Covenant may refer to:

Law

Religion

In religion, a covenant is a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general. It is central to the Abrahamic religions and derived from the biblical covenants, notably the Abrahamic covenant.

Etymology

Covenant is the customary word used to translate the Hebrew word berith. It is used in the Masoretic Text 264 times. The equivalent word in the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament is διαθήκη, diatheke.

Judaism

The Mosaic covenant refers to a biblical covenant between God and the biblical Israelites, including their proselytes. The establishment and stipulations of the Mosaic covenant are recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which are traditionally attributed to Mosaic authorship and collectively called the Torah, and this covenant is sometimes also referred to as the Law of Moses or Mosaic Law or the 613 Mitzvot.

Christianity

The New Covenant is a biblical interpretation originally derived from a phrase in the Book of Jeremiah, in the Hebrew Bible. Generally, Christians believe that the New Covenant was instituted at the Last Supper as part of the Eucharist, which in the Gospel of John includes the New Commandment.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) encourages its members to make and keep several covenants as a part of the new and everlasting covenant of the gospel. In Latter Day Saint theology, making and keeping covenants is necessary for exaltation.

A covenant is a promise to God whereby he also promises blessings in return. Latter-day Saints believe that making covenants helps in overcoming difficulties in their lives. Latter-day Saint leaders teach that just as the God of Israel asked the children of Israel to be a covenant people, "a peculiar treasure unto me ... a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation," today God has asked for a latter-day people who will make and keep covenants with Him.

In the LDS Church, there are formal covenants and informal covenants. Formal covenants are limited in number and are always accompanied by the performance of an ordinance. Informal covenants are made without the performance of an ordinance. Typically, formal covenants are made in the presence of other Latter-day Saints, while informal covenants are made privately between a Latter-day Saint and God without the performance of an ordinance. Informal covenants are most commonly referred to simply as commandments.

Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates, between autumn and spring. Winter is caused by the axis of the Earth in that hemisphere being oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures define different dates as the start of winter, and some use a definition based on weather. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa. In many regions, winter is associated with snow and freezing temperatures. The moment of winter solstice is when the sun's elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value (that is, the sun is at its farthest below the horizon as measured from the pole), meaning this day will have the shortest day and the longest night. The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates outside the polar regions differ from the date of the winter solstice, however, and these depend on latitude, due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth's elliptical orbit (see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset).

"Winter" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos, first released in 1992. The song was written about Amos' relationship with her father, who is a minister.

Release history

"Winter" was first released as the fourth single from Amos' debut studio album Little Earthquakes. It was released on March 9, 1992 by EastWest Records in the UK and Atlantic Records on November 24 in North America.

The song also appears on Amos' 2003 compilation, Tales of a Librarian. The music video can be seen on the two currently available video collections: Tori Amos: Complete Videos 1991–1998 and Fade to Red.

The single was released globally in a variety of formats with slightly differing artwork and track listings. The most commonly available version is the United States release, which is labeled as a "limited edition" release. That version comes in a digipak case with a compartment in which a "handwritten lyrics" insert is contained. The far more rare UK limited edition release features covers that would later appear on the Crucify EP which was released in the United States.

The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives a musical expression to a season of the year. They were written about 1723 and were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional violin concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest Between Harmony and Invention").

The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi's works. Unusually for the time, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying poems (possibly written by Vivaldi himself) that elucidated what it was about those seasons that his music was intended to evoke. It provides one of the earliest and most-detailed examples of what was later called program music—music with a narrative element.

Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. In the middle section of the Spring concerto, where the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be marked in the viola section. Other natural occurrences are similarly evoked. Vivaldi separated each concerto into three movements, fast-slow-fast, and likewise each linked sonnet into three sections. His arrangement is as follows:

Comes (/ˈkoʊmiːz/ KOH-meez), plural comites (/ˈkɒmɪtiːz/ KOM-i-teez), is the Latin word for "companion", either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" + ire "go."

Ancient Roman religion

Comes was a common epithet or title, added to the name (as Catholicism still does with Jesus and much-venerated saints, such as in Our Lady of Lourdes) for a hero or a divinity, as a way to mark a relationship with another divinity.

On Constantine I's coinage, the emperor is declared comes to Sol Invictus, the "Unconquered Sun" conceived of as a god.

Imperially bestowed court titles and various offices of Comites

Historically more significant, Comes became a secular title given to trusted (ex-)courtiers and others, as a mark of imperial confidence. It developed into a formal rank, deriving from the "Companions" of Alexander the Great, and rather equivalent to the Hellenistic Philos (Basilikos) or the paladin title of a Holy Roman Empire knight and a papal official. Thus the title was retained when one was appointed—often promoted—to a post away from court, often in the field or provincial administration. Next, it seemed logical to link it to specific charges calling for an incumbent of high rank, and even to make it part of the official title.