Category: Swastika

Nazi bear a cultural boo-boo

Canadian Press, Dec. 29, 2002 http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/front/RTGAM/20021229/wbear1229a/Front/homeBN/breakingnews Canadian Press Sunday, December 29 – Online Edition, Posted at 9:38 PM EST Montreal — A cross-cultural misunderstanding about one of the world’s oldest religious symbols might be at the heart of the mystery that had “Nazi” pandas popping out of Christmas crackers. Last Friday, a Lachine, Que., manufacturer of the festive crackers was horrified to learn that a northern Alberta couple celebrating Christmas found tiny plastic panda bears with

Move afoot to detoxify ancient, once-benign swastika symbol

Can the swastika be redeemed? Before the Nazi Party adopted the swastika and turned it into the most potent icon of racial hatred, it traveled the world as a good luck symbol. It was known in France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, China, Japan, India and the United States. Buddha’s footprints were said to be swastikas. Navajo blankets were woven with swastikas. Synagogues in North Africa, Palestine and Hartford, Conn., were built with swastika mosaics. Now there is a small movement afoot to help “the swastika get on with its benign life,” to separate it from “the sins of the Nazis.” Is