Saint Stephen and Saint Christopher

Christopher, the Dog-Headed Saint

Although the tradition has largely faded in the Western church, Saint Christopher sported a canine head through much of Christian history.
Detail of The Story of the Florentine Antonio Rinaldeschi, dated 1501/2

Tavolette: Paintings to Comfort the Condemned

Charged with saving the immortal souls of the condemned, comforters held tavolette showing the Crucifixion in front of the eyes of those facing execution.
Coco de mer

Coco De Mer: The Magical Derrière of the Sea

Once viewed as a precious item of mysterious origin, the seed of the coco do mer palm, though better understood today, remains a rare and valuable commodity.
San Pier Maggiore altarpiece

When the Bishop Married the Abbess

When a new bishop was installed in the see of medieval Florence, he was also expected to marry—at least symbolically—the abbess of San Pier Maggiore.
Demonstration of Champagne winegrowers against government measures. Men and women walk through the streets of Bar sur Aube with banners and placards. One of the placards reads 'Champagne ou la Mort'. France, 1911.

Terroir Terror: The 1911 Champagne Riots

An environmental crisis and a dispute over regional boundaries sent both rioters and rivers of champagne pouring into the streets of Aube.
Village Festival by David Teniers the Younger

Hocktide: A Medieval Fest of Flirtation and Finances

The springtime holiday of Hocktide not only allowed villagers to cross social boundaries in the name of fun, it helped them raise funds for nonsecular needs.

Trees With a Secret Message

The culturally modified trees of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska bring essential stories of the past into the present.
Fisherman on the bank of a river, Ancient Greece.

Fish Addiction: An Ancient Greek Paranoia

An obsession with eating fish mapped onto all sorts of social anxieties, from gluttony and gambling problems to wasteful spending and licentiousness.
The fool plough, 1814

Plough Monday

Or, how to follow the Christmas holiday with a festival of pranks, trick-or-treating, and drunken revelry.
Flying Horse Of Gansu. Eastern Han dynasty, 25 - 220 AD.

The Supernatural Horses That Fascinated Chinese Emperors

In the second century BCE, Han Dynasty Emperor Wu so desired a herd of “blood-sweating” horses from Central Asia that he was willing to wage war over them.