This is posted in the waiting room of an Irish hospital. Interesting glimpse into their culture.
The full text of the poster
This symbol has been developed by the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme to respectfully identify the End of Life.
This symbol is inspired by ancient Irish history; it is not associated with any one religion or denomination.
The white spiral represents the interconnected cycle of life, birth, life and death.
The white outer circle represents continuity, infinity and completion.
Purple has been chosen as the background colour as it is associated with nobility, solemnity and spirituality.
In this hospital the symbol may be displayed on a ward to add respect and solemnity during end of life or following the death of one of our patients.
The Celtic Triskele! My mom had a bunch of these in her jewelry and house decorations. We always honored it as a symbol for the maiden, mother, and crone.
If you visit Boyne Valley, one of the cultural highlights in ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’, you’re likely to find the Celtic Triskele symbol at the entrance of the 5,000-year-old Newgrange Passage Tomb. It dates back to the Neolithic era, and boasts true beauty in a serene location. However, that’s not the only place it can be found.
Markings and artifacts have been located in various ancient sites, which also show us that the Celtic Triskele became popular with the Celtic culture from 500 B.C. onwards. These artifacts can be discovered in Ireland, as well as Europe, and across America.
The Celtic Triskele was a symbol that had various meanings for the early Pagans. One of them was linked to the sun, triadic Gods, and the three domains of land, sea, and sky. As we mentioned above, the Triple Spiral was also believed to represent the cycles of life, as well as the Triple Goddess -the maiden, mother, and wise woman.
Looks like the Airbender symbol.
oh cool it’s a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion
I love that there’s a wiki page to what amounts to humanities random doodle.
I learned that in children’s hospital’s, the symbol is a butterfly. I could never look at a butterfly quite the same way after that.
A triskel… odd choice
Does anybody else get upset because it is not centered?
Pretty sure it’s centered.
What makes you say it’s not?
The two lower swirls are closer to the circle than the top one
Ohhh. I was looking only at the big circle.
The hospitals I have been in recently in the US use a purple butterfly for the same purpose…it’s really sad to see when walking around.
I came here to say it looks like the trisquel gnu Linux logo https://trisquel.info/. But found out from your comments it is the Celtic trisquel symbol. Confidence? I think not.
It is the same lol, that’s where the Trisquel concept/logo is from
Kinky. Someone should probably have googled who else have adopted a triskelion as their symbol.
isn’t this Brigid’s symbol?
That woild be St Brigid’s cross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid’s_cross
Ah, thank you. For some reason I had the goddess Brigid associated with the triskele and maiden/mother/crone but there’s so much overlap nowadays between goddess and saint that it’s hard to find reliable sources on what was who.
Why do they need a symbol for that? Can’t they just don’t put any symbol? What does a symbol add?
How would you mark the room where someone just died. Maybe their family is there grieving.
“Please don’t disturb” is slightly silly to put on a door handle
Maybe our customs are different. Usually this situation is very short and by the time you hangbthe sign, the person would already be transferred to the morgue. I lived in a similar situation where we had a family member die by night and by the time we reached in the early morning we went directly to a specific cleansing area. So it is very obvious what is going there.
We are Muslims and time from death to burial usually takes less than 24 hours.
Have you heard of an Irish wake? Traditionally they would throw a big party celebrating the life of a lost loved one and everyone would hang out with the body for 1-2 days
At the vet I’ve seen a candle that they light when someone brings in their pet to be put down. It lets other patients know the terrible suffering the family is going through and allows them to be respectful to that. I’m guessing this symbol serves a similar purpose.
Could just use F
I’m pretty sure that’s the void from league of legends
