Tag Archives: traditions

Ten Lords a’Leaping – Twelve Facts of Christmas

By Ryan | Published: January 3, 2011

It is presumed that in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, the Lords a’Leaping are in fact professional Morris dancers, which would have been popular at medieval banquets in England. The Morris dance is one of those peculiar British traditions which, like most British traditions, is all about form and structure. It is a [...]

Five Golden Rings – Twelve Facts of Christmas

By Ryan | Published: December 29, 2010

On the fifth day of Christmas, so the song goes, we get five golden rings. Or, I should say, fiiiive goooolden riiiings. I must admit I expected this article to be easier to research. I intended to pick out five different rings of historical significance and share their tales. However, much to my surprise, there [...]

Groundhog Day offers 61% chance of being pointless

By Ryan | Published: February 2, 2010

It’s Groundhog Day. For those of us in cooler climates, this gets a lot of attention. Personally, I’m not a fan, but I won’t let that get between you and the facts. So, he says with a fake cheer that could rival any TV weatherman, what’s up with this crazy Groundhog Day tradition? The gist [...]

Posted in Interesting Facts | Also tagged animals, weather | 1 Comment

FACT: when curling plastic ribbons you should go slow

By Ryan | Published: December 21, 2009

Across the world a whole lot of gifts will get wrapped this week, and I’m gonna guess at least 50 percent of those will have ribbons. (the half wrapped by girls… but let’s face it, they’re probably doing the vast majority of wrapping anyways) The really fancy wrap jobs will also have those ribbons curled, [...]

Posted in Interesting Facts | Also tagged household, physics | 1 Comment

FACT: the days of the week are named after planets and gods

By Ryan | Published: December 15, 2009

It’s Tuesday! But we came very close to calling this “Marsday” instead of Tuesday. Originally, in the ancient civilizations of Babylon, Greece, and Rome, each day of the week was named for the planets. At the time there were seven planets visible to the naked eye; Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and the [...]

Posted in Interesting Facts | Also tagged space, words | Leave a comment

FACT: if you walk under a ladder, you have blasphemied

By Ryan | Published: November 13, 2009

Today is Friday the 13th. While this pairing of number and day might cause some people concern, we’ve already established that I’m not to worried about the coincidences of calendars. But you may want to be on your guard today to ensure you don’t walk under a ladder. There are a few theories out there [...]

Posted in Interesting Facts | Also tagged myths | Leave a comment

FACT: Guy Fawkes never had a chance to blow up the king

By Ryan | Published: November 2, 2009

This week British people will be celebrating Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th. They are celebrating the safety of the king, because in 1605 King James I almost didn’t live to see November 6th. On the other hand, there may not have been any risk at all. I smell intrigue! Like most [...]

Posted in Interesting Facts | Also tagged history | 3 Comments