White sage is being commonly used for purification rituals.
Stevica Mrdja / EyeEm via Getty Images
Native Americans are struggling to find sage for their spiritual practices as the plant is being overharvested for sale to the wider public.
Shutterstock
Rituals have been around for hundreds of thousands of years – but are they still useful today?
If only little Gregory got a gift card …
Philipp Nemenz/The Image Bank via Getty Images
Finding good gifts can be tricky. Here are some research-backed tips to help you with your holiday shopping.
Lucky charms help us feel safer in an uncertain world.
Image Source via Getty Images
An anthropologist explains why we all have some irrational beliefs and the reason they give us comfort.
Halloween in Korea is celebrated primarily by young adults.
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
Halloween was virtually nonexistent in South Korea until about a decade ago. But commercialization is taking popular holidays to unlikely places across the globe.
How did Halloween get associated with the spooky?
SolStock/Collection E+ via Getty Images
A folklorist explains how Halloween continues an ancient Celtic tradition of the celebration of the dead.
An example of the rock art created by young Samburu men.
Photo: Ebbe Westergren
Instead of displaying myths, Samburu rock art reveals real-life stories and is made as a leisure activity.
Environmental concerns are one of the reasons Americans are opting for cremation.
Godong/Stone via Getty Images
As late as 1970, only about 5% of Americans chose to be cremated. In 2020, more than 56% Americans opted for it.
A playground bench is colorfully decorated at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School, which replaced the one torn down after a gunman killed 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
An anthropologist explains the power of purification rituals, such as bringing down a building following a tragic occurrence in it, and why they help reduce our anxieties.
Widows in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.
Photo by Aminu Abubakar/AFP/Getty Images
Widows in Nigeria are still exposed to harmful practices.
‘Antigone leads Oedipus out of Thebes’ painting by Charles Francois Jalabert.
Collection Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille via Wikimedia Commons
A scholar of Greek classics revisits the texts to bring lessons on how to honor the lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Children celebrating Easter, with their Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs.
Sanja Radin/Collection E+ via Getty Images
A folklorist explains the prehistoric origins of the mythical Easter Bunny and why this longstanding cultural symbol keeps returning each spring.
People celebrating the Songkran Festival in Luang Prabang, Laos, in April 2021.
Xinhua/Kaikeo Saiyasane via Getty Images
In Southeast Asia, Songkran is a time to celebrate the coming year with water fights, honoring elders and offering prayers.
Some people are drawn to the idea of a natural burial to bring more of the dying ritual into their homes.
LPETTET/E+ via Getty Images
Green burial is not a new concept, but it is gaining interest among consumers, and some religious groups are leading the way. A theologian explains what’s involved and who natural burials appeal to.
A Shinto priest performs a ritual at an altar.
Leo Laporte/flickr
An anthropologist of Japanese religion met followers of Shinto religion online and found how they were building a community and sharing instructions on practice.
Jarl Borg is one of the victims of the Blood Eagle in the show Vikings.
PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy
An exhaustive reassessment of the brutal ritual challenges the received wisdom that the ‘blood eagle’ was a medieval invention.
The lighting of the National Menorah in Washington, D.C. in 2012.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Every president since Jimmy Carter has recognized Hanukkah with a special menorah lighting ceremony.
Chris Willson / Alamy Stock Photo
Laws and rituals surrounding disease have been part of everyday life for millennia. Here’s why that’s important.
The Rev. Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary does a ritual of remembrance at the grave of a Wiccan soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Courtesy of Selena Fox
Samhain will be particularly poignant this year for Wiccans who are members or veterans of the US military as they process the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
A man takes a picture of a statue representing the 5,300-year-old mummy named Ötzi, discovered in the Italian Alps 30 years ago.
Andrea Solero/AFP via Getty Images
When the 5,300-year-old mummy of Ötzi the Iceman was found 30 years ago, researchers found 61 tattoos on it. A scholar explains how tattoos have been a sacred part of many cultures across the world.