this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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Mildly Interesting

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End of Life Symbol - Irish hospital (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) by aeronmelon@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This is posted in the waiting room of an Irish hospital. Interesting glimpse into their culture.

The full text of the posterThis symbol has been developed by the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme to respectfully identify the End of Life.

This symbol is inspired by ancient Irish history; it is not associated with any one religion or denomination.

The white spiral represents the interconnected cycle of life, birth, life and death.

The white outer circle represents continuity, infinity and completion.

Purple has been chosen as the background colour as it is associated with nobility, solemnity and spirituality.

In this hospital the symbol may be displayed on a ward to add respect and solemnity during end of life or following the death of one of our patients.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 7 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Ran by air benders?

I thought water benders were more likely to be healers.

[–] illi@piefed.social 47 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

not associated with any one religion

Celtic pagans beg to differ I imagine

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah I was a bit surprised at that line since I had always understood it to be a Celtic pagan symbol.

Can’t upset the Christians I guess -_-

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

It’s possible they meant their symbol and its use isn’t tied to any single belief. The symbol’s original meaning might be why they went out of the way to say so.

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 hours ago

This symbol has been in religious use for a long ass time.

They're just rebranding it.

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Ah yes, "pagan", that famously singular religion.

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Celtic Paganism does in fact refer to a particular pagan religion and set of beliefs/roots of those beliefs.

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone -2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

What's the religion called then? It's like a Christian being asked what their religion is and answering "monotheism".

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

It depends on the coven/group. Celtic pagans call themselves that or sometimes Celtic Wiccans or just pagans.

It's the pagan beliefs that are rooted in Irish and Welsh history specifically. Then you have different pagan beliefs that are rooted in Norse theology or Greek mythology.

My mom raised me as Wiccan. There's about as many denominations as there are in the Christian religion.

Edit: Sometimes they'll even call themselves Druids or follow Druidism.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 6 points 2 hours ago

All of that is about as relevant to celtic paganism as Scientology is to Buddhism.

We don’t know a lot about Celtic paganism, what we do know comes through the filter of the Roman invader and is cursorary. Anyone building a halfway coherent belief system and claiming it as Celtic Paganism is a fraud.

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for the informative response. It seems that in this context, "pagan" is less of a religion name and more of a category of otherwise unrelated religions characterized by a mystical connection to nature.

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

No problem! I think you're missing that we are saying "Celtic Paganism" and not just pagan.

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

No I'm not missing that, I'm arguing that it's the equivalent to saying "American Monotheism" when you mean "Christian". It strikes me as strange that there's no, like, actual Celtic word for their belief system/way of life that we could use instead of [Region][Category]

[–] igmelonh@feddit.online 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Many if not most religions historically didn't have a word for their particular belief system; the scholarly name for Germanic paganism is "Germanic paganism" because pre-Christian Germans didn't have a name for their shared beliefs. Sometimes you may see neologisms or names for neopagan movements applied to the now-dead religion — I've seen Germanic neopaganism (aka "Heathenry")'s less commonly-used "Asatru" used for the original religion in a game. Same with others like "Kemetism", which refers to the neopagan movement and not the ancient Egyptian religion.

Not a historical scholar but, to my understanding, for a lot of folks "what's your religion" would have been a nonsensical question because that's just how the world works and you wouldn't think of it as being a belief system separate from physically evident reality. Folks are free to correct me on that.

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

"Celtic Paganism" would be more akin to "Catholicism". It's a sect or branch of Paganism.

Like how Catholicism is a branch of Christianity

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

To be fair, Catholicism is a famously singular religion.

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Only if you ignore the Saints lol. Which funnily enough are usually based on deities from other religions.

There are many religions that are polytheistic, not just paganism.

[–] Mutterwitz@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Does anybody else get upset because it is not centered?

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 hour ago

damn, now i can't unsee it.

[–] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 hours ago

I came here to say it looks like the trisaiel gnu Linux logo https://trisquel.info/. But found out from your comments it is the Celtic trisquel symbol. Confidence? I think not.

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 5 hours ago

The Celtic Triskele! My mom had a bunch of these in her jewelry and house decorations. We always honored it as a symbol for the maiden, mother, and crone.

If you visit Boyne Valley, one of the cultural highlights in ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’, you're likely to find the Celtic Triskele symbol at the entrance of the 5,000-year-old Newgrange Passage Tomb. It dates back to the Neolithic era, and boasts true beauty in a serene location. However, that's not the only place it can be found.

Markings and artifacts have been located in various ancient sites, which also show us that the Celtic Triskele became popular with the Celtic culture from 500 B.C. onwards. These artifacts can be discovered in Ireland, as well as Europe, and across America.

The Celtic Triskele was a symbol that had various meanings for the early Pagans. One of them was linked to the sun, triadic Gods, and the three domains of land, sea, and sky. As we mentioned above, the Triple Spiral was also believed to represent the cycles of life, as well as the Triple Goddess -the maiden, mother, and wise woman.

[–] Dr_Nik@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago

The hospitals I have been in recently in the US use a purple butterfly for the same purpose...it's really sad to see when walking around.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Looks like the Airbender symbol.

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Triskelion/trisquel and I really wonder why they appropriate and add bullshit meaning to a religious symbol. That's really weird.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 hour ago

I'd say - since that is an Irish hospital and a Celtic symbol - that they knew where they took the symbol from, but wanted to be inclusive of other belief systems, which is the right thing to do when talking about hospice care. Why invent everything from scratch if you don't have to?

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 hours ago

I was gonna say, it looks like the logo of the Linux distribution Trisquel. I guess, that's not surprising after all. 😅

[–] pomfegranate@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

I'm pretty sure that's the void from league of legends

[–] blinfabian@feddit.nl 2 points 3 hours ago

end of life symbol. is this the windows 10 logo?

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 3 points 4 hours ago

https://hospicefoundation.ie/our-supports-services/healthcare-hub/hospice-friendly-hospitals/end-of-life-care-resources/