384 Items Tagged

Rites and Rituals

Podcast: Rites of Passage

Time to go back to school to appreciate some unusual campus traditions with the Altas Obscura Places Team.

The Podcast Team September 8, 2023

Seoul, South Korea

Hwangudan

The site where the Emperor of Korea performed the long-forbidden "rite of heaven" to demonstrate his absolute sovereignty.

Camp Etna

A major spiritual gathering place in central Maine since the mid-1800s.

Every year on May 1st the small town of Cocullo in central Italy celebrates its patron saint San Domenico Abate. The celebration resembles many other Catholic festivities, but during this religious procession the saint's statue is fully covered with living snakes.

The Italian Town that Welcomes Spring with Live Snakes

It's a good omen if the reptiles wrap themselves around the head of San Domenico Abate.

Dania Rodrigues May 5, 2023

A Hindu priest holds a lit coconut oil lamp in front of statues of Prince Vijaya (left) and Kuweni (right) at the Sri Subramaniam temple in the southern Sri Lankan town of Matara.

How This Demon Dance Banishes Illnesses in Sri Lanka's Remote Jungles

The kankariya dance all started with a legendary demon queen named Kuweni.

Zinara Rathnayake May 4, 2023

In 2015, this effigy of the Pagan goddess Marzanna met a fiery end.

In Poland, Drowning the Pagan Goddess Marzanna Ushers in Spring

A straw effigy of the winter goddess is burned and then submerged in chilly waters.

Sarah Laskow May 3, 2023

However long this snowman effigy, known as the Bӧӧgg, takes to burn will determine the remaining length of winter.

To Banish Winter in This Tiny Wisconsin Town, Burn a Swiss Snowman

The burning of the Bӧӧgg is like a fiery version of Groundhog’s Day, but with fireworks and sausages.

Tea Krulos May 2, 2023

The bonfire and procession at the Beltane Fire Society's 2019 event.

Why 18th-Century Scots Performed Mock Human Sacrifices Over Cake

This May Day, make Beltane bannock, a simple snack with a long history of superstition and divination.

Sam O'Brien May 1, 2023

Bolo-rei often comes with a coin—signifying good fortune—and a bean—signifying who buys the next cake—inside.

7 Weird and Wonderful King Cakes From Around the World

From slips of Bulgarian fortunes to copulating French figurines, international king cakes hide many surprises.

Matt Haines February 20, 2023

Korovai

The Ukrainian wedding bread is so beautiful, it's displayed near the altar.

Su filindeu doesn't cook in strands, it cooks in sheets.

Threads of God

To eat the world's rarest pasta, you must first complete a 20-mile pilgrimage.

Podcast: Lily Dale Spiritualist Community

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

The Podcast Team January 18, 2022

This charming rural hamlet is home to 36 practicing spiritual mediums.

To Join This Community of People Who Speak to the Dead, Prepare to Be Tested

Think you have what it takes to be a spiritual medium in Lily Dale?

Sarah Durn December 7, 2021

Bobbing for apples in the early 1900s.

Halloween Used to Be a Lot More Romantic

The food rituals of All Hallows' Eve once predicted marriages and summoned spouses.

Anne Ewbank October 26, 2021

Toguz Toro, Kyrgyzstan

Saimaluu Tash

These oldest of these "embroidered stones" were carved 4,000 years ago in a high mountain valley.

Trying to core the ground to take samples last year was like trying to "drill through concrete," Gaffney says. So the team got a bigger drill.

Near Stonehenge, an Even Bigger Neolithic Site Is Hidden Underground

A giant circle of pits is the largest Neolithic site found in Britain to date.

Isaac Schultz June 29, 2020

The peak of cheesy, starchy comfort food.

A Guide to the World’s Most Comforting Foods of Grief

In an age of distance, we can still connect in the kitchen to mourn, memorialize, and heal.

Sam O'Brien April 20, 2020

Interior of the church.

Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai

An unusual "skull with ears" sits in the crypt of this small church tucked away at the end of a narrow alley.