Hot answers tagged religion
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There is absolutely no reason to need to pretend to be Christian while visiting the US. The US doesn't have an official religion and is a very diverse nation where people travel often. It is also a very large nation, and unfortunately some people do commit crimes against people for their religion/lack of religion. This is like any other diverse nation. ...
20
As @MarkMayo pointed out there is no official religion. As the person who had lived in Indiana (a pretty religious state though not part of the Bible Belt) the issue at hand is actually disrespect rather than religious affiliation.
That actually was the whole point of the Top Gear episode you have linked.
One of the few occasions you might have to pretend ...
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(Full resolution)
Traditional Islamic law is known as Sharia. By and large, countries following it or having a dual system of civil law as well as Sharia is depicted in this map. As a traveller, this is something you need to watch out for as a country you're visiting may have laws not commonly found in civil law found in most other countries. What makes ...
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It's on the northwest tower of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. There's an informative page about it on the cathedral's website:
You can see it from ground level, but they advise binoculars.
As for why it's there:
Washington National Cathedral held a decorative sculpture competition for children... The
third-place winner was ...
17
Vatican City is certainly open to visit for tourists at large; as you perhaps know, there is no actual boundary between Rome and Vatican City, meaning that nobody checks the papers of those who move from one to the other.
However, when I first read your question, I thought that you meant St. Peter's Cathedral, which takes up so much of Vatican City and ...
13
Here's my guess...
Trinity Church, in Serebryaniki
Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6837647 (translation)
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General recommendation when traveling anywhere is to avoid discussing any controversial subjects with locals. This include religion, politics, minorities rights, etc. Always divert conversation away from these subjects. If you're a tourist you're there to see, not to make a statement.
Also discussing other subjects, don't try to be smartass about local ...
12
First of all, Taiga is very big thing, so address in the Taiga isn't much helpful for you :)
Secondary, my apologies about some information is only in Russian, especially maps.
The Curch of the Last Testament has their village in the Krasnoyarsk Krai. Their site is very old, and the only thing working there is the main page. Also they have international ...
12
Clothing restrictions in mosques often vary from country-to-country, and even within mosques in a country. Everyone is asked to take their shoes off at an entrance area. For men, no shorts are allowed; for women, no skirts or bare shoulders, in addition to this some countries also mandate women to wear a scarf.
Those are the basics, but how 'welcoming' a ...
11
With 109 acres (44 hectares) within its walls, the Vatican is easily traveled by foot; however, most of this area is inaccessible to tourists.
No reference about Anglicans, Muslims or any other - just tourists. Any where that a Catholic can get in, you can too, regardless of your background. And also importantly, regardless of your gender - a recent ...
11
There are situations where for social acceptance pretending to be of the right faith matters but that's all. It's not a safety issue other than in extreme cases (such as the KKK rally Karlson mentioned. I would NOT recommend shouting "Allah akbar" in a KKK rally--but I would suggest staying away in the first place anyway.)
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In general, no, you do not need to pretend. Just be respectful.
There's no check at the border, nobody questions you. There's no official state religion, and the whole "Freedom of religion" thing is huge there.
Of course, wherever you go - in any country, there's going to be people who discriminate.
For the most part, however - most people, in every ...
10
Amazingly it was a kid's competition that got it there. The Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC - where Star Wars villain’s sculpted image sits next to a raccoon 200ft up America’s national house of prayer.
A story about it in The Sun.
The Wikipedia article on the Cathedral has more information too:
The Cathedral boasts what is probably ...
10
Notice:
The Sistine Chapel reopens
As the Conclave has now come to an end with the election of Pope Francis, the Sistine Chapel will reopen for visits by the public on Monday 18 March at 9am. It will also again be possible to visit the Borgia Apartment and the Collection of Modern Religious Art.
9
I can answer about the Middle East & North Africa only (the politically so-called "Arab World")
Egypt and Tunisia are not Muslim Countries since Islamic law is only one of the sources of legislation, not the only one, and used only in specific cases.
Muslim Countries are ones like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait...etc (religious states) whose law is only ...
8
Depending on where you plan to stay in Bosnia, you'll meet predominantly Christians or Muslims.
Easter and Easter Monday are public holidays there so larger cities like Sarajevo or Banja Luka will have shops and monuments closed. Most of the bars, cafes and restaurants will be open and perhaps some smaller shops.
But if you decide to you stay at smaller ...
7
I don't know about other places, but when I visited Istanbul a few years ago I had the opportunity of seeing a ceremony of Whirling Dervishes in the former train station of Sirkeci (where the Orient Express used to end its journey). It is held in the evening, I think more than once a week (but I was there in late December, so perhaps it was more frequent ...
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Use Bing Maps or Google maps to find the church ("Habo Church" got very close on Bing Maps), switch to photo view to confirm the building, and you can see the driveway along with a compass rose. (The Wikipedia page has a photo that shows you the colour of the roof and discusses the layout of the building itself.) Seems like the sun will be behind the ...
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Svenska kyrkan (the main Lutheran church of Sweden) says that the church is open Monday to Friday and Sundays between 10 and 16 this time of year. It also says that you can get in touch with Daniel Carlsson to get a guided tour. His phone numbers are 036-420 93 and 0701-74 30 45.
(Google search tips when looking for church information: search for - in this ...
7
Sufi orders are officially banned in Turkey, which isn't to say that they don't exist there, but that they are highly politicised and mostly exist underground. You are unlikely to find them as a tourist.
The modern Mevlevî "whirling dervish" performances are specially designed for tourists; they might be visually authentic but they do not represent a ...
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The various news articles I read about this (eg Reuters and Catholic.org) said that they installed a false floor and the stoves. They needed about a week to do that plus sweep for bugs, and that work will need to be undone once the conclave is finished. They will be voting for an unknown amount of time (Huffington Post) : a week is a good guess I suppose. If ...
6
According to Wikipedia, the Dome of the Rock complex (Temple Mount) was reopened to non-Muslim visitors for limited time and days of the week (for example, non-Muslims are not allowed in on Fridays).
Frommer's has a detailed description on how to get tourist access to the site. You may be able to get into the complex and the museum, but probably not into ...
6
You can find Sufis wherever you find Muslims but in little numbers. Most Sufis are in the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent.
If you want to find large groups outside these areas it will be hard. Anyway, your best shot outside these areas will be Turkey, where a large portion of the Muslim population is made up of Sufis. You can find a lot of ...
6
Mt. Fuji is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" (三霊山 Sanreizan) along with Mt. Tate, in the Toyama Prefecture, and Mt. Haku, in the Hokuriku region.
If you want to be immersed in Shinto religion, I'd recommend visiting Kyoto. There's lot of temples and shrines to see, and lots to do and even more to eat.
Spending just a day there wouldn't do the city ...
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It does depend on the specific country and the norms of the place. In the Putrajaya Mosque in Malaysia you get given a pink robe to cover up, and even then you can't enter the mosque proper if you're not Muslim; yet while visiting the Netherlands with a youth travel group of all sorts of backgrounds (and attire) we were welcomed into a Turkish surau (a ...
6
Generally it would be said to you if you need to do some specific - rules are various from country to country and even from town to town.
I can't remember something applied to all except that you really should not eat or sleep there, or something like that :)
Dogs are banned too.
Calm, peaceful and polite non-Muslim will not attract negative energy during ...
6
In Bosnia (and Herzegovina), the government does something slightly differently, due to the diversity of religion. In addition to certain public holidays (including Easter), each person is permitted two working days per year to fulfill their religious needs. These days are not considered official public holidays, but if taken around other public holidays ...
6
Not contradicting the references to the Darth Vader sculpture on The Washington National Cathedral in Washington I would like to direct you to two buildings in Spain.
Sagrada familia is a famous cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. The architect behind it is the late Antoni Gaudi. He is also the architect behind the building Casa Mila. Both buildings are equipped ...
3
Shinto is at heart an animist religion that imbues many natural features (rivers, trees, mountains) with spirits, and Japanese buddhism has been influenced heavily by this, so yes, "sacred mountains" are pretty common in Japan. For Buddhism, sacredness is usually centered around places where famous Buddhist teachers lived, taught or are buried. The two ...
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