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Hello.

The Olympic symbols are elements present in the different ceremonies of the

Olympics Games, Opening and Closing Ceremonies,

the victory, medals and the diploma ceremonies,

and at the same time are crucial and powerful elements of identification.

They acquire a great importance not only for the representative character

or due to their evocative nature, but also because they are elements

of great economic value in the structure of the so-called commercialization of

the Olympics, about which we will talk during the fifth week.

For that reason, they are specifically protected.

In actual fact, they are mentioned in detail in the Olympic charter.

Which are these Olympic symbols according to the Olympic Games Constitution?

According to rule 7.4, the Olympic symbol, flag,

motto, anthem, identifications including but not

limited to Olympic Games and Games of the Olympiad,

designations, emblems, flame and torches, as defined in

rules 8 to 14 below, may, for convenience, be collectively or

individually referred to as Olympic properties.

All rights to any and all Olympic properties, as well

as all rights to the use thereof, belong exclusively

to the International Olympic Committee, including but not limited

to the use of any profit-making commercial or advertising purposes.

The International Olympic Committee may license all

or part of its rights on terms and

conditions set forth by the International Olympic

Committee Executive Board, according to the Olympic Charter.

The Olympic Charter refers to and defines each one of them in rules 8 to 14.

The first one is the so-called Olympic symbol:

After detailing in depth how the Olympic symbol is, the Olympic Charter

explains that the Olympic symbol expresses the activity of the Olympic

Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting

of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games, rule 8.

The Olympic flag has a white background, with no border. The Olympic symbol

in its five colours is located in its center, according to rule 9.

The Olympic flag was created in 1914 and was

used for the first time at the Antwerp 1920 Games.

At the same time the Olympic Charter in its

53.1 and 53.2 rules describes that the OIympic flag

must be in the Olympic stadium and the different

venues during the Games, including the Olympic Village.

The Olympic motto, Citius Altius, Fortius, expresses the

aspirations of the Olympic Movement, according to rule 10.

The Olympic anthem is the musical work entitled

Olympic Anthem, composed by Spiro Samara, according to Rule 12.

The rule 13 refers to the Olympic Flame and Torches.

Olympic Torches.

The Olympic flame is the flame which is kindled

in Olympia under the authority of the International Olympic Committee.

An Olympic torch is a portable torch, or a replica thereof, as approved

by the International Olympic Committee and

intended for combustion of the Olympic flame.

As we have explained before, the Olympic symbols

acquire a central role in the Olympic ceremonies.

Without symbols, three couldn't be ceremonies.

The Opening and Closing Ceremonies

and the victory, medals and diploma ceremonies

need from the presence of the symbols that intensify them and give them sense.

The modern Olympic Games use the rituals and

the pseudo-religious elements to acquire transcendence, entity and

an alive spirit that allows to connect themselves to

the tradition of the Ancient Games, Ancient Olympic Games.

The Olympic Flame is a central element that links

the modern Olympic Games with the Games of antiquity.

Its lit is surrounded of elements that follows ancient traditions.

The lighting ceremony in Ancient Olympia, celebrated months before each edition

of the Games, is a permanent element that connects us with

the tradition of the ancient Olympic Games, with the mother earth,

and it is one of the key elements in the antiquity.

The fire was in the ancient Greece, for the pre-Socratic philosophers one of

the five basic material elements together with

the earth, water, air, fire and aether.

According to the International Olympic Committee, the

Ancient Greeks considered fire to be a

divine element, and they maintained a perpetual

fires in front of their principal temples.

This was the case in sanctuary

of Olympia, where the Ancient Olympic Games took place.

The flame was lit using the rays of the sun,

to ensure its purity and skaphia, the ancestor of

the parabolic mirror used today for lighting the Olympic flame.

A flame burned permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia,

and such fires were also lit on the altars of Zeus and Hera,

in front of whose temple the Olympic flame is lit today.

During the Lighting Ceremony, using the sun's rays and a parabolic mirror, the

flame is lit by a high priestess at the Temple of Hera.

The priestess then uses the flame to ignite

the torch of the first runner of the Relay.

After that, the Olympic torch relay officially starts.

The Olympic flame usually makes a

several-day journey across Greece, before arriving

at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens for the official flame and Handover Ceremony.

Athens was the site of the first modern

Olympic Games in 1896, as we have explained.

The Olympic Torch Relay was established for the first

time for the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games and constitutes

a crucial element for union of the people of

the different places that are visited for the Olympic flame.

In this sense, the Olympic Torch Relay is a way of participative communication.

The day of the Opening Ceremony, the Olympic flame arrives to the stadium and

lights the Olympic Cauldron that will stayed light until the end of the Games.

In today's society symbols and rituals have an

extraordinary importance despite, the fact that the current

global post-modern society lack of symbols linked to

the transcendent, to the numinous, to the sacred.

It is true that that we are surrounded by

symbols but they are almost always linked to brands,

to the consumption society, which play a different role

than the ancient symbols and rituals of the ancient societies.

There are movements in our secular societies to give

content to the important moments in our lives, birth, marriage.

Because the ancient symbols are rituals, rituals offer a quantitative added value

to these secular societies. Rituals give sense to what we celebrate.

Unfortunately, in our modern societies, we do

not have rituals with that sort of power.

The Olympic symbols and rituals are in their great majority of modern creation.

They are a modern creation that link us with the old religious rituals and symbols,

which give transcendence and meaning to the

acts, with their impressive great evocative capacity.

For example, as we have mentioned the

lighting ceremony in the Ancient Olympia is a

modern creation that was established for the

first time for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

The Olympic symbols and rituals have the capacity of linking to old

world of the transcendent things with the modern world in which we are living.

They are an attempt to offer greatness to the effort,

the competition and the records of the Olympics.

The rituals and symbols give the Olympics a new dimension.

The Olympic symbols and rituals have the

virtue of preserving the magic of the ancient and

locate us at the same time in the

modern world of self-improvement and technologies.

On the other hand, the rituals and symbols in the current Olympic Games of

media and television, have an extraordinary evocative

strength, and a plastic and aesthetic power.

They fit very well on television.

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L3.6. Symbols and Rituals of the Olympic Games

The Olympic Games and the Media

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