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Onam

Onam is an annual harvest and cultural festival related to Hinduism that is celebrated mostly by the people of Kerala. A major annual event for Keralites, it is the official festival of the state and includes a spectrum of cultural events.

Onam commemorates Vamana (the fifth avatar of Hindu deity Vishnu) and the generous but egotistical daitya king Mahabali. According to the Hindu legends, after Indra (the king of the devas) is defeated by Mahabali (the king of the asuras), the devas ultimately seek refuge in Vishnu, who agrees to restore Indra to power. To do so, Vishnu incarnates as a dwarf priest called Vamana. The king Mahabali (himself a devotee of Vishnu) conducts ritual prayers, one of which is attended by Vamana, who requests only three feet (steps) of land to build a fire-altar. Mahabali agrees, despite being told about Vamana's divine nature by the sage Shukra. Vamana grows in size, and in three strides, encompasses all of the universe and beyond. The three worlds are restored to Indra, and Mahabali and the asuras are banished to the netherworld (Patala). However, witnessing Mahabali's love for his subjects, Vamana grants the king's sole wish to visit his kingdom once every year. This homecoming of Mahabali is celebrated as Onam in Kerala every year.

The date of Onam celebration is based on the Panchangam, and falls on the 22nd nakshatra Thiruvonam in the month Chingam of Malayalam calendar, which in Gregorian calendar falls between August–September.

History
The festival has ancient origins and is intricately linked with Hindu mythology. Literary and epigraphical evidence suggests that Onam has a long religious context and history in Kerala and neighboring parts of South India: चोकुयन्ते पृथुकततयश्चापतादिन्य उच्चैः सर्वानार्यःपतिभिरनिशम् लम्भयन्त्यर्थकामान्।
 * The earliest known reference to the word Onam as a celebration is found in Maturaikkāñci – a Sangam era Tamil poem from the 3rd century CE. It mentions a festival called Onam being celebrated in dedication to Maayon (Vishnu) in Madurai, when games and duels were held in temple premises, oblations were sent to the temples, people wore new clothes and feasted.
 * The 8th-century Alvar mystic saint Nammalvar mentions of the one who measured the three worlds, a parallel to the legend of Mahabali and Vamana.
 * The 9th-century Pathikas and Pallads by Periyazharwar describes Onam celebrations and offerings to Vishnu, mentions feasts and community events.
 * An 11th-century inscription in the Thrikkakara Temple (Kochi) dedicated to Vamana – an avatar of Vishnu – mentions a series of offerings made by a votary over two days prior and on Thiru Onam.
 * A 12th-century inscription in the Tiruvalla Temple, one of the largest Hindu temples in Kerala dedicated to Vishnu, mentions Onam and states a donation was made to the temple as the Onam festival offering.
 * Uddanda Shastri, a southern Indian Sanskrit poet visiting the court of the Zamorin, has written about a festival called śrāvaṇa. It is presumed that this verse is about the festival of Onam as the word Onam (or Thiruvonam) is the Tamil/Malayalam form of the śrāvaṇa nakshatra mentioned in Indian astronomy:

बभ्रम्यन्ते सकलपुरुषैर्वल्लभाभ्यः प्रदातुम् चित्रम् वस्त्रम् श्रावणकुतुकम् वर्तते केरळेषु॥

''Gangs of lads, playing their bows hoot loudly again and again; All women make their husbands provide wealth and pleasure; All men are wandering hither and thither to present beautiful garments to their women. The festivity of 'Sravana' takes place in Kerala''.
 * A 16th-century European memoir describes Onam. It mentions among other things that Onam is always celebrated in September, the Malayali people adorn their homes with flowers and daub them over with cow's dung believing its auspicious association with goddess Lakshmi.

According to Kurup, Onam has been historically a Hindu temple-based community festival celebrated over a period of many days.

Significance
Onam is an ancient Hindu festival of Kerala that celebrates rice harvest. The significance of the festival is in Indian culture, of which two are more common.

Mahabali and Vamana
According to Hindu mythology, Mahabali was the great-great-grandson of a Brahmin sage named Kashyapa, the great-grandson of a demonic dictator, Hiranyakashipu, and the grandson of Vishnu devotee Prahlada. This links the festival to the Puranic story of Prahlada of Holika fame in Hinduism, who was the son of Hiranyakashipu. Prahlada, despite being born to a demonic Asura father who hated Vishnu, rebelled against his father's persecution of people and worshipped Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu tries to kill his son Prahlada, but is slain by Vishnu in his Narasimha avatar, Prahlada is saved.

Prahlada's grandson, Mahabali, came to power by defeating the gods (Devas) and taking over the three worlds. According to Vaishnavism, the defeated Devas approached Vishnu for help in their battle with Mahabali. Vishnu refused to join the gods in violence against Mahabali because Mahabali was a good ruler and his own devotee. Mahabali, after his victory over the gods, declared that he would perform a Yajna (homa sacrifices/rituals) and grant anyone any request during the Yajna. Vishnu took the avatar – his fifth – of a dwarf monk called Vamana and approached Mahabali. The king offered anything to the boy – gold, cows, elephants, villages, food, whatever he wished. The boy said that one must not seek more than one needs, and all he needed was "three paces of land." Mahabali agreed.

Vamana grew to an enormous size and covered everything Mahabali ruled over in just two paces. For the third pace, Mahabali offered his head for Vishnu to step on, an act that Vishnu accepted as evidence of Mahabali's devotion. Vishnu granted him a boon, by which Mahabali could visit again, once every year, the lands and people he previously ruled. This revisit marks the festival of Onam, as a reminder of the virtuous rule and his humility in keeping his promise before Vishnu. The last day of Mahabali's stay is remembered with a nine-course vegetarian Onasadya feast.

The name Thrikkakara is originated from 'Thiru-kaal-kara' meaning 'place of the holy foot'. The main deity at Thrikkakara Temple is Vamana, the smaller temple to the side has Shiva as the deity. Vamana temple is known as 'Vadakkum Devar' and the Shiva temple is known as 'Tekkum Devar'. A number of subsidiary deities have been installed at Thrikkakara Temple. The 1961 census report on Onam festival states : "Though the Vamana temple is accepted as the main temple at the elite level, the local people consider the Shiva temple as the more important one. They believe that Shiva was the 'Kuladeivam' (family deity) of Mahabali and that there was no Vamana temple at that time. The palace of Mahabali was situated at the place where the Vamana temple is at present. After the fall of Mahabali, his palace was destroyed and later on Vamana was installed on that spot by the saint Kapila."According to Nanditha Krishna, a simpler form of this legend, one without Mahabali, is found in the Rigveda and the Vedic text Shatapatha Brahmana where a solar deity is described with powers of Vishnu. This story likely grew over time, and is in part allegorical, where Bali is a metaphor for thanksgiving offering after a bounty of rice harvest during monsoon, and Vishnu is the metaphor of the Kerala sun and summer that precedes the Onam. According to Roshen Dalal, the story of Mahabali is important to Onam in Kerala, but similar Mahabali legends are significant in the region of Balia and Bawan in Uttar Pradesh, Bharuch in Gujarat, and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. The story is significant not because Mahabali's rule ended, but it emphasizes the Hindu belief in cyclical nature of events, that no individual, no ruler and nothing lasts forever, except the virtues and self-understanding that overcomes all sorrow.

Parashurama
An alternate tale behind Onam relates to Parashurama, an incarnation of Vishnu who is credited in Hinduism to have created the Western Ghats and Kerala. According to this legend, Vishnu observed the kings of the Kshatriya (warrior) waging constant war on one another and growing arrogant. He assumed the avatar of Parashurama, the warrior sage, in the era of the king Kartavirya Arjuna. This king persecuted and oppressed the people, the sages, and the gods. Following the murder of his father Jamadagni, Parashurama swore vengeance against the king and the warrior class, slaying them as he travelled the world. When all the oppressors had been vanquished, he threw his axe into the ocean. The ocean retreated from the region where the axe descended, creating the land of Kerala. The Onam festival, according to this legend, celebrates Parashurama's creation of Kerala by marking those days as the new year.

The legend and worship of Parashurama is attested in texts and epigraphs dated to about the 2nd century CE.

Cultural festival
Onam is a "popular major Hindu festival in Kerala", states Christine Frost, but one that is also celebrated by other communities with "much zest alongside Hindus". The festival is celebrated in BECs (Basic Ecclesial communities) in Trivandrum with local rituals, according to Latin Catholic Bishop Selvister Ponnumuthan. These traditions, according to Selvister Ponnumuthan, start with the lighting of Nilavilakku, an arati that includes waving of flowers (pushparati) over the Bible, eating the Onam meal together with the Hindus as a form of "communion of brothers and sisters of different faiths". The significance of these practices are viewed by BECs in Trivandrum as a form of integration with Hindus, mutual respect and sharing a tradition.

Paulinus of St. Bartholomew (1748–1806), in his 'A voyage to the East Indies' describes Onam as : "The fourth grand festival, celebrated in Malayala, is called Onam, and happens always in the month of September, on the day of new moon (not always). About the 10th of September the rain ceases in Malabar. All nature seems as if regenerated; the flowers again shoot up, and the trees bloom, in a word, this season is the same as that which Europeans call spring. This festival seems, therefore, to have been instituted for the purpose of soliciting from the Gods a happy and fruitful year. It continues eight days and during that time the Indians are accustomed to adorn their houses with flowers and daub them over with cow's dung; because the cow, as already observed, is a sacred animal dedicated to the Goddess Lakshmi, the Ceres of the Indians. On this occasion they also put on new clothes throw aside all their old earthenware and supply its place by new. The men, particularly those who are young, form themselves into two parties and shoot at each other with arrows. These arrows are blunted, but exceedingly strong, and are discharged with such force, that a considerable number are generally wounded on both sides. These games have a great likeness to the Cerealia and Juvenalia of the ancient Greeks and Romans."

Onam and Islam
Various sections of Islam have raised concerns about the celebration of Onam by Muslims. However some Muslims observe Onam anyway, considering its celebrations and rituals as a cultural practice.

Celebrations, rituals and practices
Onam falls in the month of Chingam, which is the first month according to the Malayalam Calendar. The celebrations mark the Malayalam New Year, are spread over ten days, and conclude with Thiruvonam. The ten days are sequentially known as Atham, Chithira, Chodhi, Vishakam, Anizham, Thriketa, Moolam, Pooradam, Uthradam and Thiruvonam. The first and the last day are particularly important in Kerala and to Malayalee communities elsewhere.

The Atham day is marked with the start of festivities at Thrikkakara Vamanamoorthy Temple, Kochi. This Vishnu temple is considered as the focal centre of Onam and the abode of Mahabali, with the raising of the festival flag. Parades are held, which are colourful and depict the elements of Kerala culture with floats and tableaux.

Other days have a diverse range of celebrations and activities ranging from boat races, cultural programs, sports competitions, dance events, martial arts, floral Rangoli – pookkalam, prayers, shopping, donating time or food for charity to spending time with family over feasts. Men and women wear traditional dress. The Kerala sari or Kasavu sari is particularly wore on this day.

Athachamayam
The Onam celebrations across the state starts off with a grand procession at Thrippunithura near Kochi called Atthachamayam, also referred to as Thripunithura Athachamayam. The parade features decorated elephants marching, drum beats and other music, folk art forms, floats and colorfully dressed people with masks. In Kerala's history, the Kochi king used to head a grand military procession in full ceremonial robes from his palace to the Thrikkakara temple, meeting and greeting his people. In contemporary times, this a state-supported event.

The parade floats traditionally feature scenes from epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Additionally, some floats include themes from the Bible as well as current themes thereby highlighting unity and harmony.

The procession path historically has been from Tripunithura to the Vamanamoorthy Temple in Thrikkakara, Ernakulam district. The temple is dedicated to Vishnu in his Vamana (dwarf) avatar. After arrival at the temple, the marchers offer a prayer.

Pookkalam (Flower Rangoli)
The floral Rangoli, known as Onapookkalam, Athapookkalam or just Pookkalam, is made out of the gathered blossoms with several varieties of flowers of differing tints pinched up into little pieces to design and decorate patterns on the floor, particularly at entrances and temple premises like a flower mat. Lamps are arranged in the middle or edges. It is a work of religious art, typically the team initiative of girls and women, who accomplish it with a delicate touch and a personal artistic sense of tone and blending. When completed, a miniature pandal (umbrella) hung with little festoons is erected over it. The pookkalam is similar to Rangoli which is made of powders of various colors and is popular in North India.

The traditional ritual of laying pookkalam (floral Rangoli) starts on Atham day. The pookkalam on this day is called Athapoo, and it is relatively small in size. The size of the pookkalam grows in size progressively with each day of the Onam festival. Only yellow flowers will be used on Atham with only one circular layer made and the design is kept simple. Statues or figurines of Mahabali and Vamana are also installed at the entrance of each house on this day.

Traditionally, Atthapookalams included flowers endemic to Kerala and the Dashapushpam (10-flowers), but nowadays all varieties of flowers are used. Earthen mounds, which look somewhat like square pyramids, representing Mahabali and Vamana are placed in the dung-plastered courtyards in front of the house along with the Pookalam, and beautifully decorated with flowers. All over Kerala, Pookalam competitions are a common sight on Onam day.

Music and dance
Traditional dance forms including Thiruvathira, Kummattikali, Pulikali, Thumbi Thullal, Onam Kali and others. Thiruvathira Kali is a women's dance performed in a circle around a lamp. Kummattikali is a colorful-mask dance. In Thrissur, festivities include a procession consisting of caparisoned elephants surrounded by Kummatikali dancers. The masked dancers go from house to house performing the colorful Kummattikali. Onam Kali is a form of dance where players arrange themselves in circles around a pole or tree or lamp, then dance and sing songs derived from the Ramayana and other epics.

Kathakali dance is also commonly performed during this time, with dancers enacting characters from the various Ancient Indian legends. A famous venue for this is at Valluvanad which is associated with the growth of Kathakali, and Cheruthuruthy, where Kerala Kalamandalam is located.

Pulikali: tiger dance
Pulikali, also known as Kaduvakali is a common sight during the Onam season. This dance showcases performers painted like tigers in bright yellow, red and black, who dance to the beats of instruments like Chenda and Thakil. This folk art is mainly performed in the cultural district of Thrissur and thousands pour into the city to be a part of this art.

Performances of the ritual worship dance, Theyyam, are given during the Onam season. In this, Mahabali is played by the Onathar. Its variations include characters such as Oneswaran and Onapottan.

At the Thrikkakara temple, every day of the festival showcases one or more of these activities including Kathakali, Thiruvathira, Chakyar Koothu, Ottam Thullal, Patakam, Onam songs, and percussion instrument shows. The Onasadya here is grand in scale, and is attended by over ten thousand people from all religions and faiths. Festivities include Puli Kali (masked leopard dance) and traditional dance forms like Kaikotti Kali which are performed in various functions. The official Government celebrations start on this day with heavy illuminations in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode along with fireworks.

Most cities in Kerala, such as the political, commercial and cultural capitals, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Thrissur, are lit up with lights and fabulous displays of fireworks. Sumptuous Onam Sadya feasts are prepared. In Thrikkakara temple, a mega-feast is conducted, which is open to the public and is attended by more than twenty thousand people.

Vallamkali: boat race
The Vallamkali (the snake boat race) is another event that is synonymous with Onam. Well-known races include the Aranmula Uthrattadhi Boat Race and the Nehru Trophy Boat Race. Numerous oarsmen row huge snake-shaped boats. Men and women come from far and near to watch and cheer the snake boat race through the water. This event is particularly featured on the Pampa River, considered sacred and Kerala equivalent of Ganges River.

As a tribute to the traditional snake boat race, a similar snake boat race is also held by the Malayali diaspora in Singapore annually during Onam at the Jurong Lake.

Onam Sadya
The Onam sadya (feast) is another indispensable part of Onam, and almost every Keralite either makes or attends one. The Onasadya reflects the spirit of the season and is traditionally made with seasonal vegetables such as yam, cucumber, ash gourd and so on. The feast is served on plantain leaves and consists of nine courses, but may include over two dozen dishes, including (but not limited to): Chips (especially Banana chips), Sharkaraveratti (Fried pieces of banana coated with jaggery), Pappadam, various vegetable and soups such as Injipuli (also called PuliInji), Thoran, Mezhukkupuratti, Kaalan, Olan, Avial, Sambhar, Dal served along with a small quantity of ghee, Erisheri, Molosyam, Rasam, Puliseri (also referred to as Velutha curry), Kichadi (not to be confused with Khichdi) and Pachadi (its sweet variant), Moru (buttermilk or curd mixed with water), Pickles both sweet and sour, and coconut chutney. The feast ends with a series of dessert called Payasam (a sweet dish made of milk, sugar, jaggery, and other traditional Indian savories) eaten either straight or mixed with ripe small plantain. The curries are served with rice, usually the 'Kerala Matta' parboiled rice preferred in Kerala.

In hotels and temples, the number of curries and dishes may go up to 30. The importance of the feast to Kerala's Onam celebration culture is captured in the famous Malayalam proverb "Kaanam Vittum Onam Unnanam" which means "One must have the Onam lunch even by selling one's property if need be." The Travancore-style Onasadya is renowned to be the most disciplined and tradition-bound.

The Kurichians tribe of Parambikkulam celebrate Onam as a festival for eating new grains. Just before Onam, they go for a community hunt and the games bagged during the hunt are distributed among participants and consumed in family feasts. The feasts are held on Uthradam and Thiruvonam. Their feast also include fish and meat.

Post Onam celebrations
Normally, the largest chunk of Onam celebrations ends by Thiruvonam. However, the two days following Thiruvonam are also celebrated as Third and Fourth Onam. The third Onam, called Avvittom marks the preparations for King Mahabali's return ascension to heavens. The main ritual of the day is to take the Onathappan statue which was placed in the middle of every Pookkalam during the past 10 days and immerse it in nearby rivers or sea. The Pookkalam will be cleaned and removed after this ritual.

Other customs
People buy and wear new clothes for the occasion of Onam, called Onakkodi.

During the Onam, Keralite Hindus install an image of Thrikkakara Appan or Onatthappan (Vishnu in the form of Vamana) in their home just as Hindus install images or murtis of Lord Ganesha on the Ganesha Chaturthi festival elsewhere.

Many lamps are lit in Hindu temples of Kerala during this celebration. A palmyra tree is erected in front of temples and surrounded by a wooden balustrade and covered with dry palmyra leaves. It is lit with a torch and burned to ashes to signify that King Mahabali went to Patala as a sacrifice.

The swing is another integral part of Onam, especially in rural areas. Young men and women, decked in their best, sing Onappaatt, or Onam songs, and rock one another on swings slung from high branches.

Onam season is often associated with creativity as weavers and potters go for excess production to cater to increased demands for their products during the season, especially in the North Kerala regions of Kannur and Kasargod. Handloom fairs are an integral part of the spirit of Onam festivities these days.

In some parts of Kerala, people indulge in various games and dances during and post-Thiruvonam. These are known as Onakkalikal. These include competitions such as Ox races (Maramadimatsaram), Uriyady, food-eating competitions, Pookalam competitions etc.in a special month.

Kuravans of Travancore use Onam as a day for offering thanks to their ancestral spirits. On Uthradam day, they offer liquor, rice cakes, flattened and parched rice, incense, camphor, etc. to the spirits. The ritual ends with a request to the spirits to be satisfied with their offerings and assured that the next attempt would be better. Then an appeal is made to protect the believers and to ward off evil spirits from their area. This ritual is locally known as kalayam vaikkal. A similar offering like this is done during Makaram harvest, known as Uchara.

Outside India
Onam is also celebrated by the worldwide Malayali diaspora. Celebrations are notable in Malaysia, Switzerland, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and France (notably Paris and Marseille).

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Marc and the Mambas

Marc and the Mambas were a new wave group, formed by Marc Almond in 1982 as an offshoot project from Soft Cell. The band's line-up changed frequently, and included Matt Johnson from The The and Annie Hogan, with whom Almond worked later in his solo career.

History
Marc and the Mambas marked the start of Marc Almond's career outside of Soft Cell. In 1983, Almond and Soft Cell were very close to the avant-garde scene around Foetus, Psychic TV and Einstürzende Neubauten. Almond also took part as one of four members of The Immaculate Consumptive, a group initiated by Lydia Lunch; they never released any album but did a few shows in New York and Washington D.C. at the end of 1983. Further members were Jim Foetus and Nick Cave. Marc and the Mambas belonged to that scene, and continued the dark themes explored within Soft Cell, but musically used different instruments and more complex rhythms.

The group's lineup was fluid, with members changing with each recording or performance; the only consistent members were Almond, Annie Hogan and Steve James Sherlock. Further members included Billy McGee and Martin McCarrick, who also later joined Almond when he formed Marc Almond and the Willing Sinners. Almond's Soft Cell partner David Ball was an associated member for the Mambas' first single "Sleaze", and Matt Johnson from The The was a member for the first and second album, but did not join for the last concerts in 1983 (put to vinyl and later to CD as Black, Bite & Blues). Jim Foetus was an associated member, and did guest vocals and percussion on "A Million Manias" and "Love Amongst the Ruined."

The Mambas' second Some Bizzare released album, Torment and Toreros, contained a mix of ballads, both with and without dance beats, and is a mix of vaudeville, French chanson, and goth sensibility, using guitar noise, piano, and string sections. Almond later described this recording as an "attempted suicide put on vinyl."

Post Mambas
Almond has had a long career as a solo artist, and Mambas musicians have worked with him under the names The Willing Sinners and La Magia. Martin McCarrick left La Magia for Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1987, and the rest of that band dissolved in 1988. Lee Jenkinson (guitar) recorded a single with producer Flood under the band name The Poppyfields, and is currently in the band Jellynail. Almond always kept in touch with some of the Mambas' core members like Anne Stephenson and Gini Ball (David Ball's ex-wife), who performed with him during his Sin, Songs And Romance gigs at the Almeida in 2004. He frequently includes Mambas songs in his live repertoire.

When Anohni from Antony and the Johnsons curated the Meltdown Festival in London in August 2012, one of the acts on the bill was Almond, who performed the album Torment and Toreros in its entirety. A few months prior to the performance, Almond stated on his webpage that Torment and Toreros "wasn't a great success at the time of release, it was mostly critically panned. It was called a 'florid musical mess', a description I quite liked", but added that "In recent years it has been re-evaluated and re-appreciated as a (flawed) masterpiece, as I always hoped it would be. It is a dark album with themes of madness, depression, isolation, alienation, innocence lost and destructive love, all seen through a prism of fame. A nervous breakdown committed to vinyl".

Main concerts

 * 1982 A Little Black Evening - at the Royal Drury Lane Theatre - 5 December.
 * 1983 Three Black Nights Of Little Black Bites - at the Duke Of York's Theatre - 26th, 27th, 28 April.
 * 1983 Bite Black and Blues - at the Duke Of York's Theatre - 18 December.
 * 2012 Torment and Toreros - at the Royal Festival Hall - 9 August (as Marc Almond).

Other releases

 * Discipline (7" flexi) - Throbbing Gristle cover, free with Flexi-Pop magazine (as Marc Almond and Friends)
 * In Session Volume One (CD 2003) - at the Maida Vale Studios, BBC Radio 1, February 1983. Compilation of John Peel sessions also including a Marc Almond one.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Marc and the Mambas


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Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday that occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or early June in the Gregorian calendar. The holiday commemorates Qu Yuan who was the beloved prime minister of the southern Chinese state of Chu during the Warring States period, about 600 B.C. to 200 B.C., and is celebrated by holding dragon boat races and eating sticky rice dumplings called zongzi, which were southern Chinese traditions. Dragon Boat Festival integrates praying for good luck and taking respite from the summer heat.

In September 2009, UNESCO officially approved the holiday's inclusion in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, becoming the first Chinese holiday to be selected.

Names
The English language name for the holiday is "Dragon Boat Festival", used as the official English translation of the holiday by the People's Republic of China. It is also referred to in some English sources as Double Fifth Festival which alludes to the day of the festival according to the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese name of the festival is pronounced differently in different Chinese languages. Duanwu literally means 'starting five'—i.e., the first "fifth day" of the month according to the Chinese zodiac. However, despite the literal meaning referring to the Earthly Branches, this character has also become associated with, due to the characters often having the same pronunciation. Hence Duanwu, the festival on "the fifth day of the fifth month".

In Cantonese, it is romanized as Tuen1 Ng5 Jit3 in Hong Kong and Tung1 Ng5 Jit3 in Macau, hence the name "Tuen Ng Festival" used in Hong Kong, and Tun Ng (Festividade do Barco-Dragão in Portuguese) in Macau.

Origin
The fifth lunar month is considered an unlucky and poisonous month, and the fifth day of the fifth month especially so. To get rid of the misfortune, people would put calamus, Artemisia, and garlic above the doors on the fifth day of the fifth month. These were believed to help ward off evil by their strong smell and their shape (for instance, calamus leaves are shaped like swords). Venomous animals were said to appear starting from the fifth day of the fifth month, such as snakes, centipedes, and scorpions; people also supposedly get sick easily after this day. Therefore, during the Dragon Boat Festival, people try to avoid this bad luck. For example, people may put pictures of the five venomous creatures (snake, centipede, scorpion, lizard, toad, and sometimes spider ) on the wall and stick needles in them. People may also make paper cutouts of the five creatures and wrap them around the wrists of their children. Big ceremonies and performances developed from these practices in many areas, making the Dragon Boat Festival a day for getting rid of disease and bad luck.

Qu Yuan
The story best known in modern China holds that the festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou dynasty. A cadet member of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance and even accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Eventually, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him, or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi.

During the twentieth century, Qu Yuan became considered a patriotic poet and a symbol of the people. He was promoted as a folk hero and a symbol of Chinese nationalism in the People's Republic of China after the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. The historian and writer Guo Moruo was influential in shaping this view of Qu.

Wu Zixu
Another origin story says that the festival commemorates Wu Zixu (died 484 BC), a statesman of the Kingdom of Wu. Xi Shi, a beautiful woman sent by King Goujian of the state of Yue, was much loved by King Fuchai of Wu. Wu Zixu, seeing the dangerous plot of Goujian, warned Fuchai, who became angry at this remark. Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide by Fuchai, with his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, in places such as Suzhou, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Cao E
Although Wu Zixu is commemorated in southeast Jiangsu and Qu Yuan elsewhere in China, much of Northeastern Zhejiang, including the cities of Shaoxing, Ningbo and Zhoushan, celebrates the memory of the young girl Cao E (130–144 AD) instead. Cao E's father Cao Xu (曹盱) was a shaman who presided over local ceremonies at Shangyu. In 143, while presiding over a ceremony commemorating Wu Zixu during the Dragon Boat Festival, Cao Xu accidentally fell into the Shun River. Cao E, in an act of filial piety, searched the river for 3 days trying to find him. After five days, she and her father were both found dead in the river from drowning. Eight years later, in 151, a temple was built in Shangyu dedicated to the memory of Cao E and her sacrifice. The Shun River was renamed Cao'e River in her honor. Cao E is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu ("Table of Peerless Heroes") by Jin Guliang.

Pre-existing holiday
Some modern research suggests that the stories of Qu Yuan or Wu Zixu were superimposed onto a pre-existing holiday tradition. The promotion of these stories might have been encouraged by Confucian scholars, seeking to legitimize and strengthen their influence in China. The relationship between zongzi, Qu Yuan and the festival first appeared during the early Han dynasty.

The stories of both Qu Yuan and Wu Zixu were recorded in Sima Qian's Shiji, completed 187 and 393 years after the respective events, because historians wanted to praise both characters.

According to historians, the holiday originated as a celebration of agriculture, fertility, and rice growing in southern China. As recently as 1952 the American sociologist Wolfram Eberhard wrote that it was more widely celebrated in southern China than in the north.

Another theory is that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from dragon worship. This theory was advanced by Wen Yiduo. Support is drawn from two key traditions of the festival: the tradition of dragon boat racing and zongzi. The food may have originally represented an offering to the dragon king, while dragon boat racing naturally reflects a reverence for the dragon and the active yang energy associated with it. This was merged with the tradition of visiting friends and family on boats.

Another suggestion is that the festival celebrates a widespread feature of east Asian agrarian societies: the harvest of winter wheat. Offerings were regularly made to deities and spirits at such times: in the ancient Yue, dragon kings; in the ancient Chu, Qu Yuan; in the ancient Wu, Wu Zixu (as a river god); in ancient Korea, mountain gods (see Dano). As interactions between different regions increased, these similar festivals eventually merged into one holiday.

Early 20th century
In the early 20th century the Dragon Boat Festival was observed from the first to the fifth days of the fifth month, and was also known as the Festival of Five Poisonous/Venomous Insects. Yu Der Ling writes in chapter 11 of her 1911 memoir Two Years in the Forbidden City: The first day of the fifth moon was a busy day for us all, as from the first to the fifth of the fifth moon was the festival of five poisonous insects, which I will explain later—also called the Dragon Boat Festival.... Now about this Feast. It is also called the Dragon Boat Feast. The fifth of the fifth moon at noon was the most poisonous hour for the poisonous insects, and reptiles such as frogs, lizards, snakes, hide in the mud, for that hour they are paralyzed. Some medical men search for them at that hour and place them in jars, and when they are dried, sometimes use them as medicine. Her Majesty told me this, so that day I went all over everywhere and dug into the ground, but found nothing.

21st century
In 2008 the Dragon Boat Festival was made a national public holiday in China.

Public holiday
The festival was long marked as a cultural festival in China and is a public holiday in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The People's Republic of China's government established in 1949 did not initially recognize the Dragon Boat Festival as a public holiday but reintroduced it in 2008 alongside two other festivals in a bid to boost traditional culture.

The Dragon Boat Festival is unofficially observed by the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia, including Singapore and Malaysia. Equivalent and related official festivals include the Korean Dano, Japanese Tango no sekku, and Vietnamese Tết Đoan Ngọ.

Practices and activities

Three of the most widespread activities conducted during the Dragon Boat Festival are eating (and preparing) zongzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Dragon boat racing
Dragon boat racing has a rich history of ancient ceremonial and ritualistic traditions, which originated in southern central China more than 2500 years ago. The legend starts with the story of Qu Yuan, who was a minister in one of the Warring State governments, Chu. He was slandered by jealous government officials and banished by the king. Out of disappointment in the Chu monarch, he drowned himself in the Miluo River. The common people rushed to the water and tried to recover his body, but they failed. In commemoration of Qu Yuan, people hold dragon boat races yearly on the day of his death according to the legend. They also scattered rice into the water to feed the fish, to prevent them from eating Qu Yuan's body, which is one of the origins of zongzi.

Zongzi (traditional Chinese rice dumplings)
A notable part of celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival is making and eating zongzi, also known as sticky rice dumplings, with family members and friends. People traditionally make zongzi by wrapping glutinous rice and fillings in leaves of reed or bamboo, forming a pyramid shape. The leaves also give a special aroma and flavor to the sticky rice and fillings. Choices of fillings vary depending on regions. Northern regions in China prefer sweet or dessert-styled zongzi, with bean paste, jujube, and nuts as fillings. Southern regions in China prefer savory zongzi, with a variety of fillings including eggs and meat.

Zongzi appeared before the Spring and Autumn period and were originally used to worship ancestors and gods. In the Jin dynasty, zongzi dumplings were officially designated as the Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, the Chinese medicine yizhiren (Alpinia oxyphylla) was added to the ingredients for making zongzi. This cooked zongzi is called yizhi zong.

Food related to 5
'Wu' (午) in the name 'Duanwu' has a pronunciation similar to that of the number 5 in multiple Chinese dialects, and thus many regions have traditions of eating food that is related to the number 5. For example, the Guangdong and Hong Kong regions have the tradition of having congee made from 5 different beans.

Realgar wine
Realgar wine or Xionghuang wine is a Chinese alcoholic drink that is made from Chinese liquor dosed with powdered realgar, a yellow-orange arsenic sulfide mineral. It was traditionally used as a pesticide, and as a common antidote against disease and venom. On the Dragon Boat Festival, people may put realgar wine on parts of children's faces to repel the five poisonous creatures.

5-colored silk-threaded braid
In some regions of China, people, especially children, wear silk ribbons or threads of 5 colors (blue, red, yellow, white, and black, representing the five elements) on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. People believe that this will help keep evil away.

Other common activities include hanging up icons of Zhong Kui (a mythic guardian figure), hanging mugwort and calamus, taking long walks, and wearing perfumed medicine bags. Other traditional activities include a game of making an egg stand at noon (this "game" implies that if someone succeeds in making the egg stand at exactly 12:00 noon, that person will receive luck for the next year), and writing spells. All of these activities, together with the drinking of realgar wine or water, were regarded by the ancients (and some today) as effective in preventing disease or evil while promoting health and well-being.

In the early years of the Republic of China, Duanwu was celebrated as the "Poets' Day" due to Qu Yuan's status as China's first known poet. In Taiwanese tradition, balancing an egg on Duanwu is said to bring good fortune for the rest of the year.

The sun is considered to be at its strongest around the time of the summer solstice, as the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. The sun, like the Chinese dragon, traditionally represents masculine energy, whereas the moon, like the phoenix, traditionally represents feminine energy. The summer solstice is considered the annual peak of male energy while the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, represents the annual peak of feminine energy. The masculine image of the dragon has thus become associated with the Dragon Boat Festival.

title: Dragon Boat Festival


text:
María Elena Salinas

María Elena Salinas (born December 30, 1954), is an American broadcast journalist, news anchor, and author. Called the "Voice of Hispanic America" by The New York Times, Salinas is one of the most recognized Hispanic female journalists in the United States. She was the co-anchor of Noticiero Univision, the primary evening news broadcast on Univision, and the co-host of the news magazine program Aquí y Ahora (Here and Now).

Salinas has been working for more than three decades in the U.S. and in 18 Latin American countries. She has interviewed Latin American heads of state, rebel leaders, dictators, and every United States president since Jimmy Carter.

Journalism career
Salinas began as a reporter, anchor and public-affairs host for KMEX-TV, the Univision affiliate in Los Angeles, in 1981. She became the anchor of the national Spanish-language news program Noticiero Univision in 1987.

She has interviewed figures such as former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; Manuel Noriega, the former military dictator of Panama; Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega; and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation spokesman Subcomandante Marcos. She has also interviewed celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan.

Salinas was among the first female journalists in wartime Baghdad. She herself has been interviewed by Katie Couric Bill Moyers, and others.

Salinas participated in the bilingual national Democratic presidential candidate debate on Hispanic issues in 2004, and again in 2007 co-hosting the first Democratic and Republican presidential candidate forums in Spanish on the Univision Network.

For ten years from 2001-2011, she wrote a weekly syndicated column in English and Spanish. In 2017–18, she hosted two seasons of the English-language crime program The Real Story with María Elena Salinas, on Investigation Discovery.

On August 3, 2017, Univision announced that Salinas would be leaving her post as co-anchor of Noticiero Univisión at the end of 2017. In a Facebook post, Salinas said she plans to become an independent news producer and that she was not pushed out.

On July 1, 2018, she participated in Telemundo's Mexican presidential elections coverage and on December 1, exactly five months later, she was part of Telemundo's news team covering the Mexican presidential inauguration from Mexico City.

On July 22, 2019, CBS News announced Maria Elena Salinas would be joining as a contributor. María Elena Salinas joined "CBS This Morning" to break down the diverse Latino communities across the U.S. that were long held as a single voting bloc, but economic, geographic and cultural differences show stark divides in how Latino Americans have cast their ballots in the 2020 United States presidential election.

In March 2022, Maria Elena Salinas became a contributor for ABC News

Public service and philanthropy
For almost twenty years Salinas has volunteered for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which encourages immigrants to vote and otherwise participate in politics; she is the spokesperson for its Ya Es Hora ("It's Time") program.

Salinas is a founder of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2006. She also sponsors the Maria Elena Salinas Scholarship for college students interested in Spanish news broadcasting.

She is on the boards of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the International Women's Media Foundation.

Awards and recognition
Salinas has won numerous awards and distinctions for both her journalism and philanthropic work.

Salinas won a 2014 Peabody Award, Walter Cronkite Award and Gracie Award for her news and documentary special "Entre el abandono y el rechazo" (Between Abandonment and Rejection), a prime-time report on the exodus of Central American children to the United States, which judges praised as "balanced and revealing."

In 2014, she won the Broadcast Legend Award from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California. In 2012, with her co-anchor Jorge Ramos, she received an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2013, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News presented Salinas with the Award for Outstanding Achievement at the 11th Annual Hispanic Television Summit, produced by Schramm Marketing Group. Earlier in her career, Salinas was part of the Univision News team that received the Edward R. Murrow Award for the network's coverage of the Atlanta Olympic Park bombings in 1996.

For her philanthropic work, Salinas is a recipient of the Intrepid Award from the National Organization for Women, and has been honored by organizations including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, among others.

In 2017, Salinas was a commencement speaker at American University and California State University, Fullerton and received an honorary doctorate from American University. She was presented with the Leading Ladies of Entertainment accolade by the Latin Recording Academy in 2020.

Personal life
Salinas's parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the 1940s. She was born in Los Angeles in 1954. As a child, she lived in Mexico for 7 years. Since 1991, Salinas has lived in Miami with her 2 daughters, Julia Alexandra and Gabriela Maria.

Salinas's autobiography, Yo Soy la Hija de mi Padre (I Am my Father's Daughter, 2006) covers her discovery that her father had once been a Catholic priest.

title: María Elena Salinas


text:
Talk:ISO 3166-1 alpha-2

Prologue
Someone should add this in? --Kaihsu 08:52, 5 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Table conversion
I've been converting a few of these massive ISO articles recently. Here's the program I used to convert this article: // File:   convert-iso3166-alpha-2.cpp // License: Public domain // Author: Ardonik using namespace std;
 * 1) include
 * 2) include
 * 3) include

void generate(istream& in, ostream& out) { out << "{| border=\"1px\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2px\"\n"; out << "|+ (Description) Two-letter Codes\n"; out << "|- style=\"background-color: #a0d0ff;\"\n"; out << "!Alpha-2!!Country\n"; out << "|-\n"; string line; while (getline(in, line)) { if (line.length < 16) continue; string alpha2 = line.substr(2, 11); string country = line.substr(16); out << "|" << alpha2 << "||" << country << "\n"; out << "|-\n"; } out << "|}\n"; if (in.fail && !in.eof) cout << "Could not read from input\n"; if (out.fail) cout << "Could not write to output\n"; }

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { if (argc != 3) { cout << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " [infile] [outfile]\n"; cout << " If infile is \"-\", input will be read from stdin.\n"; cout << " If outfile is \"-\", output will be written to stdout.\n"; return 0; }

string infile = argv[1], outfile = argv[2]; if (infile == "-" && outfile == "-") { generate(cin, cout); } else if (infile == "-") { ofstream out(outfile.c_str); generate(cin, out); } else if (outfile == "-") { ifstream in(infile.c_str); generate(in, cout); } else { ifstream in(infile.c_str); ofstream out(outfile.c_str); generate(in, out); } return 0; }

To use it, simply copy a bulleted list from the old version of the page into a text file and run the program with the text file as the first argument and "-" as the second. Copy the resulting output and replace the old list with it.

The program's bigger than it ought to be, but I only had to run it once. --Ardonik 01:36, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

Ok Surajkm.mishra121 (talk) 11:04, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

Why not UK?
Can anybody explain why when these codes were handed out the United Kingdom was given GB instead of UK? Edward 11:36, 2005 May 14 (UTC)

 * I've heard that it was because the Ukrainian SSR also wanted UK, and as a compromise neither got it. I don't know if this is really true. But it makes some sense, as the Ukrainian SSR was a UN member in its own right (despite being part of the Soviet Union), so it was entitled to a code (and was given UA). --Zundark 19:02, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

 * http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/10faq/frequently-asked-questions.html#QS04 has the answer by the ISO 3166/MA. However, UK is still a reserved code in ISO 3166-1 for the United Kingdom.--Jusjih 05:45, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

 * From that article: Since name components like Republic, Kingdom, United, Federal or Democratic are used very often in country names we usually do not derive the country code elements from them in order to avoid ambiguity. However, in that case, how did the United States manage to get us as its country code? *Dan* 13:34, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

 * Possibly the word state is less often used and the USA (also used as ISO 3166 alpha-3 code) is rarely abbreviated as America. Mexico is officially the United Mexican States but we do not normally call it the United States.--Jusjih 00:42, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Incidentally, uk in ISO 639-1 is Ukrainian language.--Jusjih 08:33, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Anyone know the deal with Northern Ireland?

 * Northern Ireland is included under the code, as it is part of the United Kingdom. --Zundark 13:22, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

 * The ISO codes are based on the abbreviations the UN uses (this is documented on the ISO site). The UN uses abbreviations based on the geographical name of the country, not the official name, which as stated above, usually refers to its type of government. They do this to avoid implying recognition or otherwise to governments, and because the official name can change, but the geographical name changes less often. Thus, GB and not UK, FR and not RF (Republique Français, which is the abbreviation used by the French), DE and not BD (BRD = Bundesrepublik Deutschland), plus lots more. There are some exceptions, where there is no a common geographical name, just the official name. The US is one such exception, also CH (=Confederatio Helvetica, Switzerland is not an official name). --TiffaF 14:33, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

 * The UK was active on the internet using ".uk", before the Internet standardised as ISO-3166, that is why this is the one country that is not ISO-3166 as an Internet domain, but "uk" it is reserved to stop anybody else using it and causing more problems. --TiffaF 14:33, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

CS
Now that Serbia and Montenegro have officially split, what codes are they going to get? Denelson83  00:38, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

 * They haven't split yet. When they do split, the ISO 3166/MA will give them new codes. But it's difficult to guess what these codes will be, as the most appropriate ones are already taken. --Zundark 08:24, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, now that they have split, I have some ideas that the ISO 3166/MA could use to code these new countries. Serbia could be "RS", while Montenegro could be "ME".  Denelson83  02:42, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

 * I thought of RS for Serbia (with R for Republic), but the problem is that the ISO 3166/MA tries not to use words like "republic" when choosing the codes. So Serbia may end up with something like SX instead (or maybe just stay as CS, since it's the successor state - compare with WS for Samoa).

 * ME is also my guess for Montenegro. This code is apparently reserved for Western Sahara, but similar reservations have been ignored before. --Zundark 11:42, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
 * It doesn't say ME is reserved here: http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/iso_3166-1_decoding_table.html --  Denelson83  18:02, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

 * You're right, it's not reserved according to that table. So a lot of the information about reserved codes in the article appears to be out of date. Someone should e-mail the ISO 3166/MA for a current version of the reserve list, and update the article. --Zundark 18:27, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
 * That isn't necessary. The reserved list is easily derived from that table.  Denelson83  22:06, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes, that's true as far as the alpha-2 codes are concerned, but presumably we also want to update the information on reserved alpha-3 codes (in the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 article). --Zundark 08:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Let's not hold our collective breath. This could take a while.  In 2003, the Serbia and Montenegro government took 5+ months -- from their establishment on 2003-02-04, to informing ISO3166/MA of their preferred country codes on 2003-06-06, and 2 votes over the next 6.5 weeks to come to a decision, announced 2003-07-23.  (And didn't Guernsey, Jersey, and Isle of Man take 8 months?)  -- Robocoder ( talk | contribs ) 19:37, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know about GGY, JEY and IMN -- eight months from when onwards? They've been in existence since centuries ago as separate entities, so I really don't know what happened to make them get separate ISO codes only now... Could you enlighten me? — Nightst a  llion  (?) 13:39, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
 * 8 months from the application date to the date of publication.
 * * July 2005: BSI readies proposal for submission to ISO3166/MA.
 * * vote results: 8 yes, 2 abstain, 0 no
 * * 2006-03-29: ISO newsletter announces inclusion of Jersey, Guernsey, and Isle of Man
 * -- Robocoder ( talk | contribs ) 19:37, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Interesting, thanks! I suppose you'll keep us up-to-date on any developments (official applications and such)? ;) — Nightst a  llion  (?) 06:03, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

SP for Serbia
User:Millosh already added "SP" for Serbia in the table in the article, contradicting the footnote about Serbia and Montenegro. This "SP" is at best a guess, at this stage. I have manually reverted. If Millosh has insider information, please provide the reference. – Kaihsu 22:04, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I now see Serbian country codes. Self-reverting. – Kaihsu 22:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

It is still quite a mess here; but I will leave it for others to sort out. – Kaihsu 22:15, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

 * For Serbia it is ISO suggestion to Serbian government. So, speaking strictly, it shouldn't be inside of the article. But, Montenegro got even .ME root domain based on two letter code. --millosh (talk (sr:)) 14:46, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

 * There are two links in Serbian: (about .ME) and  (about SP/SRB). In short, government of Montenegro gave control of .ME domain to some governmental institution. For Serbia it is more complex. Serbian authorities suggested RS for two letters code and SRB for three letters code. While ISO agreed with SRB, ISO suggested SP for two letters code. And it is just a metter of time when ISO suggestion would be accepted/implemented. --millosh (talk (sr:)) 14:51, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the info. It looks like ME for Montenegro is basically a done deal, while Serbia's alpha-2 code is still to be decided. I guess this holds up the whole process. ISO has to do these three things at the same time: withdraw Serbia and Montenegro's codes, release Montenegro's codes, and release Serbia's codes. Right now ISO is only ready to do the first two, and doing the first two (or either of the first two) without doing the third makes no sense. Hence, the wait.... Chanheigeorge 22:57, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Serbia could always request CP, as in СРБИЈА... The three-letter code could then be CPJ or CPA. (Not a serious suggestion, but it would be interesting.) Lincmad 17:34, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Kosovo
Does Kosovo have a code yet? I've seen people using "KS" for it. Ptomblin (talk) 03:46, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I am seeing KV. – Kaihsu (talk) 10:24, 9 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Where? It's not assigned by ISO. Lonaowna (talk) 11:19, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

Ivory Coast
I am wondering why the French name for Ivory Coast is in the English language [Country name] column and then there is a English language comment in the [Notes] section that is used to describe the typical rational for the naming. If Côte d'Ivoire is in English then the note is superfluous as it already matches the [CI] code. If it is in French then I think the terms should swap places to be consistent with the rest of the table. Idyllic press (talk) 06:30, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

 * The first column lists the English name according to the ISO 3166-1 standard. ISO has chosen to use Côte d'Ivoire as the English name (even though it's French), so we have no choice but to list that. The Notes column just points out the usual English name. (As for why ISO uses the French name in English, this is because it generally follows the preferences of the governments concerned. Burma being listed as Myanmar is another example of this.) --Zundark (talk) 12:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

.uk versus .gb
I see there has been some back-and-forth between listing .gb or .uk as the ccTLD for United Kingdom. I haven't been able to find a definitive statement, but I do note that IANA lists the sponsoring organization for .gb as "Reserved Domain - IANA" and does not list a registrar or whois server, while it does list a sponsoring organization and a registrar and whois server for .uk. It may be misleading to list ".gb" as the ccTLD when it is impossible to actually use it. Anomie⚔ 23:49, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

 * My initial thought of adding the column for the ccTLDs is to list the corresponding ccTLD with respect to the code, i.e. "GB" → ".gb", not the ccTLD with respect to the country assigned the code, i.e., "GB" → "United Kingdom" → ".gb". But I do understand it can be misleading. There are other ccTLDs that are not in use, e.g. .sj is not in use and Svalbard and Jan Mayen just use .no. Chanheigeorge (talk) 00:47, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

 * Oh boy! Okay, lets start with the problem: the map shows the area of UK with the label GB. The entire region is The British Isles, in short it's built up as follows:
 * "Britain" is made up of England and Wales
 * "Great Britain" is made up of England, Wales and Scotland
 * "Ireland" is only the southern part of Ireland.
 * "Northern Ireland" is the northern part of Ireland.
 * "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" no longer exists
 * "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" is Great Britain and Northern Ireland
 * "The British Isles" is all of the above and around 5000 other islands including The Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and several others that have ISO codes.
 * All this means that the Irish are actually also British, but stupid Americans think that "British" is exactly the same as English and no true Irishman, Scotsman or Welshman is ever English.
 * So simply based on the map and normal usage the correct code would be 'UK' unless you want to piss off everyone from Northern Ireland.
 * But the ISO committee assigned the code 'GB' to the geographical area of the "United Kingdom". They fixed it later by also 'specially' assigning the code UK to the same region. But didn't actually deprecate the official code because it's in such wide use. They also have the same issue with the UK code and so cannot actually stop people using it.
 * As for ccTLDs, because ISO now assigns both to the same geographical area both are in fact correct and the users have chosen 'uk'. 90.195.73.71 (talk) 17:03, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Netherlands Antilles
Hello all,

On December 15 the ISO 3166/MA deleted the Netherlands Antilles and added codes for Curacao and Sint Maarten. They also lumped Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius as "Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba" (for details, see ). The ISO's decoding table shows these new codes and it also shows AN as "transitionally reserved". (see here). With the choice of BQ for the other three islands, it seems that ISO has recycled the code that used to be assigned to the British Antarctic Territory until the late 70's (for details, see: ). I have updated the article to reflect all of this. Hope this helps. - Thanks, Hoshie 06:26, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Good job, thanks. Anomie⚔ 04:41, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Vatican City
The Vatican City (= a state) is not the territory of the Holy See (= not a state at all). The later is a different entity of international law. --217.247.106.112 (talk) 19:21, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * And yet the ISO 3166/MA lists it anyway. It is not the purpose of this article to editorialize on the standard's choice of entities to list or the names it gives them. We just report on what the standard actually says. Anomie⚔ 20:41, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

ISO2 redirects here rather than ISO 2
I was just doing a little work on the ISO 2 article... I noticed that Iso2 directs to this article, presumably because it defines two-letter ISO country codes. Would there be any objection to changing the redirect to point to the ISO 2 standard, which much more closely matches that as a possible search term? If this part of ISO 3166 is widely referred to as "ISO2", I certainly would not be against adding a "For two-letter ISO country codes, see ISO 3166-1 alpha-2" at the top of the ISO 2 article. Thoughts? --Dfred (talk) 23:19, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I think your suggestion is good. There are no links that currently use the Iso2 redirect anyway. Thanks. Chanheigeorge (talk) 03:32, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Done. --Dfred (talk) 17:58, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I found this article today (and have found it the same way a couple of earlier times) by googling 'ISO 2', knowing that I needed the 2-letter ISO codes. The only reason I looked at this talk page is because I was wondering about the country name listed for Taiwan. So I am one of the users that enjoys that looking for 'iso 2' brings me here (and google still does). Never the less, I'd suspect a link 'for the country codes, look here' would work fine. Unilynx (talk) 20:10, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Why not OE for Austria?
Why isn't Austria's (ie. Österreich=Oesterreich) ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code OE?

I am aware that AT/AUT come from French "Autriche", since AU/AUS were already assigned to Australia, but if the UN assigned names based on their English or French names, then why isn't Germany's ISO3166 abbreviation GE/GER or AL or AM (from French Allemagne)? Germany received an abbreviation in its own language, but Austria didn't.

Many more countries have ISO 3166 codes based on their language, e.g. Spain - ES/ESP, Estonia - EE/EST, or Iceland - IS/ISL to name just a few. These ISO codes were created from the names of the countries as they appear in original language, not in English or French.

The oddity is that many people using these abbreviations daily find them counter-intuitive -- the AT/AUT ISO code is an acquired use rather than intuitive.

Of course, that applies to many other countries as well (for those that use the Latin alphabet).

Did anyone ask a country's native before assigning codes? Can the codes change or are they pretty much set in stone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.153.194.14 (talk) 00:08, 7 February 2012 (UTC)
 * This is not the place for general questions about the standard; most likely no one here has any connection with the ISO 3166/MA, so your guess is likely as good as ours. You'd do better to check the ISO's FAQ and/or contact them directly with your questions. Anomie⚔ 03:14, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Benin
The code "DY" is listed under both the indeterminate reservations and the unreserved deleted codes. I'd think it should be removed from one of them. SiBr4 (talk) 16:45, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * You are mistaken in thinking that the deleted codes are unreserved. "DY" referring to "Dahomey" has been deleted, so it belongs there. But "DY" has also been indeterminately reserved. This is the same as how "AI" referring to "French Afar and Issas" has been deleted, but "AI" referring to "Anguilla" is a currently assigned code. Anomie⚔ 01:59, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

 * Above the "deleted codes" table it says:
 * "Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved and two other codes currently exceptionally reserved (FX for France, Metropolitan and SU for USSR), the following alpha-2 codes have also been deleted from ISO 3166-1."

 * So the deleted codes are those that were deleted, but not reserved. "AI" was deleted, but later reassigned to Anguilla. SiBr4 (talk) 10:16, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Perhaps then the note should be changed. Do note that "transitionally reserved" is basically "deleted/changed, but reserved to allow people time to transition". Anomie⚔ 13:58, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * "DY" is a official code deleted from ISO 3166-1, and all of them have a corresponding ISO 3166-3 code. Some of the deleted codes are transitionally reserved (usually the more recent ones), but "DY" is not one of them. But "DY" is also one of the codes that are indeterminately reserved (almost all of them are not deleted codes), to allow backward compatibility to vehicle codes. The current statement cited above is correct, even though it was not noticed before that "DY" is also indeterminately reserved. Chanheigeorge (talk) 15:27, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

 * The "deleted codes" table lists the codes that were deleted, but not reserved. So if "DY" was indeterminately reserved, it should be removed from that table. SiBr4 (talk) 18:54, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

EH - Western Sahara
Does anyone here know/could anyone explain why the article states the code 'EH' for Western Sahara comes from the Spanish name 'Sahara Español'? Given the order in which those letters appear in the words (SaHara Español) it looks entirely arbitrary - it might just as well come from 'WEstern SaHara'. It's not like, for example, DEutschland or ESpaña. I realise asking here is extremely far-fetched, but I haven't so far managed to find a source that explains this. Even the ISO site simply states the code without any reference to its origin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.151.83.54 (talk)

 * I think EH is just a contraction of the alpha-3 code ESH. And ESH (instead of SES or SHE, for example) can perhaps be explained as combining ES for Español and SH for Sahara. --Zundark (talk) 15:47, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

 * That does make sense, actually. Thank you! The Bloody Cat (talk) 16:23, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

 * Probably EH was chosen because more obvious codes were already taken: SE for Sahara Español is assigned to Sweden; its reverse ES stands for Spain; WS for Western Sahara wasn't possible because of Samoa. Apparently they eventually chose EH as Western Sahara's two-letter code. SiBr4  (talk) 16:20, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

EZ and UN code status
At the ISO website the status of EZ and UN code is "Exceptionally reserved" not "	Unassigned" Tennegi (talk) 14:42, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Reference 17
Reference 17 doesn't seem to work anymore. Anyone know how to fix this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.28.75.60 (talk) 20:37, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
 * The referenced document doesn't appear to be on the ISO site anymore, though there is a copy at . I don't know whether docstoc.com is a reliable site we could replace the reference link with. SiBr4 (talk) 21:36, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

SF status
, thanks for making some research, notes and correcting my mistake. In the first place I just changed status for SF, since it was only listed in the table for transitionally reserved codes. I have tried to search for some more information about it. I found some interesting facts, e.g. that it was indetermined reserved, but I can't find anything about the change from transitionally reserved, so I have written an e-mail to the customer service at ISO. Let's see if they will provide an answer. /PatrikN (talk) 21:52, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * And thank you for doing even more research! Anomie⚔ 22:49, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

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OO
The article contains "Furthermore, the code element OO is designated as an escape code if the number of regular user-assigned code elements is not sufficient." 85.180.125.5 (talk) 13:51, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

EA
Could somebody clarify the exact definition of what EA is. The description of why it was assigned, suggests it should include everything within the EU, but outside the EU customs territory. But then its geographic description includes only Ceuta and Melilla, when based on the apparent reason it was assigned, you would expect it to also include the Canary Islands, Azores, etc. etc. - 2A01:4B00:86ED:7D00:5937:19CD:73D3:997E (talk) 22:41, 27 October 2018 (UTC)

 * The exact definition in ISO 3166 is "Ceuta, Melilla" (i.e. Spain's two autonomous cities), and the code's status is "exceptionally reserved." See https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:EA for further details. Officially assigned codes for those autonomous cities are  and , cf. ISO 3166-2:ES. Love —LiliCharlie (talk) 23:07, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
 * P.S.: If you think the Azores are (or ever were) Spanish you'd better not travel Portugal or Spain. And if you think almost all of South America is Spanish speaking, don't go there either. Love —LiliCharlie (talk) 23:52, 27 October 2018 (UTC)

double anchor for OO
Oops, sorry about that; thanks for catching it. 209.209.238.189 (talk) 02:36, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Accessibility for colour vision deficiency
I was trying to figure out why the colours in the table for the Officially assigned: formerly assigned to a different entity and the Unassigned: free for assignment were the same. It made it impossible to determine the difference in the table without mousing over to see if there was a link for the letters or not.

I suggest that using some contemporary colour vision deficiency theory it might be possible without causing any fuss or bother to other users to separate the colours slightly more.

I later noticed when looking at my monitor at a rather oblique angle that AI does look a little different from AH but does not make one think of BI when comparing the colours.

It would make sense to have the two Officially assigned colours almost the same as they carry a similar meaning in practice.

Idyllic press (talk) 07:08, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Every once in a while someone comes along and changes the colors to be "better" (in their opinion), e.g. Special:Diff/886151593 and Special:Diff/838901451 and Special:Diff/792319609/795136589. It would be nice to choose a set of colors that's specifically chosen to work well for people with all types of color blindness. Do you have a recommendation? Anomie⚔ 11:30, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Maybe following this accessibility table: Manual of Style/Accessibility/Colors ? – The Grid  ( talk )  16:21, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Common name column
and : Can you please explain what is your problem with having a column for the common names already there in the article? — Guarapiranga (talk) 03:18, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

 * No, most designations were not already labelled common names. Can you show that, for instance, East Timor, Swaziland, and Vatican are less common names than Timor-Leste, Eswatini, and Holy See, and that Congo, Democratic Republic of the and Palestine, State of are common forms?
 * This is a list of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and ISO 3166-1 country names, and a Common name column that is almost identical with the essential Country name column is likely to confuse readers and raise doubts as to which is which.
 * Finally, a Common name column is an unnecessary invitation to endless discussions as to which names are common or "should" be used to express users' desired political status of "their" territory. Love —LiliCharlie (talk) 04:28, 5 June 2019 (UTC)
 * This article is about the ISO 3166-1 Standard, not about countries in general. My primary concern with adding a "common name" column is that it implies that it's from the ISO 3166-1 Standard when it's not. For example, I see nowhere at https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:BO that the common name is Bolivia. My secondary concern is usefulness. The ISO 3166-1 country name of "Bolivia (Plurinational State of)" in the table is already linked to the Wikipedia article on Bolivia. Adding, and linking, another column to the same articles as the preceding column doesn't seem terribly useful. DRMcCreedy (talk) 04:31, 5 June 2019 (UTC)
 * +1 to what others have said. Also for the most part you left these identical with the existing country name, even in cases like "Congo, Democratic Republic of the" where at the very least the common name would be "Democratic Republic of the Congo". Of the 16 country names you did change, only 5 seem particularly useful for searching: "Ivory Coast", "North Korea", "South Korea", "Laos" and "Vietnam"; the rest are just a shortening of the ISO name. And those 5 already have the specified name in the Notes column, so a browser search will still find them. Only three of those would sort differently. Anomie⚔ 11:01, 5 June 2019 (UTC)
 * C'est pas possible! I literally went like ctrl-F "common name", and copied over to the column what is already there on the article. If it's a problem to mention the common name in this article, why is it already there?? — Guarapiranga (talk) 04:22, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
 * There's a difference between mentioning the common names for the 5 where it's not just a shorter version of the name ISO already has, and adding a column in the table to try to state the "common name" for every country. Perhaps we should review the other 11 that have a "common name" in the notes to see whether they're actually needed. Anomie⚔ 12:48, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I consider all "common names" better belonging to the list of sovereign states, not here, because ISO cannot always acknowledge them as "local short names". Reading https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:TW gets "Local short name: Taiwan", different from "Taiwan, Province of China" per the UN, but https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:FK must say "(Malvinas)" after "Falkland Islands" even for "local short name". Thus I propose removing all "common names" and the column called "notes" by reformatting essential notes like the list of ISO 3166 country codes.--Jusjih (talk) 04:12, 3 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I oppose this because common names are often helpful. I think most people would have a hard time differentiating the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the Republic of Korea but would be quite clear once the common names of North Korea and South Korea are noted. DRMcCreedy (talk) 05:09, 3 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes. — As you give the example of North and South Korea: Should we explain that North Macedonia is the country that used to be called Macedonia, with the same government and territory, and not some entity in its northern part? Love —LiliCharlie (talk) 06:31, 3 February 2020 (UTC)
 * We already code Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of), Korea (the Republic of), and Taiwan, Province of China to display ISO 3166 names and link to common names, so promoting even better NPOV should not directly display common names to readers until they click wiki links. ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 already does this.--Jusjih (talk) 01:03, 4 February 2020 (UTC)
 * So if I'm searching for the code for Ivory Coast I should manually hover over each country's link until I see that Côte d'Ivoire is the one I want? I don't think a more NPOV justifies a less usable article. DRMcCreedy (talk) 02:07, 4 February 2020 (UTC)
 * This all seems like some sort of attempt at reductio ad absurdum. Mentioning names like "Ivory Coast" and "South Korea" helps readers find what they're looking for, while trying to nitpick every hint of inconsistency in the Taiwan naming situation doesn't. Anomie⚔ 03:25, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

Markup
The problem with ISO 3166 code,, is that when one needs to subst ISO codes in place of country names, one needs to subst twice (the first subst replaces ISO 3166 code with #invoked for the Lua module, and on the 2nd subst the module often times out half way through, if the list of countries to subst is long (say, over 100). Perhaps you can suggest a better solution to this. Cheers. Guarapiranga (talk) 01:10, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
 * The solution isn't to clog this article with 13K of . Why are you trying to subst 100 country names to ISO codes in the first place, instead of just typing the much shorter codes? Anomie⚔ 01:16, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Bc I didn't type out the long names to start with. With the ISO codes as unique identifiers we can cross-reference figures in specific pages to ensure they're in sync with the same info. There are a bunch of pages stating population figures, for instance, all contradicting each other. Guarapiranga (talk) 01:34, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

GW
Where does the "w" comes from in Guinea-Bissau's two letter code? Corypight (talk) 10:57, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
 * I was unable to find a source. But my guess would be that it comes from the name in Fula (Gine-Bisaawo) and/or Mandinka (Gine-Bisawo) in combination with the fact that GB, GU, GI, GN, and even BG are already used for other countries. Anomie⚔ 14:49, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
 * List of Internet top-level domains explains that GW comes from "Guinea, West Africa". August-54 (talk) 05:23, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Not anymore, apparently. Corypight changed it with no source. But the "Guinea, West Africa" was added with no source in 2019, so 🤷. I also note that Guinea is right next to Guinea-Bissau in "West Africa". Anomie⚔ 13:09, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

Table reference
Reference 13 claims it's a "ISO 3166-1 decoding table", but is a generic link to the ISO Online Browsing Platform (no subdocument linked or referenced). Does anyone have a better link? 141.135.100.90 (talk) 10:34, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
 * It used to link to a page that ISO removed in 2013 or 2014; someone "fixed" the dead link in Special:Diff/688555200 without correcting the title. The last archived version may be seen at https://web.archive.org/web/20130921132206/http://www.iso.org/iso/iso-3166-1_decoding_table, although the table itself seems to not have been updated from an earlier version where the "not used" color was still used. In theory you could use the information in the online browsing platform to create the table. Anomie⚔ 13:22, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Diacritics
Why are there diacritics in the ISO names of Åland Islands, Saint Barthélemy, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, and Réunion, but not in São Tomé and Príncipe? August-54 (talk) 18:31, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Odd... São Tomé and Príncipe gets to have its diacritics in the local short name but not the English short/full name. Ultimately a question for some subcommittee of the ISO. DRMcCreedy (talk) 21:16, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Short name (title case)
The countries that use their full names in the UN are designated as such also by the ISO. It can be divided into two categories:

Category 1 – Four countries that are alphabetized under their short names in the UN General Assembly despite the use of long names

Category 2 – Five (previously six) countries that are alphabetized out of order (i.e. under their long names) in the UN General Assembly

This seems to be regular in that in the case of countries alphabetized according to the short name in the UN, a part of the formal name is in parentheses, and a comma is used for those which are alphabetized according to the long, formal name. North Korea is an odd case though. Why are parentheses used instead of a comma in North Korea's ISO name? August-54 (talk) 12:42, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

“belongs to”
Several places are described, seemingly colloquially, as “belongs to”.

BV: “ Belongs to Norway”

CC, CX, HM, NF: “Belongs to Australia”

At least some of these could better be described as “External territory of Australia”. Does this column belong to wikipedia, or to ISO 3166? I.e., may I change it? JDAWiseman (talk) 16:15, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

 * The "Notes" column is for Wikipedia's own notes. So, yes, you're free to make changes to it. --Zundark (talk) 19:02, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Done. JDAWiseman (talk) 22:07, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Macroregion Code EU
"Before the adoption of the macroregion code EU by ISO, CLDR also used QU to represent the European Union."

The source for 'macroregion code' of 'EU' should be cited explicitly. I'm trying to understand where this code is defined; which ISO for example?. Gezzas Man (talk) 10:21, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The ref on that sentence points to https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr35/, probably referring to the table in https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr35/#unicode_region_subtag-also-known-as-a-unicode-region-code-or-a-u which lists "QU" with comment "deprecated: the canonicalized form is EU". The adjacent text refers to BCP 47, which on page 76 of the corresponding RFC 5646 mentions Modified the rules in Section 2.2.4 so that "exceptionally reserved" ISO 3166-1 codes other than 'UK' were included into the registry. In particular, this allows the code 'EU' (European Union) to be used to form language tags or (more commonly) for applications that use the registry for region codes to reference this subtag.As for ISO, https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:EU notes that the ISO 3166 code was reserved at the request of ISO 4217/MA for ISO 6166.My guess it that the text is somewhat conflating the chain of "ISO 3166 exceptionally reserved code" → "BCP 47 region code" → "CLDR macroregion code" in using the CLDR terminology "macroregion". And probably also the dating, it seems that ISO 3166 probably reserved the code many years before RFC 5646 allowed BCP 47 to add it which allowed CLDR to switch to it. Anomie⚔ 12:55, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:ISO 3166-1 alpha-2