Wikipedia Trail: From International Romani Day to Czechoslovakia

 

Flag of the Romani People, via Wikipedia

International Romani Day: I first began with this article due to noticing it in the class announcements (and subsequently writing a blog post about it and how I studied the people in a world music class). I was mainly interested in knowing when it began, which was in 1990.

14th Dalai Lama: I then moved on to the Dalai Lama because I saw he lit a candle to commemorate International Romani Day in 2003. That seemed pretty significant to me, so I thought this would be the right direction to move down the rabbit hole.

Refugee: I then moved on to refugee because of a parallel I thought of. The Romani people were and are often thought of in the same way as many people in the US view refugees -- terrible people. They both are despised by many, even when there is nothing despicable about them.

Czechoslovakia: I ended my journey with Czechoslovakia because of my bloodline. There were many Czechoslovakian refugees during the Nazi era, so that tied well with the previous article. I am also 25% Czechoslovakian, so I thought it was cool to see how my ancestors are just a few jumps away from a holiday that celebrates a group of people that I have been studying in my world music class.

Wikipedia Trail: From Aesop's Fables to the Olympic Games

1. Aesop's Fables: I began with Aesop's Fables because it was the source of the story I based my Week 1 story on. Aesop's Fables is a compilation of fables which were written by the titular Aesop. Aesop was a slave who presumably lived in ancient Greece. The fables cover many topics including religion, ethics, and social issues.

Portrait of Aesop by Velázquez in the Prado, Wikimedia

2. Ancient Greece: I next moved the article on Ancient Greece, the area believed to be the home of Aesop. Many of those fables which originated so long ago survive to this day. The timeline of Ancient Greece includes the Archaic period, Classical Greece, Hellenistic Greece, and ended with Roman Greece. Technology and mathematics flourished during this period. Astronomy was created and Hippocrates, "father of medicine," lived during these times.


3. Western Culture: I then followed Ancient Greece to an article on Western culture; Ancient Greece provided the basis from which modern Western culture grew. Western Culture refers to the values, beliefs, ethics, etc which emerges from Europe. Western culture societies are primarily rationale-based which influences everything from science to politics. In fact, Western culture is where democracy begins, a very prominent form of government.


4. Olympic Games: Finally, I followed Western culture to the Olympic Games. Sports, after all, have always been a commonplace in Western cultures. The Olympic Games are a massive collection of competitions competed in every four years by many countries and include summer and winter versions. The Olympic Games originated in Olympia, Greece, from which they derive their name.

The Olympic Rings, Wikimedia