Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fromountosea]

Would you please tell what "shiva" means in the sentence below? I happened to see "sit shiva" in the sentence below, when I was reading a book "Echoes" by Danielle Steel. I could not find "shiva" in my dictionary. Will you please tell me what it means?
thanks in advance

[nicewitch]

Shiva is an indian goddes, the most known, so sit Shiva is the statue of the goddes in a sitting position
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[Lorikeet]

In this case, I believe it has nothing to do with the goddess Shiva. Rather, it is a Jewish custom when someone dies to have a one-week period of mourning in which the close relatives of the deceased do certain rituals. This is called "sitting shiva." If you are able to get to Wikipedia, you can see a link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism) If not, you can try this one: http://www.ehow.com/how_12301_prepare-sitting-shiva.html