Icon was originally a religious word!

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Sarah suddenly decided to go to Eastern Europe this time on a two-week schedule after going around the Northern, Southern, and Western sides of it.

On a day during late February of 2010, I arrived at Hungary.

Throughout the trip I had to bear a horrible flu and otitis media due to the extreme temperature change that my body could not cope since I live in Casa Blanca, North Africa where the day temperature is 22 Celsius whereas it was four to five below zero degrees there. Well, thinking about it, I had been to Seoul when it was minus 10 degrees in January. Thinking about that time, I get an illusion that my whole body is in a freezer. Back then, I had to overcome the 30 degree temperature difference.

Anyways, I now decide to seriously forbid myself from going to the northern part of the hemisphere in cold seasons!!

The day after I arrived in Hungary, I went to the outskirts of Budapest to a town known as the ‘village of writers’ with a friend of mine who lives there. Like any other European town it was very quiet, clean and antique. The people were kind and the scent of art was spread in every quarter of the place. The vague sound of the church bells gave me a sense of reverence. Other than the gloomy weather, everything was perfect.

The Christianity of Europe can be divided into Western Church in Western Europe and Eastern Church in Eastern Europe and Russia. The Western Church is no other but ‘Roman Catholic’. As for the Eastern Church, also known as the Orthodox Church has come a way relatively independent from the centralism of the Roman Catholic Church.

The difference between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church shows differences compared to Catholic in many ways, but the biggest would be the <icon>.

In the Catholic Church there are sacred statues of Virgin Mary or Jesus whereas in the Orthodox Church there are sacred pictures; icons.

The dictionary meaning of ‘icon’

1. An icon is a picture of Christ, his mother, or a saint painted on a wooden panel.

2. An icon is a picture on a computer screen representing a particular computer function. If you want to use it, you move the cursor onto the icon using a mouse.

In the Catholic Church, the pipe organ leads the service whereas in the Orthodox Church there are no instruments like the pipe organ. Instead, the chorale leads the service. The Catholic Church have chairs so that the believers can sit down during the service while the Orthodox Church has none. So, the believers stand throughout the whole service. The men stand in the front and the women stand in the back, but there are some chairs for the weak and elderly on both ends. Another thing that is quite amazing is the fact that the Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas on January 6^th instead of the worldwide December 25^th.

In the small continent of Europe, the Catholic and the Orthodox Church conflict and Catholic also conflicts the Protestant Church. Moreover, thinking worldwide, the Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox Church and more conflict with Islam.

Shall we look a bit deeper in <Icon>?

We usually call the picture buttons that we click on the computer screen icons.

We also call those who lead a certain trend icons. For example, we say something like; Coco Chanel, an innovative, creative fashion icon never seen before.

The charm of the Smartphone is the beauty in the design of the icons.

The Smartphone is the new trend of these days.

There is one reason I bought the Smartphone. It was because of the icons on the screen. It looked very convenient and quite glamorous. Of course, its various functions like being able to use the internet on the go or the email function like its nickname ‘computer on the palm’, the real-time access to Twitter or Facebook has captured the hearts of persons worldwide. However, as for me, it was the fabulous icons that caught my heart.

Now it’s time to look at the icons in the Orthodox Church.

ST1000(CL65) l 1/180s l F8.1 l ISO 200 l 8.1mm l Program Auto

The church you can see in the front is the Hungary Orthodox Church.

ST1000(CL65) l 1/60s l F3.6 l ISO 200 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

Since the inside of the church was locked we asked the deaconess to open it for us.

The key looked like something that would open the doors of heaven.

It looked so heavy that those who were weak wouldn’t even carry it around.

ST1000(CL65) l 1/10s l F3.6 l ISO 200 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

Instead of sacred statues, there are pictures. The sacred pictures on the walls are all icons.

ST1000(CL65) l 1/45s l F3.6 l ISO 200 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

The descriptions of icons; but since they were in Hungarian there was no way I could understand it but I could read “icon”.

All the icons displayed in the church.

ST1000(CL65) l 1/10s l F3.6 l ISO 200 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

ST1000(CL65) l 1/45s l F3.6 l ISO 320 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

ST1000(CL65) l 1/45s l F3.6 l ISO 320 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

ST1000(CL65) l 1/45s l F3.6 l ISO 400 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

ST1000(CL65) l 1/45s l F3.6 l ISO 320 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

ST1000(CL65) l 1/45s l F3.6 l ISO 400 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

ST1000(CL65) l 1/15s l F3.6 l ISO 200 l 6.3mm l Program Auto

The big pictures on the walls are also icons.

Being surprised at the fact that icon was originally a religious word, I found some other words that have the same history.

Charisma was the word to describe supernatural revelations from god or mysterious abilities but now is used to describe extraordinary leadership.

Soul mate is also like this. It was originally used to describe a religious leader or mentor in Christianity. In the book of theologian Henry Nouwen who was a professor at Harvard and Yale when he was alive writes about soul mate as a one to one religious leader quite often.

However, these days it is used to describe the love of your life or your partner.

Language is changing like this.

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All photos, above, have been shot with the Samsung ST1000(CL65), which has been provided by Samsung Digital Imaging Co., Ltd.