Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Epiphany ĭpĭfˈənē [key] [Gr.,=showing], a prime Christian feast, celebrated Jan. 6, called also Twelfth Day or Little Christmas. Its eve is Twelfth Night. It commemorates three events—the bapti...

(Encyclopedia) Picabia, Francis fräNsēsˈ pĕkäˈbēä [key], 1878–1953, French painter, b. Paris. After working in an impressionist style, Picabia was influenced by cubism and later was one of the original exp...

(Encyclopedia) Ammianus Marcellinus ămēāˈnəs märsĭlīˈnəs [key], c.330–c.400, Roman historian, b. Antioch. After retiring from a successful military career, he wrote a history of the Roman Empire as a seq...

(Encyclopedia) Haile Gebrselassie, 1973–, Ethiopian track athlete. Adept at both indoor and outdoor distance events as well as long-distance cross-country and marathon running, Haile won major races in distances r...

(Encyclopedia) Means, Russell, 1939–2012, Native American activist, b. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, S.Dak. An Oglala Sioux, he grew up near San Francisco, and attended four colleges but never graduated. He joine...

(Encyclopedia) Bethany bĕthˈənē [key]. 1 Village, at the southeastern foot of the Mount of Olives, the modern El Aziriye, 2 mi (3.2 km) E of Jerusalem. In the Gospels, it is the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary...

(Encyclopedia) passion music, choral music whose text depicts events immediately surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus. The earliest passions, composed from the 9th to the 14th cent., were monophonic and employed the...

(Encyclopedia) Trent, Council of, 1545–47, 1551–52, 1562–63, 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convoked to meet the crisis of the Protestant Reformation. Earlier efforts at reforming the ch...

(Encyclopedia) Arab Spring, in modern North African and Middle Eastern history, antigovernment demonstrations and uprisings that, from late 2010, swept many of the regions' Arab nations. Arising in large part in rea...

(Encyclopedia) Numbers, book of the Bible, fourth of the five books of the Law (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. Numbers begins at Sinai and ends in Moab on the eve of the Hebrews' entry into...