Samhain: A Festival of the Dead

Halloween is the favourite holiday of many people all over the world, and its origins can be traced back to ancient traditions. It has, however, been deeply influenced by a traditional Celtic harvest festival: Samhain, where the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could be more easily crossed. In the UK, at least, Halloween … Read more

Ramadan: What’s It All About?

Eid Mubarak! Today marks the start of the holy month of Ramadan, where millions of Muslims around the world will spend the month fasting and praying. It is believed that 1400 years ago the Quran was shown to the Prophet Muhammad in this month. The start of Ramadan varies around 11 days each year, as … Read more

Tell us about your Tartan…

We were disappointed recently to find that – somehow – we had missed National Tartan Day. I know! We’ll do better next year. Although you might think National Tartan Day is a Scottish endeavour, it actually stems from North America and seems to have developed into rather a massive Celtic festival. Which leads us to … Read more

Language of the Week: German

As the annual festival of Oktoberfest gets underway in Munich this week, we’ve chosen German as our latest Language of the Week. If you’re anything like us, when you hear ‘Oktoberfest’ you probably think of beer (oh – just us?) but there’s a lot more to the event than that. Oktoberfest is actually the world’s … Read more