title: European Economic Community

text: The Treaty of Amsterdam transferred responsibility for free movement of persons (e.g., visas, illegal immigration, asylum) from the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) pillar to the European Community (JHA was renamed Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC) as a result). Both Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice also extended codecision procedure to nearly all policy areas, giving Parliament equal power to the Council in the Community.


title: European Economic Community

text: In 2002, the Treaty of Paris which established the ECSC expired, having reached its 50-year limit (as the first treaty, it was the only one with a limit). No attempt was made to renew its mandate; instead, the Treaty of Nice transferred certain of its elements to the Treaty of Rome and hence its work continued as part of the EC area of the European Community's remit.


title: European Economic Community

text: After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 the pillar structure ceased to exist. The European Community, together with its legal personality, was absorbed into the newly consolidated European Union which merged in the other two pillars (however Euratom remained distinct). This was originally proposed under the European Constitution but that treaty failed ratification in 2005.


title: European Economic Community

text: The main aim of the EEC, as stated in its preamble, was to "preserve peace and liberty and to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe". Calling for balanced economic growth, this was to be accomplished through:


title: European Economic Community

text: Citing Article 2 from the original text of the Treaty of Rome of the 25th of March 1957, the EEC aimed at “a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the States belonging to it”. Given the fear of the Cold War, many Western Europeans were afraid that poverty would make “the population vulnerable to communist propaganda” (Meurs 2018, p. 68), meaning that increasing prosperity would be beneficial to harmonise power between the Western and Eastern blocs, other than reconcile Member States such as France and Germany after WW2. The tasks entrusted to the Community were divided among an assembly, the European Parliament, Council, Commission, and Court of Justice. Moreover, restrictions to market were lifted to further liberate trade among Member States. Citizens of Member States (other than goods, services, and capital) were entitled to freedom of movement. The CAP, Common Agricultural Policy, regulated and subsided the agricultural sphere. A European Social Fund was implemented in favour of employees who lost their jobs. A European Investment Bank was established to “facilitate the economic expansion of the Community by opening up fresh resources” (Art. 3 Treaty of Rome 3/25/1957). All these implementations included overseas territories. Competition was to be kept alive to make products cheaper for European consumers.


title: European Economic Community

text: For the customs union, the treaty provided for a 10% reduction in custom duties and up to 20% of global import quotas. Progress on the customs union proceeded much faster than the twelve years planned. However, France faced some setbacks due to their war with Algeria.


title: European Economic Community

text: The six states that founded the EEC and the other two Communities were known as the "inner six" (the "outer seven" were those countries who formed the European Free Trade Association). The six were France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The first enlargement was in 1973, with the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Greece, Spain and Portugal joined in the 1980s. The former East Germany became part of the EEC upon German reunification in 1990. Following the creation of the EU in 1993, it has enlarged to include an additional sixteen countries by 2013.


title: European Economic Community

text: Member states are represented in some form in each institution. The Council is also composed of one national minister who represents their national government. Each state also has a right to one European Commissioner each, although in the European Commission they are not supposed to represent their national interest but that of the Community. Prior to 2004, the larger members (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) have had two Commissioners. In the European Parliament, members are allocated a set number seats related to their population, however these (since 1979) have been directly elected and they sit according to political allegiance, not national origin. Most other institutions, including the European Court of Justice, have some form of national division of its members.


title: European Economic Community

text: There were three political institutions which held the executive and legislative power of the EEC, plus one judicial institution and a fifth body created in 1975. These institutions (except for the auditors) were created in 1957 by the EEC but from 1967 onwards they applied to all three Communities. The Council represents the state governments, the Parliament represents citizens and the Commission represents the European interest. Essentially, the Council, Parliament or another party place a request for legislation to the Commission. The Commission then drafts this and presents it to the Council for approval and the Parliament for an opinion (in some cases it had a veto, depending upon the legislative procedure in use). The Commission's duty is to ensure it is implemented by dealing with the day-to-day running of the Union and taking others to Court if they fail to comply. After the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, these institutions became those of the European Union, though limited in some areas due to the pillar structure. Despite this, Parliament in particular has gained more power over legislation and security of the Commission. The Court of Justice was the highest authority in the law, settling legal disputes in the Community, while the Auditors had no power but to investigate.


title: European Economic Community

text: The EEC inherited some of the Institutions of the ECSC in that the Common Assembly and Court of Justice of the ECSC had their authority extended to the EEC and Euratom in the same role. However the EEC, and Euratom, had different executive bodies to the ECSC. In place of the ECSC's Council of Ministers was the Council of the European Economic Community, and in place of the High Authority was the Commission of the European Communities.


title: European Economic Community

text: There was greater difference between these than name: the French government of the day had grown suspicious of the supranational power of the High Authority and sought to curb its powers in favour of the intergovernmental style Council. Hence the Council had a greater executive role in the running of the EEC than was the situation in the ECSC. By virtue of the Merger Treaty in 1967, the executives of the ECSC and Euratom were merged with that of the EEC, creating a single institutional structure governing the three separate Communities. From here on, the term "European Communities" were used for the institutions (for example, from "Commission of the European Economic Community" to the "Commission of the European Communities").


title: European Economic Community

text: The Council of the European Communities was a body holding legislative and executive powers and was thus the main decision making body of the Community. Its Presidency rotated between the member states every six months and it is related to the European Council, which was an informal gathering of national leaders (started in 1961) on the same basis as the Council.


title: European Economic Community

text: The Council was composed of one national minister from each member state. However the Council met in various forms depending upon the topic. For example, if agriculture was being discussed, the Council would be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represented their governments and were accountable to their national political systems. Votes were taken either by majority (with votes allocated according to population) or unanimity. In these various forms they share some legislative and budgetary power of the Parliament. Since the 1960s the Council also began to meet informally at the level of heads of government and heads of state; these European summits followed the same presidency system and secretariat as the Council but was not a formal formation of it.


title: European Economic Community

text: The Commission of the European Communities was the executive arm of the community, drafting Community law, dealing with the day to running of the Community and upholding the treaties. It was designed to be independent, representing the interest of the Community as a whole. Every member state submitted one commissioner (two from each of the larger states, one from the smaller states). One of its members was the President, appointed by the Council, who chaired the body and represented it.


title: European Economic Community

text: Under the Community, the European Parliament (formerly the European Parliamentary Assembly) had an advisory role to the Council and Commission. There were a number of Community legislative procedures, at first there was only the consultation procedure, which meant Parliament had to be consulted, although it was often ignored. The Single European Act gave Parliament more power, with the assent procedure giving it a right to veto proposals and the cooperation procedure giving it equal power with the Council if the Council was not unanimous.


title: European Economic Community

text: In 1970 and 1975, the Budgetary treaties gave Parliament power over the Community budget. The Parliament's members, up-until 1980 were national MPs serving part-time in the Parliament. The Treaties of Rome had required elections to be held once the Council had decided on a voting system, but this did not happen and elections were delayed until 1979 (see 1979 European Parliament election). After that, Parliament was elected every five years. In the following 20 years, it gradually won co-decision powers with the Council over the adoption of legislation, the right to approve or reject the appointment of the Commission President and the Commission as a whole, and the right to approve or reject international agreements entered into by the Community.


title: European Economic Community

text: The Court of Justice of the European Communities was the highest court of on matters of Community law and was composed of one judge per state with a president elected from among them. Its role was to ensure that Community law was applied in the same way across all states and to settle legal disputes between institutions or states. It became a powerful institution as Community law overrides national law.


title: European Economic Community

text: The fifth institution is the "European Court of Auditors". Its ensured that taxpayer funds from the Community budget had been correctly spent by the Community's institutions. The ECA provided an audit report for each financial year to the Council and Parliament and gave opinions and proposals on financial legislation and anti-fraud actions. It is the only institution not mentioned in the original treaties, having been set up in 1975.


title: Saturnalia

text: Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for both slaves and freedmen alike. A common custom was the election of a "King of the Saturnalia", who gave orders to people, which were followed and presided over the merrymaking. The gifts exchanged were usually gag gifts or small figurines made of wax or pottery known as "sigillaria". The poet Catullus called it "the best of days".


title: Saturnalia

text: Saturnalia was the Roman equivalent to the earlier Greek holiday of Kronia, which was celebrated during the Attic month of Hekatombaion in late midsummer. It held theological importance for some Romans, who saw it as a restoration of the ancient Golden Age, when the world was ruled by Saturn. The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry interpreted the freedom associated with Saturnalia as symbolizing the "freeing of souls into immortality". Saturnalia may have influenced some of the customs associated with later celebrations in western Europe occurring in midwinter, particularly traditions associated with Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and Epiphany. In particular, the historical western European Christmas custom of electing a "Lord of Misrule" may have its roots in Saturnalia celebrations.


title: Saturnalia

text: In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labour in a state of innocence. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age. The Greek equivalent was the Kronia, which was celebrated on the twelfth day of the month of Hekatombaion, which occurred from around mid-July to mid-August on the Attic calendar. The Greek writer Athenaeus also cites numerous other examples of similar festivals celebrated throughout the Greco-Roman world, including the Cretan festival of Hermaia in honor of Hermes, an unnamed festival from Troezen in honor of Poseidon, the Thessalian festival of Peloria in honor of Zeus Pelorios, and an unnamed festival from Babylon. He also mentions that the custom of masters dining with their slaves was associated with the Athenian festival of Anthesteria and the Spartan festival of Hyacinthia. The Argive festival of Hybristica, though not directly related to the Saturnalia, involved a similar reversal of roles in which women would dress as men and men would dress as women.


title: Saturnalia

text: The ancient Roman historian Justinus credits Saturn with being a historical king of the pre-Roman inhabitants of Italy:


title: Saturnalia

text: Although probably the best-known Roman holiday, Saturnalia as a whole is not described from beginning to end in any single ancient source. Modern understanding of the festival is pieced together from several accounts dealing with various aspects. The Saturnalia was the dramatic setting of the multivolume work of that name by Macrobius, a Latin writer from late antiquity who is the major source for information about the holiday. Macrobius describes the reign of Justinus' "king Saturn" as "a time of great happiness, both on account of the universal plenty that prevailed and because as yet there was no division into bond and free – as one may gather from the complete license enjoyed by slaves at the Saturnalia." In Lucian's "Saturnalia" it is Chronos himself who proclaims a "festive season, when 'tis lawful to be drunken, and slaves have license to revile their lords".


title: Saturnalia

text: In one of the interpretations in Macrobius's work, Saturnalia is a festival of light leading to the winter solstice, with the abundant presence of candles symbolizing the quest for knowledge and truth. The renewal of light and the coming of the new year was celebrated in the later Roman Empire at the "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti", the "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun", on 25 December.


title: Saturnalia

text: The popularity of Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, and as the Roman Empire came under Christian rule, many of its customs were recast into or at least influenced the seasonal celebrations surrounding Christmas and the New Year.


title: Saturnalia

text: Saturnalia underwent a major reform in 217 BC, after the Battle of Lake Trasimene, when the Romans suffered one of their most crushing defeats by Carthage during the Second Punic War. Until that time, they had celebrated the holiday according to Roman custom "(more Romano)". It was after a consultation of the Sibylline Books that they adopted "Greek rite", introducing sacrifices carried out in the Greek manner, the public banquet, and the continual shouts of "io Saturnalia" that became characteristic of the celebration. Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) remembered a time before the so-called "Greek" elements had been added to the Roman Saturnalia.


title: Saturnalia

text: It was not unusual for the Romans to offer cult "(cultus)" to the deities of other nations in the hope of redirecting their favour (see "evocatio"), and the Second Punic War in particular created pressures on Roman society that led to a number of religious innovations and reforms. Robert E.A. Palmer has argued that the introduction of new rites at this time was in part an effort to appease Ba'al Hammon, the Carthaginian god who was regarded as the counterpart of the Roman Saturn and Greek Cronus. The table service that masters offered their slaves thus would have extended to Carthaginian or African war captives.


title: Saturnalia

text: The statue of Saturn at his main temple normally had its feet bound in wool, which was removed for the holiday as an act of liberation. The official rituals were carried out according to "Greek rite" "(ritus graecus)". The sacrifice was officiated by a priest, whose head was uncovered; in Roman rite, priests sacrificed "capite velato", with head covered by a special fold of the toga. This procedure is usually explained by Saturn's assimilation with his Greek counterpart Cronus, since the Romans often adopted and reinterpreted Greek myths, iconography, and even religious practices for their own deities, but the uncovering of the priest's head may also be one of the Saturnalian reversals, the opposite of what was normal.


title: Saturnalia

text: Following the sacrifice the Roman Senate arranged a "lectisternium", a ritual of Greek origin that typically involved placing a deity's image on a sumptuous couch, as if he were present and actively participating in the festivities. A public banquet followed "(convivium publicum)".


title: Saturnalia

text: The day was supposed to be a holiday from all forms of work. Schools were closed, and exercise regimens were suspended. Courts were not in session, so no justice was administered, and no declaration of war could be made. After the public rituals, observances continued at home. On 18 and 19 December, which were also holidays from public business, families conducted domestic rituals. They bathed early, and those with means sacrificed a suckling pig, a traditional offering to an earth deity.


title: Saturnalia

text: Saturn also had a less benevolent aspect. One of his consorts was Lua, sometimes called "Lua Saturni" ("Saturn's Lua") and identified with Lua Mater, "Mother Destruction", a goddess in whose honor the weapons of enemies killed in war were burned, perhaps in expiation. Saturn's chthonic nature connected him to the underworld and its ruler Dīs Pater, the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton (Pluto in Latin) who was also a god of hidden wealth. In sources of the third century AD and later, Saturn is recorded as receiving dead gladiators as offerings ("munera") during or near the Saturnalia. These gladiatorial events, ten days in all throughout December, were presented mainly by the quaestors and sponsored with funds from the treasury of Saturn.


title: Saturnalia

text: The practice of gladiator "munera" was criticized by Christian apologists as a form of human sacrifice. Although there is no evidence of this practice during the Republic, the offering of gladiators led to later theories that the primeval Saturn had demanded human victims. Macrobius says that Dīs Pater was placated with human heads and Saturn with sacrificial victims consisting of men ("virorum victimis"). In mythic lore, during the visit of Hercules to Italy, the civilizing demigod insisted that the practice be halted and the ritual reinterpreted. Instead of heads to Dīs Pater, the Romans were to offer effigies or masks "(oscilla)"; a mask appears in the representation of Saturnalia in the Calendar of Filocalus. Since the Greek word "phota" meant both 'man' and 'lights', candles were a substitute offering to Saturn for the light of life. The figurines that were exchanged as gifts ("sigillaria") may also have represented token substitutes.


title: Saturnalia

text: Saturnalia was characterized by role reversals and behavioral license. Slaves were treated to a banquet of the kind usually enjoyed by their masters. Ancient sources differ on the circumstances: some suggest that master and slave dined together, while others indicate that the slaves feasted first, or that the masters actually served the food. The practice might have varied over time.


title: Saturnalia

text: Saturnalian license also permitted slaves to disrespect their masters without the threat of a punishment. It was a time for free speech: the Augustan poet Horace calls it "December liberty". In two satires set during the Saturnalia, Horace has a slave offer sharp criticism to his master. Everyone knew, however, that the leveling of the social hierarchy was temporary and had limits; no social norms were ultimately threatened, because the holiday would end.


title: Saturnalia

text: The toga, the characteristic garment of the male Roman citizen, was set aside in favor of the Greek "synthesis", colourful "dinner clothes" otherwise considered in poor taste for daytime wear. Romans of citizen status normally went about bare-headed, but for the Saturnalia donned the "pilleus", the conical felt cap that was the usual mark of a freedman. Slaves, who ordinarily were not entitled to wear the "pilleus", wore it as well, so that everyone was "pilleated" without distinction.


title: Saturnalia

text: The participation of freeborn Roman women is implied by sources that name gifts for women, but their presence at banquets may have depended on the custom of their time; from the late Republic onward, women mingled socially with men more freely than they had in earlier times. Female entertainers were certainly present at some otherwise all-male gatherings. Role-playing was implicit in the Saturnalia's status reversals, and there are hints of mask-wearing or "guising". No theatrical events are mentioned in connection with the festivities, but the classicist Erich Segal saw Roman comedy, with its cast of impudent, free-wheeling slaves and libertine seniors, as imbued with the Saturnalian spirit.


title: Saturnalia

text: Gambling and dice-playing, normally prohibited or at least frowned upon, were permitted for all, even slaves. Coins and nuts were the stakes. On the Calendar of Philocalus, the Saturnalia is represented by a man wearing a fur-trimmed coat next to a table with dice, and a caption reading: "Now you have license, slave, to game with your master." Rampant overeating and drunkenness became the rule, and a sober person the exception.


title: Saturnalia

text: "It is now the month of December, when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business. … Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the toga."


title: Saturnalia

text: Some Romans found it all a bit much. Pliny describes a secluded suite of rooms in his Laurentine villa, which he used as a retreat: "...especially during the Saturnalia when the rest of the house is noisy with the licence of the holiday and festive cries. This way I don't hamper the games of my people and they don't hinder my work or studies."


title: Saturnalia

text: The Sigillaria on 19 December was a day of gift-giving. Because gifts of value would mark social status contrary to the spirit of the season, these were often the pottery or wax figurines called "sigillaria" made specially for the day, candles, or "gag gifts", of which Augustus was particularly fond. Children received toys as gifts. In his many poems about the Saturnalia, Martial names both expensive and quite cheap gifts, including writing tablets, dice, knucklebones, moneyboxes, combs, toothpicks, a hat, a hunting knife, an axe, various lamps, balls, perfumes, pipes, a pig, a sausage, a parrot, tables, cups, spoons, items of clothing, statues, masks, books, and pets. Gifts might be as costly as a slave or exotic animal, but Martial suggests that token gifts of low intrinsic value inversely measure the high quality of a friendship. Patrons or "bosses" might pass along a gratuity "(sigillaricium)" to their poorer clients or dependents to help them buy gifts. Some emperors were noted for their devoted observance of the Sigillaria.


title: Saturnalia

text: In a practice that might be compared to modern greeting cards, verses sometimes accompanied the gifts. Martial has a collection of poems written as if to be attached to gifts. Catullus received a book of bad poems by "the worst poet of all time" as a joke from a friend.


title: Saturnalia

text: Gift-giving was not confined to the day of the Sigillaria. In some households, guests and family members received gifts after the feast in which slaves had shared.


title: Saturnalia

text: Imperial sources refer to a "Saturnalicius princeps" ("Ruler of the Saturnalia"), who ruled as master of ceremonies for the proceedings. He was appointed by lot, and has been compared to the medieval Lord of Misrule at the Feast of Fools. His capricious commands, such as "Sing naked!" or "Throw him into cold water!", had to be obeyed by the other guests at the "convivium": he creates and (mis)rules a chaotic and absurd world. The future emperor Nero is recorded as playing the role in his youth.


title: Saturnalia

text: Since this figure does not appear in accounts from the Republican period, the "princeps" of the Saturnalia may have developed as a satiric response to the new era of rule by a "princeps", the title assumed by the first emperor Augustus to avoid the hated connotations of the word "king" "(rex)". Art and literature under Augustus celebrated his reign as a new Golden Age, but the Saturnalia makes a mockery of a world in which law is determined by one man and the traditional social and political networks are reduced to the power of the emperor over his subjects. In a poem about a lavish Saturnalia under Domitian, Statius makes it clear that the emperor, like Jupiter, still reigns during the temporary return of Saturn.


title: Saturnalia

text: The phrase "io Saturnalia" was the characteristic shout or salutation of the festival, originally commencing after the public banquet on the single day of 17 December. The interjection "io" (Greek "ἰώ", "ǐō") is pronounced either with two syllables (a short "i" and a long "o") or as a single syllable (with the "i" becoming the Latin consonantal "j" and pronounced "yō"). It was a strongly emotive ritual exclamation or invocation, used for instance in announcing triumph or celebrating Bacchus, but also to punctuate a joke.


title: Saturnalia

text: As an observance of state religion, Saturnalia was supposed to have been held ""...quarto decimo Kalendarum Ianuariarum"", on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of the pre-Julian, twenty-nine day December, on the oldest Roman religious calendar, which the Romans believed to have been established by the legendary founder Romulus and his successor Numa Pompilius. It was a "dies festus", a legal holiday when no public business could be conducted. The day marked the dedication anniversary "(dies natalis)" of the Temple to Saturn in the Roman Forum in 497 BC. When Julius Caesar had the calendar reformed because it had fallen out of synchronization with the solar year, two days were added to the month, and the date of Saturnalia then changed, still falling on the 17 December, but with this now being the sixteenth day before the Kalends, as per the Roman reckoning of dates of this time. It was felt, thus, that the original day had thus been moved by two days, and so Saturnalia was celebrated under Augustus as a three-day official holiday encompassing both dates.


title: Saturnalia

text: By the late Republic, the private festivities of Saturnalia had expanded to seven days, but during the Imperial period contracted variously to three to five days. Caligula extended official observances to five.


title: Saturnalia

text: The date 17 December was the first day of the astrological sign Capricorn, the house of Saturn, the planet named for the god. Its proximity to the winter solstice (21 to 23 December on the Julian calendar) was endowed with various meanings by both ancient and modern scholars: for instance, the widespread use of wax candles "(cerei," singular "cereus)" could refer to "the returning power of the sun's light after the solstice".


title: Saturnalia

text: The Saturnalia reflects the contradictory nature of the deity Saturn himself: "There are joyful and utopian aspects of careless well-being side by side with disquieting elements of threat and danger."


title: Saturnalia

text: As a deity of agricultural bounty, Saturn embodied prosperity and wealth in general. The name of his consort Ops meant "wealth, resources". Her festival, Opalia, was celebrated on 19 December. The Temple of Saturn housed the state treasury ("aerarium Saturni") and was the administrative headquarters of the quaestors, the public officials whose duties included oversight of the mint. It was among the oldest cult sites in Rome, and had been the location of "a very ancient" altar "(ara)" even before the building of the first temple in 497 BC.


title: Saturnalia

text: The Romans regarded Saturn as the original and autochthonous ruler of the Capitolium, and the first king of Latium or even the whole of Italy. At the same time, there was a tradition that Saturn had been an immigrant deity, received by Janus after he was usurped by his son Jupiter (Zeus) and expelled from Greece. His contradictions—a foreigner with one of Rome's oldest sanctuaries, and a god of liberation who is kept in fetters most of the year—indicate Saturn's capacity for obliterating social distinctions.


title: Saturnalia

text: Roman mythology of the Golden Age of Saturn's reign differed from the Greek tradition. He arrived in Italy "dethroned and fugitive", but brought agriculture and civilization and became a king. As the Augustan poet Virgil described it: "[H]e gathered together the unruly race [of fauns and nymphs] scattered over mountain heights, and gave them laws … . Under his reign were the golden ages men tell of: in such perfect peace he ruled the nations."


title: Saturnalia

text: The third century Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry took an allegorical view of the Saturnalia. He saw the festival's theme of liberation and dissolution as representing the "freeing of souls into immortality"—an interpretation that Mithraists may also have followed, since they included many slaves and freedmen. According to Porphyry, the Saturnalia occurred near the winter solstice because the sun enters Capricorn, the astrological house of Saturn, at that time. In the Saturnalia of Macrobius, the proximity of the Saturnalia to the winter solstice leads to an exposition of solar monotheism, the belief that the Sun (see Sol Invictus) ultimately encompasses all divinities as one.


title: Saturnalia

text: M. Avodah Zarah lists Saturnalia as a "festival of the gentiles," along with the Kalents of January and Kratesis. B. Avodah Zarah records that Ḥanan b. Rava said, "Kalends begins eight days after the [winter] solstice and Saturnura begins eight days before the [winter] solstice". Ḥananel b. Ḥushiel, followed by Rashi, claims: "Eight days before the solstice -- their festival was for all eight days," which slightly overstates the Saturnalia's historical six-day length, possibly to associate the holiday with Hanukkah.


title: Saturnalia

text: In the Jerusalem Talmud, "Avodah Zarah" claims the etymology of Saturnalia is שנאה טמונה "śinʾâ ṭǝmûnâ" "hidden hatred," and refers to the hatred Esau, whom the Rabbis believed had fathered Rome, harbored for Jacob.


title: Saturnalia

text: The Babylonian Talmud's "Avodah Zarah" ascribes the origins of Saturnalia (and Kalends) to Adam, who saw that the days were getting shorter and thought it was punishment for his sin:


title: Saturnalia

text: In the Babylonian "Avodah Zarah", this etiology is attributed to the tannaim, but the story is suspiciously similar to the etiology of Kalends attributed by the Jerusalem Avodah Zarah to Abba Arikha.


title: Saturnalia

text: Unlike several Roman religious festivals which were particular to cult sites in the city, the prolonged seasonal celebration of Saturnalia at home could be held anywhere in the Empire. Saturnalia continued as a secular celebration long after it was removed from the official calendar. As William Warde Fowler notes: "[Saturnalia] has left its traces and found its parallels in great numbers of medieval and modern customs, occurring about the time of the winter solstice."


title: Saturnalia

text: The actual date of Jesus's birth is unknown. A spurious correspondence between Cyril of Jerusalem and Pope Julius I (337–352), quoted by John of Nikiu in the 9th century, is sometimes given as a source for a claim that, in the fourth century AD, Pope Julius I formalized that the nativity of Christ should be celebrated on 25 December. Some speculate that this is around the same time as the Saturnalia celebrations, and that part of the reason why he chose this date may have been because he was trying to create a Christian alternative to Saturnalia. Another reason for the decision may have been because, in 274 AD, the Roman emperor Aurelian had declared 25 December the birthdate of Sol Invictus and Julius I may have thought that he could attract more converts to Christianity by allowing them to continue to celebrate on the same day. He may have also been influenced by the idea that Jesus had died on the anniversary of his conception; because Jesus died during Passover and, in the third century AD, Passover was celebrated on 25 March, he may have assumed that Jesus's birthday must have come nine months later, on 25 December. But in fact the correspondence is spurious.


title: Saturnalia

text: As a result of the close proximity of dates, many Christians in western Europe continued to celebrate traditional Saturnalia customs in association with Christmas and the surrounding holidays. Like Saturnalia, Christmas during the Middle Ages was a time of ruckus, drinking, gambling, and overeating. The tradition of the "Saturnalicius princeps" was particularly influential. In medieval France and Switzerland, a boy would be elected "bishop for a day" on 28 December (the Feast of the Holy Innocents) and would issue decrees much like the "Saturnalicius princeps". The boy bishop's tenure ended during the evening vespers. This custom was common across western Europe, but varied considerably by region; in some places, the boy bishop's orders could become quite rowdy and unrestrained, but, in others, his power was only ceremonial. In some parts of France, during the boy bishop's tenure, the actual clergy would wear masks or dress in women's clothing, a reversal of roles in line with the traditional character of Saturnalia.


title: Saturnalia

text: During the late medieval period and early Renaissance, many towns in England elected a "Lord of Misrule" at Christmas time to preside over the Feast of Fools. This custom was sometimes associated with the Twelfth Night or Epiphany. A common tradition in western Europe was to drop a bean, coin, or other small token into a cake or pudding; whoever found the object would become the "King (or Queen) of the Bean". During the Protestant Reformation, reformers sought to revise or even completely abolish such practices, which they regarded as "popish"; these efforts were largely successful. The Puritans banned the "Lord of Misrule" in England and the custom was largely forgotten shortly thereafter, though the bean in the pudding survived as a tradition of a small gift to the one finding a single almond hidden in the traditional Christmas porridge in Scandinavia.


title: Saturnalia

text: Nonetheless, in the middle of the nineteenth century, some of the old ceremonies, such as gift-giving, were revived in English-speaking countries as part of a widespread "Christmas revival". During this revival, authors such as Charles Dickens sought to reform the "conscience of Christmas" and turn the formerly riotous holiday into a family-friendly occasion. Vestiges of the Saturnalia festivities may still be preserved in some of the traditions now associated with Christmas. The custom of gift-giving at Christmas time resembles the Roman tradition of giving "sigillaria" and the lighting of Advent candles resembles the Roman tradition of lighting torches and wax tapers. Likewise, Saturnalia and Christmas both share associations with eating, drinking, singing, and dancing.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".


title: Lon Chaney

text: Leonidas Frank Chaney was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Frank H. Chaney (a barber) and Emma Alice Kennedy. His father was of English and French ancestry, and his mother was of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Chaney's maternal grandfather, Jonathan Ralston Kennedy, founded the "Colorado School for the Education of Mutes" (now Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind) in 1874, and Chaney's parents met there. His great-grandfather was congressman John Chaney.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Both of Chaney's parents were deaf and, as a child of deaf adults, Chaney became skilled in pantomime. He entered a stage career in 1902, and began traveling with popular vaudeville and theater acts. In 1905, Chaney, then 22, met and married 16-year-old singer Cleva Creighton (Frances Cleveland Creighton) and in 1906, their only child, a son, Creighton Tull Chaney (later known as Lon Chaney Jr.) was born. The Chaneys continued touring, settling in California in 1910.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Marital troubles developed and on April 30, 1913, Cleva went to the Majestic Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where Lon was managing the "Kolb and Dill" show, and attempted suicide by swallowing mercuric chloride. The suicide attempt failed, but it ruined her singing career; the ensuing scandal and divorce forced Chaney out of the theater and into film.


title: Lon Chaney

text: The time spent there is not clearly known, but between the years 1912 and 1917, Chaney worked under contract for Universal Studios doing bit or character parts. His skill with makeup gained him many parts in the highly competitive casting atmosphere. During this time, Chaney befriended the husband-wife director team of Joe De Grasse and Ida May Park, who gave him substantial roles in their pictures, and further encouraged him to play macabre characters.


title: Lon Chaney

text: In 1915, Chaney married one of his former colleagues in the Kolb and Dill company, a recently divorced chorus girl named Hazel Hastings. The new couple gained custody of Chaney's 10-year-old son Creighton, who had resided in various homes and boarding schools since Chaney's divorce from Cleva in 1913.


title: Lon Chaney

text: By 1917, Chaney was a prominent actor in the studio, but his salary did not reflect this status. When Chaney asked for a raise, studio executive William Sistrom replied, "You'll never be worth more than one hundred dollars a week." After leaving the studio, Chaney struggled for the first year as a character actor. It was not until he played a substantial role in William S. Hart's picture "Riddle Gawne" (1918) that Chaney's talents as a character actor were truly recognized by the industry.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Universal presented Chaney, Dorothy Phillips, and William Stowell as a team in "The Piper's Price" (1917). In succeeding films, the men alternated playing lover, villain, or other man to the beautiful Phillips. They would occasionally be joined by Claire DuBrey nearly making the trio a quartet of recurring actors from film to film. So successful were the films starring this group that Universal produced fourteen films from 1917 to 1919 with Chaney, Stowell, and Phillips.


title: Lon Chaney

text: The films were usually directed by Joe De Grasse or his wife Ida May Park, both friends of Chaney's at Universal. When Chaney was away branching out on films such as "Riddle Gawne" and "The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin" (both 1918), Stowell and Phillips would continue on as a duo until Chaney's return. Stowell and Phillips made "The Heart of Humanity" (also 1918), bringing in Erich von Stroheim for a part as the villain that could easily have been played by Chaney.


title: Lon Chaney

text: "Paid in Advance" (1919) was the group's last film together, for the chiseled featured Stowell was sent to Africa by Universal to scout locations for a movie. En route from one city to another, Stowell was in the caboose when it was hit by the locomotive from another train; he was killed instantly. The majority of these films are lost but a few, including "Triumph" and "Paid in Advance" survive in private collections or unrestored in European or Russian archives.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney had a breakthrough performance as "The Frog" in George Loane Tucker's "The Miracle Man" (1919). The film displayed not only Chaney's acting ability, but also his talent as a master of makeup. Critical praise and a gross of over $2 million put Chaney on the map as America's foremost character actor.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney exhibited great adaptability with makeup in more conventional crime and adventure films, such as "The Penalty" (1920), in which he played a gangster with both legs amputated. Chaney appeared in 10 films directed by Tod Browning, often portraying disguised and/or mutilated characters, including carnival knife-thrower Alonzo the Armless in "The Unknown" (1927) opposite Joan Crawford. Around the same time, Chaney also co-starred with Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran in the Tod Browning horror film "London After Midnight" (1927), one of the most sought after lost films. His final film role was a sound remake of his silent classic "The Unholy Three" (1930), his only "talkie" and the only film in which Chaney utilized his powerful and versatile voice. Chaney signed a sworn statement declaring that five of the key voices in the film (the ventriloquist, the old woman, a parrot, the dummy and the girl) were his own.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Makeup in the early days of cinema was almost non-existent with the exception of beards and moustaches to denote villains. Most of what the Hollywood studios knew about film stemmed from their experience with theater makeup, but this did not always transfer well to the big screen, especially as the film quality increased over time. It is also worth noting that makeup departments were not yet in place during Chaney's time. Prior to the mid-20s, actors were expected to do their own makeup.


title: Lon Chaney

text: In the absence of such specialized professions, Chaney's skills gave him a competitive advantage over other actors. He was the complete package. Casting crews knew that they could place him in virtually any part and he would thrive. In some films his skill allowed him to play dual roles. An extreme case of this was the film "Outside the Law" (1920), where he played a character that shot and killed another character, whom he also was playing.


title: Lon Chaney

text: As Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, and Erik, the "phantom" of the Paris Opera House, Chaney created two of the most grotesquely deformed characters in film history. ""Phantom" … became a legend almost immediately," wrote the "Los Angeles Times" in 1990. "The newspapers of the day reported that women fainted, children bawled and grown men stepped outside for fresh air after the famous unmasking scene." "The unmasking of the titular Phantom is one of the most well-known moments in silent film," wrote Meg Shields in 2020. "Arguably, it’s one of the most horrifying images ever put on screen."


title: Lon Chaney

text: However, Chaney's portrayals sought to elicit a degree of sympathy and pathos among viewers not overwhelmingly terrified or repulsed by the monstrous disfigurements of these victims of fate.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Ray Bradbury once said of Chaney, "He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen. The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney and his second wife Hazel led a discreet private life distant from the Hollywood social scene. Chaney did minimal promotional work for his films and for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, purposefully fostering a mysterious image, and he reportedly intentionally avoided the social scene in Hollywood.


title: Lon Chaney

text: In the final five years of his film career (1925–1930), Chaney worked exclusively under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, giving some of his most memorable performances. His portrayal of a tough-as-nails marine drill instructor in "Tell It to the Marines" (1926), one of his favorite films, earned him the affection of the Marine Corps, who made him their first honorary member from the motion picture industry.


title: Lon Chaney

text: He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous aspiring actors, to whom he offered mentoring assistance, and between takes on film sets he was always willing to share his professional observations with the cast and crew. During the filming of "The Unknown" (1927), Joan Crawford stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. "It was then," she said, "I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting."


title: Lon Chaney

text: During the filming of "Thunder" in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929, he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. This was exacerbated when artificial snow lodged in his throat during filming and caused a serious infection. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and he died of a throat hemorrhage on August 26, 1930, in a Los Angeles, California hospital.


title: Lon Chaney

text: His funeral was held on August 28 in Glendale, California. Honorary pallbearers included Paul Bern, Hunt Stromberg, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Tod Browning, Lew Cody, and Ramon Novarro. The U.S. Marine Corps provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral. While his funeral was being conducted, all MGM studios and offices observed two minutes of silence.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, next to the crypt of his father. His wife Hazel was interred there upon her death in 1933. In accordance with his will, Chaney's crypt has remained unmarked.


title: Lon Chaney

text: In 1957, Chaney was the subject of a biopic titled "Man of a Thousand Faces", in which he was portrayed by James Cagney. The film is a largely fictionalized account, as Chaney was notoriously private and hated the Hollywood lifestyle. He never revealed personal details about himself or his family, once stating, "Between pictures, there is no Lon Chaney."


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney's son Creighton, who later changed his name to Lon Chaney Jr., became a film actor after his father's death. Chaney Jr. is best remembered for roles in horror films, such as the title character in "The Wolf Man" (1941). In October 1997, both Chaneys appeared on commemorative US postage stamps as the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set completed by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and the Mummy.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney is also the subject of the 2000 documentary feature, "Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces". The film was produced by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by Kenneth Branagh.


title: Lon Chaney

text: In the song "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon, both Chaney and his son Lon Chaney Jr are name-called in the last verse.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Chaney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located on Hollywood Boulevard. In 1994, Al Hirschfeld's caricature of Chaney was featured on a commemorative United States postage stamp.


title: Lon Chaney

text: In 1929, Chaney built a stone cabin in the remote wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada near Big Pine, California as a retreat, hiring Paul R. Williams. Located in the Inyo National Forest, the cabin still stands, though it is not open to the public. Following his death, Chaney's famous makeup case was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum by his widow, Hazel. The case is occasionally displayed for the public. The stage theater at the Colorado Springs Civic Auditorium is also named after the actor.


title: Lon Chaney

text: Approximately 102 of the 157 films made by Chaney are currently classified as lost films. A number of others exist only in extremely truncated form or suffer severe decomposition.


title: Valmiki

text: Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic "Ramayana", dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as "Ādi Kavi", the first poet, author of "Ramayana", the first epic poem.


title: Valmiki

text: The "Ramayana", originally written by Valmiki, consists of 24,000 shlokas and seven cantos (kaṇḍas). The is composed of about 480,002 words, being a quarter of the length of the full text of the "Mahabharata" or about four times the length of the "Iliad". The "Ramayana" tells the story of a prince, Rama of the city of Ayodhya in the Kingdom of Kosala, whose wife Sita is abducted by Ravana, the demon-king (Rakshasa) of Lanka. Valmiki's "Ramayana" is dated variously from 500 BCE to 100 BCE or about co-eval with early versions of the "Mahabharata". As with many traditional epics, it has gone through a process of interpolations and redactions, making it impossible to date accurately.


title: Valmiki

text: British satirist Aubrey Menen says that Valmiki was "recognized as a literary genius," and thus was considered, "an outlaw," presumably because of his "philosophic scepticism," as part of an "Indian Enlightenment" period. Valmiki is also quoted as being the contemporary of Rama. Menen claims Valmiki is "the first author in all history to bring himself into his own composition."


title: Valmiki

text: Valmiki was born as Agni Sharma to a Brahmin named Pracheta (also known as Sumali) of Bhrigu gotra, According to legend he once met the great sage Narada and had a discourse with him on his duties. Moved by Narada's words, Agni Sharma began to perform penance and chanted the word "Mara" which meant "die". As he performed his penance for several years, the word became "Rama", a name of the god Vishnu. Huge anthills formed around Agni Sharma and this earned him the name of Valmiki. Agni Sharma, rechristened as Valmiki, learnt the scriptures from Narada and became the foremost of ascetics, revered by everyone.


title: Valmiki

text: There also exist some legends about Valmiki having been a thief before turning into a rishi. The Nagara Khanda of the Skanda Purana in its section on the creation of Mukhara Tirtha mentions that Valmiki was born a Brahmin, with the name of Lohajangha and was a devoted son to his parents. He had a beautiful wife and both of them were faithful to each other. Once, when there was no rain in the region of Anarta, for twelve long years, Lohajangha, for the sake of his hungry family, started robbing people that he found in the forest. In the course of this life he met the seven sages or the Saptarishi and tried to rob them as well. But the learned sages felt pity on him and showed him the folly of his ways. One of them, Pulaha gave him a Mantra to meditate upon and the Brahmin turned thief got so engrossed in its recitation that ant-hills came up around his body. When the sages returned and heard the sound of the mantra coming from the ant-hill, they blessed him and said, "Since you achieved great Siddhi seated within a Valmīka (an anthill), you will become well-known in the world as Vālmīki."


title: Valmiki

text: Valmiki was going to the river Ganges for his daily ablutions. A disciple by the name Bharadwaja was carrying his clothes. On the way, they came across the Tamasa Stream. Looking at the stream, Valmiki said to his disciple, "Look, how clear is this water, like the mind of a good man! I will bathe here today." When he was looking for a suitable place to step into the stream, he saw a crane couple mating. Valmiki felt very pleased on seeing the happy birds. Suddenly, hit by an arrow, the male bird died on the spot. Filled by sorrow, its mate screamed in agony and died of shock. Valmiki's heart melted at this pitiful sight. He looked around to find out who had shot the bird. He saw a hunter with a bow and arrows, nearby. Valmiki became very angry. His lips opened and he cried out,


title: Valmiki

text: Emerging spontaneously from Valmiki's rage and grief, this is considered to be the first shloka in Sanskrit literature. Valmiki later composed the entire "Ramayana" with the blessings of the god Brahma in the same meter that issued forth from him as the shloka. Thus this shloka is revered as the first shloka in Hindu literature. Valmiki is revered as the first poet or "Adi Kavi" and Ramayana, the first kavya (poem).


title: Valmiki

text: Valmiki played an important role in "Uttarakāṇḍa," the last chapter of the epic "Ramayana". The "Uttarakāṇḍa" may not have been originally worked by Valmiki. The scholars Robert and Sally Goldman, for example, have pointed out: "Much of the narrative focuses on figures other than Rāma and is narrated only indirectly by Vālmīki, being placed in the mouths of other figures such as Agastya." It is believed to have been taken up from "Sesha Ramayana." According to the legend, Rama sent Sita to the forest. Sita finds refuge in Sage Valmiki's ashram, where she gives birth to twin boys Lava and Kusha. Lava and Kusha were Valmiki's first disciples, to whom he taught the "Ramayana". Bala Kanda of the epic also tells the story of Valmiki narrating the Ramayana to Lava and Kusha, who become his disciples.


title: Valmiki

text: Valmiki was present during Mahabharata time and he was one of the many sages that visited "Yudhisthira" after war. He told Yudhisthira the benefits of worshipping Shiva. Once upon a time, some ascetics that possessed the homa fire cursed Valmiki as guilty of Brahminicide. The sin possessed him as soon as he was cursed. So he prayed to Shiva and he became cleansed of all his sins. He later told "Yudhisthira" that he should also pray to Shiva like him.


title: Valmiki

text: "Vishnudharmottara Purana" says that Valmiki was born in the Treta Yuga as a form of Brahma who composed "Ramayana" and that people desirous of earning knowledge should worship Valmiki. He was later reincarnated as Tulsidas, who composed the "Ramcharitamanas", which was the Awadhi-Hindi version of the "Ramayana".


title: Valmiki

text: The full moon day of Hindu month of Ashvin is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the poet. The day is also known as Pargat Diwas or Valmiki Jayanti, and is a major festival of the followers of the Balmiki religious sect of Hinduism.


title: Valmiki

text: The Balmiki sect of Hinduism reveres Valmiki, where he is also known as Lal Beg or Bala Shah, as a patron saint, with a plethora of mandirs (temples) dedicated to him.


title: Valmiki

text: An area in Chennai, Tiruvanmiyur is believed to derive its name from Sage Valmiki, Thiru-Valmiki-Oor. There is a temple for Valmiki located in this place, which is believed to be 1300 years old.


title: Valmiki

text: Valmiki Ashram, a site considered to be the original ashram of Valmiki, is located in Chitwan district of Nepal. The site is near the Triveni Dham pilgrimage site.


title: Valmiki

text: Several Indian films have been made on the life of the poet, beginning with G. V. Sane's "Valmiki" (1921); it was followed by Surendra Narayan Roy's "Ratnakar" (1921), Ellis Dungan's "Valmiki" (1946), Bhalji Pendharkar's "Valmiki" (1946), Sundarrao Nadkarni's "Valmiki" (1946), C.S.R. Rao's "Valmiki" (starring Rajkumar 1963) and "Valmiki" (starring N. T. Rama Rao; 1963), and Arvind Bhatt's "Sant Valmiki" (1991).


title: Valmiki

text: Bhatt's film which starred Suresh Oberoi in the titular role remains unreleased after a case was filed against Oberoi for remarks deemed offensive by members of the Valmiki caste in India.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Bank of Baroda (BOB or BoB) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It is the second largest public sector bank in India after State Bank of India, with 132 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, and a global presence of 100 overseas offices. Based on 2019 data, it is ranked 1145 on Forbes Global 2000 list.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: The Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, founded the bank on 20 July 1908 in the princely state of Baroda, in Gujarat. The Government of India nationalized the Bank of Baroda, along with 13 other major commercial banks of India, on 19 July 1969 and the bank was designated as a profit-making public sector undertaking (PSU).


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1908, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, set up the Bank of Baroda (BoB), with other stalwarts of industry such as Sampatrao Gaekwad, Ralph Whitenack, Vithaldas Thakersey, Tulsidas Kilachand and NM Chokshi. Two years later, BoB established its first branch in Ahmedabad. The bank grew domestically until after World War II. Then in 1953 it crossed the Indian Ocean to serve the communities of Indians in Kenya and Indians in Uganda by establishing a branch each in Mombasa and Kampala. The next year it opened a second branch in Kenya, in Nairobi, and in 1956 it opened a branch in Tanzania at Dar-es-Salaam. Then in 1957, BoB took a big step abroad by establishing a branch in London. London was the center of the British Commonwealth and the most important international banking center. In 1958 BoB acquired Hind Bank (Calcutta; est. 1943), which became BoB's first domestic acquisition.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1961, BoB acquired New Citizen Bank of India. This merger helped it increase its branch network in Maharashtra. BoB also opened a branch in Fiji. The next year it opened a branch in Mauritius


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1963, BoB acquired Surat Banking Corporation in Surat, Gujarat. The next year BoB acquired two banks: Umbergaon People's Bank in southern Gujarat and Tamil Nadu Central Bank in Tamil Nadu state.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1965, BoB opened a branch in Guyana. That same year BoB lost its branch in Narayanganj (East Pakistan) due to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. It is unclear when BoB had opened the branch. In 1967 it suffered a second loss of branches when the Tanzanian government nationalised BoB's three branches there at (Dar es Salaam, Mwanga, and Moshi), and transferred their operations to the Tanzanian government-owned National Banking Corporation.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1969, the Indian government nationalised 14 top banks including BoB. BoB incorporated its operations in Uganda as a 51% subsidiary, with the government owning the rest.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1972, BoB acquired Bank of India's operations in Uganda. Two years later, BoB opened a branch each in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Back in India, in 1975, BoB acquired the majority shareholding and management control of Bareilly Corporation Bank (est. 1954) and Nainital Bank (est. in 1922), both in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand respectively. Since then, Nainital Bank has expanded to Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi state. Right now BoB have 99% shareholding in Nainital Bank.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: International expansion continued in 1976 with the opening of a branch in Oman and another in Brussels. The Brussels branch was aimed at Indian firms from Mumbai (Bombay) engaged in diamond cutting and jewellery having business in Antwerp, a major center for diamond cutting.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Two years later, BoB opened a branch in New York and another in the Seychelles. Then in 1979, BoB opened a branch in Nassau, the Bahamas.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1980, BoB opened a branch in Bahrain and a representative office in Sydney, Australia. BoB, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank established IUB International Finance, a licensed deposit taker, in Hong Kong. Each of the three banks took an equal share. Eventually (in 1999), BoB would buy out its partners.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: A second consortium or joint-venture bank followed in 1985. BoB (20%), Bank of India (20%), Central Bank of India (20%) and ZIMCO (Zambian government; 40%) established Indo-Zambia Bank in Lusaka. That same year BoB also opened an Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) in Bahrain (Gulf).


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1992, BoB opened an OBU in Mauritius, but closed its representative office in Sydney. The next year BoB took over the London branches of Union Bank of India and Punjab & Sind Bank (P&S). P&S's branch had been established before 1970 and Union Bank's after 1980. The Reserve Bank of India ordered the takeover of the two following the banks' involvement in the Sethia fraud in 1987 and subsequent losses.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1996, BoB Bank entered the capital market in December with an initial public offering (IPO). The government of India is still the largest shareholder, owning 66% of the bank's equity.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1997, BoB opened a branch in Durban. The next year BoB bought out its partners in IUB International Finance in Hong Kong. Apparently this was a response to regulatory changes following Hong Kong's reversion to the People's Republic of China. The now wholly owned subsidiary became Bank of Baroda (Hong Kong), a restricted license bank. BoB also acquired Punjab Cooperative Bank in a rescue. BoB incorporate a wholly–owned subsidiary, BOB Capital Markets, for broking business.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 1999, BoB merged in Bareilly Corporation Bank in another rescue. At the time, Bareilly had 64 branches, including four in Delhi. In Guyana, BoB incorporated its branch as a subsidiary, Bank of Baroda Guyana. BoB added a branch in Mauritius and closed its Harrow Branch in London.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2000 BoB established Bank of Baroda (Botswana). The bank has three banking offices, two in Gaborone and one in Francistown. In 2002, BoB converted its subsidiary in Hong Kong from deposit taking company to a Restricted License Bank.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2002 BoB acquired Benares State Bank (BSB) at the Reserve Bank of India's request. BSB had been established in 1946 but traced its origins back to 1871 and its function as the treasury office of the Benares state. In 1964 BSB had acquired Bareilly Bank (est. 1934), with seven branches in western districts of Uttar Pradesh; BSB also had taken over Lucknow Bank in 1968. The acquisition of BSB brought BoB 105 new branches. Lucknow Bank, a unit bank with its only office in Aminabad, had been established in 1913. Also in 2002, BoB listed Bank of Baroda (Uganda) on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). The next year BoB opened an OBU in Mumbai.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2004 BoB acquired the failed south Gujarat Local Area Bank. BoB also returned to Tanzania by establishing a subsidiary in Dar-es-Salaam. BoB also opened a representative office each in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Guangdong, China.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2005 BoB built a Global Data Centre (DC) in Mumbai for running its centralised banking solution (CBS) and other applications in more than 1,900 branches across India and 20 other counties where the bank operates. BoB also opened a representative office in Thailand.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2007, its centenary year, BoB's total business crossed 2.09 trillion (short scale), its branches crossed 2000, and its global customer base 29 million people. In Hong Kong, Bank got Full Fledged Banking license and business of its Restricted License Banking subsidiary was taken over Bank of Baroda branch in Hong Kong w.e.f.01.04.2007.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2008 BoB opened a branch in Guangzhou, China (02/08/2008) and in Kenton, Harrow United Kingdom. BoB opened a joint venture life insurance company with Andhra Bank and Legal & General (UK) called IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2009 Bank of Baroda (New Zealand) was registered. BoB (NZ) has 3 branches: two in Auckland, one in Wellington.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2010 Malaysia awarded a commercial banking licence to a locally incorporated bank to be jointly owned by Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Andhra Bank.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: In 2011 BoB opened an Electronic Banking Service Unit (EBSU) at Hamriya Free Zone, Sharjah (UAE). It also opened four new branches in existing operations in Uganda, Kenya (2), and Guyana. BoB closed its representative office in Malaysia in anticipation of the opening of its consortium bank there. BoB received 'In Principle' approval for the upgrading of its representative office in Australia to a branch. Bob also acquired Mumbai-based Memon Cooperative Bank, which had 225 employees and 15 branches in Maharashtra and three in Gujarat. It had to suspend operations in May 2009 due to its precarious financial condition.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: The Malaysian consortium bank, India International Bank Malaysia (IIBM), finally opened in Kuala Lumpur, which has a large population of Indians. BOB owns 40%, Andhra Bank owns 25%, and IOB the remaining 35% of the share capital. IIBM seeks to open five branches within its first year of operations in Malaysia, and intends to grow to 15 branches within the next three years.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: On 17 September 2018, the government of India proposed the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with the Bank of Baroda, pending approval from the boards of the three banks, effectively creating the third largest lender in the country. The merger was approved by the Union Cabinet and the boards of the banks on 2 January 2019. Under the terms of the merger, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank shareholders received 110 and 402 equity shares of the Bank of Baroda, respectively, of face value 2 for every 1,000 shares they held. The merger came into effect on 1 April 2019. Post-merger, the Bank of Baroda is the third largest bank in India, after State Bank of India and HDFC Bank. The consolidated entity has over 9,500 branches, 13,400 ATMs, 85,000 employees and serves 120 million customers. The amalgamation is the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in the country, with a combined business of Rs14.82 trillion (short scale), making it the third largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank. Post-merger effective 1 April 2019, the bank has become the India's third largest lender behind SBI and ICICI Bank.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Bank of Baroda announced in May 2019 that it would either close or rationalise 800–900 branches to increase operational efficiency and reduce duplication post-merger. The regional and zonal offices of the merged companies would also be closed. "PTI" quoted an unnamed senior bank official as stating that Bank of Baroda would look to expand in eastern India as it already had a strong presence in the other regions.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: The bank has 107 branches/offices in 24 countries (excluding India) including 61 branches/offices of the bank, 38 branches of its 8 subsidiaries and 1 representative office in Thailand. The Bank of Baroda has a joint venture in Zambia with 16 branches.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Among the Bank of Baroda's overseas branches are ones in the world's major financial centres (e.g., New York, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Brussels and Singapore), as well as a number in other countries. The bank is engaged in retail banking via the branches of subsidiaries in Botswana, Guyana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The bank plans has recently upgraded its representative office in Australia to a branch and set up a joint venture commercial bank in Malaysia. It has a large presence in Mauritius with about nine branches spread out in the country.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: The Bank of Baroda has received permission or in-principle approval from host country regulators to open new offices in Trinidad and Tobago and Ghana, where it seeks to establish joint ventures or subsidiaries. The bank has received Reserve Bank of India approval to open offices in the Maldives, and New Zealand. It is seeking approval for operations in Bahrain, South Africa, Kuwait, Mozambique, and Qatar, and is establishing offices in Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. It also has plans to extend its existing operations in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Botswana.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between Bank of Baroda (44%) and fellow Indian state-owned bank Andhra Bank (30%), and UK's financial and investment company Legal & General (26%). It was incorporated in November, 2009 and has its headquarters in Mumbai. The company started strongly, achieving a turnover in excess of 2 billion in its first four and half months.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank are partner banks in Chillr Mobile app. Non-partner bank customers can only receive funds. Only the mobile number of the beneficiary in the remitter's phonebook is needed. Application enables customers to send money to any registered Chillr user on phone contact list.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: On the 4 September 2017 the South Africa Financial Intelligence Centre fined Bank of Baroda 11 million (equivalent to US$837,000) for flouting anti-corruption laws in transactions on accounts owned by the Gupta family. Following the flagging of 36 suspicious transactions through Gupta-family-owned accounts over a ten-month period valued at 4.2 billion, the bank tried to close the accounts. The Gupta family has filed an interdict against the bank to prevent it from closing their accounts. During February 2018, it was announced that the Bank of Baroda has given notification to the South African Reserve Bank that it will be exiting the country.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: The bank played a crucial role in the Gupta family's business dealings. According to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Bank of Baroda allowed the Gupta family to move millions of dollars in alleged corrupt business transactions to offshore accounts. Although the Bank of Baroda denies the illicit behavior, the documents report that the bank's South African branch issued unapproved loan guarantees, ignored internal compliance efforts, and averted regulators from learning about suspicious transactions in a way that benefited the Guptas’ network. Around 4.5m Rand has circulated around a handful of Gupta-associated companies between 2007 and 2017. Due to the volume of Gupta owned accounts, the majority of the bank's transactions in Johannesburg involved Gupta family funds.


title: Bank of Baroda

text: Reports reveal that inter-company loans provided an untraceable and inexplicable technique used by the Gupta brothers to transfer money from the Bank to various Gupta-owned companies like Trillion Financial Advisory and Centaur Mining. The suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by workers at the Bank of Baroda related to Gupta transactions were often voided by managers and higher-level bank officials. Most SARs failed to reach the South African Financial Intelligence Centre as a result.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the German, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, South Korean, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Mexican, UAE, and U.S. Navies. It was originally intended and used primarily as a point-defense weapon against anti-ship missiles. As its name indicates, RAM rolls as it flies. The missile must roll during flight because the RF tracking system uses a two-antenna interferometer that can measure phase interference of the electromagnetic wave in one plane only. The rolling interferometer permits the antennas to look at all planes of incoming energy. In addition, because the missile rolls, only one pair of steering canards is required. , it is the only U.S. Navy missile to operate in this manner.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The Rolling Airframe Missiles, together with the Mk 49 Guided Missile Launching System (GMLS) and support equipment, make up the RAM Mk 31 Guided Missile Weapon System (GMWS). The Mk-144 Guided Missile Launcher (GML) unit weighs and stores 21 missiles. The original weapon cannot employ its own sensors prior to firing, so it must be integrated with a ship's combat system, which directs the launcher at targets. On U.S. ships, it is integrated with the AN/SWY-2 Ship Defense Surface Missile System (SDSMS) and Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) Mk 1 or Mk 2-based combat systems. SeaRAM, a launcher variant equipped with independent sensors derived from the Vulcan Phalanx CIWS, is being installed on Littoral Combat Ships and certain s.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The RIM-116 was developed by General Dynamics Pomona and Valley Systems divisions under a July 1976 agreement with Denmark and West Germany (the General Dynamics missile business was later acquired by Hughes Aircraft and is today part of Raytheon). Denmark dropped out of the program, but the U.S. Navy joined in as the major partner. The Mk 49 launcher was evaluated on board the destroyer in the late 1980s. The first 30 missiles were built in FY85, and they became operational on 14 November 1992, onboard .


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: SeaRAM was developed in response to concerns about the performance of gun-based systems against modern supersonic sea-skimming anti-ship missiles. It was designed as a companion self-defense system to Phalanx,


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The RIM-116 is in service on several American and 30 German warships. All new German Navy warships will be equipped with the RAM, such as the new s, which will mount two RAM launchers per ship. The Greek Navy has equipped the new Super Vita–class fast attack craft with the RAM. South Korea has signed license-production contracts for their navy's KDX-II, KDX-III, and s.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The U.S. Navy plans to purchase a total of about 1,600 RAMs and 115 launchers to equip 74 ships. The missile is currently active aboard s, s, s, s, ships, s, s, and littoral combat ships (LCS).


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The original version of the missile, called "Block 0", was based on the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile, whose rocket motor, fuze, and warhead were used. Block 0 missiles were designed to initially home in on radiation emitted from a target (such as the active radar of an incoming anti-ship missile), switching to an infrared seeker derived from that of the FIM-92 Stinger missile for terminal guidance. In test firings, the Block 0 missiles achieved hit rates of over 95%.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The "Block 1" (RIM-116B) is an improved version of the RAM missile that adds an overall infrared-only guidance system that enables it to intercept missiles that are not emitting any radar signals. The Block 0's radar homing capabilities have been retained.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The "Block 2" (RIM-116C) is an upgraded version of the RAM missile aimed at more effectively countering more maneuverable anti-ship missiles through a four-axis independent control actuator system, increased rocket motor capability, an improved passive radio frequency seeker and upgraded components of the infrared seeker, and advanced kinematics. On 8 May 2007, the U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon Missile Systems a $105 million development contract; development was expected to be completed by December 2010. LRIP began in 2012. 51 missiles were initially ordered. On 22 October 2012, the RAM Block 2 completed its third guided test vehicle flight, firing two missiles in a salvo and directly hitting the target, to verify the system's command and control capabilities, kinematic performance, guidance system, and airframe capabilities. Raytheon was scheduled to deliver 25 Block 2 missiles during the program's integrated testing phase. The Block 2 RAM was delivered to the U.S. Navy in August 2014, with 502 missiles to be acquired from 2015 to 2019. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the Block 2 RAM was achieved on 15 May 2015.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: In early 2018 the U.S. State Department approved the sale of RIM-116 Block II to the Mexican Navy for use on their future Sigma-class design frigates, the first of which was jointly built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding and launched in November 2018.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: In 1998, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the defense departments of Germany and the United States to improve the system so that it could also engage so-called "HAS", Helicopter, Aircraft, and Surface targets. As developed, the "HAS" upgrade just required software modifications that can be applied to all Block 1 RAM missiles.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The SeaRAM combines the radar and electro-optical system of the Phalanx CIWS Mk-15 Block 1B (CRDC) with an 11-cell RAM launcher to produce an autonomous system—one which does not need any external information to engage threats. Like the Phalanx, SeaRAM can be fitted to any class of ship. Due to the common mounting, SeaRAM inherits the relatively easy installation characteristics of its gun-based sibling, with Raytheon stating that SeaRAM "fits the exact shipboard installation footprint of the Phalanx, uses the same power and requires minimal shipboard modification". In 2008, the first SeaRAM system was delivered to be installed on "." , one SeaRAM is fitted to each "Independence"-class vessel. In late 2014, the Navy revealed it had chosen to install the SeaRAM on its Small Surface Combatant LCS follow-on ships. Beginning in November 2015, the Navy will complete installation of a SeaRAM on the first of four s patrolling within the U.S. 6th Fleet. The SeaRAM will equip the Royal Saudi Navy's multi-mission surface combat (MMSC) based on the s.


title: RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

text: The Dutch Ministry of Defence announced on 14 January 2021 that it wants to purchase the Rolling Airframe Missile for its new anti-submarine warfare frigates and the LPDs Rotterdam and Johan de Witt.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Here Comes the Sun" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album "Abbey Road". It was written by George Harrison and is one of his best-known compositions. Harrison wrote the song in early 1969 at the country house of his friend Eric Clapton, where Harrison had chosen to play truant for the day to avoid attending a meeting at the Beatles' Apple Corps organisation. The lyrics reflect his relief at the arrival of spring and the temporary respite he was experiencing from the band's business affairs.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: The Beatles recorded "Here Comes the Sun" at London's EMI Studios in the summer of 1969. Led by Harrison's acoustic guitar, the track features a Moog synthesizer, which he had introduced to the band's sound after acquiring an early model of the instrument in California. Reflecting the continued influence of Indian classical music on Harrison's writing, the composition includes several time signature changes.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Here Comes the Sun" has received acclaim from music critics. Combined with his other contribution to "Abbey Road", "Something", it gained for Harrison the level of recognition as a songwriter previously reserved for his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. "Here Comes the Sun" was the track used to promote the of "Abbey Road" in 2019. It peaked at number 3 on the US "Billboard" Hot Rock Songs chart at that time and has since been certified double platinum for UK sales since 2010. As of 2021, it was the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify globally.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: Harrison played the song during many of his relatively rare live performances as a solo artist, including at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 and, with Paul Simon, during his appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in 1976. Richie Havens and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel each had hit singles with "Here Comes the Sun" in the 1970s. Nina Simone, George Benson, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Peter Tosh and Joe Brown are among the many other artists who have covered the song.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: The early months of 1969 were a difficult period for George Harrison: he had quit the Beatles temporarily, he was arrested for marijuana possession, and he had his tonsils removed. Writing in "Oz" magazine at the end of the year, Barry Miles commented on the "isolated life" of the individual Beatles, with "George strangely upset by his bust, uncertain about his friends but singing "Hare Krishna"."


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Sun" at the house of his friend Eric Clapton, in response to the dark mood surrounding the Beatles. Harrison states in his autobiography, "I, Me, Mine":


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: Clapton's house at the time was Hurtwood Edge, in Ewhurst, Surrey, and he later said the month was possibly April. Data from two meteorological stations in the London area show that April 1969 set a record for sunlight hours for the 1960s. The Greenwich station recorded 189 hours for April, a high that was not beaten until 1984. The Greenwich data also show that February and March were much colder than the norm for the 1960s, which would account for Harrison's reference to a "long, cold, lonely winter".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In his 1969 interview with reporter David Wigg for the BBC Radio 1 series "Scene and Heard", subsequently included on the 1976 album "The Beatles Tapes", Harrison recalled that, due to the many business meetings, he had not played guitar for a couple of weeks, "And the first thing that came out was that song." He completed the song's lyrics in June, while on holiday in Sardinia.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Here Comes the Sun" is in the key of A major. The main refrain uses a IV (D chord) to V-of-V (B chord–a secondary dominant) progression (the reverse of that used in "Eight Days a Week" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band").<ref name="Pollack/Notes"></ref> The melody in the verse and refrain follows the pentatonic scale from E up to C (scale steps 5, 6, 1, 2, 3).


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: One feature is the increasing syncopation in the vocal parts. Another feature is the guitar flat-picking that embellishes the E7 (V7) chord from 2:03 to 2:11, creating tension for resolution on the tonic A chord at "Little darlin' ". The bridge involves a III-VII-IV-I-V7 triple descending 4th (or Tri-Plagal) progression (with an extra V7) as the vocals move from "Sun" (III or C chord) to "sun" (VII or G chord) to "sun" (IV or D chord) to "comes" (I or A chord) and the additional 4th descent to a V7 (E7) chord. In musicologist Walter Everett's view, the lyrics over the bridge ("Sun, sun, sun, here it comes") take "on the quality of a meditator's mantra".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: The song features 4/4 (in the verse) and a sequence of 11/8 + 4/4 + 7/8 (which can also be transcribed as 11/8 + 15/8) in the bridge, phrasing interludes that Harrison drew from Indian music influences. In the second verse (0:59–1:13), the Moog synthesizer doubles the solo guitar line and in the third verse the Moog adds a counter melody an octave above. The last four bars (2:54–3:04) juxtapose the guitar break with a repeat of the bridge.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: The lyric's affirmation of life through the natural occurrence of the sun was in keeping with a contemporary trend, following examples such as "Good Morning Starshine" and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" from the popular musical "Hair". Former "Catholic Herald" editor William Oddie wrote that the song conveys an "almost Chestertonian gratitude for the beauty of creation".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr recorded the rhythm track at EMI Studios (subsequently Abbey Road Studios) in 13 takes on 7 July 1969. John Lennon did not contribute to the song, as he was recovering from a car crash. Towards the end of the session, Harrison spent an hour re-recording his acoustic guitar part. He capoed his guitar on the 7th fret resulting in the final key of A major, which was then varispeeded less than a semitone higher. He also used the same technique on his 1965 song "If I Needed Someone", which shares a similar melodic pattern. The following day he taped his lead vocals, and he and McCartney recorded their backing vocals twice to give a fuller sound.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: A harmonium and handclaps were added on 16 July. Harrison overdubbed an electric guitar run through a Leslie speaker on 6 August, and the orchestral parts (George Martin's score for four violas, four cellos, double bass, two piccolos, two flutes, two alto flutes and two clarinets) were added on 15 August. He also added further acoustic guitar during the 6 and 11 August sessions. The master tapes reveal that Harrison recorded a guitar solo in the bridge which was not included in the final mix.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Here Comes the Sun" was completed on 19 August with the addition of a Moog synthesizer part. After Harrison had used the Moog on his recent experimental album, "Electronic Sound", the instrument had been installed at EMI Studios in August, with assistance from Mike Vickers of the band Manfred Mann, and became an important addition to the sound of the Beatles' final recording project. In the description of authors Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, writing in their book on the history and legacy of the Moog synthesizer, Harrison uses it throughout "Here Comes the Sun", and the instrument's "increasing brilliance of timbre" on the track serves to convey "the sun's increasing brilliance".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: The mixing session on 20 August 1969, when the band oversaw the creation of the master tape for "Abbey Road", marked the last time that all four Beatles were together in the recording studio. At this point, "Here Comes the Sun" was sequenced as the album's opening song.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Abbey Road" was released on 26 September 1969 with "Here Comes the Sun" sequenced as the first track on side two of the LP. Along with "Something", which was issued as a single from the album, the song established Harrison as a composer to match Lennon and McCartney. According to author Alan Clayson, Harrison's two "Abbey Road" compositions received "the most widespread syndication" of all the tracks on the album, partly through the number of cover versions they attracted.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In his October 1969 interview with Harrison, Wigg suggested that "Here Comes the Sun" was the "more obvious" choice for a single. He also remarked on the attention afforded Harrison's new songs in light of the longstanding dominance of the Lennon–McCartney partnership and expressed surprise at Harrison's ascendancy. Harrison replied that "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" were "maybe a bit more commercial" than his four compositions on the Beatles' 1968 self-titled double album, but "not much better" as songs.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In Japan, "Here Comes the Sun" was issued on a single in 1970, as the B-side to McCartney's "Abbey Road" track "Oh! Darling". In 1973, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" were included on the double album "The Beatles 1967–1970", giving Harrison half the quota of songs representing "Abbey Road" on the compilation. In 1994, when BMI published its US radio airplay figures, "Here Comes the Sun" was listed as having been played more than 2 million times.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: After the Beatles' catalogue becoming available for download on iTunes, "Here Comes the Sun" charted at number 64 on the UK Singles Chart in November 2010. It returned to the chart in April 2012, peaking at number 58.<ref name="OCC/BeatlesSingles"></ref> The song reached number 14 on the US "Billboard" Hot Rock Songs chart in 2017. Two years later, it re-entered the list and became the Beatles' first top-ten hit on the Hot Rock Songs chart.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: As of late September 2019, it was the most streamed Beatles song in the UK, with over 53 million plays, ahead of "Let It Be" on 26 million,<ref name="Copsey/OCC"></ref> and the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify globally, with over 350 million plays.<ref name="Beech/Forbes"></ref> Up to that time, it was also the most downloaded song from "Abbey Road".<ref name="Myers/OCC"></ref> Official Charts Company writer Rob Copsey describes the track as a "staple of any summer playlist". As of August 2021, "Here Comes the Sun" was still the band's most streamed song on Spotify, with over 700 million plays.<ref name="Light/Esquire"></ref>


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In the context of the late 1960s, according to cultural commentator Steven D. Stark, the song's "promise of a new dawn after a lonely winter caught the wearied sensibility of the counterculture". In her review of "Abbey Road" for "Saturday Review" magazine, Ellen Sander said that "Here Comes the Sun" was "an awakening, an exaltation of the dawn" and the start of a run of songs that represented "the [LP's] sun side, suffused with mellowed warmth, woven together with motifs, bridging, reprises, surprises, with all the songs set within one another". "Time" magazine described it as a "dawn-flecked prelude" to the side-two medley, which the reviewer deemed "a kind of odyssey from innocence to experience", and said that Harrison had "achieve[d] a new confidence in his own musical personality" on "Abbey Road". Lon Goddard of "Record Mirror" described "Here Comes the Sun" as his "pet track", adding: "Nice string picking backs it as the vocals approach Beach Boys or Vanity Fare. Excellent melody creates one of the best atmospheres present on the record."


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: Writing for "Rolling Stone" in 2002, Mikal Gilmore likened the song to the McCartney-written "Let It Be" and Lennon's solo hit "Imagine", as Harrison's "graceful anthem of hope amid difficult realities". In the same publication, Greg Kot described it as "simpler, but just as intoxicating [as 'Something']" and said that "Harrison's acoustic-guitar intro is a song in itself, its warmth and fragility presaging the guarded optimism of the lyric." While expressing regret at having underestimated Harrison as a songwriter, Martin described "Here Comes the Sun" as being "in some ways one of the best songs ever written". Harrison was one of the first musicians in the UK to own a Moog synthesizer; although the instrument had been used by many American acts since 1967, author Thom Holmes says that with "Abbey Road" the Beatles were "one of the first groups to effectively integrate the sounds of the Moog into their music". Pinch and Trocco describe "Here Comes the Sun" as "one of the best known Beatles songs ever" and the album's "Moog "pièce de résistance"".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Here Comes the Sun" has appeared in many critics' lists of the Beatles' best recordings. Among these, the "NME" placed it at number 4 in the magazine's 2015 list of "the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs". In a similar poll compiled by "Mojo" in 2006, where the song appeared at number 21, Danny Eccleston described it as "perhaps the best song – outside 'Jerusalem' – that religion can claim credit for", adding: "Those who professed surprise at Harrison's immediate elevation to Most Successful Solo Beatle status [in 1970] clearly weren't listening to this."<ref name="Mojo/101 Greatest"></ref> "Here Comes the Sun" appeared at number 28 on "Rolling Stone" 2010 list, where the editors commented that together with "Something", "it gave notice that the Beatles now had three formidable composers."


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In August 1971, Harrison performed "Here Comes the Sun" at the Concert for Bangladesh, accompanied by Pete Ham of the Apple group Badfinger. Among reviews of the "Concert for Bangladesh" live album, Ed Kelleher of "Circus" described the rendition as "outstanding", while "Rolling Stone" Jon Landau cited it as the best example of Harrison's "capacity for pacing and timing" in his organisation of the show, as the low-key performance provided an effective change of mood after Leon Russell's songs and before Bob Dylan's arrival on stage.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: Harrison played the song during his appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in November 1976, as a duet with Paul Simon. That same month, Harrison was displeased that EMI included "Here Comes the Sun" and six of his other Beatles songs on the compilation album "The Best of George Harrison". Since Harrison had signed with Warner Bros. Records, EMI timed the compilation's release to steal sales from his first album for Warner's, "Thirty Three & 1/3". Harrison performed the song, backed by a band that included Starr, Jeff Lynne and Elton John, during his brief set at the 1987 Prince's Trust Concerts in London; these shows were Harrison's first in the UK since 1966, aside from his semi-anonymous supporting role on Delaney & Bonnie's 1969 tour with Clapton. A live version from his 1991 Japanese tour with Clapton appeared on Harrison's "Live in Japan" double album.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: "Here Comes the Sun" was included on the Beatles' 2006 remix album "Love",<ref name="Willman/EW"></ref> which was created for the Cirque du Soleil stage show of the same name. This version of the track, created by Martin and his son Giles, incorporates elements from two of Harrison's Indian-style songs with the Beatles. It begins with the tabla part from "Within You Without You" and ends by segueing into a transition piece featuring Indian instrumentation from "The Inner Light".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In September 2019, "Here Comes the Sun" was the track used to promote the fiftieth anniversary reissue of "Abbey Road". For this purpose, a music video was produced to accompany Giles Martin's new stereo remix of the song. Directed by Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney of Trunk Animation, the video includes photographs of the individual Beatles by Linda McCartney, animated to float through EMI Studios, and pictures taken from their final photo session at Lennon's Tittenhurst Park estate in 1969.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In the early 1970s, "Here Comes the Sun" was adopted by George McGovern in his campaign for the US presidency. The initial success of the campaign, according to author Nicholas Schaffner, was a "triumph for the counterculture's attempt to wield power via conventional electoral politics".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In 1977, astronomer and science populariser Carl Sagan attempted to have "Here Comes the Sun" included on a disc of music accompanying the "Voyager" space mission.<ref name="Fontenot/About"></ref> Titled the Voyager Golden Record, copies of the disc were put on board both spacecraft in the Voyager program in order to provide any entity that recovered them with a representative sample of human civilization. Writing in his book "Murmurs of Earth", Sagan recalls that the Beatles favoured the idea, but "[they] did not own the copyright, and the legal status of the piece seemed too murky to risk." Due to EMI's intervention, when the probes were launched in 1977, the song was not included.


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: In 1979, Harrison released "Here Comes the Moon" as a lyrical successor to the song. Some critics disapproved of his apparent reworking of such a popular Beatles song. Harrison said he expected this scrutiny but other songwriters had had "ten years to write 'Here Comes the Moon' after 'Here Comes the Sun', but nobody else wrote it, [so] I might as well do it meself".


title: Here Comes the Sun

text: On the day after Harrison's death in November 2001, fans sang "Here Comes the Sun" at a gathering in Strawberry Fields in New York's Central Park. In 2004, Mike Love of the Beach Boys wrote "Pisces Brothers" as a tribute to Harrison and their shared experiences in India,<ref name="Newman/RS"></ref> and referenced the song in his closing line "Little darlin', here comes the sun". Love released "Pisces Brothers" in February 2014, to commemorate what would have been Harrison's 71st birthday, before including the track on his 2017 album "Unleash the Love".