Praise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Praise is also the name of Knott's Berry Farm's annual Christian music festival.

In religion, praise is an impassioned exaltation of God (ie. a Supreme Being, or Creation), typically as an expression of gratitude for one's life or being. In other cases, praise may be tied to more situational aspects such as health and prosperity.

In its common usage praise is the act of making positive statements about a person, object or idea, either in public or privately. Praise is often contrasted with criticism, where the latter is held to mean exclusively negative statements made about something, although this is not technically correct. Most people are responsive to praise and will increase in self-esteem or confidence if a suitable amount of praise is received -- in fact some psychological theories hold that a person's life is comprised largely of attempts to win praise for their actions. Other people are less affected or even totally indifferent to praise, for example people with autism or schizoid personality disorder.

Praise is an integral part of many religions, for example Christianity or Islam, which hold that God is a supreme being who is worthy of praise. The Biblical book of Psalms is a collection of hymns and poems many of which praise Yahweh. In Christianity, the word takes on a new meaning, and is understood as a command to either describe God or give a testimony of what God has done.