Piotr,
It is not completely impossible that the word hram to be of Thracian origin and I'll explain why.
1. Samos Island was once inhabited by the Thracians.
2. Hera and Zeus were Thracian gods adopted by the Greeks.
3. the Samian festival was called in Greek Heraion. What was the Thracian name?
4. the orthodox Christian hram celebration seems quite similar with the Samian celebration, a public festival, sacrifice of sheep and cows, a banquet for the entire community with free food and drink
5. Here we are. There is also a linguistic connection. The Greek alphabet was based on the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet has only consonants and no vowels. The Etruscan and Italic alphabets, from which was developed the Latin alphabet, used to drop the median vowel, but in words with two syllables was dropped the first vowel. Can be the word hram a descendant from heram, in which the first vowel was dropped? In Romanian there is also an expression 'a ajuns la haram', whose origin is lost, but which means that a person lost everything, is on the edge and is leaving on public charity 'pomana'. The Romanian word har means a divine natural gift, talent and Romanians use to say 'he has a divine har', which means 'el are un dar de la Dumnezeu'. At hram poor peoples received a divine gift then from Hera, the goddess of Heaven and now from our god, Iisus Christos and the patron saint of a church.
Hera - heram - haram - hram - har
Therefore, the religious term hram seems to be much older, dating before the birth of Jesus and connected with the ancient Thracian peoples.
Cheers,
Lisa
Piotr Gasiorowski <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
18-06-03 09:15, Lisa Darie wrote:
> Hram is the annual celebration of the patron saint of an orthodox church
> as St George on April 23 or St. Mary on August 15. The name hram might
> derives from heram, an ancient festival and a banquet celebrated in
> Samos in honour of the goddess Hera. The Thracians used to offer to
> their gods and ancestors huge lavish public feasts.
This is _completely impossible_. First, no Greek aitches would have
survived in any Balkan vernacular. Secondly, but perhaps more
importantly, the Samian festival was called the "Heraion". <hram> can
only be OCS xramU < PSl. *xormU 'tall building, temple'.
The Internet is an incedibly productive generator of urban myths. You
should ponder on that before accepting anything from an obscure web source.
Piotr
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