Editing Spinning wheel (section)

==Culture==
[[File:Kiikka.vaakuna.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|right|The spinning wheel pictured in the coat of arms of [[Kiikka]]]]
The ubiquity of the spinning wheel has led to its inclusion in the art, literature and other expressions of numerous cultures around the world, and in the case of South Asia it has become a powerful political symbol.

===Political symbolism===
[[File:Gandhi spinning.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]] spinning yarn on a charkha]]

Starting in 1931, the traditional spinning wheel became the primary symbol on the flag of the Provisional Government of Free India.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Theodore|first=Brown|date=January 2008|title=Spinning for India's Independence|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=98|issue=1|pages=39|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2007.120139|pmid=18048775|pmc=2156064}}</ref>

[[Mahatma Gandhi]]’s manner of dress and commitment to hand spinning were essential elements of his philosophy and politics. He chose the traditional loincloth as a rejection of Western culture and a symbolic identification with the poor of India. His personal choice became a powerful political gesture as he urged his more privileged followers to copy his example and discard—or even burn—their European-style clothing and return with pride to their ancient, pre-colonial culture.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}{{when|date=February 2019}} Gandhi claimed that spinning thread in the traditional manner also had material advantages, as it would create the basis for economic independence and the possibility of survival for India’s impoverished rural areas. This commitment to traditional cloth making was also part of a larger [[swadeshi movement]], which aimed for the boycott of all British goods. As Gandhi explained to [[Charlie Chaplin]] in 1931, the return to spinning did not mean a rejection of all modern technology but of the exploitative and controlling economic and political system in which textile manufacture had become entangled.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}} Gandhi said, “Machinery in the past has made us dependent on England, and the only way we can rid ourselves of the dependence is to boycott all goods made by machinery. This is why we have made it the patriotic duty of every Indian to spin his own cotton and weave his own cloth."{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Theodore|first=Brown|date=2008-01-01|title=Spinning for India's Independence|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/articles/bth__28804934|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=98|issue=1|pages=39|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2007.120139|pmid=18048775|pmc=2156064|via=Business Source Complete}}</ref>

===Literature and folk tales===
[[File:Marianne Stokes St Elizabeth of Hungary Spinning for the Poor.jpg|thumb|upright|''St Elizabeth of Hungary Spinning for the Poor'', by [[Marianne Stokes]]. The depiction of [[Elisabeth of Hungary|St Elizabeth]] shows a castle-style spinning wheel and a [[distaff]] used to hold the fibre.]]

''The Golden Spinning Wheel'' (Zlatý kolovrat)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=fillmore&book=czech&story=wheel |title=The Baldwin Project: Czechoslovak Fairy Tales by Parker Fillmore |publisher=Mainlesson.com |access-date=2012-04-05 |archive-date=2012-04-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402143039/http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=fillmore&book=czech&story=wheel |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[[:s:Kytice z pověstí národních/Zlatý kolovrat|Kytice z pověstí národních/Zlatý kolovrat]] {{in lang|cs}}</ref> is a Czech poem by [[Karel Jaromír Erben]] that was included in his classic collection of [[folk ballad]]s, [[Kytice]].

''[[Rumpelstiltskin]]'', one of the tales collected by the [[Brothers Grimm]], revolves around a woman who is imprisoned under threat of [[execution]] unless she can spin [[straw]] into [[gold]]. Rumpelstiltskin helps her with this task, ultimately at the cost of her first-born child; however, she makes a new bargain with him and is able to keep her child after successfully guessing his name.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2591/2591-h/2591-h.htm#link2H_4_0027 |title=Fairy Tales By The Brothers Grimm|publisher=gutenberg.org}}</ref>

Spinning wheels are also integral to the plot or characterization in the Scottish folk tale ''[[Habitrot]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/sfft/sfft32.htm |title=Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales: Fairy Tales: Habitrot |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |access-date=2012-04-05}}</ref> and the German tales ''[[The Three Spinners]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rumpelstiltskin/stories/3spinners.html |title=Tales Similar To Rumpelstiltskin - The Three Spinners (A German Tale) |publisher=Surlalunefairytales.com |access-date=2012-04-05 |archive-date=2012-02-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204044137/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rumpelstiltskin/stories/3spinners.html }}</ref> and ''[[The Twelve Huntsmen]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/67huntsman.html |title=Household Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm with Author's Notes translated by Margaret Hunt - The Twelve Huntsmen |publisher=Surlalunefairytales.com |date=2006-10-15 |access-date=2012-04-05 |archive-date=2011-12-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111214170746/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/67huntsman.html }}</ref>

[[Louisa May Alcott]], most famous as the author of ''[[Little Women]]'', wrote a collection of [[short story|short stories]] called ''Spinning-Wheel Stories'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/spinningwheelst00alcogoog |title=Spinning-wheel stories : Louisa May Alcott |via=[[Archive.org]] |date=2001-03-10 |publisher=Roberts brothers |access-date=2012-04-05}}</ref> which were not about spinning wheels but instead meant to be read while engaging in the rather tedious act of using a spinning wheel.

====Sleeping Beauty====
Another [[Folklore|folk tale]] that incorporates spinning wheels is the classic [[fairy tale]] ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]'', in which the main character pricks her hand or finger on the magic [[Spindle (textiles)|spindle]] of a spinning wheel and falls into a deep sleep following a [[wicked fairy godmother|wicked fairy]] or [[witchcraft|witch]]'s curse.

Numerous variations of the tale exist (the Brothers Grimm had one in their collection entitled Little Briar Rose), and in only some of them is the spindle actually attached to/associated with a spinning wheel.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}} A traditional spindle does not have a sharp end that could prick a person's finger (unlike the walking wheel, often used for wool spinning). Despite this, the narrative idea persists that Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose or Dornrosen pricks her finger on the spindle – a device which she has never seen before, as they have been banned from the kingdom in a forlorn attempt to prevent the curse of the wicked godmother-fairy.

[[Walt Disney]] included the Saxony or flax wheel in their [[Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)|animated film version]] of Perrault's tale and [[Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)|Rose]] pricks her finger on the distaff (which holds the plant fibre waiting to be spun), whereas only a spindle is used in [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]'s ballet ''[[The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)|The Sleeping Beauty]]'' which is closer to the direct translation of the French "un fuseau".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CWsAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP15|title=Les contes de Perrault: d'après les textes originaux; avec notices, notes et variantes, et une étude sur leurs origines et leur sens mythique|first=Charles|last=Perrault|date=1 January 1880|publisher=A. Lemerre|via=Google Books}}</ref>

===Music===
====Classical and symphonic====
In 1814, [[Franz Schubert]] composed "[[Gretchen am Spinnrade]]", a [[lied]] for piano and voice based on a poem from [[Goethe's Faust|Goethe's ''Faust'']]. the piano part depicts Gretchen's restlessness as she spins on a spinning wheel while waiting by a window for her love to return.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/composition/gretchen-am-spinnrade-meine-ruh-song-for-voice-piano-d-118-op-2-mc0002371159|title=Gretchen am Spinnrade ("Meine Ruh'..."), song for voice & piano, D. 118 (Op. 2) – Franz Schubert|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=8 August 2014}}</ref>

[[Antonín Dvořák]] composed ''[[The Golden Spinning Wheel (Dvořák)|The Golden Spinning Wheel]]'', a [[symphonic poem]] based on the folk ballad from ''[[Kytice]]'' by [[Karel Jaromír Erben]].

[[Camille Saint-Saëns]] wrote ''Le Rouet d'Omphale (Omphale's Spinning Wheel)'', symphonic poem in A major, Op. 31, a musical treatment of the classical story of [[Omphale]] and [[Heracles]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Reel |first=James |url=https://www.allmusic.com/work/le-rouet-domphale-symphonic-poem-in-a-major-op-31-c22702 |title=Le Rouet d'Omphale, symphonic poem in A major, Op. 31 – Camille Saint-Saëns|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=2012-04-05}}</ref>

A favorite [[piano]] work for students is [[Albert Ellmenreich|Albert Ellmenreich's]] ''Spinnleidchen (Spinning Song)'', from his 1863 ''Musikalische Genrebilder'', Op. 14.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://imslp.org/wiki/Musikalische_Genrebilder,_Op.14_(Ellmenreich,_Albert)|title=Musikalische Genrebilder, Op.14 (Ellmenreich, Albert| access-date=1 February 2016}}</ref> An [[ostinato]] of repeating melodic fifths represents the spinning wheel.

====Folk and ballad====
''The Spinning Wheel'' is also the title/subject of a classic Irish folk song by [[John Francis Waller]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://worldmusic.about.com/od/irishsonglyrics/p/The-Spinning-Wheel.htm |title=Worldmusic.about.com |publisher=Worldmusic.about.com |date=2011-04-04 |access-date=2012-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ireland-information.com/irishmusic/thespinningwheel.shtml |title=Ireland-information.com |publisher=Ireland-information.com |access-date=2012-04-05}}</ref>

A traditional Irish folk song, ''Túirne Mháire'', is generally sung in praise of the spinning wheel,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.worlds-finest-wool.com/history-of-the-spinning-wheel/|title=History of the spinning wheel|website=World's Finest Wool|date=2022}}</ref> but was regarded by [[Mrs Costelloe]], who collected it,<ref>{{cite book|author=Eibhlin Bean Mhic Choisdealbha|authorlink=Mrs Costelloe|title=Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla: Traditional Folksongs from Galway and Mayo|chapter=Song 43–45 Mary's Spinning Wheel|pages=80-83|date=1923|publisher=The Talbot Press Ltd|location=Dublin|url=https://archive.org/details/amhrinmhuighesel00cost/page/82/mode/2up}}</ref> as "much corrupted", and may have had a darker narrative.  It is widely taught in junior schools in Ireland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.joeheaney.org/default.asp?contentID=1083 |title=Joe Heaney.org |publisher=Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh |date=2010–2011 |access-date=2014-08-23}}</ref>

''Sun Charkhe Di Mithi Mithi Kook'' is a [[Sufi]] song in the [[Punjabi language]] inspired by the traditional spinning wheel. It is an ode by a lover as she remembers her beloved with the sound of every spin of her Charkha. {{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

====Opera====
Spinning wheels also feature prominently in the [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] opera ''[[The Flying Dutchman (opera)|The Flying Dutchman]]''; the second act begins with local girls sitting at their wheels and singing about the act of spinning.
Gilbert and Sullivan's ''[[The Yeomen of the Guard]]'' begins with a solitary character singing while spinning at her wheel, the first of their operettas not to open with a chorus.

====Art====
Spinning wheels may be found as motifs in art around the world, ranging from their status as domestic/utilitarian items to their more symbolic role (such as in India, where they may have political implications).