Apples have a prominent place in world mythology, and are often associated with paradise, magic, knowledge and sensual experience. Legendary magician Merlin was said to carry a silver bough from an...
The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints venerated together in the Roman Catholic Church. Veneration of this group of saints (known also as auxiliary saints) began during the 14th century, as...
“There are also others who say that they see women and girls dancing by night whom they call elvish folk, or faeries, and they believe that these can transform both men and women or, by leaving...
A woman whose life isn't confirmed by any archaeological evidence is recognized as one of the most famous ancient Arab queens. Next to Zenobia of Palmyra, Queen Mavia is one of the heroines from the...
For years, scholars thought a Scottish Dark Ages hill fort that met a violent, fiery end was a stronghold of the Pictish people. But new research shows Trusty’s Hill was likely the royal stronghold...
Harald “Blåtand” Gormsson was a King of Denmark and Norway who lived during the 10th century AD. He was responsible for the unification of Denmark. Following this feat, Harald set his sights beyond...
Witchcraft has a very special place in the culture of Spanish Galicia. One of the most famous people related to the old magical traditions is Maria Soliña, a Galician witch who lived during the 17th...
There is a famous tomb located on Mount Zion in the ancient city of Jerusalem. A part of the Diaspora Yeshiva, this tomb receives thousands of visitors every year. Many of them go to the site with...
The vegetarian diet has become very popular around the world over the last decades. However, the history of this lifestyle and its foundation on the respect for animal life and the planet has its...
Egeria was a young woman who decided to make the trip of a lifetime and go to the Holy Land. But what inspired her to make that journey and walk half of the world all alone? She was born in beautiful...
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of texts that were discovered at Oxyrhynchus (known today as el-Bahnasa), a site located in Upper Egypt. This group of documents is seen as one of the most...
The cross of Jesus is one of the most important objects in Christianity and there are many reliquaries around the world which are believed to contain a piece of the cross. The most famous one is...
A ‘Doom’ is a remarkable survival of a type of church decoration once common in the Middle Ages but largely destroyed during the iconoclastic excesses of the English Protestant Reformation during the...
Theodoret of Cyrrhus (423–457) tells us that when little girls played games in forth-century Syria, they played monks and demons. One of the girls, dressed in rags, would reduce her little friends...
If one were to walk down a crowded street wearing a black conical hat, passersby would not question the wearer's intention. Obviously, the wearer would be playing the role of a witch. Yet as obvious...
Even though there are hundreds of thousands of followers of pagan religions, the old beliefs haven't survived enough to be included in the group of the five major religions of the world. Officially,...
So how did the oft-used legend of the Green Man eventually become chosen to be the legend of Jesus? Let us begin when it was the life story of the ancient Green Man and work forward to the time of...
Most Christians believe that Jesus was born and died in the Middle East. However, there is a small group of people in Japan who believe a completely different story. Some Japanese researchers think...
At least 48 sword guards used by samurai warriors during the feudal era belonged to hidden Christians. The artifacts are related to the early history of 16 th and 17 th century Japan, which saw the...
The Spanish Inquisition has a reputation for having been very bloody and cruel. However, in some regions of Spain their actions were barely visible and were focused on heretics but not witches. Most...
Alexander the Great died three centuries before Christianity officially appeared, but his cult was so strong that some symbols connected with the ancient Macedonian king were adopted by the new...
Clovis I was the second king of the Merovingian Dynasty, and its first ruler to unite all the Franks in the region of Gaul under Merovingian rule. Due to this achievement, Clovis is often regarded as...
New research may change to the early history of Christianity and Judaism. Researchers from Tel Aviv University believe that a discovery from Arad proves that the Hebrew Bible was written much earlier...
Veles and Perun are two deities found in the religion of the Slavs prior to the coming of Christianity. The Pre-Christian Slavs were polytheists, and worshipped a pantheon of deities, just like the...
