Symbols: Religious, Holiday, Patriotic, and Regulatory

Religious Symbols

Christian Symbols

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament.

Christian Cross:

The cross symbol, one of the most widely recognized religious symbols in the world is the earliest used Christian symbol.

It symbolizes the religion of Christian. More specifically, it represents and memorializes Christ's death.

Ichthys (fish):

• The fish first known use as a Christian religious symbol was sometime within the first three centuries AD.

• Christians began using the Greek word for "fish" as an anagram/acronym for "Jesus Christ God's Son, Savior."

Bahái Symbols

The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded in Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind.

Nine-Pointed Star:

• The simple nine-pointed star is generally used by Bahá'ís as a symbol of their Faith.

• This symbol reflects sense of fulfillment and completeness.

Buddhist Symbols

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha.

Wheel of Dharma:

• symbolizes the Buddha's turning the Wheel of Truth or Law

• The wheel refers to the story that shortly after the Buddha achieved enlightenment, Brahma came down from heaven and requested the Buddha to teach by offering him a Dharmachakra

The eight spokes of the wheel symbolize the Noble Eightfold Path set out by the Buddha in his teachings.

The wheel also represents the endless cycle of samsara, or rebirth, which can only be escaped by means of the Buddha's teachings. And some Buddhists regard the the wheel's three basic parts as symbols of the "three trainings" in Buddhist practice: The hub symbolizes moral discipline, which stabilizes the mind. The spokes (usually there are eight) represent wisdom which is applied to defeat ignorance. The rim represents training in concentration, which holds everything else together.

Hindu Symbols

Hinduism is a conglomeration of religious, philosophical, and cultural ideas and practices that originated in India.

Om or Aum:

• It is made up of three Sanskrit letters. The syllable Om is composed of the three sounds a-u-m (in Sanskrit, the vowels a and u coalesce to become o), which represent several important triads: the three worlds of earth, atmosphere, and heaven; the three major Hindu gods.

• Is a Hindu sacred sound that is considered the greatest of all mantras.The aum symbol is often found at the head of letters, pendants, enshrined in every Hindu temple and family shrines.

Swastika:

• The Swastika symbol which look like the Nazi emblem, holds a great religious significance for the Hindus. Swastika is a pictorial character in the shape of a cross with branches bent at right angles and facing in a clockwise direction.

• The word SWASTIKA stems from the Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language and means 'being happy'. In India the word is related to things of good fortune because it means being happy. The cause of all life and all manifestations of life is movement.

Islam Symbols

Islam is a religion that began in Arabia and was revealed to humanity by the Prophet Muhammad. There are no official religious Islam symbols, but several symbols have a special place in Islam.

The Star and Cresent:

• The star and crescent is the best-known symbol used to represent Islam. The symbol is not Muslim in origin, it was a polytheistic icon adopted during the spread of Islam, and its use today is sometimes controversial in the Muslim world.

• The crescent and star are often said to be Islamic symbols, but historians say that they were the insignia of the Ottoman Empire, not of Islam as a whole.

"Allah" in Arabic:

• The word "Allah" in Arabic script or characters can be regarded as visually representing Islam as a symbol.