Food & New Beginnings: How We Celebrate by Eating Circles

by Madeleine D’Este

We humans, love to eat and we love to celebrate with food, from weddings to birthdays to a Sunday family lunch. Whilst our customs might be different, all around the world we celebrate new beginnings, whether that is a new year, a new marriage or a new baby. And while the food we serve to celebrate new beginnings may be slightly different in our own corner of the globe, there seems to be a universal theme in the type of food we eat. We celebrate the new with circular-shaped food.

Christmas Superstitions: A Festive Survival Guide

by Jenny Porrett

Many will declare Christmas to be nothing but “a way for card companies to make money, harrumph!” Whilst Christmas has been heavily commercialised, in recent years especially, the traditions of this time of year often have roots reaching far further than we might at first imagine. Entire books have been written on the subject, yet […]

New Year Celebrations: Herrings in Bonnets at Hogmanay?

by Erin Farley & Lynne Campbell

In a strange old custom, the Dundee dressed herring is dressed in a crepe paper skirt and bonnet combination in bright colours, tied to ribbons, and carried through the streets and into homes on Hogmanay night.

Protection and Punishment: Beliefs About Angels in Tudor and Stuart England

by Dr Laura Sangha

In Tudor and Stuart England, angels were believed to deliver messages, protect the godly, carry souls to heaven, punish sinners, and carry out God’s will.

A Californian Krampus

by Al Ridenour

Relentlessly sunny and known for a love of trend over tradition, Los Angeles is an unlikely home to a new incarnation of the old Alpine devil. It helps, perhaps, that make-believe is serious business in my town, and that it’s filled with creative people prone to see in an old tradition of folk Catholicism a revolutionary way to shake up the holidays.

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