Here comes the torch!
Hundreds of Scottish torchbearers get set for Olympic
honour
Scots will get their first chance to glimpse the Olympic Torch
over the next week as it makes its way around the country as part
of a nationwide relay.
Over 700 local heroes, sportspeople and celebrities will carry
the flame on its journey through Scotland, starting in Stranraer
and ending in Duns, Berwickshire.
In between, the torch will travel the length and breadth of the
country, including Glasgow, Inverness, the Western Isles, Orkney,
Aberdeen, Dundee, St Andrews, and Edinburgh.
Schoolgirl Evanna Lynas, of Cardonald, Glasgow, was nominated to
be a torchbearer by her school, St Paul's.
She said: "I did not know I had been nominated until it was
confirmed, so it was a bit of a shock.
"I'm very proud, but I'm also a bit scared and nervous that
something goes wrong.
"It's one of the biggest things I've ever done in my life."
Famous torchbearers will include: the Olympic rower Katherine
Grainger, the gold medallist curling champion Rhona Martin, stunt
cyclist Danny Macaskill, the TV presenter Jenni Falconer, the
golfer Colin Montgomerie, the rugby player Chris Paterson and the
cyclist Mark Beaumont. Andy Murray will also carry the flame for a
leg of the relay in London, near Wimbledon.
The Scottish singer Emili Sande will perform at a special
concert in Glasgow on Friday 8 June, and again in Edinburgh on
Wednesday 13 June. These will be two of the 61 free evening
celebrations being held in Scotland along the route of the torch
relay.
By the end of the torch's 8,000-mile journey around the UK, it
will have travelled to within an hour of 95% of people in the
country. Its trip will end at London's Olympic stadium on 27 July
in time for the opening ceremony of the games.
A Scottish teacher called Mr Hunter told the Daily What News
that he thought the relay was a good idea.
"It will engage people from communities far-removed from the
London games and promote interest at a national level," he
said.
Lewis Burton, a schoolboy, said, "I think that the Olmpic torch
relay is a good idea to raise lots of money to help charities."
Lesson ideas and suggestions
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Here comes the torch!
The history of the Olympic flame
The origins of Olympic fire date back to the original Games in
Ancient Greece.
The Olympic flame was burned throughout the festival in
commemoration of the theft of fire from the Greek god, Zeus, by
Prometheus, who then gifted it to humans - a story symbolising the
birth of modern mankind in Greek mythology.
During the Games, this sacred flame burned continually on the
altar of the goddess, Hera, wife of Zeus and Queen of the
Olympians.
The idea of the torch also takes its roots from the Ancient
Games, when messengers travelled across Greece to herald the
contest and declare a truce for the duration of the Games -
although they did not actually carry a torch to do this.
Although the Olympic Games were revived for the modern era in
1896, it was not until 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam that the Olympic
flame was reintroduced.
The Olympic torch relay did not come into being until the Berlin
Olympics of 1936. Ironically, for a tradition introduced while
Germany was under Nazi rule, the torch relay has come to symbolise
the spreading of peace, unity and friendship between all peoples
and nations.
A very precise ritual for the lighting of the flame is followed
at every Games.
It is lit from the sun's rays at the Temple of Hera in Olympia,
in a traditional ceremony among the ruins of the home of the
ancient Games.
After a short relay around Greece, the flame is handed over to
the new host city at another ceremony in the Panathinaiko stadium
in Athens.
The flame is then delivered to the host country, where it is
transferred from one torchbearer to another. It ends its journey as
the last torchbearer lights the cauldron at the Olympic Games'
opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium, marking the official start
of the Games.
The flame is then extinguished on the final day of the Games, at
the closing ceremony.
Lesson ideas and suggestions
**Watch us on Glow TV**
Join us live tomorrow, 8 June, at 11am when we
will be talking to a bee expert about a project to introduce
honeybees to hives in city communities. Ask him your questions
about bees, what they do for the environment and why we need to
look after them. Sign up here.