this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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Mildly Interesting

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453
End of Life Symbol - Irish hospital (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by aeronmelon@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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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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[–] buffalobuffalo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

oh cool it's a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago

I love that there's a wiki page to what amounts to humanities random doodle.

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 12 points 6 days ago

I learned that in children's hospital's, the symbol is a butterfly. I could never look at a butterfly quite the same way after that.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

isn't this Brigid's symbol?

[–] It_Is1_24PM@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That woild be St Brigid's cross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid%27s_cross

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Ah, thank you. For some reason I had the goddess Brigid associated with the triskele and maiden/mother/crone but there's so much overlap nowadays between goddess and saint that it's hard to find reliable sources on what was who.

[–] eyesonthetoad@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

Isn’t this one of the items you get in Zelda, Skyword Sword? Or maybe OoT?

[–] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Why do they need a symbol for that? Can't they just don't put any symbol? What does a symbol add?

[–] lb_o@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How would you mark the room where someone just died. Maybe their family is there grieving.

"Please don't disturb" is slightly silly to put on a door handle

[–] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Maybe our customs are different. Usually this situation is very short and by the time you hangbthe sign, the person would already be transferred to the morgue. I lived in a similar situation where we had a family member die by night and by the time we reached in the early morning we went directly to a specific cleansing area. So it is very obvious what is going there.

We are Muslims and time from death to burial usually takes less than 24 hours.

[–] squidman64@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Have you heard of an Irish wake? Traditionally they would throw a big party celebrating the life of a lost loved one and everyone would hang out with the body for 1-2 days

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

24 hours? That's not nearly enough time to fully exploit the family's grief for as much money as possible.

[–] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Sometimes not even enough for geographically far relatives to come for a last visit.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 5 days ago

Well, yeah, there's that, too, but will no one think about the MONEY? Raping a family's grief is an American tradition!

[–] HeHoXa@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Then why do they put those door handle holes in the signs?

[–] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

I've never seen one. Basing my question on the laminated display. Ifvtheybhave a big deck of door handle signs, then of course it is very quick.

[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

At the vet I've seen a candle that they light when someone brings in their pet to be put down. It lets other patients know the terrible suffering the family is going through and allows them to be respectful to that. I'm guessing this symbol serves a similar purpose.

[–] Hisse@programming.dev 1 points 5 days ago

is that Trisquel GNU/Linux?

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today -2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

End of life is such a shame. You see, they have a point with the infinity and cycle points they claim, why would the person's mind not be recycled into something else?

You lose the person, all that they are permanently. They instead, get to exist as a new being, with no memory of their past.

All relationships, acomplishments, anything of actual meaning erased.

Yet the cruel irony is that they persist, recycled as yet another wretched being.

[–] HeHoXa@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"why would the person's mind not be recycled into something else"

Why would it be?

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Because why tf do we have the idea that we are somehow so special, that we don't fall under the same laws as everything else.

The mind just has to be some metaphysical bullshit. Nah, it's just material science we don't understand due to our own flaws.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago

Nonsense.

[–] illi@piefed.social 115 points 1 week ago (2 children)

not associated with any one religion

Celtic pagans beg to differ I imagine

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 55 points 1 week ago (2 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 -_-

[–] GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Ireland has a sizeable Catholic population, and Catholicism has a habit of subsuming local pagan traditions and gods and reworking them as their own.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

They're just rebranding it.

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[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

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

[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (20 children)

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

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[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Looks like the Airbender symbol.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ran by air benders?

I thought water benders were more likely to be healers.

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