Eternal Flame Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vermilion Bird (Taoism)

The Vermilion Bird was perpetually covered in flames and symbolised fire, summer and the direction south. The other elements, seasons and directions were also each represented by a celestial beast. Perhaps the most curious of these is the Yellow Dragon of the Center, who represented the earth element, heaven and the sun, as well as the center direction. Where Western cultures often associated yellow with cowardice, the Chinese revered yellow, which was often reserved for emperors as a symbol of power and prosperity.

Answer: Fire Temple (Zoroastrianism)

Do Zoroastrians actually worship fire? Not entirely, though the fire represents a pure element that is emblematic of God's wisdom as well as the cosmic fire of creation. Although prayer formats are not prescriptive in Zoroastrian scripts, people do usually face a source of light when praying. One sacred flame has been kept permanently lit since 470 AD: it was moved to the Yazd temple in Iran in 1934 and is an eternal flame (Atash Behram) lit with sixteen different 'types' of fire.

Answer: Sodom and Gomorrah (Christianity)

Sodom and Gomorrah were two of five 'cities of the plain' and were destroyed for their sinful acts. God had sent two angels to Sodom to determine if the place was as sinful as they had heard and to find righteous people within it. They were welcomed by Lot, foreign to the land, but the city's residents soon demanded to have sex with his visitors.

The angels struck them blind, took Lot and his family away from the city, and God set Sodom and Gomorrah ablaze.

Answer: Jahannam (Islam)

In the Quran, Jahannam was described as containing an eternal flame that was written in quite vivid terms as being torturous to its inhabitants. Its name derived from Ge Hinnom (Gehenna) in Hebrew, a cursed valley where the kings of Judah sacrificed their children. Seven layers of hell were written of, with one account describing the types of people inherent: for example, one layer was for Muslim sinners where another was for disbelievers.

They ate from the zaqqum tree, whose fruits resembled devils' heads and acted like boiling water in the stomachs of those who ate them.

Answer: Agni (Hinduism)

The Vedas were a collection of hymns written between 1500-1000 BC and comprised 1028 hymns divided into ten books called mandalas. In around 20% of these hymns, the fire god Agni was invoked. In artwork, he was depicted as a red man with three arms and seven legs who rode a ram.

He was heavily revered as being a messenger between the living and the dead; he could guide spirits to their final judgment and provide sacrificial offerings to the other gods.

Answer: Fire Tablet (Baha'i)

Bahá'u'lláh, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the Persian religious leader who founded Baha'i in 1844. The Fire Tablet concerned his persecution, peoples' resistance to the faith and his lack of support from others. It was divided into three sections: God, having been posed questions and problems by Bahá'u'lláh, then answered why things were as they were, with Bahá'u'lláh concluding by gratefully reaffirming his commitment to God's path.

It ends as thus: "Should all the servants read and ponder this, there shall be kindled in their veins a fire that shall set aflame the worlds."

Answer: Hannukah (Judaism)

Hannukah commemorates the rededication of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem which had been taken over by Antiochus IV, a Greek king. It commences on the 25th of Kislev: as the Jewish calendar is lunar it has a variable starting point between late November and December.

The hannukiah is a nine-branched candelabrum lit during this eight-day holiday. One of the candles is lit every night, with the lighting candle - the chamash - sitting above the others.

Answer: Bale Fire (Wicca)

Beltane was celebrated on the last day of April, going into the first day of May. It marked the first day of summer and incorporated a number of rituals - including the bonfire - to promote the growth and protection of cattle and crops for a good harvest.

In some Wiccan traditions, handfasting (wedding) ceremonies were traditionally held on Beltane. The magic of the bale fire promoted fertility, passion, purification and blessing.

Answer: Fire Sermon (Buddhism)

The Pali Canon was the most complete chronicle of early Buddhist canonical works. Within it, the Fire Sermon - in a similar vein to mindfulness meditation - preached the detachment of oneself from their five senses to achieve liberation. Each of the five senses are filled with a fire that burns with sensations of lust, hate and delusion: the estrangement from these feelings allows a liberation from our suffering. T.S. Eliot once referred to the Fire Sermon in "The Waste Land" (1922) stating in a footnote that it 'corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount'.

Answer: Kagutsuchi (Shintoism)

In Shintoism, a kami can be a deity or a spirit in general. In the Kojiki ('Record of Ancient Things') Kagutsuchi was born from Izanami and Izanagi, the Shinto creator gods. However, Kagutsuchi's scorching heat killed Izanami in the process: he was decapitated by Izanagi in response and his blood and body created eight warrior and mountain gods.

In Shinto prayers, he was often referred to as Homusubi - 'he who starts fires' - and in spite of his believed death was appeased with the hopes of staving off destructive forces of fire.