Q: On Tuesday the Canada Games Roly McLenahan Torch will arrive in Prince George to mark the 100-day countdown to the beginning of the games. A torch relay will see the flame travel across northern B.C. What is the origin and symbolism of the torch relay?
A: For the answer to this one we have to look back to Canada's centennial celebration in 1967, the origins of the Olympics in ancient Greece, a modern Olympics hosted deep in the heart of Nazi Germany in 1936, and finally war-ravaged Europe in 1948.
The Canada Games borrowed the concept of a torch relay from the modern Olympic Games. The Canada Games began in 1967 as part of the country's centennial celebrations.
The Canada Games Torch was renamed the Roly McLenahan Torch in 1985, in honor of the late Roly McLenahan, who was an original member of the Canada Games Council.
The Canada Games Roly McLenahan Torch was lit on Oct. 16 from the Centennial Flame in Ottawa and will arrive in Prince George on Tuesday.
The torch will be used for the relay and to light the Canada Games Cauldron, which was designed for the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., during the game's opening ceremony.
According to games organizers, the flame "represents unity through sport. The flame burning bright inside the cauldron represents the flame burning inside every single athlete to excel in their respective sport and to represent their province/territory as best they can. The fire burning inside the cauldron is thus a reminder to the athletes of the grit and determination it takes to compete is such a prestigious event as the Canada Games."
But why do a torch relay at all?
According to information released by the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Museum, the ancient Olympics began in Greece in 776 BC at Olympia, about 50 kilometres south of the ancient city of Elis.
The Games were held every four years at Olympia until they were outlawed by Emperor Theodosius in 393 AD, after he made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire - which ruled Greece at the time.
The ancient Olympics were deeply tied to the reverence of the ancient Greek god Zeus and the Greek pantheon.
In Greek mythology, the god Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity.
Ancient Greek temples would maintain a perpetual fire in front of their main temples to the gods and goddesses.
In the sanctuary of Olympia, a permanent flame was kept burning on the alter of the goddess Hestia, goddess of the hearth. That flame was lit using the rays of the sun and a skaphia -a polished bronze mirror similar to modern parabolic mirrors -to ensure it's purity.
The flame from the alter of Hestia would be used to light flames at the temples of Zeus and Hera, which would be kept burning throughout the ancient Olympics - which started out as a one-day event, and later became three and then five days.
At the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam it was decided to light a symbolic fire in the tradition of the ancient Olympics.
The modern Olympic Flame was lit for the first time in a cauldron that was placed at the top of a tower in the Olympisch Stadion (Olympic Stadium).
However, there was no torch relay -with good reason. Torch relays were never associated with, or held, during the ancient Olympics.
However in 1934 Carl Diem, secretary general of the organizing committee of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, began organizing the very first Olympic Torch Relay from Olympia to Berlin.
Based on a suggestion by a member of the Nazi ministry of propaganda assigned to the Olympic organizing committee, the relay mixed two ancient Greek traditions to raise the profile of the Berlin Olympics in the weeks leading up to the Games.
The Nazis viewed the Olympics as a chance to showcase the new Germany and the superiority of the Aryan race.
In ancient Athens there were torch relay races, called Lampadedromia, held to honour Prometheus's gift of fire. Runners passed a burning torch from one to the next, symbolizing the god's gift to humanity, with the final runner rekindling the flame at Prometheus' temple.
Also in ancient times, messengers wearing olive leaf crowns would be sent from Elis to other Greek cities to announce the time of the Olympics and invite competitors to attend.
These messengers also came to proclaim the sacred Olympic truce, called the ekecheiria, which forbid war between the Greek city states for one month ahead of the Olympics to allow athletes and spectators to travel to and from the Games safely.
The Germans developed torches, a parabolic mirror to light the flame and a cauldron. They also built a road to Olympia to allow access.
On June 30, 1936 a parabolic mirror was used by 16 women, representing 15 virgins and a high priestess, to light the Olympic Flame in Olympia, at the ruins of the Temple of Hera.
The torch was carried to the Acropolis in Athens for a special ceremony, then relayed 3,075 kilometres to the Olympic stadium in Berlin by 3,422 young, fit white men who each ran one kilometre.
The first Olympic relay passed through Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany.
The Summer Olympics scheduled for 1940 and 1944 were cancelled because of the Second World War. When London hosted the first post-Second World War Olympic Games in 1948, Europe was still reeling from the death and destruction caused by the war.
Rather than abolish the torch relay as a piece of Nazi propaganda, the Olympic organizers decided to repurpose it - and reconnect with the tradition of the ekecheiria, the Olympic truce.
Dubbed "the relay of peace" the first runner, a Greek corporal, took off his military uniform before carrying the flame from Olympia.
A total of 1,416 torchbearers carried the torch 3,365 kilometres through Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the U.K.
The route highlighted border crossings and ceremonies along the route celebrated the return of peace after years of war.
So, in short, the Canada Games torch relay is a blending of ancient Greek traditions which were co-opted by the Nazi propaganda machine, turned into a symbol of peace in postwar Europe, and finally stolen by Canada to celebrate its centennial.
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