The Torch is Lit!

Today the Olympic torch was lit for the Paris Olympic Summer Games.  There is a whole ceremony that they go through in Olympia involving women dressed as priestesses, calls to Apollo to bless the games, and the lighting of the fuel-filled torch by holding a parabolic mirror to use the Sun's power to set it aflame.

Most may not realize that the torch is first carried by the Greek throughout the country and then handed off to the country that is holding the Olympics that year.  The first carrier this year is Stefanos Ntouskos, who is a gold medal winning rower for Greece and will compete in Paris as well.

The torch will travel 5000 Km across the ancient home country of the Olympic games, held by 600 different bearers, to Panathenaic Stadium in Athens where it will be handed over to the Paris games team.  

The Paris Olympic organizers have planned a unique voyage for the torch from there!  It will travel by ship to the French port city of Marseille on the 120-year-old, three-masted Belem, a historic vessel that began life as a cargo ship transporting sugar from the West Indies

The Paris Olympic Torch has a sleek design that was unveiled last year.  It will be used (for the first time!) for both the Olympic and Paralympic games.  The design is meant to represent the three themes of the Paris games:  equality, water and peacefulness.

Thanks to CNN and Pixies for the pictures used.

For more on the Torch lighting ceremony go here:  Olympic Torch Lighting Ceremony or for a shorter synopsis here:  CNN's coverage of Olympic Torch Ceremony

For more about the torch itself, see this article from last year on CNN:  Paris Torch