Month: March 2017
We’re used to movies about bands of rough-and-ready, raggle-tag, misfit smugglers. The exploits of a small group of smugglers in Eastern Europe are far better: It really happened. In Lithuania, …
Today is the feast of St Urho, a saint invented to fill the role of the Finnish St Patrick. The legend of Saint Urho was hatched up by Finnish-American Richard …
The excitement and fear of 400 spectacular sculptures going up in flames may remind you of another Spanish festival: the Running of the Bulls. The ultimate purpose of a …
Today – March 15 – is referred to as “The Ides of March.” Will you be like Ceasar who, when warned, said: “He is a Dreamer, let us leave …
Even those of us who are not math nerds can celebrate March 14, also known as Pi Day. Pi is not an ordinary number. It’s a small number, bigger …
For almost 1,500 years, the Japanese have been celebrating Honen Matsuri for fertility and good harvests. And there’s a giant wooden phallus. You can see why Honen Matsuri is …
But there are indications that couples who get married on special dates might not have the same chance of succeeding. This year’s March 14 was a significant Pi Day. …
In a bizarro world twist (to non-Asians) Japan’s Valentines Day is all about the men. On March 14, White Day, it’s the women’s turn. In Japan, Valentine’s Day …
In one Holi celebration, one thousand widows came together in a visually stunning act of joyful defiance. Typically, Holi—like most other festivals—is forbidden for Hindu widows. They are believed to …
Thousands will attend Colorado’s weirdest festival this weekend. Frozen Dead Guy Festival is a party for all things ceased, expired, defunct. The cryogenics Mardi Gras Frozen Dead Guy Days …
Burning Man has nothing on the National Pyrotechnic Festival’s charging toritos and exploding castillos. This week of sheer unbridled madness began in the mid-19th century as a celebration in …
On Election Day, November 5, 1872, presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull couldn’t even vote for herself. She was occupied elsewhere, in any case, having been locked up in a New …
