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Palo priest with ritual objects

Palo is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th or early 20th century. It draws heavily upon the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa, and from Catholicism and Spiritism. Central to Palo is the nganga, usually made from an iron cauldron. Many nganga are regarded as material manifestations of ancestral or nature deities known as mpungu. The nganga may contain a wide range of objects, among the most important being sticks and human remains, the latter called nfumbe. In Palo, the presence of the nfumbe means that the spirit of that dead person inhabits the nganga and serves the possessor. The nganga is "fed" with the blood of sacrificed animals and other offerings. Palo is most heavily practiced in eastern Cuba although it is found throughout the island and abroad, including in other parts of the Americas such as Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States. Palo adherents have faced problems with police for grave robbery to procure human bones. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

December 27

Charles Darwin

537 – The reconstructed Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was inaugurated; built as a church, it later became a mosque and a museum.
1831 – HMS Beagle departed Plymouth, England, on a voyage to South America that established Charles Darwin (pictured) as a naturalist.
1939 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck central Turkey, destroying 90 per cent of the buildings in the area, and causing over 32,000 deaths.
1979 – Soviet–Afghan War: Soviet troops stormed Tajbeg Palace outside Kabul and killed Afghan president Hafizullah Amin and his 100–150 elite guards.
2007 – Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated while leaving a Pakistan People's Party political rally at Liaqat National Bagh in Rawalpindi.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine (b. 1619)
Agda Meyerson (d. 1924)
Chyna (b. 1969)
Amy Vanderbilt (d. 1974)

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In the news

Manmohan Singh

Former prime minister of India Manmohan Singh (pictured) dies at the age of 92.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashes near Aktau International Airport, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.
A multi-vehicle crash in Minas Gerais, Brazil, leaves 41 people dead.
A car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, kills five people and injures more than two hundred others.

Did you know...

Graves at Bayonet Trench

... that a popular myth held that the French soldiers interred in Bayonet Trench (pictured) were buried alive with their rifles in their hands?
... that a lost chronicle of the kings of Kashmir is attributed to the author Ratnākara?
... that a critic described GNX, after its surprise release, as Kendrick Lamar's "greatest work" yet?
... that ballet dancer Nina Tikhonova taught dance to children who had been orphaned during World War II?
... that former adult actress Suzumi Suzuki's book Gifted was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize in 2022?
... that George Bogaars, as head of Singapore's Secret Branch, oversaw the detention of more than a hundred suspected communist sympathisers?
... that the Green Bay Packers won a snowy NFL playoff game by scoring six straight touchdowns after they had been losing 14–0?
... that William C. Roberts had to resign a pastorate in Ohio because his wife's illness was believed to be curable if she returned to her home state?
... that anarchism without adjectives has been described as an ecumenical or non-denominational form of anarchism?

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Picture of the day

The Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator was a facility developed by NASA in the early 1960s to study human movement under simulated lunar gravity conditions. It was located at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia and was designed to prepare astronauts for the Moon landings during the Apollo program. The simulator was tilted at a 9.5-degree angle from the vertical and test subjects were suspended on their side by cables at the same angle. This set-up allowed the trainees to walk along the surface while experiencing only one-sixth of Earth's gravity. It was also used to study the physiological effects on the astronaut's body during movement. In total, 24 astronauts used the simulator to train for lunar missions, including all three astronauts of the Apollo 1 mission. This photograph, taken in 1963, shows a test subject being suited up by two technicians on the Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator.Photograph credit: NASA

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