Folklore, Customs, Legends and Mythology

 Beyond the tinsel and fake, cottonwool beards, there are older traditions clustered around the observance of Yule and midwinter. Depending on where you are, the friends and fiends of the season may wear different masks and ask for (or dispense) different favors. For example, there are the thirteen unruly Yule trolls who pester mortals for almost a fortnight - each troll gets his own night - with disturbances ranging from door-banging and window-peeping to all sorts of thefts around the house (and usually the kitchen). The Gloucestershire practice of wassailing sounds suspiciously similar to caroling, albeit with a few unique twists. Frau Perchta prowls the alpine mountainsides, while the eerie looking La Guajona lurks in the nocturnal gloom of wintry northern Spain. And then there's Krampus, the Wild Hunt, the Scandinavian tomten and the gnomes to worry about. In fact, this is a great space to get acquainted with the pagan origins of many Christmas traditions. Of course, this group is hardly limited to Yuletide figures, good or bad. There's standing stones, Appalachian folk magic and Native American artefacts. A post that really wowed me featured pages from the gorgeously laid-out Enchanted Gazette, which included a pagan calendar

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Identification of Rocks & Minerals - NO sales! NO spam

In the past, we've done bugs and feathers. Why not turn our attention to something that does not decay or scamper off to the nearest crack in the floor. Rocks carry the long history of our planet's more turbulent beginnings, when lava cooled and compacted to begin the process of forming the minerals that still nestle within its arteries. They are imprinted with struggles that were old long before the first apes came down from the tree. Found a pretty rock or mineral specimen that intrigues you? Post it here. Or scroll through other leavings and finds from around the world. Agate or opal? Unekite or jasper? Sodalite or azurite? If you geek geology, join this crew of rock detectives to help, or even just to admire some of the images posted. Tantalizingly cracked crusts. Telltale erosion patterns. An enigmatic specimen from Namibia which eludes a positive ID - but could be heterosite or purpurite. And there are helpfully educational comments, such as the finger-tip-test to determine the presence of fossil or cleaning tips for tarnished pyrite. 

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