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January 1

what year is it according to adherents to the Kaharingan religion?

Tricky question, I know - do they have a calendar at all, or use the Hindu or Christian calendars?

Thanks, and happy (western) new year!

--Adambrowne666 (talk) 01:54, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hunting preserves

Hunting preserve is a redlink; I'd like to make it a redirect, but to what? Do we have any article on the concept? Nyttend (talk) 05:06, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What is it? Are you thinking of "hunting reserve" (without the "p"), which may be addressed by Game reserve? HiLo48 (talk) 05:32, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite. Imagine the stereotypical mediæval nobleman: he owns a big tract of land that's maintained so that he can go hunting there when he feels like it, but the gamekeepers do their best to ensure that the local peasants don't go hunting on the land. Rather the opposite of a game reserve, which appears to be a place where wildlife can be safe from hunters; my concept is a place where wildlife are safe from most hunters in order to be easy targets for one or a few hunters. Nyttend (talk) 05:50, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Why not just write an article? Lots of history there, e.g. Bois de Boulogne#A hunting preserve, royal châteaux, and a historic balloon flight. Otherwise, it's mentioned in Medieval hunting#History. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:53, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I assumed that we already had an article (after all, it's the kind of thing one would find in Britannica 1911) that I just wasn't finding. Nyttend (talk) 13:14, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nyttend -- In medieval England there were deer parks set aside for aristocrats to hunt deer in. The rural lower classes of Elizabethan and Jacobean times hated the deer parks with a passion, and few of them survived the mid-17th century English civil war. That was when the upper classes started to turn their attention from hunting deer to hunting foxes. Our Deer park (England) article seems to omit some key facts... AnonMoos (talk) 14:18, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hunting preserves is not difficult, just stalk the jam/jelly/marmalade aisle in the supermarket, and they should be hiding right there. :-) StuRat (talk) 08:16, 1 January 2014 (UTC) [reply]

Hey! No jokes allowed here! Can it! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:53, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I only can the salty ones. :-) StuRat (talk) 15:36, 1 January 2014 (UTC) [reply]

Game preservation is the most relevant article we have at the moment, but it certainly can be improved. Tevildo (talk) 09:53, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We also have Royal forest. Adam Bishop (talk) 10:01, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and created the redirect to Game preservation. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 19:10, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to everyone! I agree that Game preservation is a good target, but I definitely wasn't aware of it until now. Nyttend (talk) 21:15, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Jehovah's Witnesses' and the flock of 144,000

Reading our articles on Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs and practices, I learned that, according to their beliefs, only 144,000 "anointed" people will go to heaven when the end times come, while the remaining people can only hope for an earthly life after Armageddon. Also, according to our articles, these anointed people partake of the unleavened bread and wine during the Memorial of Christ's death. What is not mentioned in the articles is exactly how these anointed believers are "chosen" or otherwise decide to partake in the Eucharist. Do they simply unilaterally decide that they are among the 144,000, or are they determined through some other means? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 12:01, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

User talk:Jeffro77 is the resident expert, and I've asked him to come here and respond. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:41, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Narutolovehinata5. A short answear to your question will be, each and one of the members of the 144,000, selfindentify him- or herself as a member, and the members of Jehovah's Witnesses as a collective accepts each and one of the other members as belonging to one of the two classes.

Jehovah's Witnesses believes the 144,000 is selected by God, and the kind of hope/class (on earth or in heaven) is expressed by an inside feeling, or a selfindentification, for each and one of the members, as of the Watchtower, 15. january 2008, p23. As explained in the same article, Jehovah's Witnesses believes the anointed class consists mainly by members of the religion who joined before 1935, while some few of the 144,000 have joined later than 1935, as primarly, but not uniquely, being counted as replacement for individuals who have proven to be "unfaithful", likely to at least include members who have left the religion (see also Historical Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses by George D. Chryssides, p3). According to the Watchtower 15. june 2009, p23, other Christians should not judge a member who partake of the emblems at the memorial, and it is describes as a matter between the person partaking and God. Grrahnbahr (talk) 16:24, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The claim of being 'anointed' is based only on self-assessment. There is no method of verification or registration. As suggested by Grrahnbahr, JWs were previously taught that all members of the '144,000' were 'chosen' prior to 1935, which was later amended to allow for 'replacements' after that time. It was expected that the number of 'anointed' would continue to reduce; however, the number claiming to be 'anointed' has instead been steadily increasing. As a result, Watch Tower Society literature has suggested that "A number of factors—including past religious beliefs or even mental or emotional imbalance—might cause some to assume mistakenly that they have the heavenly calling." (The Watchtower, 15 August 2011, page 22). When referring to members of their 'Governing Body' (which approves all JW literature), their literature always says those members are anointed, however others who partake of the 'emblems' are only ever referred to as 'claiming' to be 'anointed'. More recently, the Witnesses' Governing Body took further steps to dissuade members from claiming to be 'anointed' by changing their doctrine about the 'faithful slave class'. Previously, this was said to include all living members of the 'anointed', but this was redefined to refer only to the members of the Governing Body. (This 'class' is said to have 'teaching authority' over JWs; in practice, even before the change, the directors of the Watch Tower Society (prior to 1971) or members of the Governing Body (1971 onwards) exclusively presumed to have such 'authority'.)--Jeffro77 (talk) 08:03, 2 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Narutolovehinata5, the Watchtower magazine articles cited by Grrahnbahr can be found online at http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2008046 and http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2009443.

—Wavelength (talk) 18:02, 1 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the replies, they were pretty informative, but more importantly, they answered my main question. Could someone add the information regarding how the 144000 are chosen to our article on Jehovah's Witnesses and Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs? (using the sources Wavelength provided, of course) Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 13:43, 2 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The article about JW beliefs already indicates that being 'anointed' is a 'claim' made by members. It might be suitable to add another sentence or so to be even more clear. It doesn't seem necessary to raise this point at the main JW article.--Jeffro77 (talk) 10:11, 3 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved