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Rites and Rituals

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

Threads of God

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

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.
victorian

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.
food

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.
megalithic

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.
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.
Naples, Italy

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.
San Michele Arcangelo Hypogeum.
Torre del Greco, Italy

San Michele Arcangelo Hypogeum

The old church, buried by the 1784 Mount Vesuvius eruption, is a remarkably well-preserved place where people now pray for the souls of the dead.
A Nepalese devotee cuts a melon on the ninth day of Dashain in Nepal.
animals

After Generations of Animal Sacrifice, Nepal Is Butchering Coconuts and Squash

Activists envision a bloodless future for the annual Dashain festival.
Josh Nadeau December 20, 2019
Tateishi Sama.
Tokyo, Japan

Tateishi-sama

This tiny stone in a children's park is what remains of an ancient, once-worshipped object.
One of Zufferey's engraved wheels of cheese.
mountains

The Valley of the Cheese of the Dead

In this remote Swiss town, residents spent a lifetime aging a wheel for their own funeral.
Molly McDonough October 24, 2019
The Chief Warden's lantern and Queen Elizabeth's keys.
London, England

Tower of London's Ceremony of the Keys

The ritual has been performed uninterrupted for nearly 700 years.
Thale, Germany

Hexentanzplatz (Witches' Dance Floor)

This enchanting mountain plateau celebrates spooky local folklore.
Darshan of Athi Varadar at Sri Varadharaja Perumal Temple.
Kanchipuram, India

Athi Varadar Idol

An effigy of the deity emerges from a temple's water every 40 years.
Partially restored section of the convent. The Andes are in the background.
Copacabana, Bolivia

Iñaq Uyu (House of the Virgins of the Sun)

An ancient Incan convent on Lake Titicaca's Island of the Moon.
Native to equatorial Africa, kevazingo is also called <em>bubinga</em>, <em>bovenga</em>, <em>amazique</em>, and African rosewood.
forests

Gabon's Sacred Trees Are Becoming China's Upscale Furniture

Worshipped by indigenous groups, kevazingo are illegal to cut—but prized as a rosewood knockoff.
Oliver Whang September 13, 2019
The Via Sacra in the Castelli Romani.
Rocca di Papa, Italy

Via Sacra

This ancient trail climbs the mountain where a Latin League cult worshipped Jupiter, its main deity.