Tag: lore

Bled Island Potica: a delicacy from Slovenia.

Ivan

Here we are: Many people in Slovenia, especially people with a grandma with an affinity for baking, grew up eating potica’s slices. Potica is a traditional cake, and a must for every holiday in Slovenia, be it Christmas, Easter or a family celebration. It’s made from yeast-raised sweet dough, rolled thin and spread with different fillings. Since Slovenia boasts a wealth of culturally diverse regions with a variety of culinary traditions, there are not only one version of the cake, because it’s a versatile shapeshifter that takes on various forms…

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Marula Beer: a great Tradition in South Africa~

Leo S

Here we are: In South Africa, women transform a tart fruit into a famous sour brew. Even if many have questioned myths about drunken elephants wobbling through piles of fermenting marula, it’s established that humans have found multiple ways to turn the South African fruit into a beverages, from the commercialized Amarula Cream Liqueur to the more local specialty known as marula beer. The history of the Marula tree (Scelerocarya birrea) dated back thousands of years. Several archaeological evidence shows the marula tree was a source of nutrition as long…

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The cult of beauty: the cranial deformations of the Mangbetu tribe.

Pavel

The Mangbetu are a people of Central Africa, located in the north-eastern part of the Congo. The name Mangbetu refers, strictly speaking, only to the aristocracy of the people, who during the course of the nineteenth century established a number of powerful kingdoms. A more specific use of the term identifies the “Mangbetu” as the people who “govern”. The Mangbetu impressed the first European travelers with their political institutions and their art, in particular their extraordinary ability as builders, potters and sculptors. They also became famous for their alleged cannibalism…

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Bigger and More Beautiful? The curious labial deformations of the Mursi tribe.

Pavel

The Mursi people is one of the last groups in Africa among which it is still customary, among women only, to wear labial plates that can greatly enlarge the diameter of the lower and upper lip. The shape of the deformed lip has become the main distinguishing feature of the Mursi, making it one of the most interesting anthropological singularities of Ethiopia. To obtain this aesthetic change, a girl’s lower lip is cut by her mother or another woman in the village when she is about 15 or 16 years…

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Murcia, Spain: Entierro de la Sardina

Ivan

In Murcia, Spain, the three-day long Entierro de la Sardina, also know as “Burial of the Sardine”, celebrates the end of Lent, and the welcome return to a less abstemious lifestyle. Beginning the Thursday following Easter and culminating on Saturday with setting fire to an enormous papier-mâché sardine, the event also includes parades featuring with various of mythological creatures. Throughout the weekend, classic popular characters such as El Gran Pez, a fish-headed mascot, wave from eccentric and colorful floats flanked by musicians, scantily clad dancers, acrobats, of course, in true…

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