Half of all vertebrates living on our planet are fish

It’s Official: Fish Feel Pain

Half of all vertebrates living on our planet are fish. They appeared approximately 350 million years ago, and many modern forms have existed unchanged for about half a million years. On December 22, 1938, a trawler fishing off the coast of South Africa delivered amazing fish ashore. Her fins resembled the hands of a man, and she herself looked like a big lizard. The fish was very heavy, about one and a half meters long, with a toothy mouth. She was supposed to disappear from the face of the earth about 50 million years ago, but they lived! It was a coelacanth, "old four-legged", as J.L.B. Smith, an ichthyologist who wrote a book under that title. Since the coelacanth officially died out, at least 30 million generations have succeeded in its family .

Fishes are a diverse and vast group of animals

differing in color, size, structure, physiology. Among them are amazing long-livers. In 1794, Tsaritsyn ponds were cleaned near Moscow and a huge pike was caught over two meters long. In her gill cover was a golden ring with the inscription:

 "Tsar Boris Fedorovich planted." 

This pike has lived over 200 years!

Many species of fish are dangerous.

 Large sharks attack people, scorpions and their relatives have poisonous glands at the base of the spiny rays of the dorsal fins, puffers contain poison in internal organs and tissues. There are stingrays with sharp tail spikes equipped with a poisonous gland, and there are electric stingrays and eels that can strike with electric shock.

Who knows if the biblical Leviathan, the embodiment of darkness, death, water chaos, is sometimes depicted as a fish because of dangerous fish?

Stone statues of fish - Vishans, found on the territory of Neolithic sites in the burials of primitive people in the Caucasus, Northern Mongolia and Siberia, testify to the attitude to fish as a sacred animal from ancient times. The fish motif of the pattern and ornament on the dishes and women's clothing has been known since the fifth millennium. There were prohibitions to pronounce the name of the fish out loud and to eat it. The tribe, whose life depended on fishing, tried to treat the fish respectfully. 

The Indians of Peru worshiped the fish, which they caught in large quantities. They believed that the first fish that was created in the "upper" world gave birth to all other fish of this species and took care of mm to produce more children - so that humanity would emerge from them. These Indians considered the gods of all the fish that were useful to them.

 Quakiutl Indians believed that when they kill salmon, his soul returns to the land of salmon. They made sure to throw caviar and bones of salmon into the sea so that the soul could revive them. In the same way, aftermath Indians in Canada, who believed that the souls of dead fish were transferred to other fish bodies, had never burned fish bones for fear of not pleasing the souls of fish, which after that would not be caught in the net.
fish was considered the embodiment of the soul of a deceased person

 Among the peoples of Africa, fish was considered the embodiment of the soul of a deceased person, and according to the ideas of the peoples of Siberia, fish have their own patrons, in particular, the "hairy father", grazing fish herds and helping fishermen. Special rituals accompanied fishing - the fishermen hoped that this would provide a rich catch.

The ancient Indian epic tells that once the earth was a mountain in the middle of the ocean. The sun circled it above on a sun boat, below - on a fish. Once, during a ritual: Our teacher will not give didomination, a small fish fell into the hands of Manu, the ancestor and the king of people. She asked Manu to raise her, promising that she would save him during the coming flood. When she turned into a big fish, Manu released her into the sea and equipped the ship on her advice. Soon the flood began. 

Manu tied the ship to the horn of a sailing fish, and she led him north, to a mountain lonely towering above the waters. After a while, the flood subsided, taking with it all living things, and Manu was left on earth alone. He made a sacrifice to the gods - he threw butter and cottage cheese into the water, and from this sacrifice came the girl Il, who became his wife. From them came the human race.

In Christian art and literature, the image of fish is a sacred symbol. Numerous images of fish on seals, medals and tombs of the early Christian era. At that time, Jesus Christ was sometimes called the Fish, and Christians were called fishermen.

The Greek word fish was deciphered as an abbreviation of the Greek formula "Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Savior.

" Fish is a symbol of faith, purity, the Virgin Mary, baptism, communion. An explanation of this relationship to fish as a symbol can be found in the New Testament.

On the shore of Lake Galilee there was a large shopping center, Capernaum, at that time. It crossed the road to Thira, Damascus, Jerusalem and Sapphoris. After Nazareth, Jesus Christ settled in Capernaum, but did not live there long. When he had to return to this clan, he stayed in the house of St. Apostle Peter.

Before meeting Christ, Peter (originally Simon) lived in Capernaum, engaged in fishing. Jesus saw him fishing with his brother Andrew on the "sea" of Galilee, and called both of them, saying: "I will make you fishers of men." In this story, fishing takes on a sacred meaning.

 The attitude to fish, as a sacred being, was facilitated by the story of a miracle cited in the Gospel of Matthew (and only in it). "

In Capernaum there was a customs office for tax collection. Every Jew over 12 years old had to pay them. Huge taxes were sent to Jerusalem to maintain service in the temple. Tax collection was humiliating for the Jews. It was believed that tribute should be voluntary - a gift emanating from love. Paying the tax was offensive to Jesus as well, because He knew that He would have to give his life as a ransom for his soul to the Lord.

The tax collectors turned to Peter: "Will our teacher give a dirchma?" Peter answered: "Yes." Peter went into the house, and Jesus, without waiting for him to say what was the matter, immediately turned to him with the question: "Do you think Simon, the kings of the earth from whom they take taxes? Are they from their sons, or from outsiders? " “From the outsiders,” answered Peter. "So, the sons are free. But so as not to seduce them, go to the sea, throw the oud, and take the first fish that comes across; open her mouth, you will find a statir (four drachmas. V.A.); take it and give it back for myself and for me. "

Matthew does not say what happened next. However, it must be assumed that this all happened: Peter found a statir in the mouth of the fish and paid a tax. And this did not humiliate them, but, on the contrary, confirmed the greatness of Jesus.

In the Lake of Galilee there was a fish similar to a mackerel, named chrimis simonis and interpreter of the Gospel, professor-theologian F.V. Farrar in the book "The Life of Jesus" gives its image.

The fish was only a sacred symbol, but also a sign of fertility, fertility and abundance. Sometimes in folk tales she personified poverty, stinginess and stupidity. The characters of Russian fairy tales were: pike, ruff, crucian carp, ide, bream, lesser, burbot, perch, sturgeon, salmon, whitefish, catfish, roach, Kaluga and, of course, “fish- whale". But since the whale is not a fish, but a mammal, there will be a special discussion about it in the next issues of the newspaper.

Some individual fish were also considered symbols. For example, salmon meant abundance, knowledge, and inspiration. Carp was revered in Japan and China for its red color (goldfish) and symbolized strength, courage, cunning and perseverance in the struggle.

Sazan played a magical role among shamans in the ritual of expelling evil spirits. A shark is an image of evil, death, danger, but at the same time among the Japanese it is a messenger of a deity and helps those who revere it (the divine shark Same).

According to the Bible, the messiah will receive the fish and share it with the righteous at the end of the world. The second coming of the messiah will occur when Saturn and Jupiter converge in the zodiac sign Pisces.