Foreign Customs
Easter Lifting and Heaving
Easter is early this year: March 31st. So you'd better bone up quick on the old practice of lifting strangers up in chairs.According to Hone, the practice was common in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and other parts of England. Groups of people would gather together in the street and physically lift those they came across into the air, expecting a financial reward in return. Hone describes the practice as differing slightly in different parts of the country:
In some parts the person is laid horizontally, in others placed in a sitting position on the bearers’ hands. Usually, when the lifting or heaving is within doors, a chair is produced, but in all cases the ceremony is incomplete without three distinct elevations. (SCM 03706, p. 426)
In Warwickshire, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday were known as ‘heaving-day‘, because on the Monday it was the tradition for men to ‘heave and kiss the women’ and on the Tuesday for the women to do the same to the men. Hone viewed the practice as, ‘an absurd performance of the resurrection’ derived from the Catholic church.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 06, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Furniture, Holidays, Easter, Regionalism, Foreign Customs, United Kingdom
Ánnámáret: Homegrown Concert
"Ánnámáret is the performing name of Sámi musician Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman. Ánnámáret performs yoik, a distinctive singing and songwriting tradition of the Sámi people."
The actual singing begins at the six-minute mark. Let us know how much you enjoy yoik music.
Posted By: Paul - Sun May 29, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Foreign Customs, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults
“Oh! How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo”
Not a song about Wikipedia.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 03, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Music, Regionalism, Foreign Customs, 1910s, Slang
Clair de Lune Espagno
A trip to the moon teaches a lovesick suitor a lesson.
Creator's Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 16, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Aliens, Costumes and Masks, Dreams and Nightmares, Movies, Special Effects, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Foreign Customs, 1900s, Love & Romance
The Singing Ringing Tree
A snippet, then the whole film.The Wikipedia page, where we learn:
The TV series, partly due to its foreignness as both fairy tale and for the unfamiliarity of its German production, was 'indelibly carved on the psyches'[7] as 'one of the most frightening things ever shown on [UK] children's television'.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 26, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Cult Figures and Artifacts, Horror, Movies, Children, Foreign Customs, 1950s
Follies of the Madmen #496
Tarzan chews Dentyne.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 03, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Foreign Customs, 1940s, Teeth
Solon Bushi
In the old days before "cultural appropriation," a Black R&B group could sing a "Japanese folk song."
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 19, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Music, Foreign Customs, 1960s, Asia
Igorot Cave & Cliff Burial
A BBC slideshow here.
Essay here.
This is an original vintage post-mortem photograph from the 1930s. I believe it shows a very rare glimpse into traditional Igorot funeral customs. The man in this photo is deceased and bound in a sitting position.
A customer who has spent time with the Igorot had this to say, "I can explain why the man is placed in the seated position. I just spent a week in Ifugao, Philippines with a member of this tribe. A person is placed in this position and salted and dried for 3 days. The reason they are seated is because once dry, the person can be removed from the chair and turned,sideways into the fetal position. The Igorot/Ifugao tribe believes that a fetus in the womb is in the fetal position and by placing them in the fetal position after death, they will return to "mother nature/mother earth". Also Interesting to note that deceased loved ones are typically placed under their bed, under a child's bed, under the house, or somewhere else in the house in order to keep them close to the family. Just thought I'd share what I learned straight from a tribe member himself"
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 24, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, Religion, Foreign Customs, South Pacific and Polynesia
What a Country!
This is a show that could bring the nation together again.Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 16, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Education, Stereotypes and Cliches, Television, Foreign Customs, 1980s
1979 TV Commercials
Your time machine back to forty years ago. Perhaps a solace in such troubled times as now.
Posted By: Paul - Sat May 30, 2020 -
Comments (0)
Category: Business, Advertising, Culture and Civilization, Foreign Customs, 1970s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |