Heaven

In many religions, Heaven is a realm, either physical or transcendental in which people who have died continue to exist in an afterlife.

Heaven is often described as the holiest place, accessible by people according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith or other virtues.

Etymology

The modern English word Heaven is derived from the earlier (Middle English) spelling heven (attested 1159); this in turn was developed from the previous Old English form heofon. By c. 1000, heofon was being used in reference to the Christianized "place where God dwells", but originally, it had signified "sky, firmament" (e.g. in Beowulf, c. 725). The English term has cognates in the other Germanic languages: Old Saxon heƀan "sky, heaven", Middle Low German heven "sky", Old Icelandic himinn "sky, heaven", Gothic himins; and those with a variant final -l: Old Frisian himel, himul "sky, heaven", Old Saxon/Old High German himil, Dutchhemel, and modern German Himmel. All of these have been derived from a reconstructed Proto-GermanicHemina-. In many languages, the word for "heaven" is the same as the word for "sky". form *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven