle in feng shui to strengthen an element’s influence. Adding more of the element itself is helpful, but you could also include more of the phase that nourishes it. If you’re trying to boost earth, for instance, you can also include more of the earth-generating fire element.
The Destructive Cycles
Chinese cosmology’s elemental phases can also form a destructive cycle. Wandering Dao calls this “kè,” written as “克” in Hanzi and translated as “to restrain” or “to overcome.” In this cycle, each element naturally opposes and weakens another one.
Natural principles also govern this cycle. Water extinguishes fire, decreasing heat and depriving it of oxygen. Fire melts metal, breaking down its solid structure as its particles vibrate faster. Metal can cut wood: The blade concentrates force on a small surface area, generating pressure to break wood’s molecular bonds. Wood emerges from earth, breaking through the soil’s surface. Earth can absorb water or contain it, as shores and riverbanks do.
Since this cycle overcomes and restrains, you can use it to balance out other elemental energies within a space. If you have a fireplace in a “metal” area of your home, for example, you could place more water elements to dampen the fire’s energy impact.
Science Meets the Metaphysical
The art of feng shui is a few thousand years old. Inspired by natural phenomena, its objective is to align physical spaces with unseen energies. Older practices emphasized achieving positive outcomes through auspicious building sites and interior design. Today, practitioners often work with interior spaces after they’re already constructed.
Feng shui uses many concepts from traditional Chinese philosophy. Taoism recognizes five elemental phases: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Just as these elements interact with each other in the natural world, these phases can work in both creative and destructive cycles. Both offer insight into strengthening or minimizing an element’s energy impacts. Understanding these principles is key to accomplishing balance within a physical space.
Got a furry feline in your family? According to the Canadian Animal Health Institute, your kitty is one of 8.1 million living in Canadian households. With cats outnumbering dogs, their popularity shows no signs of stopping. Yet in medieval Europe, anti-feline superstitions reigned supreme. What prompted these strange beliefs? Did cats contribute to the plague’s high death tolls across the continent? A quick trip through history provides answers to these intriguing questions.
Medieval Catholicism and Anti-Feline Bias
“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.” We laugh at this humorous quip from English author Sir Terry Pratchett. Yet it reflects the status our feline friends held in the ancient world. Even in 17th-century Japan, cats were bringers of good fortune. The legend of Maneki Neko, or “Beckoning Cat,” credits the titular feline with saving a samurai from lightning strikes.
Yet the story was much different in 13th-century Europe. The World History Encyclopedia reveals that medieval Europeans tolerated cats. They provided pest control but were not companions or pets. But distaste for felines later grew into hatred, thanks to the Catholic Church. Museum Hack’s Alex Johnson mentions a papal bull from Pope Gregory IX describing a cat-worshipping cult. Medievalists.net lists more examples, including a quote from Pope Innocent VIII. “The cat was the devil’s favorite animal and idol of all witches,” he wrote in 1484 C.E.
Why did this happen? Historian Desmond Morris says it best. “Religious bigots have often employed the cunning device of converting other people’s heroes into villains to suit their own purpose,” he writes in his 1993 book “Catlore.” Ancient Egypt’s household protectors became medieval Europe’s villains. Peasants and nobles alike tortured and killed cats, sometimes by the thousands.
Mapping the Plague’s Spread
If you know anything about the Middle Ages, then you’ve probably heard about the plague. Multiple outbreaks occurred between the 14th and 17th centuries. The Black Death ravaged most of Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. While it’s difficult to figure out exactly how many people died, estimates run as high as 25 million.
The World Health Organization explains that the disease comes from Yersinia pestis bacteria. Rat fleas are a prime carrier, transmitting the bacteria to humans through their bites. Given the domestic feline’s proclivity for killing rats, it’s easy to blame medieval Europeans’ cat massacres for the Black Death. But does this assumption hold up against historical fact?
Alex Johnson takes this myth apart in his Museum Hack piece. The first plague outbreaks occurred in Asia during the 1330s. The disease had spread to Constantinople, now modern-day Istanbul, by 1347 C.E. Yet history reveals no instances of mass cat killing in Asia or Turkey.
Cats were also popular in the Islamic world. But their rat-killing habits couldn’t stop the Black Death. The plague barreled through Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, and the Arabian Peninsula. And even where cat populations declined, they could quickly rebound. The average intact female births 12 kittens per year. A couple of mother cats can have enough litters to save a local colony from dying out.
Myths, Correlation, Causation, and Bias
We now understand that killing felines didn’t lead to the plague’s spread. Yet anti-feline sentiments in medieval Europe show some key things about human nature. When crises arise and knowledge is scarce, it’s easy to scapegoat someone or something. In these unfortunate situations, marginalized groups often become targets.
We aren’t associating cats with evil anymore. But othering – the “us vs. them” dichotomy – can lead to discrimination and scapegoating. The current wave of anti-Asian violence in Canada is just one example. Critical thinking is always vital. And checking our own biases is an important step in combating prejudice and avoiding unjust blame.
Religion has long been a part of the journey of the human race. According to many anthropologists, one of the earliest signs of advanced intelligence in the ancestors of modern humans was the practice of burying the dead. Academics believe the initial burial processes were religious in nature, indicating connections to spiritual beliefs are some of the oldest aspects of the human condition. Still, this doesn’t mean that modern people have the same perceptions when it comes to religious ideologies. In Canada, there have been some very interesting shifts on religious fronts over recent years.
Immigrants Comprise the New Religious Majority
For a long while throughout Canada’s history, a good chunk of the population identified as religious. These individuals typically were influenced in their religious beliefs by their families, meaning that each generation in a group or community tended to reflect the one before. At some point over the last two decades, this began to change. According to statistics compiled from 2001 until 2015, younger individuals coming from families who have Canadian roots dating back centuries are much less religious than those prior.
The same research revealed that immigrants to Canada tend to be much more religious as a whole. With Canada consistently welcoming new residents from across the world, there has been a big uptick in both the number of religious individuals from foreign nations and a shift in what spiritual beliefs are practiced on average. Once, Christianity and its various denominations were most common. Now, populations of Muslims, Buddhists, and other groups have become larger in communities throughout the nation.
Older Canadians Are In Favor of Religion as a Whole
Another bit of data released around 2011 showed a transition in the median age for the average religious citizen. This information, which has remained largely the same over the last decade, revealed that those who identified as religious tended to be on the older end of the spectrum. Those who stated that they were members of a Christian-based faith like Protestantism or Catholicism tended to be around 52 years of age. This is a shift upward when compared to data from previous census reports across the last five decades, which revealed that the median age was closer to 35.
This is another area where differing religious beliefs reveal different sets of data. Though Christians as a whole tend to lean older, this is not true of those who belong to other faiths. In the case of immigrants entering Canada, those who identify as Mulsim tend to be around 27 years of age on average. This is primarily due to the fact that people in the countries where these individuals originated lean younger when it comes to religious beliefs across generations.
Most Canadians View Religion in a Positive Way
Even though fewer people are identifying as religious in the traditional sense, Canadians by and large accept and are interested in the religions of others. While there are favorable views to popular Canadian belief systems like Protestantism, citizens also respond in a positive way when it comes to religions that weren’t as present in the population over previous years, like Buddhism. Still, this isn’t to say all members of Canada are as open. Small populations still show signs of xenophobia and ignorance when it comes to the religions of others.
While a subject that has fascinated the human race since the dawn of recorded time, religion definitely looks far different today than it did back then. As the world continues to shrink due to the presence of the internet, it is likely true that even more changes will take place at an even faster pace. For now, looking back at the past can be a great way of gaining some perspective on the current zeitgeist and any changes that might be poised on the horizon.
