![]() One of the three "Great Flames" of the Achaemenid Empire was extinguished during the reign of Alexander the Great to honour the death of his close friend Hephaestion in 324 BC.In China, it has at times been common to establish an eternally lit lamp as a visible aspect of ancestor veneration it is set in front of a spirit tablet on the family's ancestral altar. The flame, maintained in Oklahoma, was carried back to the last seat of the Cherokee government at Red Clay State Park in south-eastern Tennessee, to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, and to the Cherokee Nation Tribal Complex in Talequah, Oklahoma. At that time, embers from the last great council fire were carried west to the nation's new home in the Oklahoma Territory. The Cherokee Nation maintained a fire at the seat of government until ousted by the Indian Removal Act in 1830. In traditional Christian denominations, such as Catholicism and Lutheranism, a chancel lamp continuously burns as an indication of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. After World War II, such flames gained further meaning, as a reminder of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Modern Judaism continues a similar tradition by having a sanctuary lamp, the ner tamid, always lit above the ark in the synagogue. The eternal flame was a component of the Jewish religious rituals performed in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem, where a commandment required a fire to burn continuously upon the Outer Altar. Period sources indicate that three "great fires" existed in the Achaemenid era of Persian history, which are collectively considered the earliest reference to the practice of creating ever-burning community fires. In ancient Iran the atar was tended by a dedicated priest and represented the concept of "divine sparks" or Amesha Spenta, as understood in Zoroastrianism. The eternal fire is a long-standing tradition in many cultures and religions. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church ![]() A chancel lamp hangs above the altar of St. ![]()
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