Spilled Salt: Bad Luck or Protection Against Dark Side?
The exploration into the origins of common superstitions continues with spilling salt as a bad omen.
Folklore of Food: Traditional Christmas Food
Food and feasting is at the centre of our Christmas celebrations, and folklore and customs play an important part in what we eat.
A Brief Tour of European Wedding Cake Traditions
The cutting of a couple’s wedding cake is often the highlight of a wedding reception with newlyweds making their first ceremonial slice into the cake.
Traditional Recipes: An Adventure in Ottoman Folklore, Aegean Bread and a Cursed Loaf
A crime writer encounters an ancient Ottoman curse – on his bread.
Dumplings and Dragonboats: The Chinese Duan Wu Festival
When I was a little girl, I used to watch with open-mouthed admiration and puzzlement as my mother prepared the ingredients for the making of zong zi (rice wrapped in leaf). She would make a variety of fillings: sweet chestnuts, dried shrimp, pork meat, and mushrooms. There would be a lot of soaking, stewing and […]