Mores · Society · Ethnography

However, there is also the opposite version, which points to the very low pay of spinners in the early Middle Ages, on account of which this work was done precisely by unmarried women, that is, those less socially integrated and less…

However, there is also the opposite version, which points to the very low pay of spinners in the early Middle Ages, on account of which this work was done precisely by unmarried women, that is, those less socially integrated and less endowed with the privilege of contacts with guilds and

Books · London · Monarchies · Mores · Nature · Ethnography

The Royal Bees at Clarence House and Buckingham Palace Were Informed of the Death of Queen Elizabeth II, Their Former Mistress, and That Their New Master Is King Charles III

I wrote in my book about the tradition of telling the bees important family news and notifying them of deaths. The English have long shared their joys and sorrows with their bees, and at moments of family bereavement the hives, too, are dressed in mourning. If the little bee houses

NB! · Museums · Ethnography

Greek Wedding Costume of the 18th and 19th Centuries

Geography · Society · Nature · Ethnography

European drought exposes hunger stones with warning inscriptions in the Elbe

European drought exposes so-called hunger stones in riverbeds. The inscription on one of the stones in the Elbe reads: "If you see me, weep." Stones marked with extremely low water levels on the Elbe have surfaced in 2018, in 1918 and in the nineteenth century. The marks

Monarchies · Science · Nature · Ethnography

Queen Anne’s Lace and Daucus carota, two names for wild carrot

In the West, wild carrot is called Queen Anne's Lace, in memory of the queen's love of needlework. It is held that Anne of Denmark, wife of the English king James I, brought to England a fashion for certain kinds of lace, together with splendour and

Archive · Books · Mores · Ethnography

Caesar, Strabo and Cassius Dio on polyandry and shared wives in the British Isles

"In Brittany many men sleep with a single wife, and many wives lust after a single man," reports a Russian chronicler. This is not the only mention of polygyny and polyandry in the British Isles. Already in Julius Caesar's "Commentaries on the Gallic War"

NB! · Observations · Science · People · Ethnography

President of Iceland Guðni Jóhannesson Spotted Strolling Casually at the Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference in Reykjavik

President of Iceland Guðni Jóhannesson has been spotted strolling casually at the Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference in Reykjavik. Guðni is a historian, a doctor of sciences and the author of 7 books. No throngs of bodyguards or vast retinue were detected in the vicinity.

Cinema · Books · People · Ethnography

I learned that I have an enormous family: the path and the little wood, and in the field every ear of corn!

Я узнал, что у меня Есть огромная семья: И тропинка, и лесок, В поле – каждый колосок! Речка, небо голубое – Это все мое, родное. Это Родина моя! Всех люблю на свете я! Literal translation I learned that I have An enormous family: Both the path and the little wood, In the

Monarchies · Pop Culture · Ethnography

The Swedish royal family has published a new official photograph of the heir to the Swedish throne, Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Västergötland, with her husband, Prince Daniel, and their children, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar

The Swedish royal family has published a new official photograph of the heir to the Swedish throne, Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Västergötland, with her husband, Prince Daniel, and their children, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar. The distaff side of the family is dressed in folk costume in the colours

Art · Ethnography · Humour

Mummified gnome in a tiny coffin proved to be the work of a Swedish prop artist

And what have we here? A mummified gnome in a little 27-centimetre coffin, with a note that reads: "This little house gnome was found by my father, Jan Petersson, in the winter of 1866, in the wall of an old barn. He was already dead." It is

Archive · Books · People · Ethnography

Draft versions of a poetic list of peoples differ from the familiar text

The lines in the third stanza of Pushkin's "Monument" listing the peoples of Russia who will remember the poet. "And the proud grandson of the Slavs, and the Finn, and the now-savage Tungus, and the Kalmyk, friend of the steppes" - Literal translation in

Faith · Nature · Ethnography

The parasitic plant Peter's Cross in bloom in France and in Russian folk beliefs

In France, toothwort is already in full bloom, a most beautiful parasitic plant that has no chlorophyll of its own and lives by attaching itself to the roots of other plants. In Russian it is called "Peter's cross" (petrov krest) for the shape of its rhizomes,