What have shrines taught you?

[dubiousdisc]

Just, today I was writing for a shrine and holy shit, I got to learn so many things about martens and their role in Japanese folklore and linguistics and I got to look at an adorable picture of a weasel next to a boot and I was just thinking that I got to learn all of this because of doing research for a shrine!! That's so awesome!

So I just wanted to ask you, have you had similar experiences?
What things have you learned through researching for your shrines?

[Lethe]

Neat topic!! LOL the boot.

I don't know whether any of this is meaningful and it sure won't help me if I ever find myself in an INTENSE SURVIVAL SETTING!!! like those plots where suddenly all trivia you've absorbed suddenly comes in handy but. I will just go and list random curiosities I came across while researching shrining stuff since last year:

• I mentioned some parts of armour on my Claymore shrine, so I learned many more English terms for components of medieval armour besides the few that I knew from books and video games lmao.

• During the French Revolution, there may have been bals des victimes (victims' balls) organized by dancing societies, to which you were only invited if you had a relative who was guillotined. Mourning clothes were worn along with red ribbons around the necks to mirror the guillotine beheading people. I was just looking up possible meanings and origins of the choker, not "the post-Terror generations' morbid fascination with the horror of the guillotine and the excesses of the French Revolution with its mass executions". :|a

• Sleeping Beauty and Little Briar Rose aren't the same fairy tale even though in English, you commonly refer to Little Briar Rose as Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty features a fairy who cruises around on a dragon chariot what.

• There are self-published short stories that are continuations of Dream Saga that I will never know SOB.

• I passed up on a lot of pages on various Sailor Moon websites in the past that talked about the three Imperial Regalia of Japan lol. Then I had to write about them for my Dream Saga shrine and omg. It's fascinating that they're directly linked to mythology, and that they are so obscure and well-kept, with so many different accounts of their stories, people speculate they may not even exist. Emperors may even be using replicas in ceremonies (?). And yet, everyone seems to know in which shrines each of the objects are kept. Doesn't that defeat the purpose???

• Googling Egyptian mythology and Ho-Oh for the mythology section of your shrine will yield a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon results, googling some parts of Japanese mythology will yield Naruto results... Also, there are many fascinating mythological birds and. There should be a shrine for things like this. Now I want to go out and look for books that examine a specific mythological creature and following its origins, development/interpretations across different times and cultures, etc. :|a

• I whined a lot on Twitter while writing about Japanese (and other) mythology for my Dream Saga shrine, but I love mythology. I especially liked learning about the story of Izanagi and Izanami, the creation gods that were also a couple, because I... like the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice in Greek mythology (especially interpretations and retellings of it).
  
  Orpheus descended to the underworld and tried to take Eurydice back with him in vain, while Izanagi descended, saw his wife's rotten body, and got the hell out while she chased him out of the underworld (by sending pretty much everyone and everything after him) because she was so furious he saw her in that state. In the end, he sealed the entrance to the underworld with a rock (and that's why the dead and the living are separated) because she came after him herself when everything failed. Then they have a shouting match and she becomes the goddess of death by yelling at him she'd kill off a certain amount of people of his land every day. I guess that's one way to end a marriage.

[Robin]

I absolutely love it when building a shrine teaches me something along the way! It's one major reason why I build shrines in the first place--I like to use my sites as interactive analogies to other content which might never have been explored or connected otherwise.

For example:
- I got to research fairy lore and mysticism from around the world as part of my Clefairy shrine;
- I discovered more about both Don Quixote and specific parts of the New Testament for my Olaf shrine;
- I delved into feminism and depictions of female virginity in fiction as I composed my Dove shrine;
- I learned a whole lot about pre-WWII Austria and the von Trapp family's history for my Sound of Music shrine;
- I uncovered a little philosophy about life, spirituality, and death within the story of Jane Eyre for my Helen Burns shrine;
- I drew on my formal background in educational psychology and teaching to craft most of my Elsa shrine.

Shrines are such a great medium for learning and presenting our knowledge to the world in an attractive way :) This is what drew me to making sites in the first place, and I'm glad I got back into it.

[Mikari]

I learned a lot about webdesign, it has also helped with writing, though that's just the expected stuff. When it comes to research topics, what stands out the most is learning about samurai.

[Camy]

It taught me to just have fun with it and who cares if someone also made a shrine with the same subject, as well as learning so much about HTML, XHTML, and CSS.

[Todd]

I'll have to think more on this and reply again because I'm sure there's more, but the shrine I have had to research for and learn the most from is my Reiko site. I learned a lot of neat things about Japanese culture and society, and some kanji.

On my current project, a Drifloon shrine, I'm learning quite a lot about numerology (particularly the number nine). I'm sure there will be more as this shrine moves along. I'm having a hay day with it.

[Crystal]

When it comes to writing content the only person I can write better than is myself. Sometimes I compare my writing style to other people and discourage myself because I cannot write content like them but then I remember I can only do what I am able. So what if I can't write long essays? I'm still proud of what I do.

Also I learned some cool things about butterflies.

[Tara]

When it comes to writing content the only person I can write better than is myself. Sometimes I compare my writing style to other people and discourage myself because I cannot write content like them but then I remember I can only do what I am able. So what if I can't write long essays? I'm still proud of what I do.

Also I learned some cool things about butterflies.

This is a great thing!! Learning not to compare your work to others and be proud of what you can accomplish is stellar. Good for you, Crystal!

At the cost of sounding like a repeating chorus, I also have learned a lot about webdesign and coding! I have a tendency to try new things a lot, and it's influenced my style and way of writing quite a bit. I'm also a lot more critical of my own writing because it has actually become something I find myself really good at, and I? don't think I am good at a lot? So I like to challenge myself to get better, which is something I never would have learned or discovered if it weren't for shrining.

In creating a lot of my Persona tributes, I got to delve a lot more into my knowledge of tarot, which is something I've always been interested in, as well as Greek mythology. It's one of the many reasons I really enjoy creating Persona fansites. It's a lot of fun to learn about both! As well, in my Tharja shrine, I had the opportunity to learn about Dark Magic, which was really interesting. o:

[Destinie]

Whaa! Great topic! Just yesterday I made a comment to my husband about Giovanni's Japanese name is Sakaki and all the symbolism there (some back story, I was playing in the snow and I built a shinto cat priest thing?? IDK I started off making a begging cat and then put a piece of evergreen branch in its paw so it looked like it was offering it so anyway...). There are TONS of useless facts I now know thanks to writing shrines basically:

- all the history of any of the characters ever
- The supposed origin of Komainu
- How there are a gazillion origin stories for Maneki Neko and no one knows the real one
- How Starfox Adventures, and other nintendo games, were going to be a totally different game until they slapped known characters on it

And other things...

But I think doing shrines have also helped me to learn a lot about my writing style, how I gather and process information, and how I make that information accessible and enjoyable for other people. It has helped develop a sort of non-fiction writing style.

On top of that, it's also helped me to learn a lot of coding skills and techniques that help me in my every day job! (Yay PHP and Angular JS)

So I, personally, continue doing shrines as ways to learn and grow and expand on my current knowledge base. I have always felt that they are key in helping me to stay in touch with current web trends and technology.

Shrines have also given me insight into other people's writing styles and work. And it has also taught me how great it is bringing people together who have varying interests but are all able to talk about that one thing: shrining. And it has, in turn, helped me to learn about those other people and form friendships over the internet. What an amazing thing! :)

[Megan]

I love making shrines for many reasons, but my favorite is how much I learn about the subject, as well as things related. I love history, and many of my shrines contain historical comparisons to something the subject is, has, or does. Because of these things, I believe that it takes reading/watching anime/manga and playing video games from being just a hobby into an educational process as well. Shrining is a great pastime for learning, meeting new people, and expression.

I've said it many times in many places, but I'll say it again: Amassment is an amazing thing! It's definitely the reason why I came back to the web-designing world. If I never stumbled across this place, I probably would have fallen out once again. However, the people who inspire me here have kept me going, and kept me working hard as well!