5 (number) - Religion and Culture

Religion and Culture

Christian

• There are traditionally Five Wounds of Jesus Christ in Christianity: the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, the wounds in Christ's hands, the wounds in Christ's feet, and the Side Wound of Christ.

Jewish

• The book of Psalms is arranged into five books, paralleling the Five Books of Moses.
• The Khamsa, an ancient symbol shaped like a hand with five fingers, is used as a protective amulet by Jews; that same symbol is also very popular in Arabic culture, known to protect from envy and the evil eye.
• The Torah contains five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—which are collectively called the Five Books of Moses, the Pentateuch (Greek for "five containers," referring to the scroll cases in which the books were kept), or Humash (חומש, Hebrew for "fifth").

Islamic

• Muslims pray to Allah five times a day
• In Islam, particularly Shia Islam, the Panjetan or the Five Holy Purified Ones are the members of Muhammad's family: Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn and is often symbolically represented by an image of the Khamsa.
• There are five basic "pillars" of Islam.

Sikh

• The five sacred Sikh symbols prescribed by Guru Gobind Singh are commonly known as Panj Kakars or the 'Five Ks' because they start with letter K representing Kakka (ਕ) in the Punjabi language/Gurmukhi Script. They are: Kesh (unshorn hair), Kangha (the comb), Kara (the steel bracelet), Kachhehra (the soldiers shorts), and Kirpan (the sword) . Also, there are five deadly evils: Kam (lust), Krodh (anger), Moh (attachment), Lobh (greed), and Ankhar (ego).

Discordianism

• In Discordianism, 5 is seen as a very important number. This is demonstrated in the Law of Fives, as well as in the Pentabarf, which contains five rules.
• Each page of the Principia Discordia —the primary religious document in Discordianism— is labeled with five digits.

Other

• According to ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, the universe is made up of five classical elements: water, earth, air, fire, and ether. This concept was later adopted by Medieval alchemists and more recently by practitioners of Neo-Pagan religions such as Wicca.
• The pentagram, or five-pointed star, bears religious significance in various faiths including Baha'i, Christianity, Satanism, Taoism, Thelema, Freemasonry and Wicca.
• In Cantonese, "five" sounds like the word "not" (character: 唔). When five appears in front of a lucky number, e.g. "58", the result is considered unlucky.
• In East Asian tradition, there are five elements: (water, fire, earth, wood, and metal). The Japanese names for the days of the week, Tuesday through Saturday, come from these elements via the identification of the elements with the five planets visible with the naked eye. Also, the traditional Japanese calendar has a five-day weekly cycle that can be still observed in printed mixed calendars combining Western, Chinese-Buddhist, and Japanese names for each weekday.
• Members of The Nation of Gods and Earths, a primarily African American religious organization, call themselves the "Five-Percenters" because they believe that only 5% of mankind is truly enlightened.