Research3: 5 Symbols that Changed their Meaning

(Above)Mudra:

Mudra is a special type of sign language spoken with the hands using hand gestures and finger postures. It's hand positions of the Buddha, are often incorporated in meditation and yoga practice.

Now days, many people use the hand sign as an okay sign, in ancient Sumeria and Persia, charms and amulets have been discovered of fingers and hands in the modern OK position, joined along with horns implying fertility. The three fingers extended outward are symbolic of ecstatic union with the Goddess, the third member of the pagan trinity.

Thumb up:

In the ancient Roman combats, when a gladiator was vanquished it rested with the spectators to decide whether he should be slain or not. If they wished him to live, they shut up their thumbs in their fists (pollice compresso favor judicabatur); if to be slain, they turned down their thumbs ... Our pupular saying, Thumbs up! expressive of pleasure or approval is probabbly a perversion of this custom.

R. Garnett, 1887: 'They had unanimously turned their thumbs up. "Sartor", the publisher acquainted him, "excites universal disapprobation".'

J. Dixon, 1896: 'To turn the thumbs up. To decide against. The Romans in the amphitheatre turned their thumbs up when a combatant was not to be spared.'

R.Y. Tyrrell, 1907: '"Thumbs down" means "spare him ...": the signal for death was "thumbs up".'

The modern equations: thumbs up = O.K., thumbs down = not O.K.

the Middle finger:

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore [soldiers would] be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!"

Over the years some "folk etymologies" have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say, like "pheasant mother plucker," which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative "f," and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the gesture is known as "giving the bird."

Inverted cross: Originally represented the apostle Peter's humility in his martyrdom. He insisted that he be crucified upside-down, because he felt that he was unworthy to die in the same position as Christ. But today, especially in the rock music culture, it generally represents the opposite: satanism and its mockery of Christ. Lucifer continues to twist God's wonderful truths and works into lies and deceptions.

Shamrock :

In studying Celtic history, scholars have discovered that the shamrock was a charm to ward away evil.

Long age, when Ireland was a land of the Druids, a Christian bishop known to us now as St. Patrick, came to teach the word of God. Although the origins of the shamrock are lost in antiquity, legend suggest that St. Patrick plucked a shamrock from Irish soil to demonstrate the meaning of the Trinity- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The plant was reputed to have mystic powers in that its petals will stand upright to warn of a approaching storm. The shamrock remains Ireland's most famous symbol. Now the

shamrock is also commonly associated with the symbol of luck.

Conclusion: A symbol is born when a group of people agree that an artistic motif will carry a certain meaning. This can also vary from region and culture, from one time period to another. Many changed its meaning by misunderstanding by people with different point of view, also by overuse it changes the original meaning itself.