Candles and Folklore: Finding Spirits, Bringing Luck and Casting Spells

Here in the 21st century, death and burial often occur as part of a sanitised process. Death happens away from home, often in hospitals, and funerals are usually tidy, respectful affairs. We can forge...

12 Huhti 202519min

You would absolutely know a lychgate if you saw one. They make popular backdrops for wedding photos, and provide a quaint air of rustic charm to country churchyards. They're the wooden or stone gatewa...

5 Huhti 202523min

I started out with the intention of looking at unusual church names. The problem was, this offered the potential to accidentally poke fun at their congregations. It also didn't help that most churches...

29 Maalis 202520min

Looking at the origins of sports team names might seem antithetical to folklore. Yet sport forms part of the ritual calendar for many people, whether on a personal or a mass scale. Look at the good lu...

22 Maalis 202523min

Victoria Male is an internationally recognized screenwriter, earning accolades from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, film festivals, and major industry lists. Her prose has been publishe...

18 Maalis 20251h

There is no shortage of bizarre pub names in the UK. Some of them appear to be a combination of random objects, like the Frog and Nightgown. Others have a local story behind their odd name. I've cover...

15 Maalis 202519min

Unlike place names, which often give us information who once lived somewhere, street names can be a different case entirely. Sometimes they bear the names of notable (and often now infamous) people.  ...

8 Maalis 202519min

Place names are important and pass on a lot of valuable information, even if we no longer understand how to interpret it. Within them, they tell us who used to live in an area, or what natural feature...

1 Maalis 202521min