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.
Lancashire Fairies
In Bashall Eaves there’s a bridge which is said to have been built in a single night, in order to help a local man escape from witches. At Rowley Hall, by the stream which runs close to the Hall, people have sometimes found pieces of fairy clothes. And in Goosnargh, one night, long ago, a […]
Meet Mexico’s Trinity of Death – Day of the Dead, Santa Muerte, and Catrina Calavera
October the season of death is here and soon comes Halloween with its cavalcade of ghosts and goblins together with the Catholic holy days of All Saints and All Souls, known in Latin America as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
The Last Gleam of Sunlight: Mining Folklore on the International Frontier
alking deep into a mine, when the last gleam of sunlight is eclipsed by the next turn, reveals the overwhelming weight of being underground. When all signs of the outside world are gone, the bulk of the mountain above seems even more menacing as it threatens to crush the wooden supports that keep miners alive. […]
Japan’s Top 3 Weirdest Monsters
Japan is monster country. Nowhere else on earth has the sheer variety of bizarre beasties lurking in every shadow. And no-one’s monsters are as weird.