The 1967 Human Be-In

The Wikipedia entry.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 03, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Ceremonies, Drugs, Parades and Festivals, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s

Mystery Illustration 89

What occasion brings all these young lads together?

The answer is here.

Or after the jump.

More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 20, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Ceremonies, 1950s

Trampled by cows

The annual ceremony practiced in the Indian town of Bhidawad sounds a bit like Pamplona's Running of the Bulls, except with cows, and instead of running away from them, you lie down and let the cows trample you. From Dunya News:

Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 07, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Ceremonies, Parades and Festivals, Cows

Some Ceremonial Garments of the Odd Fellows

Posted By: Paul - Sun Aug 11, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Ceremonies, Clubs, Fraternities and Other Self-selecting Organizations, Fashion, Twentieth Century

Queen Angelita

Modern dictators just don't have the style and panache of olden tyrants. At an international exposition in his country in 1956, Rafael Trujillo crowned his 16-year-old daughter as "Queen Angelita," and gave her a court of 150 ladies-in-waiting.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Dec 20, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Ceremonies, Dictators, Tyrants and Other Harsh Rulers, Teenagers, 1950s, Caribbean

Sti-Yu-Ka Oatmeal Ritual

Sti-Yu-Ka, a well known tradition at Springfield College, started as a variety of activities planned in celebration on the eve of Stepping Up Day, Springfield College’s way of marking the academic accomplishments of students as members of each class advance a year in their college careers. It is held during the end of the school year. Sti-Yu-Ka was founded in 1961 by Dr. Irving Conrad, then president of the Student Government Association. The name Sti-Yu-Ka seems to have come from the Springfield College club Hosaga, a club that performed Native American traditional ceremonial dances and songs. The name seems to have come from a dance that was performed on the eve of the achievement of adulthood and meant “The Coming of Age,” an appropriate name for an event on the eve of Stepping Up Day.At the time of its creation, Sti-Yu-Ka events started on Saturday at around 1 p.m. and went until the late night/early morning hours on Sunday. Conrad tried to create events that would take the focus away from alcohol. Such activities included a pig roast, canoe races, pie eating contests, square dancing, egg tossing, Jell-O wrestling, roller skating, a greased pig chase, fireworks on Rally Hill, and even the act of smashing a car. However, drinking did become a part of these activities and over the years the Office of Student Affairs increased the official Sti-Yu-Ka events from one weekend to one week, its present length. Again, this was done in an effort to keep students on campus doing activities that were social in nature, and to allow students to spend time with their peers and to try not to focus on alcohol. Although new events are thrown into the lineup, some staple events that have remained as Sti-Yu-Ka tradition over the years are the comedian on opening night, the Campus Activities Board’s Midnight Bingo, Residence Life’s Taste of SC, and the Greased Pole Climb and Oatmeal Pass.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 17, 2017 - Comments (0)
Category: Ceremonies, Education, Universities, Colleges, Private Schools and Academia, Food, Regionalism

Bulgarian goat people

No, these pictures don't show Sasquatches. They show people participating in the Bulgarian Kukeri ritual, meant to scare evil spirits away from villages. Though if I saw someone dressed up like this wandering through a forest, I might think it was Sasquatch.

The Blood and Oats blog explains:

Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 01, 2014 - Comments (4)
Category: Ceremonies, Headgear

Kaylee vs. Candle

Get it, getit, geddit... geddit... geddit....


(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 22, 2012 - Comments (2)
Category: Ceremonies, Children

The Strange World of Divorce

While it might be fairly common for couples to get a divorce in the United States these days, it's certainly not easy. There are questions of support, custody issues if there are children involved, and bitter arguments over who gets to keep what; all of which can drag a divorce into months of stress. But what is it like in other cultures and in other times? In centuries past, in China, a divorce could be granted for any number of reasons, so long as the bride's family agreed to take her back. Aborigine women in Australia can convince their husbands to grant a divorce but if that's not working, then all they need to do is elope with someone else. The ancient Athenians and modern-day Eskimos share an extremely simple divorce process - live separately as though they were never married. In the UK, a man tired of his wife could slip a halter around her neck, lead her into town to the cattle market, and sell her to the highest bidder. Japan had a much more advanced view, however. Marriage was not sacred and divorce was not immoral - it was merely a mismatch between families. Women's dowrys were returned in the hopes of encouraging re-marriage. You can read more on Purple Slinky, and on Hope's Blog, and in this review.

Posted By: Nethie - Sat Jul 31, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Anniversary, Centuries, Ceremonies, Weddings, Customs, Foreign Customs, Marriage

A Little Light Weirdness – 9

First up, apologies if this post contains more typos than usual, I'm sending it from my new ultra-small netbook and I'm still getting used to its itty-bitty keyboard. Which brings me nicely to my first story. That according to a survey for satellite channel SKY-HD, British consumers waste £52 billion a year on hi-tech features they don't use. For example, half of the people polled did not know their high definition television also required a hi-def signal source such as a blu-ray player or HD satellite receiver – like the ones sold by SKY-HD perhaps (Telegraph).

And it's not just the the British, military officials in Russia recently discovered 100 front-line battletanks parked and forgotten by the side of the road near Yekaterinburg in the Urals. Locals say the tanks, which were unguarded and unlocked, have been there for several months and lack only ammunition and the all important starter keys (Reuters).

Someone who might have had a use for those tanks were guests at a wedding in New Delhi in India recently. The Hindu ceremony was somewhat marred when an elephant hired for the event went on a rampage after becoming aroused by the smell of a nearby female in heat. The amorous pachyderm then proceeded to crush 20 limousines, smash through a nearby mall and mount a truck before it could be tranquilised (Orange).

Also losing it this week was the man on the RyanAir flight who found he had won 10,000 euros on a scratchcard he bought on the budget flight from Poland to the UK. Furious that the airline had not seen fit to equip all their planes with the requisite amount of cash onboard, hence he could not be given his prize there and then as he demanded, the unnamed passenger ate the winning card rather than wait to claim it at his destination (BBC News).



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Posted By: Dumbfounded - Sun Mar 07, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Armageddon and Apocalypses, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Ceremonies, Weddings, Destruction, Disasters, Government, Law, Lawsuits, Military, Motor Vehicles, Technology, Goofs and Screw-ups