What is First-footing and Can It Improve Your Year?
First-footing as a New Year custom is most common in Scotland and the north of England, but it does have regional, and international, variations.
The Writing on the Wall: Street Art and Graffiti as Folk Art
Since the dawn of mankind we have desired to leave our mark on the world around us. From grand monuments, to drawings on the side of cave walls, our need to express is something that continues today — but has our relationship with the medium remained the same?
Heritage on the Go: Olga Edseth’s Rosemaled Hot Pink Pumps
In America’s Dairyland, expressing one’s ethnic identity sometimes means not only participating in the revitalization of a folk art but transforming it into a fashion statement.
The Mid-Autumn Festival: Mooncakes, Lanterns and Family
Of all the Chinese festivals, I love the Mooncake/Mid-Autumn Festival the most. Right after the scary Hungry Ghost Festival or Ghost Month, it is a lovely festival celebrating family gatherings, enjoying sweet mooncakes and admiring the full moon.
A Spot of Easter Violence, Anyone?
Easter customs of old were many and varied but who would have expected so many of them to be nothing short of violent? Some believe Easter is named after the pagan spring festival celebrating Ēostre or Ostara; historically known as the spring equinox, this might explain why the date of Easter is calculated by the cycles of the moon. It falls on the Sunday following the full moon after the first day of spring — nothing Christian about that calculation! One would have thought the dates of Christ’s death and resurrection would have been more definitely commemorated but, no, we stick to celebrating the coming of spring. Compared to this oddity, some of the bizarre customs associated with Easter stop seeming so bizarre. The violence involved in some of them, though, is a little harder to explain…