Altar (redirected from Altar Horns)

altar, table or platform for the performance of religious sacrifice. In its simplest form the altar is a small pile, with a square or circular surface, made of stone or wood. Its features vary according to its purpose. The altar of libation usually has a drain for the liquid, and so does the altar of bloody sacrifice; the altar of burnt offering (including incense) often has a depressed hollow for a fire. Altars in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Greece, in Rome, and among the Aztec and the Maya were highly adorned with friezes, cornices, elaborate platforms, and canopies. At Pergamum there was a huge monumental altar 40 ft (12.2 m) high. Altars as a rule were out of doors in the ancient world and in Central America. The Christian altar is the place to celebrate the Eucharist, a sacrifice in the traditional view. In the Western Church the altar is a long, narrow table of stone or wood, often reminiscent of a tomb; at its back is a reredos, which often bears a canopy. In the Roman rite there are in the middle of the altar a crucifix and a tabernacle to contain the reserved Host, although recent legislation of Roman liturgical reform suggests that the tabernacle be placed elsewhere in the church. There is a recess in each altar containing bones of martyrs; this is even true of tiny portable altars carried by chaplains. In Eastern rites the altar is square and has no backing or reredos; it is away from the wall. Most Protestant denominations have no altar; a typical practice is to have a permanent communion table below and in front of the pulpit.

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altar

Raised structure or place used for sacrifice, worship, or prayer. Altars probably originated with the belief that objects or places (e.g., a tree or spring) were inhabited by spirits or deities worthy of prayers or gifts. Sacrifice to deities required a structure on which the victim could be killed and blood channeled off or flesh burned. In ancient Israel, the altar was a rectangular stone with a hollowed-out basin on top. The ancient Greeks placed altars (see baetylus) in homes, marketplaces, public buildings, and sacred groves. Roman altars were similarly ubiquitous and were often decorated with relief sculptures. Christians at first did not use altars, but by the 3rd century the table on which the Eucharist was celebrated was regarded as an altar. It became the focus of the mass in Christian churches and in Western churches was often adorned by a baldachin and an altarpiece.

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altar

1. a raised place or structure where sacrifices are offered and religious rites performed

2. (in Christian churches) the communion table

3. a step in the wall of a dry dock upon which structures supporting a vessel can stand

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Altar [′al‚tär]

(astronomy)

Ara

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altar

1. An elevated table, slab, or structure, often of stone, rectangular or round, for religious rites, sacrifices, or offerings.

2. The Communion table in certain churches.

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Altar 

the credence and also the most important part of a Christian temple.

Outdoor altars, initially earthen or stone, became grandiose structures in ancient Greece and Rome, finished in marble with reliefs—for example, the Pergamian altar, circa 180 B.C., antique collection in Berlin. In the Christian cult, which replaced bloody sacrifices with symbolic ones, the table in the temple on which “the mystery of the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ” took place, came to be called the altar. Christian altars were decorated not only by sculptures but also with gold and precious stones—for example, the altar in the Basilica of Sant’ Ambrogio in Milan, 824–59. In Catholic churches the name altar also was applied to the decorative wall raised on or behind it, usually decorated with paintings and sculpture—for example, the altar by Donatello in the Basilica of Sant’ Antonio in Padua, 1446–50. Portable folding altars with paintings on the panels appeared in the eighth century. Later, altars were painted in churches, attaining huge dimensions, like the altar by the Van Eyck brothers, finished in 1432 for the Cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent.

In general usage, altar refers to the entire eastern portion of the church separated by the altar bar or, in the orthodox church (where the table for communion was called the throne), by the iconostasis, used since the early 15th century.