Irish immigrants swapped turnip lanterns for pumpkins in America
Irish immigrants carved turnips for Halloween. In America they found a bigger vegetable, and the old lantern lost out. Modern Farmer traces the switch.
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Culture.
New ways of seeing, from the spaces we share to the things we create.
Village girls bobbed for apples to find a future husband
Apple bobbing began as fortune-telling. The Guardian describes girls dunking for fruit marked with a suitor's initial, and a peel flung over a shoulder.
Northern England still keeps Mischief Night alive
Mischief Night, a night of treacle and egg pranks, survives in northern England. The Guardian dates records to 1790. In Detroit it is Devil's Night.
The Celtic origin of Halloween costumes rests on thin evidence
BBC Bitesize and Smithsonian Magazine say Celts wore disguises at Samhain, but the Guardian finds the evidence thin. Witch outfits came later.
How did Halloween take over Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan?
Halloween in Shibuya grew from an expat subway party into crowds of tens of thousands, and in 2023 the local mayor asked visitors to stay away.
Crossword setters keep grids symmetrical by convention
Turn a standard crossword upside down and the black squares match. The habit dates to 1913, and it helps checkers and setters. Few grids break it.
The elephant that carries Kandy's casket
At Sri Lanka's Kandy Esala Perahera one elephant carries a golden casket of relics. It must stand about 3.7 metres tall, with a flat back and curved tusks.
Wales's first Unesco City of Literature is not a city
Aberystwyth won the title for its literary scene and bilingual culture. Unesco judges a City of Literature on publishing, festivals, libraries and bookshops.
Cryptic setters build most clues to work two ways at once
A typical cryptic crossword clue is a straight definition and a wordplay puzzle folded into the same sentence, each pointing at the same answer.
Hand-made pointe shoes can last a busy dancer one day
Pointe shoes are built by hand on a last from layers of fabric and glue, and a busy dancer can get through a pair in a single day of work.
How a Smithsonian curator chooses US campaign objects to keep
A Smithsonian curator prizes the signs and pins supporters make themselves over campaign handouts. His team drops duplicates and keeps the sturdiest copy.
The Princess of Wales completes the Three Peaks, a royal first
Catherine, Princess of Wales, is the first royal to finish the UK's Three Peaks Challenge. She raised money for the Royal Marsden, which treated her.
Russell Howard launches a charity in his son Felix's name
Russell Howard and his wife, NHS doctor Cerys Morgan, set up the Felix Foundation for bereaved families. A comedy gala at the O2 on 8 February launches it.
How lost-wax casting turns a wax copy into a bronze sculpture
Wax is buried in a mould, melted out and replaced with molten bronze. The method runs from Benin's royal casters to Leonardo's unfinished horse.
Ecuador's Panama hat took its name from where it was sold
The Panama hat is woven in Ecuador. It took the name of the place it was sold and shipped through, and a 1906 photo of Theodore Roosevelt made it stick.
A ventriloquist never throws a voice, the audience's eyes do
The sound comes from the performer's own mouth. The audience's eyes pin it on the dummy's moving mouth, and performers are using that trick again.
Women are taking up the blowpipe in Murano's glass furnaces
Murano's glassblowers gather molten glass on a blowpipe, turn it and blow it by hand. For 700 years the furnaces were male. A few women are changing that.