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Rites and Rituals

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Each year, thousands gather to watch the burning of Zozobra.
festivals

How Zozobra Set Alight the Hearts of Santa Fe Residents

Each year on the Friday before Labor Day, this community gathers to let go of its worries—by burning a 50-foot puppet.
At Azucena Zapoteca, the mole chichilo is made with ingredients like chilhuacle chiles, burnt tortilla ash, and chochoyote dumplings.
rites and rituals

Oaxaca’s ‘Mystical’ Mole of Mourning

Smoky, bitter, and complex, mole chichilo is flavored by grief.
Sam O'Brien June 16, 2025
The Zvoncari bell ringers banish winter with noise.
festivals

Croatia Bans Winter By Partying Like ‘Where the Wild Things Are’

Let spring's wild rumpus begin.
Justin McDonnell May 2, 2024
End winter with some fiery chaos.
festivals

Spinning Balls of Fire Light Up Spring in This German Town

Plus fireworks, music, and maybe a goddess or two.
Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey April 30, 2024
Children's swallow-songs are one of the oldest continuous musical traditions in Greece.
music

Swallow-Songs for Spring Are the Greek ‘Trick or Treat’

It’s a tradition that goes back centuries.
Andrew Coletti April 30, 2024
Springtime is full of ancient rites, such as Edinburgh's annual Beltane Fire Festival (shown here).
rites and rituals

Explore Sinister Spring Tales with Atlas Obscura

We find scary stories pair well with brighter days.
Sarah Durn April 29, 2024
The Crooked House pub in Staffordshire, photographed in April 2023. A brick-built public house. The building was severely affected by subsidence.
science

Wonder Is Everywhere: Return of the Crooked House, World's Oldest Bread, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.
April White March 15, 2024
Torches are made from trees that were sick, dying, or were felled during winter storms.
festivals

The Italian Town That Welcomes Winter With a Procession of Fire

Every December, thousands of torches transform Agnone into the fire capital of the world.
Asia London Palomba December 13, 2023
universities

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.
Etna, Maine

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.
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.
music

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.
witchcraft

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 BÓ§Ó§gg, takes to burn will determine the remaining length of winter.
ancient

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
Every May, an ancient Celtic festival, known as Beltane, is held atop Calton Hill in Edinburgh, where participants eat a mysterious Beltane bannock cake.
festivals

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.
food

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
Gastro Obscura

Korovai

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